In 1987 I took off for a three month trip around the USA! Backpacking throughout two dozen National Parks was the ultimate dream come true! This trip turned out to be the first of several; the next one in 1990 lasted 5 months!
Campfire while backpacking along the wild Olympic Coast of Washington State. There are headlands every mile or so that stick out into the ocean and are impossible to get around, except during low tide. You have to carry a tide chart, and plan carefully. Sometimes you get stuck on the wrong side of the headland barriers, but but you can camp and put together a nice fire almost anywhere. I've since gone back to this place three or four times; it is one of my favorite hikes in America!
In the backcountry in Glacier
National Park.
Alpine Meadow in Rocky Mountain
National Park. (looking for a campsite)
This was the first year that Mount St. Helens was reopened to hiking
after the big explosion of the volcano.. It was a 5000 foot ascent on scree,
so an alpine start (4 a.m.) was required. At 3:30 a.m.I was hanging out at the
trailhead with a friend I met the night before, and the women in the red shirt
(Kelly Ryan) came up to me, read my T-shirt, and said "...WAAF, awesome
radio station, where ya from?" It turned out that she grew up down
the street from me, and was in school with my sister! We laughed and hugged,
and climbed the summit together, then that night we stayed at the local campground,,,,,
and the four of us went to the local Cougar Tavern to watch the New England
Patriots on Monday Night Football! Kelly; cheers to ya! Gimme a
shout sometime!
After climbing Mount St. Helen,
I decided to climb Mt. Hood too. Only got about halfway up, but
spent an awesome night camped above treeline!
*
This was the second of about a dozen great
hikes in the Tetons of Wyoming!
Grand Canyon
National Park; another place that if you visit once, you'll go back to again
and again!
*
Spent my 30th Birthday here!
I'd spent two months in 1981 visiting most of the
major National Parks of the western USA, but that was a honeymoon
trip, and I only spent about 3 days in each park, barely enough
time for a driving tour. What I really wanted to do was
spend a week or three backpacking the major trails and loops in
each of the parks. So I worked three jobs for awhile
to save some cash, got myself in prime physical condition, then
hit the road!
I headed west to Colorado, then visited most all of the National Parks in a counter-clockwise direction. The major parks were Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, (couldn't get into Canada; not enough $$), Cascades in Washington, Olympics, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, the whole Oregon coast, Yosemite, Death Valley, the five parks in Utah (Arches, Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, and Capital Reef), Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, then home by late October. The trip was awesome, but way too short; only three short months. So I went back in 1990 for 5 months! Most of my time was spent backpacking, and driving the back roads to the next National Park. I used the van for transportation and as a resupply base. I easily spent two thirds of the nights in the backcountry!
A couple years later, in 1992, I spent 3 months out west with Ricky, mostly climbing. I took off again by myself in 1994, with a mountain bike and canoe. The next few years I went to Central America and South America. I've also put together a TRAVEL PAGE.
My travel days on hold for a while, but whenever you get the chance to go somewhere;
Go For It! Don't put it off. "Live your Dreams!"
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Created by Tim D., Copyright March 1998 (updated 11/11/00)