Daisy's Adventures

A reflection on 2010

I suppose it's that time of year, isn't it?  That time where we look back at where we were 12 months ago and compare it to where we are, and where we'd like to be in 12 more. Well I'm jumping on the wagon - time to reflect.

A year ago I had recently moved to State College Pennsylvania, and was still reeling.  I was still searching for meaningful friendships and staring at the culture of intoxication.  I was worried about my first round of qualifying exams, and trying desperately to find balance between my inclinations as an academic and my passion for bike touring.  

Now, at the dawn of 2011, I have to admit that I feel more or less at home in State College. I know where all the bike trails are, I know the quickest way to the trailheads for mountain biking and hiking, and the best dumpsters for flowers and tomatoes (two days ago they cleaned out the flower display and my xtracycle sure was pretty on the way home!).  I have close friends in my department, from my extracurricular classes, and in my house.  Sure, another qualifying exam is staring me in the face  (January 11th!), but it's one more hurdle that eventually I'll jump, whether it takes me one try or two.

I got to have an amazing bike adventure over the summer, and have another planned for next summer.  Even better, the department wasn't disappointed about my summer adventures - but excited! I even got a story and pictures in the department newsletter and friendly emails from the department chair about it.  

So I'm hopeful.  I'm gleeful.  I'm excited.  This summer I'm riding the Transam - actually got the maps yesterday!  I look at the elevation profiles and get wildly excited, and talk to friends about whose family lives where along the route. 

But let me share what has happened since September, so you can see how far I've come in terms of housing, and how it's changed me.

Since August I have lived in four houses, I've moved three times, and ended up with a much reduced set of belongings.  As I shared here, first the mold explosion sent me to a colleague's guest room.  When he put it on the market and it started to get showed, I began to look for a more permanent arrangement.  I figured that my cute bed full of Carebears (yes, I have three) wasn't going to help him sell!  So I found a huge house with a nice room in a great location, really cheap rent and no lease.  There was a big park with trails literally adjacent to the backyard, and my room was a beautiful blue with built in shelving and a private entrance. It seemed perfect...

Except for the roomies.  This was, of course, not obvious until I moved in.  One of them had some sort of undiagnosed mental illness, and while I have the utmost respect for people struggling with such things, I'm not interested in living with someone I don't know who has a serious disorder.  It became intolerable, and I felt my belongings were unsafe and ultimately had to lean on a friend to store my most prized possessions safely (bicycles!).  So I started surfing Craigslist for new housing.  I went to see a number of apartments and houses that could have worked, but none called to me as right.  That is, until I discovered the Houseasaurus!

The Houseasaurus sounds funny, I know, but it's one of a kind.  Here is a description from our website:

Central PA Community Housing (aka the co-op and Houseasaurus) is a housing cooperative located in Central Pennsylvania that formed in 2005. We strive to provide sustainable, socially and environmentally responsible housing by and for members.

I live in the main house, but there are two houses side by side that participate.  We have musical shows and costume parties, and eat dinner together five nights a week.  Right now there are a reduced number of people since most folks are home for the holidays, but already I've met and had some wonderful conversations and adventures with my fellow coopers.  We caught a bat in the living room!  

So... I'm hopeful.  I feel safe here, and happy to have a new community that I fit right into.  I realized that I needed more than a nice room, I needed a nice group of people that don't think I'm crazy for riding bikes, doing stats, and making yogurt (which I still do every week, yum!).  I learned that I might be just fine travelling alone, but I'm not ok living alone in one place. 

To conclude, 2010 was a year of change and disillusionment.  I shouldn't be surprised - I was 24 for most of it, and they say that 24 is the year of disillusionment.  Thank goodness I'm 25 now!  And still in college...  ah!  But I like it more than I dislike it, and I know I'm crawling forward.  They pay me for it too, which brings a smile to my face, since I still feel like I'm not done learning.  There's so much more to find out, both in stats, on bikes, in friendships... etc.  So many more sci fi books to read! 

Happy new year all, I hope we all find something new to love doing. Below is something I found from last year - I love moving by bicycle!  That's the Xtra in full glory.

notice: PICTURES!

I have been a little under the weather today, and have spent the afternoon and night waiting out the thunderstorms outside and trying to get my homework done.  My brain stalled though, so I ended up writing the update you see below, and finally uploading the pictures from my trip this summer.  There is an album for the bike trip and a separate album for the hiking trip in Glacier.  

You will notice that the album from the hiking trip is conspicuously full of... pictures of me.  I want you to know that I'm not really that obsessed with pictures of myself!  In fact, the majority of the photos from the trip don't have me in them at all!  However, my hiking partner requested that I not put any pictures of him up anywhere on the interweb.  I wish I could say he was trying to be mysterious or something... but really I think he's just afraid one of you sneaky blog readers will use the picture for sinister purposes, or that google will somehow refine the profile they already have on file for him. Luckily I have no such reservations. 

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the photos!  I know I sure enjoyed the adventures that caused them to exist.

New place, new semester

Wow, so much has changed in the past few weeks.  (Most of it for the better, luckily)

Although in my last post I mentioned moving in with a friend of a friend downtown, I found a cheaper and preferable option before my move-in date.  I found a new room, by asking everyone I met, everywhere.  One of the upper-classmen in the stats department had a spare room in his house that he was willing to rent to me.  So far it has worked out perfectly - he's trying to sell the house, but if he doesn't he'll need someone to rent it for the spring.  It's wonderful, clean, not moldy!  And the neighbors... are great!  Next door (in the other half of the duplex) is a woman who breeds german shepherds.  I can hear the big dogs running through the house sometimes when everything else is quiet.  Right across the way is a friendly couple with a big fuzzy friendly dog named Dexter.  I get to see dogs every day!  

On the subject of dogs, for those of you that are familiar with my guide dog raising habit, my first successful guide dog puppy was retired this month, after TEN YEARS of active guiding.  His partner is keeping him as a pet to enjoy his retirement, and I couldn't be happier or more proud.  My silly little Fred was by all measures a wonderful success.

On another note...

My effort to stop using plastic has been fantastic.  I have already learned a lot, had so much fun, and saved a good deal of money.  Just try it - go to the grocery store and refuse to buy anything with plastic.  You'll be rocking the bulk and the produce, and getting out cheap.  You'll also learn to schedule around the farmers market, and find the dairy in town that has a glass bottle exchange.  I found one in State College, and I learned how to make the worlds most delicious yogurt from the milk!  Now, instead of spending $6 a week to support my yogurt habit, it costs me $1.75.  Is that unbelievable or what?!  

I also learned how to make my own tortillas, and have converted an old tshirt into a set of four cloth bags for bulk purchases.  I made two big bags from the torso, and two little ones from the sleeves.  

And then there's school...  This is the beginning of my eighth year of college, and it is without a doubt the most difficult semester I have ever had.  The work load is massive, and the pressure is really high.  At the beginning of January I will have my qualifying exams on the material covered now... and I'm already terrified!  I wake up at 6:30, get into the office before 8, and stay till around 4 or 5.  Then I go for a run, eat some dinner, and study until I fall asleep.  Sometimes it is unbearably boring...

Still everyone tells me that the real world is worse, which takes my little flame of hope and turns it to dust.  Luckily, I'm stubborn, and the hope rises again!  Someday I will finish this program, or it will finish me.  Then I'll get rid of everything and ride my bicycle for ever and ever and ever...  I'm still dreaming of the next big tour.

State College misadventures continue

I haven't put the photos from my trip up yet, hopefully I will be able to do so this weekend.  

I am having a very rough homecoming!  I have been splitting my nights between the couch and the tent, depending on the noise level of the roommates.  There was one phenomenal night that I slept outside in a raging thunderstorm.  I had left my keys inside and had no access to the house when some extremely close lightning woke me up.  It sounded like someone was clapping right outside the tent, and when I peeked my head out the lightning and the clap were simultaneous, somewhere on the street.  Scary!

The current update on the room is that it's currently uninhabitable.  It won't be habitable for a while either, as they are having to call in a mold specialist and contract the work out to fix it all up.  I am moving out, to reside for at least this semester in the living room of a friend of a friend.  It should be quite the adventure, to live in the heart of downtown on the fourth floor of a condo building.  Two of my good friends from the stat department live in the same building, which is good for studying because I can ask them questions, and bad for studying because one of them has about a gazillion video game systems that I want to play SOOOO  bad!  

I am trying very hard not to rant about the room, or the cost, or the fact that I think I'm paying an unfair share of all this, monetarily and otherwise.  Oops, I kinda just let the rant out huh?  

Also, trying to cut down on plastic consumption is FUN!  I think everyone should try it.  I am moving past the cloth bags now, into the realm of really trying not to buy things packaged in plastic.  For example, grapes that come in plastic bags, or berries that come in those plastic clamshells, or cheese wrapped in plastic, or shampoo and conditioner... I'm going to try bar shampoo and a vinegar rinse once I run out of what I have now.  State college has no place to buy those items in bulk.  We need a COOP like the 'ham!  

Alright then, off to another day at Penn State University...  my classes are HARD!

Back in State College... and the Adventures continue.

I made it back!  I wish I could say I had a beautiful homecoming but... I'll get to that part in a bit.  First, the quick summary of hiking in Glacier National Park.

STUNNING.  

Between the mountains, the rivers and lakes, the well-maintained hiking trails, wildlife, huckleberry ice cream (and some huckelberries along the trail too), and good company... Glacier surpassed all expectations.  There were a few moments where we were unsure about navigating without a car, and parts of the park that are still on our 'to see' list, but in general we covered a large portion of the Eastern side of the park.  It's hard to write about two weeks of daily adventures, so I'll share a few stories and then post some pictures in the very near future.  

We spent four days in the Two Medicine area, a beautiful and less travelled part of the park.  While there we took a number of day hikes, including two that took us up to the continental divide.  The first pass, Dawson's Pass, led first to a lake under jagged rocks far above... then switchbacked rapidly until we were looking down on the rocks.  Those last two miles went sloooowly as we climbed.  

The next day we did a shorter hike that was a climb up an exposed mountain to a panoramic vista.  About 3/4 of a mile from the top we heard a couple arguing.  The man was yelling in some slavic language and the woman would yell back in loud, angry english.  We heard 'I'm tired, my feet hurt, and I want to go down!!'  But he convinced her, and although we snuck by the argument they joined us again at the top - still arguing.  Matteo heard the woman yell at the man:  "You and your mountains!".  Sounds like a hike they'll remember for its scenic quality, right?  

We also successfully navigated the park's free hiker shuttles, which were crowded and not as frequent as you'd hope, but still incredibly useful.  One day we hiked up and over two passes, 3,440' of elevation gain, and dropped down on the other side to catch a shuttle back.  It was phenomenal. 

We did get caught in a few thunderstorms, but they passed quickly.  There were two days of persistent drizzle that we spent reading the Golden Compass and drinking hot chocolate.  In fact, the most trying part of the trip was getting to Whitefish to leave.  Did you know there is no bus from West Glacier to Whitefish?  It's a distance of about 25 miles between Montana's 'recreational capital' and the entrance to the National park... but NO BUS.  So we had to take the train one stop late at night, then get a taxi to the state park.  Luckily it has some hiker biker sites to accommodate late-night arrivals.

Finally, we spent a lovely day in Whitefish.  We had eggs and biscuits and gravy and english muffins for breakfast, Kettle corn for lunch.  We played cribbage, wandered the arts fair, and finally got to actually shower! That's good, because the next morning at 7:30 I started the three day train trip to New York City.

After a really fun day of hair cuts, salvation army shopping, and soy products at Trader Joe's (Thanks Camye!!) i caught the Chinatown bus back to State College.  It was more than an hour late arriving due to the fact that the driver kept stopping at random places to drop off his friends.  By the time we arrived it was close to midnight and I'd been on the bus for nearly 6 hours.  And i had to PEE!  So I peed onthe lawn of TJ Maxx and walked home with all my stuff.  I made it too... until I was 10 feet from the door and fell face forward in the driveway.  What a joke!  Nothing much hurt though so I trooped into the house, ready to fall happily on my bed.  but wait, what is this on my pillow?  NO!!

My room had goten moldy.  not a little moldy, but a lotta moldy.  My pillow was blooming!  There is mold on the walls, in my comforter, on the desk chair, covering some books...  so I had to set up a tent in the yard, where i'm still staying.

Next adventure:  Starting year two of grad school, and ripping out the carpet in my room.  Maybe I'll repaint it too, and eventually tile it.  The landlord agreed to pay for materials at least, and maybe renter's insurance will kick in for some of the other stuff like the pillows comforter mattress and desk chair.  Talk about a not so sweet homecoming!  But I'm happy to see my friends again.  Hi!!

Success! Alaska to Montana.

I am currently in Whitefish, Montana.  This means that I crossed the border back into the states and have actually completed the Alaska to Montana dream.  At the border the crossing guard called me 'hun', and let me right through. 

Let's see, last time I updated this I was in Banff.  Since then we've gone through Kootenay national park, a blazing hot stretch of Canadian highway, and a peaceful section just north of the border.  Last night we stayed in the city campground in Eureka, MT along with two other touring cyclists, Brent and Tony.  Brent was at the beginning of a solo ride on the Continental Divide Trail, which is an almost entirely off-road route along the continental divide fram Canada to Alaska.  Even I think he's a bit crazy, since travelling in the true backcountry like that requires not only skill but luck, and being alone allows no margin for error.  eek! Tony was riding Spokane, WA to Buffalo, NY.  I rode with him for a while today, and now I have a place to stay in Buffalo next time I go up there to see Ani!

Yesterday I also met an amazing family heading North.  A pair of parents and a pair of preteen boys, all on bikes!  The kids were so excited.  One of the boys told me all about a place that used solar panels to make electricity to run the wifi.  It was a riot to run into this fun family out in the middle of nowhere on a side road.  We were both following the same Adventure Cycling map, just in different directions!

A few days ago I was on a similar side road and got to ride through a herd of beef cattle that had escaped and was chilling on the road.  They were uninterested in me, which I decided was for the better. 

I have two more days of riding - tomorrow to the base of Logan Pass, and on Sunday I'll ride up and over.  Then Matteo will arrive and we'll start hiking next week.  This means that I probably won't have a chance to update this blog until I'm done with hiking and back on the East Coast.  Maybe this year I'll keep updating more regularly than I have in the past.  I will have a number or things to blog about, as I've decided to try giving up plastic.  Sounds crazy, I know, but I read an article about the plastic garbage pile in the Pacific, and about a woman who had given up plastic.  I was inspired. 

I'm also going to give up Facebook.  What can I say, riding in the wilderness has really put things into perspective.  Damn it's been a good trip, and I have the tan lines to prove it!

What mountains?

Ok, ok, countless mountains!  and glaciers, and icefields, and bright blue lakes, and all sorts of beauty.  However, the hills seem so mild since my parents carry my non-essentials during the day.  That is, my bike has slimmed from 105 pounds to a featherweight 50, and the passes are so lovely and straightforward.  I climb up, then I'm at the summit.  None of the highway 40 climb climb climb, descend, repeat. 

The highway between Jasper and Banff took my breath away, even though I've already ridden it last summer.  The mountains are just so crisp, and towering, and my dad has this book on the geology of the area and so is full of little tidbits about the formation of all the mountains. It's also high altitude, with the passes topping out at over 6,500' each.  The thin air alone makes you feel breathless!

The first day out of Jasper I was crazy full of happy energy, and on a whim decided to climb up Mt. Edith Cavell.  I saw a paved road next to my route, and a sign that said it was 14 km (8 miles) long.  At first I whizzed by it.  Then... Well I turned around.  It was a beautiful climb, and at the top I was at the foot of a massive mountain, and there was a trail to the base of a glacier.  At the foot of the glacier (which I ran up the trail to in my excitement) there was a lake formed from the meltwaters, and in the lake were floating icebergs that had cleaved off the glacier above.  WOW. 

The next day we climbed up to the Athabasca Glacier, where we hiked to its foot as a family.  The wind was cold and Mom's ears were freezing, so we didn't spend too long there. 

In the evenings we've been eating delicious food and learning how to make the perfect fire for marshmallows.  Then my mother and I roast marshmallows into hilarity.  Once Mom was laughing so hard she couldn't find the breath to blow out her flaming mallow. 

We have one more night in the Canadian National Park system, and two more nights in Canada.  Then we'll be crossing into Montana!  Last summer I rode Logan Pass in Glacier National Park from East to West (the 'easy' way), and this summer I want to ride it in the opposite direction.  It's a huge climb, and unrelenting.  The best way to do it is to start before dawn and ride through the sunrise before the RVs hit the tiny, twisting highway. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jasper!

I don't know why Jasper always seems like some sort of promised land, but it does.  I think it's because you have to spend a number of days in the middle of nowhere before you can arrive here, where they have everything a traveller needs.

My bike's in the shop getting it's entire drivetrain switched out, which doesn't surprise me but still puts a hole in the wallet.  Still less than filling up an RV's tank once!

After Grande Cache I got a ride through some nasty construction with a fellow named Gerald, who was working on sour gas wells in Alberta.  Alberta has tons of gas and oil, and lot's of people that are employed and making money off it.  He was a really nice guy, and was excited to tell me all about the industry.  He told me to never stop riding.

Yesterday, riding into Jasper National Park, I was breathing mountains.  It was a beautiful descent into a river valley with massive peaks on both sides.  At one point there was a wildlife traffic jam where a huge elk with a full rack of antlers had been spotted next to the road.  The wind was right in my face, so progress was slow, and at one point I got really really tired.  So I stopped for an hour to eat a sandwich, and got use the stove to make two cups of strong coffee.  With the caffeine powering me I was able to muscle through the next 40 miles into Jasper, where my parents were waiting.

What a thrill to see familiar faces, and to hear the dog scream in joy at seeing me!  It was really fantastic.  We had a lovely dinner (I think I ate twice as much as either of them), and went to bed in a light rain.  The family next to us was all in one tent, and one of the kids was clearly, and loudly, having some sort of a breakdown.  That kid was just yelling and crying for more than half an hour.  Sometimes listening to families camping makes you wonder what they do it for.  Yay!  Let's go be in one room in the woods so that we can get really pissed and have a yelling fight that everyone around us can listen in on!  Oh?  That doesn't sound like a vacation?  Ha!

Well, it's a rest day, so we're going to take a stroll with the dog, check out the area, eat food, and have a campfire tonight with marshmallows and chocolate!  Oh the excitement.  I hope everyone else is having as good a summer as I am!

Grande Cache.

I expected to be farther south by now, but I am currently in Grande Cache, a little town of about 5,000 nestled in the hills right next to the Rockies.  In fact, the town is ATOP a hill, and the mountains seem to rise in all directions.  It's a lovely sight, even though it was hard work climbing up the hill into town!

It's been a rough couple of days.  I left Dawson Creek and made good time to Grande Prairie across flat plains.  The sun was brilliant all day long, and I was sure to apply sunscreen to back and ears and face... but still managed to get burned on the tops of my thighs and one side of my arms.  I must look like a crazy patched together person.  Right before I found a campground, the thunderstorm hit again!  Boom!  I was soaked.  Luckily the campground guy let me cook under the awning of his trailer, and set up my tent in a dry spot.  That night I needed to sleep well, but there were horse races taking place down the road, so I got woken up by people coming and going all through the night.

The next morning - more sun!  The road south is called the Bighorn Highway, and it is a long series of nasty climbs and fast descents.  The climb descend rhythm kind of sucks out a cyclists soul, or maybe that's just me.  It was hot, and I was tired... then suddenly, at the bottom of a big descent... there was a trailer selling food, cold drinks, and ice cream!  OH MY!  at first, I thought I was hallucinating.  But I wasn't, and I bought an ice cream cone and sat in the shade next to a nice family.  They were from the area, and the father got out his laptop to show me pictures he had taken last month from his truck.  An elk had been hit and killed on the highway, and two grizzlies were feasting.  Right next to the road.  The guy was like... "they'd eat for a bit, then they'd go up in the trees and mate, then they'd come back and eat".  He showed me these incredible pictures of bears with bloody faces.  Kinda scary huh?

Last night I stayed in a little campground next to a nice river where I cooled off my red back and mosquito bites.  The only other camper was a fellow named Colin there to fish.  He had worked for years for the forest service, and was finally retired.  In the morning he made me coffee and filled up all my water.  What kindness I find on the road!

Tonight I'm camping here in Grande Cache, in someone's yard.  As I sat outside the grocery store eating potato chips a woman on a bike came by and chatted.  Then she offered her yard and drew me a map.  She said she'd toured a lot too, and I can't wait to hear her stories.  Oh!  I also got held with traffic as a new coal mine was blasted in the rock above the highway.  BOOM!  and a big cloud of dust shot out.  Coal is really dirty, I got my pink tank top all stained with the stuff.  It may never be the same again...  oh well!

Two more days to Jasper, where I'm going to rest up and hopefully get my legs back again.  They are feeling tired, and it is a fight to keep moving up the hills.  I just keep pedaling though.

Mile Zero! and two rants...

Wow, I'm done with the Alaska Highway!  Can you believe it?  I can't, not really.  When I look at a map, and realize I've come 1000 miles, it doesn't quite register.  My bike and body are still holding up!  Even though I've got some wicked tan lines.

I have a little rant.  RV parks are awful.  If you have an RV, and you are parked next to people sleeping in tents.  DO NOT get up at 7:00 and idle for half an hour while you get your stuff together to leave.  To the people in the tents it sounds like a herd of elephants, and renders it impossible to continue sleeping.  Yes, even if they've ridden 1000 miles in the last 12 days.  Grrr...

Also, rant number two:  Just because I'm a young female travelling on my own doesn't mean I'm going to get attacked and killed, eaten by a bear, run over by a semi, or mugged.  I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, yes, even out here in Northern BC.  I am sick to death of the concerned note in everyone's voice - 'are you ALONE?'.  Yes.  I am.  They wouldn't think me so irresponsible and foolhardy if I was a 24-year-old male travelling alone.  They would think I was out enjoying my youth in a fantastic way.  Instead...  they act like I'm being irresponsible, and tempting fate.  Well in that case, maybe I shouldn't leave the house.  Because I think I'm more likely to be harrassed by men in State College than I am here.  In fact, my experience so far has more than proven this true.

Ok, enough ranting.  I guess I should get on the road!  Just one days ride towards Grand Prairie, then I curve south back into the mountains.  I can't wait to get back to the long gentle slopes and the peaks.  Jasper here I come!