A Visit to North Park, Looking for Moose

On Monday, we hitched up the RV and headed for the redundantly named State Forest State Park. We stopped at the Moose Visitor Center and asked where to see moose. We had booked a very nice campsite looking out over North Michigan Reservoir, with a great view of the mountains. The campground is full of hunters with their off-road vehicles; we even saw one group with a small chest freezer on a trailer. We took a short hike to the other side of the lake. We drove around in the evening, all the way to Walden, hoping to see a moose, no luck. We did see a unique storm cloud, lit by the sunset. Richard had lived in Colorado forty years, and never seen a moose, even though he often visited this area.

North park, Jackson County, has only one town, Walden, population about 800. The valley or park is surrounded by mountains; the valley is mostly sagebrush, although there are wetlands, lakes, and Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge. The primary businesses appear to be large cattle ranches, fishing and hunting. It is officially the moose capital of Colorado.

Cabin seen on hike

Tuesday, we stopped at the Yurt business, and met Suze, a local character. We learned that the yurts have outhouses and no running water. We started at the visitor center, and hiked five miles round trip in the direction of Ranger Lakes. We continued to look for moose. The occasional rain helped us decide to turn around, and we made it back to the car without getting too wet. We had lunch at the River Rock Cafe in Walden, which was full of hunters. After lunch, we visited the Pioneer Museum, which is a large museum full of donated objects of all kinds, including the projectors from the movie theater, now defunct. The museum is a history of the pioneer families of the valley, and a better than average museum of its type. On the way back, we saw a storm cloud dramatically lit by the sunset. Richard took a nap, and we got some great photos of a rainbow. Richard went fishing in the evening, and caught an 8 inch rainbow trout.

More ducks than you can count

Wednesday, we bought safety orange clothing, since it was hunting season. Then we drove to the Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge, where we met the manager and only employee! She luckily had a group of volunteers during the summer months. We took a nature hike along the Illinois River, and then drove the auto tour loop. Each pond in the refuge was full of many species of migrating ducks, which Richard struggled to identify. Unfortunately, we had not brought our spotting scope. We came back, Richard took a nap, Richard fished for an hour, had some strikes, and Sandi finished her book. At sunset, we went for a drive to Cameron pass, where several people had mentioned there had been moose spottings. Just east of the visitor center, Sandi saw a large brown spot in the willows. Sure enough, we had seen our moose.

A moose!

Thursday we drove home

Boating on the Rideau Canal

On Thursday June 14th we headed for Toronto, on our way to the Rideau Canal.  We changed planes in Cincinatti, and checked into an airport hotel in Toronto.  We had dinner nearby.  The Toronto Raptors were playing for the NBA championship, and we watched the entire game, which was very competitive.

A brief history lesson:  The Rideau Canal was built around 1830, to help defend Canada from the Americans, after the war of 1812.  It runs from Kingston Ontario to Ottawa, the national capital, linking the Ottawa river with Lake Ontario.  It is a UNESCO world heritage site.   The canal has been in continuous operation for almost 200 years.

On Friday, we took the UP express train from the airport to Union Station in Toronto.  We wandered outside to find a beer garden, where we ate and listened to a young singer-songwriter, Sabrina Soares.  It was a happening place, and many people wore their Raptors bling.  We caught the train to Ontario, and got off at Smith Falls.  We took a taxi to the Best Western, and ate at the Roosterant, a local diner.

Our boat for the week

Saturday was rainy and windy. We dropped our suitcases at the Le Boat office, and walked around Smith Falls.  We started at the Rideau Canal museum, and proceeded to the Eastern Ontario Railway museum.  Richard ate the first cinnamon roll, one of many throughout the trip.  We were able to get on the boat about 3 PM.  Sterling walked us through the boat, which was large and very nicely appointed.   Due to the wind, we agreed to do our training run and launch on Sunday morning.   We made it to the 5 PM mass.

A lock at the entrance to the Tay Canal

Sunday started with some practice docking, and then we went through the first lock.  Sterling said goodby after the first lock, and we were on our way to Perth.  Sandi's ancestors were believed to have come to Perth after landing in Quebec.  We docked in Last Dual Park, where the last duel fought in Ontario took place.  Perth was quiet, with most stores closed.  We visited the historical society and tourist information center.   Richard took a photo of Sandi with the mammoth cheeze.  We strolled along the river, and visited a few shops.

Monday we walked into Perth, and were at the library when the doors opened.  We went through some archival information, but did not find her family's name.  Richard had another cinnamon roll, and we headed back down the canal, aiming for Westport.  We made it to the narrows lock just in time to be the last boat locked through for the day.  Westport has an island with docks on it, and a pedestrian bridge to the mainland.  We were able to buy groceries before the store closed; everything closes about 5 PM.

Tuesday morning we paid our docking fee, and headed for Chaffee's lock.  We found a place to dock near the lock.  A lockmaster and another boater helped us tie up.  Wayne, the boater, was a wealth of local information.   We walked over to the Opinicon resort, and made a reservation for dinner.  We enjoyed watching the world go by, including the wealthy lady who rescued and restored the Opinicon, a historic fishing lodge.  The grounds are beautiful; the ice cream shop was a nice touch.   We had dinner in the dining room, and walked around the resort.  The cabins have been fully modernized, but kept their turn of the century charm.

Opinicon

Wednesday we decided to head for Colonel By Island, a Parks Canada island named for the man who led the effort to build the canal. At the narrows lock, we experienced a little of the wind that sometimes shuts down the lock.  The lockmaster said that he had locked through several trawlers in the last couple of days, headed to the island, and suggested that we would find no space for our boat.  We decided to stop by the island and check it out. It was a bit of a challenge to navigate into the group of islands, with numerous shallow areas, without any navigation buoys. When we arrived, we found only one other boat, so we pulled into the dock.  The other boater helped us tie up, and said that the trawlers had left in a group that morning.  We took a hike around the island, where we saw many trees in strange shapes due to a 1985 tornado.  A couple of small boats stopped for a brief visit, but otherwise all was quiet.  We enjoyed a good dinner on the upper deck.  We were serenaded by the haunting cry of the loon.   As it got on to evening, the wind died, and it was very quiet.

On Thursday, the rain started as we set off.  Our first challenge was to navigate out of the group of islands into the main channel. Our next challenge was visibility, as the defroster did not work. Sandi kept wiping the windshield.  We found our way to the entrance of the Tay Canal, where we chatted with the friendly lockeeper, who seemed unaffected by the rain.   We heard about a fallen tree blocking the canal.  From the upper lock, we saw the fallen tree, and decided not to proceed until the lockeepers had cleared the channel.  They tried to clear it with a kayak, but ultimately had to go get a saw to remove the tree.

We called Le Boat about our defroster; they walked us through the switches, but ultimately told us to pull the fuses to reset the heater.   After we were safely at the dock in Perth, we were able to pull the fuses, and get the heater working.

We strolled into Perth, and first hit the library, where Sandi was able to take care of some business.  We then stopped at Coutts Coffee for a warm drink and a sweet.  We visited the Book Nook, where Richard bought a mystery by the well known Canadian author Louise Kenny.   We had a lengthy chat with the owner of the Irish/Scottish shop, who was pleased that Richard knew how to pronounce Donegal.  We stopped by the visitor information center, where we met Debbie, the archivist, who may be able to help Peg tracking down family history.   Finally, we had dinner at O'Reilly's Pub, where we enjoyed the fish and chips special.  By that time, the rain had stopped, and we strolled back to the boat.

Tay canal

Friday we strolled into Perth for coffee and sweets.  We headed back to the locks, enjoying once again the wetlands around the Tay River, and the Great Blue Herons that we saw.   The lock crew was training summer help.  When we got to the lake, it was windy, and the wind made it more difficult to keep a course.  We went through two more locks; the lock at Smith Falls had a dozen students being trained for the season.  We gingerly backed the boat into a space between two other boats.  Sandi did laundry; Richard cleaned the upper and lower decks of the boat.  We had a nice dinner at Whim restaurant.   We are tidying up the boat to give it back on Saturday morning; we will be checked out at 8:30, with a taxi at 9, and a train to Toronto at 9:30.

Saturday we took the train to Toronto, and a taxi to the Clinton and Bloor B&B in the Koreatown neighborhood of Toronto.  We decided to head downtown for the Toronto Jazz Festival, which was on Sandi's life list.  We saw several bands; the best was the Hot 8, a brass band from New Orleans.  We had dinner at a taco place near our B&B, Asados.

Sunday morning we had breakfast at the B&B, and went to mass at 11:15.   There was an indigenous event at Fort York, and we took a streetcar to get there.  We participated in the event, mostly by drumming in a group.   We strolled down to the water, and then took the streetcar to the Kensington neighborhood, which was downright funky, kind of a cross between Greenwich Village in its heyday and Key West.  Lots of young people strolling around, and people with rainbow colors from the Pride parade.  We visited a couple of used bookstores on our stroll back to the B&B.  We had dinner at a Korean BBQ place suggested by our host, Albert.

Monday, Richard flew home, and Sandi went to work.  We had a great vacation.

The Escalante River - Hard Work

Friday May 24th we drove to the town of Escalante, Utah.  I rode with Roger, Debbie rode with Randy.   We stayed at the Escalante campground across from visitor center.  We had dinner at Circle D restaurant.

Saturday we drove to Egypt trailhead. Amazingly, someone volunteered to carry two loads down the hill for us!!  We walked down, but got off trail, and ended up in canyon, when we should have been on the ridge. Debbie and I dropped our packs at 2/3 point, headed back to the trailhead, and ran shuttle. We both had awful heavy packs on the way down; I arrived at camp at dusk, exhausted. Everyone was tired, so we did no cooking.

Sunday AM we packed boats, got on the water about 11:30. Randy and Debbie experimented with loading their packrafts.  The river was nice, with some scraping and maneuvering. We made the short hike to the Golden Cathedral in Neon canyon.  We camped on the bar across from 25 mile canyon.

Randy, Roger, and Debbie

Monday. The weather was nice at first, then hard rain and wind. We saw many waterfalls. I started to get hypothermia by Baker canyon, shivering, so we stopped and set up my tent.  I should have brought my dry suit; the inflatable kayak is a colder and wetter boat than my canoe.  The side creek ran high. The rain stopped in the evening.

Scorpion Rapid

Tuesday was partly cloudy and warmer. We had some adventures. I fell out of my boat once. At Scorpion rapid, our plan was to eddy out left.  I was first and did that.  Roger eddied out a bit upstream. The rapid looked crazy to me. There were people on shore urging us to run it. Amazingly, everybody disregarded the plan and followed the advice of people we did not know. Randy flipped and his boat disappeared downstream. Roger flipped at the end.  I portaged, and still flipped on the lower section. We headed downstream, hoping to find Randy’s boat and gear, and making contingency plans. Miraculously, we found the boat half a mile downstream. We headed for George’s camp at mile 57, but ended up across the river.  9 miles today, a good number on this river.  The rangers came to camp around 7:30, and we invited them to stay, which they did. Their packs were impressively small. We pumped them for information.

Wednesday the river was down a few inches, and we scraped a lot.  Sometimes it felt like we were the ball in pinball.  The mandatory portage was a lot of work, perhaps 75 yards. We camped across from Fools canyon, a good camp, but not a good takeout. We made 10 miles.

Steven's Arch

Thursday. The weather was warmer and drier.  The river was down a little more. We got on the river earlier. There was some running aground, and pinballing off rocks. We got to Coyote Canyon about 1 PM, and walked up the stream bed to camp, 5 minutes up the canyon.   I scouted the route out; to get out of the canyon involves scrambling on downsloping rock and sand, with significant exposure.

Another party hauling packs at the crack

Friday. We left camp around 8. On the rock section, I ended up shuttling everyone's pack. The hike to Crack in the Wall was brutal, heavy loads, multiple carries, uphill on sand, the hottest day of the trip, and we ran out of water.  Crack in the wall was a bit of a social event, groups cooperating to move loads through that section, including ropes.

Richard in crack

Looking down from Crack in Wall

We left much of the gear at the top of the canyon, to be carried the next day.  We all agreed that it was the hardest day we could remember. Everyone was exhausted.    We spent 11 hours hauling gear, and camped in the parking lot.

Tha last part of the hike out

Saturday. We spent 8 AM to 1 PM hauling gear back to car. So it took us 16 hours of work to haul our boats and gear out of the canyon.  We stayed in Escalante at Circle D motel, with dinner at the restaurant. We took a stroll down main street; many of the buildings had historical markers on them.

Sunday - We had breakfast at the Circle D, and drove home without incident.

After the trip, there did not seem to be much enthusiasm for pack rafting, partly because we would all need new ultralight gear, in order to be able to haul in a single load.   The double hauls mean that you have to travel three times the distance.   People liked the river, but would not come back if we had to hike in and hike out.

Castrojerez - The End

Thursday I walked almost 20 km to Hontanas, where I stayed in a nice private refugio. At the pilgrim mass, I was drafted to do the first reading, in English.  The other readings were in French and Korean. The church had a nice meditation area, with cushions and candles. I had dinner with the sisters from France,  and gave them copper shells. 

Walking through the meseta was quite beautiful, farm fields in rolling hills. Some people do not like the meseta, but I liked it very much.

Friday was a short walk to Castrojerez, including a quick look at the ruined church of San Anton.   I was in a nice private refugio, where the owner was quite a character.   Karina and I walked up the hill to the castle, variously built and rebuilt in the 9th and 14th centuries, with a foundation dating to Roman times. The town was relatively tidy, but had some ruined structures.  After dinner at the refugio, our host had us demonstrate how the wine press worked; the wine press was in the building when he bought it.  Then he took us down two levels in the cellar, for a wine tasting.  He has been excavating, uncovering more stairs, etc. 

This is the end of the Camino for me, at least for 2019. Saturday I will take a bus to Burgos, and then rent a car to get to Atapuerca for the tour.

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Burgos and beyond

Tuesday, I walked from Atapuerco to Burgos, approximately 19 km. We took an alternate route, and we got a little bit lost, but ultimately we found the park by the river. The park by the river was quite pleasant to walk in.  I had wanted to stay in a Christian refugio, but I stopped by twice,  and the door was locked. I was able to pick up my package at the post office general delivery, so  that was good. I checked into the Hotel Cordon and took a nap. Tomorrow needs to be a shorter day as I am getting tired, after several days around 20km. 

I inquired about tours of Atapuerca, and the bus tours are booked. I booked a tour on Saturday, but will need a taxi or rental car to get there. 

The Cathedral is huge and amazing.  I cannot even get my head around the cathedral, it is so big and impressive. I went to the pilgrims mass at the Cathedral, where I ran into many of the people who I had been walking with. I gave Anneta from Denmark and Ben and Julia from Toronto the shells that I had brought. We had a nice dinner at the Meson Herrera.  I said goodbye; Anneta is going home, and Ben and Julia are taking the train to Leon, as Julia has been sick. 

Anneta, Ben, and Julia, with their shells
.

On Wednesday, I decided that I needed a short day, so I walked to Rabe de las Calzadas.  The private refugio had images of Mary, and our hostess invited us to pray with the nuns after dinner. Some of us went to the convent, and the nuns did their evening prayers.  Most of the nuns were elderly. The head nun, Maria Teresa, noticed my hammered copper scallop shell, and we talked at length about possible sculptures.  But it would be impractical to ship a large sculpture to Spain. 

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Santo Domingo de la Calzada towards Burgos

82 year old Frenchman

The walk to Santo Domingo was 20 km, about 12 miles;  the weather was breezy, cool, and sunny.  I walked for a while with an 82 year old man from Paris; he left me in the dust.  There were a couple of long hills, but not bad. I checked into a hostal, (hotel) where I have a private room. 

The church is magnificent, as was their museum. It is focused on the life of their saint. There was a very cute and large scale life of the saint using plastic characters.

One of the saint's miracles included having cooked chicken crow, so a chicken is a common symbol for the saint. There are even live chickens above a side altar. The saint was very devoted to helping pilgrims to Santiago. This is the 1000th anniversary of the birth of the saint; this is a jubilee year here. 

 I went to a Vatican choir concert, which I was lucky enough to see.  I had dinner with a German guy; we talked about life, and why we were on camino. 

Santo Domingo is very nice and very tidy, lots of activity on the streets. 

On Saturday, I walked 12km to Castildelgado. I had planned to stay there, but I was disconcerted to learn the only bar was closed on Saturday, and the tiny store closes at 2 pm. However, I waited for the very nice refugio to open, and learned that they cook dinner.   The refugio Bideluxe has a very nice garden area; they washed my clothes, one of the reasons that I chose it.   This was the nicest refugio yet.  

On Sunday, I was first out the door, at dawn, to find a 9 AM mass in Belorado.  When I arrived, I kept asking where the mass was, and finally found the monastery of the Santa Clarissa cloistered nuns. Their singing was quite beautiful. The nuns were behind a metal grill, which they opened for mass, and closed after. The photo showed the closing. I was with Anneta, the Danish kindergarten teacher, who was quite moved by the singing. 

I continued to Villafranca Montes de Oco, where I took a room in a 13th century monastery, now converted to a hotel and refugio. I walked 22km;  I plan to walk 18 km tomorrow, hoping to get to Burgos Tuesday afternoon. 

The camino is a bit of a moving village. You tend to see and have dinner with the same people, day after day, such as the couple from Toronto, Alan and Paula from New Zealand, Patricia the German lady, the Dutch lady, the French group, etc. 

One surprise is that I am speaking more French than Spanish; there are few Spanish pilgrims, unlike in 2002. Amazingly, a couple of people have said that my French was good!

Monday I was on the trail early to Atapuerca, 18 km.  The climb immediately turned very steep, but flattened out later. 

Marker for mass grave

One somber note was the marker for the mass grave from 1936, from the Spanish Civil War; Franco forces executed 300 people. 

There is a UNESCO world heritage site in Atapuerca, a paleontology digging site, but unfortunately it is closed on Monday.

I am staying in a private room at a bar Palomar. 

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Feeling good - Los Arcos to Najera

Los Arcos to Najera

Tuesday I walked most of the day  with a couple from Brazil, São Paulo, very nice. This helped me make it as far as Viana, 18km. It felt good to be walking and feeling OK. I was somewhat tired and sore for the last hour or so. The weather was overcast, with spitting  rain.

Since I had not slept well the previous night, I decided to check into a hotel in Viana, the Hostal San Pedro.  I had a nice lunch, unexpectedly, with a German pilgrim, and her German Kurd  boyfriend. They met Tango dancing.  I went to the pilgrim mass in Viana, and attended a Jesus meditation at a pilgrim gathering center.

Wednesday I walked most of the morning with Karina, a Dutch Social worker. In Logroño, it felt too early in the day to quit, so I pressed on.  In the afternoon, I walked with Lejandro. He is an engineer from South Paulo who is taking a year off, to travel the world.   Total distance today, 22km. 

I have entered La Rioja, the premier wine region in Spain. 

I am so happy that I feel good and that I can walk more than a few km. I am also seeing again certain people that I had seen before, including my Irishman from Derry. 

Hitting my stride, I think. 

I stayed in a refugio In Navarrete with a private room, and a bath down the hall, 20€. There were only three of us in the whole place. 

Thursday, the walk to Najera was 16 km, over the small pass, El Alto de San Anton. Vineyards dominate the landscape. It had rained overnight, but in the morning it was cool, sunny and windy;  we could see fresh snow on the distant peaks. 

In Najera I visited the very good Monastery museum, with the tomb of kings and queens, and another amazing altarpiece. 

I stayed in a regular refugio, the Puerta de Najera, so bunk beds, 8 to a room. It was full; A private room tomorrow sounds good.   I attended the 8 pm pilgrim mass, where the priest invited each of us to go up on the altar, and ring the bell.

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