survival

Grizzly Lake Trail, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Published on May 28, 2012 by Katya in the category Environment, Hiking, National Forest, National Park, survival | Leave a comment

The Grizzly Lake Trail is an awesome and fairly easy hike, but be prepared to get wet. May is pretty much the middle of the wet season in Yellowstone (if the snow is even thawed that is), so it was muddy and wet 100 yards into the trail. We hadn’t really expected it (or had hoped for the best), so Ross had to run back to the car early on to get better footwear.

The hike starts with a hill to the left and plains to the right (or should I say wetlands). Much of the trail itself was a sort of rudimentary stream, shallow and crystal clear with a pebble bottom. Because of this you spend most of the first part of the hike walking in mushy grass and avoiding bison dung. All along the trail were a single pair of bison prints, possible some lone male in search of greener pastures. Occasionally we would see wolf scat,wolf prints and at least one large blackbear print. The ground was also littered with obsidian, starting with a huge glimmering boulder of pure obsidian sticking out of the trail, later with an even larger one in the field, and from then on, obsidian shards riddle the trail and ground all the way to the lake.

After hiking about a mile or 2 in, we came to a creek, swollen and white, though not too deep or fast to cross. We were dedicated to continuing our hike so we found the most narrow part we could, about 50 yards south of the trail, and “jumped” across. Naturally being too wide to actually jump, we just ended up mostly soaked and were now apparently on an island with another larger creek still to cross. We walked back up the island towards the trail till we found a log and walked across that precariously, of course having take photos of our “daring” moment. From then on the hike was mostly up and down small hills, rocky and open with random small trees and signs of animals. We kept a good look out for bears, bison and wolves, both for photographic reasons and safety, but never ran into anything. After about 4 miles we decided to turn around just before reaching the first back country campground on this particular trail. It was a cool day and we had only drank part of one bottle of water but had not brought snacks (for bear reasons), only bear mace, water and a backpack. We hope to camp at one of the back country campgrounds before we leave the Yellowstone area.

The Scenic Road to Gatlinburg

Published on April 14, 2011 by Katya in the category National Park, survival | 1 Comment

When we finally had to decide on a new place to go after Asheville, we realized we weren’t really done with the Smoky Mountains just yet. We had been in Asheville a month and spent most of our time inside while it rained or froze outside. The last week we were there it got up to nearly 80, then a huge storm came and it actually snowed that next morning. It was a great, heavy storm that blew the trailer around like a shake weight in a bad infomercial and the electricity was off for almost the entire night. We have gas heat, full batteries and 12 volt ceiling lights, so it didn’t bother us to go without electricity a while, and thanks to the sun-dome in the bathroom, I got to watch the lightning light up the sky from the shower. Since that storm, the weather has been up and down, one serious storm was expected the day we left and ended up flooding the region north of us (and brought tornadoes). Somehow we dodged it completely, which made the drive ahead that much safer. While looking at the map to Gatlinburg on my phone, I found one that cuts right across the Smoky Mountain National Park. On the map it appeared to be “Highway” 32. It began just over the border into Tennessee , then curved back a little ways into North Carolina – and again back into Tennessee and all the way to the Smokey Bear Campground where we planned to stay the next month.
When we made that exit off the freeway, everything looked good. The road was narrow but nothing we hadn’t shared before. I was looking at the map while Ross drove and when we finally reached our turn onto “highway 32″ it was even more narrow, and to our dismay, turned into a dirt road going straight up a mountain.
As you can imagine, turning around in a 50+ foot rig on a narrow dirt road with steep hills on both sides could prove to be difficult, so our only option was to keep going up the mountain. We tried to rationalize why a highway would be dirt, and hoped that it would either get better or we would find a place to turn around. We drove for a while, going about 5-10 miles an hour, taking jack knife turns that required some extreme skill on Ross’s part and nerves of steel for both of us. Luckily the road was in really good shape, no potholes or loose edges on the turns. The only thing I could do to help was to stay calm and look out my window at the trailer as Ross aimed the truck as far to the left of the road as possible without going in the ditch, and don’t even ask us what we expected to do if a car came around the bend at the wrong time. The trailer is so long, even at the truck’s farthest use of the curve, it was still often a foot or two from going down a ravine. Had I been less nervous, I may have taken some pictures, but getting stuck on a dirt road, on a mountain, in the middle of a National Park, was far too serious a matter at the time. We aren’t veterans here. We had no phone service of course, and even if we did find a tow truck, they wouldn’t have much more luck than us getting the trailer out without it hanging off a cliff at some point.
After what seemed like miles of crawling along, we started to see more people. First a car, then a group of hikers at a sign that said “Appalachia Trail” and then – paved road! Our guess, North Carolina didn’t feel the need to pave their end of the road though we never did see an official “Welcome to Tennessee” sign, and I think a dirt road in the middle of nowhere would have been the perfect place for a greeting like that.
Although things seemed much more stable and predictable at that point, the actual shape of the road didn’t change at all. Before we got off the freeway, Ross had told me that the woman at the Smokey Bear Campground mentioned a “scenic route” – I took a guess that the 32 must be it because everything else was freeway. I had said, “you know maps, they always make roads look more curvy than they are” – but I was wrong. They are as crazy as they look and we had 20 more miles to go.

After about the first 10 death defying turns, we started to get the hang of it. You think we would be looking forward to some railings here and there but the few railings there were actually made the turns even tighter and we had to go about 5 miles an hour while I kept a close eye on the back of the trailer to make sure it didn’t scrape the rail. Somehow, it was like the whole road was built for people in just our situation. We spent most the time in the middle or left side of the road, trying to make the turns wide enough and have plenty of space for our extra width. Surprisingly, the only places we ran into other vehicles was in the longer stretches of road (by longer I mean maybe 100 yards). Every turns was a breath held for whether the trailer would make it or not, and another for whether or not someone would come around the corner at 30 miles an hour while we were in their lane.

I sort of wish I had taken more photos of the turns but we were a little focused at the time so it was sort of an afterthought.

The Tennessee Jack Knifer

One of the nicer curves

Our line of Sight, after being far into the left lane from a wide turn.

By the end of the worst parts, Ross was officially a pro. We started seeing houses and even mobile homes (that had to have been towed there) so we knew the road ahead was getting better. Susa and Chena were sleeping in the back the whole time without even knowing the situation of course and it only took an hour from where we started to arrive at the campsite.

After an unnecessarily tedious ”help” into our campsite by the owner, (hard to do with two exhausted people) and the overheated transmission that didn’t want to go into reverse, and the speech about getting the tranny checked out (we have) – we happily setup and somehow musted up the energy to go check out Gatlinburg before it got dark. Oh my what a surprise – for another blog.

For now, just be forewarned about roads that look like that on a google maps. It is not a shortcut for a 50 foot truck and trailer. That being said. I would totally do it again and knowing we didn’t get stuck or die on that road and knowing that Ross is basically a bad ass truck and trailer driver, I don’t feel the slightest bit stupid for taking us into the gates of purgatory. They were beautiful and thrilling gates and I hope to visit them again soon.

Everglades, Week One, Awesome.

Published on November 7, 2010 by Katya in the category electrical, National Park, out and about, RV life, survival, travel | 1 Comment

After staying on the west coast of Florida for over a month, we were happy to finally find a place in the Everglades that allowed RVs. Long Pine Keys campground is the first campground in the Everglades one of only 2 that accept RV’s. The other campsites are only accessible by canoe, which makes them even more awesome, but sadly out of our reach. As you can imagine, Long Pine Key is a forest of really tall pine trees, mostly bald, which become excellent bird perches when dead and have provided me with plenty of awesome bird photos ( vultures, hawks and crows being my favorites).

There is no electricity or water here, but with Ross’s electric setup, and new improvements, there is hardly a difference. We use a gallon of gasoline a day for the generator which, most of the time, we can barely hear, even though it’s directly below our seats while we work. Water we have to collect daily in a 6 gallon tank, of which we use about one a day, and getting rid of the water, we do every other day with our tote tank, which we tow with the truck to a dump station. We use the public bathroom that is about 30 yards away most of the time, showers are the only water usage issue we have but its worth dealing with to stay here.

Besides TV, which we never have any good channels of anyway, we don’t miss out on anything. We have internet, can watch movies, use our laptops, use all the lights and of course the fridge and stove are propane. I could do this forever and not mind it really. During the day it can get pretty hot still of course, and theres not enough power for AC. It usually in the mid 80s so we have the windows open all day and a fan in the door, but about 3pm it becomes too warm inside and we all move our work to the tent outside (the size of a bedroom with a 6 foot roof).

We have basically been alone in the park since we got here last Sunday morning with just a few tents showing up here and there. This weekend though we were a bit bombarded with huge families who talked and yelled half the night and/or blasted their stereos, counter productive to camping I thought but in general, whatever, didn’t keep me awake.

We finally got to take a look around the everglades this weekend, and Friday night had been cold and the day started out really cool, so we felt we could leave the animals for a few hours with a fan in the window. Our goal being Flamingo, the farthest south point in the Everglades and I think mainland Florida, and on the way we stopped at every turnoff we could find. Most of them were also occupied by tourists and people from nearby in blue mustangs (and other soft top mustangs), we went on a couple 1/2 mile hikes, one really amazing one through a Mahogany Hammock (a Hammock is a small forest in the swamp basically). The landscape in the Hammock changed so completely it was like going from desert to jungle in 5 steps. There were vines and old growth, strangler figs, woodpeckers, giant mahoganies, termites, ferns and everything you would expect to see in some kind of a rain forest. Outside of the Hammocks were miles of grassland looking marshes, most of which were actually part of a huge 8 mile wide, super shallow, river, scattered in some areas of the park were bald cypress and other parts, palm trees, or like the area we are in, long pines. Randomly throughout, there are deeper rivers, lakes and ponds filled with alligators. In the most southern areas, you might even find American Crocodiles and – if your in the water, dolphins and manatees. The whole Everglades is just a phenomenal example of varying ecosystems in one area.

There were canoe rentals at a couple points but without knowing before hand, we weren’t really prepared (maybe next weekend), as both of our canoe trips have been about 4 hours each. When we finally made it to Flamingo, we saw the campsites there, fairly open and busy but still pretty cool. The visitor center was abandoned though not in too terrible shape, having closed after Katrina damage. By the time we got there we were starving, half expecting a restaurant or store but finding a small marina shop, with a pretty terrible selection of snacks and sandwiches for fishermen. We bought enough to get us home, walked around a bit and headed back to camp.

We stopped off at the end of a dirt road we saw on the way, partially flooded and gladly tourist free. It lead to a small pond that kept a couple alligators, one at least 8 feet, and as we later found out, a Water Moccasin, which as the time we did not know the identity of.. and poked with a stick because we thought it was dead. It was just shedding and busy, and probably cold, so we got lucky he was feeling nice that day.

We weren’t sure about staying here without electricity at first since a week would be our longest since last year at Slab City, but since it’s so incredibly easy and only improving, we’re staying another week. We would like to stay at Flamingo but not sure about internet, so we may just head there next Friday night and stay through Sunday night, heading to Shark Valley after that!

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