Partis de Horseshoe Bay en ferry, nous arrivons à Nanaimo sur l’île de Vancouver, frais comme des gardons! Plusieurs fois, des femmes seules nous prennent en stop, notamment, Grace qui
prie pour nous, Bave qui nous met en garde contre les tsunamis, nous indique
quelles sont les conditions de sécurité à suivre…… Tout le monde est aux petits soins avec nous, sans compter la suite de la journée…
Emilie went volunteer in a farm. I was in Glacier with Viorel, a friend from university who lives in Chicago, check the previous posts.
After the stories from Yellowstone with booking the trail, I was pretty pessimist, especially that a big fire started a week before, and some roads were blocked. There are 4 entries in the park, from each direction. Even if it was not in our area of interest, we headed to the closest entry, to book the route. In the end, it proved to be a very inspired movement, because we could book the trail we wanted. There is even a lottery to book the trail, so we win at it, without participating.
The first night we got by car to the camping. It was full, we could take only the last and probably the worse spot. As we were heading to the lake for a swim, the neighbor heard us speaking in Romanian, so there we are, in the middle of remote mountains, 4 Romanians speaking about the games of childhood, about the Communist era with some nostalgia. Adi and Nico are living in New York, and they are working in the medical system. So I got another feedback on the American system.
We met a lot of people, but being up into the mountains, the exchanges were very good. In Glacier there is a common spot for cooking, so everyone spends the end of the day there, socializing. There were very funny stories of these young people, going for the first time in the mountains.
Viorel in a Kantian posture, der Mann vor der Natur.
I know Viorel for … 17 years. During these 6 days in the mountains, we spoke a lot. He is the opposite of me: he runs a business for 15 years, workaholic, diligent, very practical. You know me, all the time I have a new idea for a project. I found out that if in order to run my business, I have to do it in his style, I prefer to be a postman. I mean in, check the post in Vancouver.
I am not sure that you could see in the previous photo the mirror of the water.
This day we climbed 1200 meters. A dying glacier witnessed my effort.
They estimate that by 2030 there will be no glacier, from the more than 250 that there were one century ago. Maybe Donald Trump will install some ice machines.
It was pretty rough, but so beautiful. This is the amazing thing in the mountains, you lose so much energy while walking, but when you look up, the batteries are recharging.
We camped at the bottom of this rock, which is like in a western movie.
We met our neighbors from the previous day. The young man is student at film university in Montana. He says that during winter, sometimes there is a post-it at the entrance of the class, that right after they go for skying. He went several times in the Glacier, and this time he took his parents. His father runs a business in high quality printing. This photo is taken in the cooking place. You can see the background. The one for the tents is similar, with a view to the big rock. But the view from the toilet:
What an irony to give the most incredible view only to one person at the time, and for a limited period. But well, I was probably at the most incredible toilet in the world.
If in Yellowstone I had the pleasure to cross many wide rivers, here each small river had a bridge. I think it is a little bit too much.
This is the only encounter with a wild animal. I don’t count the ones who come at the camping sites down of the mountain.
This is the only lake we didn’t swim in.
The water comes directly from a glacier or snow. It was really freezing.
On the way back, you can see down there the lake where it was our camping.
You can see where we come from. What a joy to take a bath after a day of trekking ! The water was so good here, I spent more than half an hour.
Hey, that’s my T-shirt ! Give it back !
It is a serial T-Shirt killer. It took the 50$ one of a camp neighbor, and 2 custom officers said it did it many times. Glacier is on the border with Canada. So in the last camping in the mountains, during the summer there are custom officers. They don’t ask for the papers, but during the conversation at the cooking place, all the time they were asking crossing questions, like: where you come from, and after one hour, they ask Viorel where I come from. Someone could not find a bag with food. I was lying on the sand, watching the mountain, and one of these officers comes and asks me to have a look in my backpack, ‘maybe you took it by mistake’. Normally I would have said just ‘NO’, and that was it. But I felt like he observes my reaction in checking in public my backpack, so even it was hanged, I went to check. Of course, the package was found while I was raising again the backpack on the pole for bears. I prefer the Communist way of asking directly the papers, than this polite, but mistrustful way of communicating. But I mock them a little. I told them that I am an engineer, and it’s so easy to send these days a drone with drugs against the border. Viorel told me later the look I received from them. I told them that the first time, I had some difficulties crossing the border in US, but more I come to the west, easier it is. So I expect near Vancouver to sit with the border officer like now, and to roll a joint. One of them laughed !
What a trip ! Last day it rain heavily, and up in the mountains there was snow. So we were really lucky, to end it. Later I saw the movie ‘Blood diamonds’. People pay so much on these small pieces of glass, and don’t appreciate the big and really beautiful ones. What a luck ! Can you imagine the price to climb in a mountain, if 500 millions would bid to go in a trail in one of the 100 mountains in the world ?
We got in the perfect spot for hitch-hiking: a T cross, with a Stop sign, in Yellowstone, where the cars pass one after the other. The people who have the car full, they look at us, and smile, and happily make the signs that the car is full. The other 33%, who have a lot of space, are embarrassed and look in front of them. Then I wave energetically my hand, pointing to Emilie, to show that we are a couple, having big backpacks. Then they put the head into their wheel.
Steve ended our 15 minutes frustration. He knows a lot about Romania, he had a dentist neighbor who moved their to do volunteer work. I ask him what is the explanation for his knowledge, and only then he reveals that he is a Mormon. That when they got 18, they go volunteer into a remote country, learn that things are just things.
His son is very mature for his 11 years. We spent a great day with them.
At the end I asked what is the relation between religion and science. Steve told me that the bad thing is when you try to limit the knowledge, so he tries to know the last discoveries in science, but that they don’t affect his beliefs. And on the other hand, thinking that the science will explain everything one day, is like another religion.
After we finished our trekking, we were pick-up by Stef. While throwing the backpacks into the car, she asked me if I have a gun. She is as well member of a Christian movement. During the evening we talked as well about religion. She said that if religions are created by people, so as the people, some are good, and some are bad.
She and her son, they shared their tent space with us, their food. We spent a great day with them. In the last day, because it was supposed to have heavy rain, she invited to share with them the room in a hotel. We preferred to test the tent. Next day we could see some snow, up there.
I could not understand why a good person must be a religious one. Why from all those people who passed by us, only religious people took the risk.
Next day, when we exit the park, my theory is infirmed by an archeolog.
Larry is aerospace engineer. He told me that there are some prototypes of cameras of 2 Gb resolution. A scary vision of God.
Phil is working on a machine learning project for the army, to analyze data from thousands of sensors. Great people.
Larry made a few points on the policy of arms:
1. only honest citizens care if caring a gun is legal or illegal
2. on TV there are broadcasted the few cases when mental ill people or kids use guns, but not the cases when citizens stop bad actions because they have guns, so it’s important to restrict the access to these categories of people
3. in 1996 in Australia they banned the guns. The result was an increase of criminality by 40% in the first 2 years, and then it went to the previous level, but a little bit higher.
My conclusion after these hitchhikes: I have only one conviction, that it’s not good to have any strong convictions.
Grand Prismatic Spring
Ah Yellowstone… ce nom résonne doucement à mes oreilles, mes parents y étaient il y a près de 45 ans! Ils m’ont fait part de leur expérience, admirant les geysers, les sources d’eau thermale, dormant dans leur tente à au moins 15m de leur voisin, observant beaucoup d’animaux, des cerfs, des ours… (dont un directement dans la tente de leur voisin…ce n’était pas prévu mais personne n’a été blessé) Le parc est en fait un gigantesque cratère de la taille de la Corse, l’activité géothermale y est donc très importante. Je suis carrément ignare en géologie, mais si j’ai bien compris il y a bien bien longtemps (euh 2 millions d’années…), c’était la folie ici, ça a craché, explosé dans tous les sens, et cela s’est reproduit encore 2 fois: des milliers de km³ de cendres, laves, gazs se sont répandus dans toute l’Amérique du Nord. Ca a donné ça: le Grand Canyon
ça: de magnifiques colonne de basalte
ça: Hot Mammoth Springs, des vasques de calcaire en cascade
et ça: surtout ne pas essayer de tremper un doigt de pied, c’est la cuisson intégrale assurée.
Rien à voir, mais cela m’a rappelé les couleurs lors d’une randonnée sur le glacier Exploradores au Chili, si vous avez envie de faire un tour sur nos photos de 2013
https://plus.google.com/photos/112704601610510059072/albums/5985462715367889729/6001040418771311378?authkey=CMWKyvGW6q_2-QE&pid=6001040418771311378&oid=112704601610510059072
On en prend plein les mirettes, et ça nous rafraîchit les idées de se baigner dans cette rivière!!
Par rapport aux souvenirs des parents, pour nous ça a été un peu différent. D’abord accéder au parc sans voiture et sans payer une centaine de dollars pour monter dans un bus touristique, c’est impossible sans faire du stop. Ensuite, c’est le plus vieux parc national et un des plus visités, presque 4 millions de visiteurs par an: imaginez un peu ça sur les quelques artères qui traversent le parc. Tout est fait pour les voitures, les camping-cars XXL, et les motos. Nous avons eu pas mal de difficultés à s’enregistrer pour les campings dans le backcountry. Pour aller randonner dans la plupart des parcs nationaux américains et canadiens, il faut s’inscrire au poste du ranger et réserver chaque nuit dans un emplacement de camping donné.
Après plusieurs rencontres en stop avec un fermier de marijuana (c’est légal pour usage médical), et des locaux bien sympathiques, nous sommes arrivés à l’entrée ouest du parc. Au poste de ranger, les deux personnes qui nous accueillent sont des volontaires, chouette! sauf qu’ils ne connaissent pas très bien les randos… c’est un peu embêtant quand même. Ils n’ont pas de cartes ni de livres qui indiquent les dénivellations ou les distances exactes, décidément ce n’est pas très pratique… On se rend a une librairie pas loin pour chercher dans un guide les emplacements qu’on pourrait réserver. Quand on revient, ils nous passent une vidéo sur les ours et comment les éviter… comme ils n’ont pas de système informatique ils doivent appeler au poste central à Old Faithful pour s’assurer de la vacance des campings que l’on a choisi… sauf que la majorité des emplacements de bivouac sont déjà réservés: il faut repenser la rando différement, bref, après avoir cassé la croix et brûlé la banière on arrive à réserver pour se faire une petite rando sympathique de 5 jours.
Entre l’entrée ouest et le début de notre rando, on rencontre un père et son fils qui nous prennent en stop et font un bout de visite avec nous: baignade, visite des must du parc… Ils viennent de Utah, le pays des Mormons. Ils nous ont invité à venir leur rendre visite quand on repassera par là-bas. Très ouverts, ils m’ont donné un autre point de vue sur les Mormons. Non ils ne sont pas polygames (seulement une minorité très conservatrice), et non ils ne réfutent pas toute explication scientifique; en tout cas pas eux. Ils ont un grand sens de la famille et de la communauté.
Nous entamons notre randonnée il est déjà 13h… il faudra marcher vite pour arriver au premier bivouac prévu, mais surprise! Il n’y a simplement personne dans les emplacements de bivouac. On rencontre de temps en temps des groupes de randonneurs, mais c’est hyper rare à côté des millions qui se baladent en voiture dans le parc… Puis il faut aussi un peu d’organisation par rapport aux ours pour évite de les attirer: manger à 100m de l’endroit où tu plantes la tente, et suspendre ta nourriture à un pole bear pour éviter que les ours viennent te dévaliser durant la nuit. Quand je dis ours, ce peut être autant des ours noirs que ces énormes grizzlis. L’autre élément nécessaire contre une éventuelle attaque d’ours, qui normalement ne considèrent pas les humains comme de la nourriture sur deux pieds, c’est le bear spray, une sorte de pshit au poivre qu’utilisent les mémés qui craignent les voyous en ville, puissance x10. Il faut toujours l’avoir avec soi, car on ne sait jamais…
Belle rando tranquille, Bechler River, Union Falls, nous avons passé plusieurs fois à gué de quoi rafraîchir notre petits pieds congestionnés:
Baignade intéressante: l’eau est froide au milieu et très chaude sur le bord où se déverse un petit ruisseau d’eau bouillante…
Mais même dans un endroit si préservé nous n’avons pas vu d’animaux, euh… ah si un écureuil et un chipmunk (ou suisse, cf article ceci est un suisse). Il fallait attendre d’être en voiture pour en voir, car ils ne sont pas bêtes, ils savent que pour une séance gratuite de shooting c’est près du parking ou des routes qu’il faut se balader…
I’ll have to repeat that everything is made for the cars, even in a national park.
First, the access. There is no bus to get there. We arrived from Chicago, after 30 hours, changing 5 buses, at 5 am. We ate a very good scrumbled eggs in the restaurant at the bus station, and at 6 we walked to two nearby motels, to book for a night in one week. This way we found a place for the suitcase and cello. After that we bought the food to take in the mountains.
We arrived in time for the shuttle which brings volunteers in the park, twice per week. I put the luggage on the roof. But I made the mistake to ask where he will leave us.
he: – are you a volunteer ?
me: – no
…….
he: – are you a hitchhiker ?
me: – yes (I knew that’s the bad answer)
he: – there is no place
me: (pointing to the suitcases which were sitting on several seats) but we can keep them in our arms
he: – sorry, there are the rules
What a dispointment, after 33 hours, not to get a ride, because I haven’t lied, when there is no public transportation …
It took one hour to get a ride, from a farmer … of marijuana ! In Montana is legal for medical use. He started because his son is very ill. Now he makes a lot of money.
In order to get to the west entrance, we got another 4 rides. At the second ride, the driver apologised for the status of the American public transportation.
the third he had an adventure park for kids.
the fourth was renting snowmobiles. So all were locals.
In the park, it was pretty easy to get a ride, but still it was frustrating to wait for 10 minutes, to see 100 cars passing, and people not to care. In the park we got a ride from a Swiss girl who came for a Mathematics conference, one from a Mormon, and another one in a Christian organisation.
We hiked for 5 days in the backcountry, no bear, no bison, no nothing but squirrels and trees, even Yellowstone is well known for its fauna. After this, we spent a day by car, with Stef and her son. Every parking site was the place for something: bison, geiser, bison, elk, canyon …
