The Bugaboos!

The last time I (Wes) saw the Bugs was about 15 years ago, when we stopped by for ONE DAY on our way home to Montana. If you are a climber, that is akin to having two bites of the world's best gourmet feast before it is ripped away and replaced by a stale corn dog. Needless to say, I was excited to come back for a longer jaunt, and to teach Steffy the mystical ways of the marvelous instrument we call the piolet.
After we finished our bike tour in the Canadian Rockies (below), we hitched back up to Jasper, grabbed the car, and headed to the Bugaboos for about a week. What a wonderful place to be. We slept in Ray and Meg's mega tent. I think that we had about three times the room as in Stef's little guy. By the end of this last trip we had slept about two months of this summer in a tent. What fun! We climbed a few great classic climbs with longer then normal approaches and descents due to the warm weather, which made one of the main passes very dangerous.

Steffy in the mornin'... How cool!

Approaching the Pigeon Spire. Stef got to jump some cravasses, and learn why we cross snow bridges so early in the morning!

The Howsers, from the summit of Pigeon. What a FUN route!

Pigeon and the Howsers, from the base of Snowpatch. Note the climbers on the icefield following us. Is that great or what!

Maybe that piolet will make a good cam-hook?

"Yeah! I'm back!"

"I hope the porcupines don't eat our brake lines."

Jasper to Hayden Lake, ID - 8 day, 810 k Tandem tour

After we got back from Europe we came up to Jackson while we looked for jobs. Wes happened to find one in Jackson doing robotic engineering. But they didn't want Wes to start for another month so we took off for another adventure. We road our bikes from Jasper to Hayden ID. It was 500 miles of wonderful Canadian Rockies. Here are a few pic.

Happy camper.

Right here the river disappears into a hole in the limestone. It drops 100 ft in a 3 ft wide slot within 6 feet! There are no signs to mark the spot, either. Cool!

Somewhere in Idaho near here, we finally blew out one of out Continental Ultra Gatorskin tires, which we put about 3000 km (many of them rough) on in Europe and Canada, with one pinch and one puncture over some serious roads. After I put on our spare tube and tire, we had - I am not making this up - at least 12 pinch flats in 2 days. We burned up all our spare rubber, patches, and emergency equip, and finally had to to limp it in (pumping the tire every 1.5 km) within hitchhiking range of a walmart for a new spare, etc. I will not be buying the REI brand tires again! Go Continentals!

We sure loved this ride! 4 bears, two sheep herds, and endless beauty! This is a highly recommended route!

Pics from Europe