I finally got a good nights sleep after suffering with only a handful of hours since leaving Houghton four days before. The temperature was perfect, the elevation not too high and the dogs sufficiently tired from the day before’s hiking. We got up and slowly packed the truck with the intention of visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. We were hoping it would be late enough in the season or early enough in the day that we would be able to avoid paying the 20 dollar entrance fee. As we neared the gate and saw the attendant we realized that this wasn’t the case and we began discussing whether it was worth it to pay. We decided we had seen an abundance of the Rocky Mountains already this week and seeing a few more wasn’t worth the extra expense.
We headed out of Estes Park and made our way up to Cheyenne, WY. It has become a tradition on these road trips to visit the Sierra Trading Post outlet. The drive up was foggy and I was a little sad to leave the mountains behind and head back out into the flatlands. We stopped at China Buffet in downtown Cheyenne for lunch. My brother and I had eaten there before and remembered it as one of the better buffets we have visited. Our memories didn’t let us down. The food was far above your average buffet cuisine and the lunch buffet price fit easily into my budget. I stuffed myself and as I walked back to the car I decided to start writing a guide book to Chinese Buffets around the country. I am not sure anyone would buy but I think it would be a must have road trip reference.
After lunch we hit Sierra Trading Post. I have bought a fair amount of stuff from their catalog and online stores but nothing compares to walking into the actual store. It is like a Shangra-La of discount clothes and gear. Rack after rack of jackets and shirts. Piles of gloves. Bins of hats. And all at a steep discount. I have seen seconds for sale all over, stuff with a messed up seam or one sleeve slightly longer than the other, but nowhere else have I ever seen thirds. You can buy one shoe. I don’t even know why you would want that but you can buy it at the Sierra Trading Post. I found tons of stuff I wanted, from ice climbing boots to wetsuits but nothing that fit into my quickly tightening budget. I even found an amazing sleeping made by Selk with arms and legs; like an outdoor Snuggie. I called Hannah but she wasn’t as impressed as me and I had to sadly leave it behind. I settled for new pair of gloves and bought Hannah a Smartwool hat. My brother bought an unbelievably ugly Patagonia R4 fleece. It looked like someone skinned a hunter orange Sasquatch.
We left Cheyenne with sadness in our hearts and a long, boring drive across the plains ahead of us. We headed north east into Nebraska toward Rapid City, SD. We discussed how we could possibly make the drive less boring. There was no way we could make it to Wall Drug, which is about the only interesting thing on the plains. Just as we were about to give up and reside to 20 hours of flat we remembered Carhenge. Carhenge is a piece of automotive sculpture that resembles the famous Stonehenge in England. We did some quick research on our smart phones and found out that Carhenge is in the town of Alliance, NE and wasn’t out of our way at all. We pulled onto a dirt road and saw the circle of cars from miles away (Nebraska is really flat). It was everything we dreamed it would be. There were cars stuck in the ground all over in the field. It was just what we needed to brighten up our drive. I even bought a t-shirt.
The rest of the evening was a long, flat, boring blur. South Dakota, with the exception of the Black Hills and the badlands, is incredibly uninteresting. The hours and miles flew by and before I knew it we were crossing into Minnesota and it was my turn to drive. I managed to drive only about 6 hours the whole trip, about 15 percent of the total. I was able to make it all the way to Minneapolis before the fatigue and stress got the better of me. That was about 5AM and I slept on and off all the way home. We pulled into Calumet by 3PM.
This trip left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, the hiking and climbing was kind of a bust. We bagged 2 of the 5 peaks we had intended on and struggled on those even though they were supposed to be fairly easy. My fitness wasn’t as good as I would have liked and the weather never seemed to give us a break. On the other hand, I had a blast on all of the non hiking parts. My brother and I have never gotten along so well on the road and having Andy along added a great new influx of ideas into the conversation. Andy bagging his first 14er was a definite highlight. Despite all of the hang ups I believe I will call this trip a success.
My brother has one long account of the trip which you can see on his blog Inside the Outside. My friend and climbing partner Aaron Wykhuis just started a blog and wrote about his experience with us on the Maroon Bells. You can read it at live-play.blogspot.com. For more photos from the trip check out our Picassa Page.
