This post is a little out of sequence; I was hoping to get into the individual hikes, but a call from the ranger at Yellowstone has forced me to reroute the sequence and overall route, which made me realize that i had yet to chronicle how i came up with my planned route in the first place.
In a nutshell, i chose the destinations, then started going east to west. Logical, no?
No. I forgot to account for latitude. I thought it worked out well that i was going to hit Glacier and N. Cascades towards the end of the trip, when it would be warmest. I never imagined that Y'stone would be an issue, starting in late June. I was wrong.
I get a call yesterday from a Wyoming area code, and was very excited picking up the phone. The very nice ranger informed that i had planned a fantastic extended hike, covering some of the best scenery in the park, but that it was totally out of the question for the dates i wanted. Not b/c of availability, like i feared, but due to conditions, which is almost worse.
She told me that crossing passes above 7,000' was a no go. I made sure that she didn't assume that the brooklyn zip code meant my experience was limited to hiking Prospect Park, but once she said that the rangers don't travel those areas at that time of year, i dropped it.
Apparently, mid to late June at those elevations, the 8-10' of snowpack begins to melt, leaving half as much slushy, heavy snow. This also creates huge runoff, making most of the major streams un-fordable. Anyone who has played Oregon Trail knows what happens when you try to ford a swift river...
So, I was heartbroken; seriously, i was as down as i've been in months. I had put about 30hrs into planning Y'stone, knew that the route kicked ass, and now I couldn't do it.
Well, an interesting challenge, really the 1st major snag i've hit planning this. I spent a few hours with the Y'stone beta last night, but as hard as i tried, i couldn't come up with an alternate. The rub being that no high passes means stay in the valleys, but valleys (as we know,) have streams, streams that are uncrossable at that time of year. Disappointing in itself, but I soon realized that this also meant I probably couldn't hike the route that I had just planned for Idaho (at least 40hrs of work,) as the elevations are similar, and there are way more stream crossings in Idaho.
What i thought might be a minor snag was quickly jeopardizing the plan for 2/3 of the trip!
But I'm really glad to say that I think i've come up with an adjustment that saves my intended Yellowstone route, and a large part of the thanks goes to the Y'stone ranger that spent 45min on the phone with me today. I had a number of questions for her, and she stayed on with me as i quickly ran through my options based on her answers.
Finally, I settled on keeping the original itinerary, but shifting it one month later. I can't emphasize enough how helpful the rangers i spoke with were, and how much of their time they spent helping me.
So that took care of Y'stone, but i now needed to adjust the rest accordingly, especially Idaho. In the last 2hrs, here's how it is shaping up--I'm thinking that i'll head to the Coast after Utah, around 6/15. I believe that i will take my time travelling through Oregon, maybe stopping at Crater NP. Being closer to the Coast means that higher elevations are passable earlier. Then I'll get to Seattle around 6/20, where the conditions at Olympic should be good. Not as good as late July, when it is drier, but acceptable. I'd be departing around 7/2 for Idaho. where I should be able to keep my original itinerary; the slightly lower elevations (relative to Y'stone,) should mean that the passes will be free by early July. And if not, i stay lower and fish...
Now, It looks like I'll still have time to get to Glacier, after Y'stone, before heading home. I think that my experience at Glacier will be even better, based on the fact that I'll be there in late July, rather than early as i had planned. This probably means that N. Cascades is a no-go, as I would only be able to visit in late June. However, I may replace that visit with a 2-3 day trip to Crater Lake in Oregon. We'll see...
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