Posts Tagged With: Hiking

A Visual Tour of Montana

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so rather then explain the beauty of Montana we thought we would show you.  Have fun on your touring through our eyes.

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Montana: A Love/ Hate Relationship

The Love… Indescribable, pictures don’t do it justice kind of a place. Glacier National Park was a once in a lifetime experience filled with beauty and undeniable spectacular views. We drove through the park, going from West Glacier to East Glacier via Going To The Sun Road which is about 50 miles of incredible sights. The drive took us about 2 hours considering we stopped every few miles to gasp at the mountainous views, glaciers and mountain goats. We ventured to Logan’s Pass, a popular landmark, with a visitor center and an opportunity to
hike. We hiked about a mile along this boardwalk type path (which helps conserve the natural beauty of the park) to a snow field. Absolutely incredible! Nothing but snow and large mountains and I mean large mountains! Nothing like what we see in New York! Along the way, my earth science fiancé gave me lessons about the sights, how glacial streams are formed and what are glacial lakes. It truly is incredible how glaciers formed the mountain and water views we saw at the park.

The shuttle that didn’t exist

Beautiful Inn, Terrible service!

The Hate…We were very excited to have the opportunity to stay in the historic Izaak Walton Inn while in Montana.  We called months ahead of time to ensure we could get reservations and a shuttle pickup from the West Glacier amtrak station upon arrival.  Everything was set up for a great stay in beautiful Montana until…your sitting at a dark Amtrak station at 11:00PM with no shuttle in sight and an Inn that doesn’t answer their phone.  Well, after one 911 call, one $40 cab ride, and one pissed off Italian, we finally arrived at the Inn.  The next day after laying into their manager Steve, or @$$hole as I like to refer to him, I was told that I must not have called and reserved a shuttle ride, followed by “you must have called the Inn up the road”, and my personal favorite “…but we don’t even have a shuttle”.  Excuse after excuse, bad meal after bad meal, mistake after mistake it was finally time to leave Montana.  Wouldn’t you know it Steve was more then happy to load our bags into their shuttle; that’s right the shuttle they didn’t have.  I like to think they went out and bought one just for us.  Thanks Stevo!!!

’til next time…The Vagabonds

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Are We Truly “Fit” to be Vagabonds?

Traveling is something that most people love to do and wish they could do more often.  The only problem with traveling is, believe it or not, it does disrupt your daily life a bit.  You see, humans are creatures of habit.  We have our daily routines and generally don’t like change.  Traveling for a week might not disrupt the flow of things too bad, but a month…that could mess a person up!

We can’t wait for this trip, but we have one major predicament.  You see, for the past four months we have gotten into…and I mean really into crossfit!  Just ask our friends. Its all we talk about.  I mean they MUST be getting sick of it by now.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with crossfit, let me break it down for you. It’s a military like workout, that is timed and consists of a variety of
strength based exercises.  No one workout is the same. Your body hates you for doing it, but the results are undeniable. The question is, how do we maintain our obsession (yup, I called it an obsession) over the thirty days we are separated from our  gym? Here are a few of options:

1. While in transit, we can attempt workouts that do not required equipment. Squats, push ups, burpees, lunges, etc. This might work in a hotel room, but just imagine the looks we might get if we are doing squats in the middle of the aisle of our train!

2. We can scour the internet (or iphone app) for local Crossfit gyms in the cities we’ll be visiting. Rumor has it you can visit most gyms for around $10, which won’t break the bank.

3. We will be walking around cities for miles at a time and hiking in Montana and Arizona.  I suppose this does count as exercise, but like I said, we’re addicted, so this probably doesn’t count.

Considering how great our followers are, we were wondering what ideas you might have for us? Drop us a comment and let us know how you exercise on the go.  Thanks.

’til next time… The Vagabonds

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Man’s Best Friend

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Why is the dog referred to as man’s best friend? Is it their undying love and affection? Is it their loyal nature? Maybe it is their ability to read their owners emotions and in some silent way know exactly what to do in every situation. I know that I have shared my joys and my sorrows with my loyal bulldog. I have told her things I have never told anyone else (Yes, I tell my dog secrets). She is a part of my family and we love her with all of our hearts. The problem with dogs is that like all living things they don’t live forever. While hiking Mount Beacon with friends and our dog, Matilda, we came across the rock structure in the photo above. It was a monument built to memorialize a lost friend. A final gesture in friendship and one of the nicest ways to say “thank you” I have ever seen. Our Matilda will not live forever, I know this. While I don’t know what goes through a dogs mind, I just hope that when it is her time to leave this world she knows how much we love her and how special she is.
’til next time…The Vagabonds

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Mission Possible?

As we continue to plan for our trip, we are constantly thinking about how to better prepare ourselves.  When we thought about the notion of hiking Mt. Glacier and the Grand Canyon we decided to get in peak physical condition, and tried to tackle the mountains in our own backyard.

Mission: Mount Beacon…1100 miles above sea level

The Team: Mike, Crystle, Dan, Stephanie, and our dogs (Matilda & Ella)

Outcome: Mission Accomplished!!!!Image

’til next time…The Vagabonds

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