Sunday May, 8th, 2011

Picture of the Day: Best breakfast ever. PB&J with trail mix inside it. Beej invented the idea and it is quite magical.

So today was quite... interesting. After waking from being curled up in our sleeping bags we had breakfast, packed up and headed out to our next camp site in a place called Upper Mill Creek. We were planned to receive rain but luckily that never happened.
It was so surprising how much better my backpack felt since I had a day of getting used to it. It's going to be interesting how it feels after this entire trip.
Along the way we stopped by a lake (Cub Lake) to boil and purify some more water. We were quickly joined by some sassy birds that would fly away then return to squawk at us. (I have no idea what they were) we sat by the lake for awhile before continuing on our journey. This is where we began to notice something about the Rocky Mountains.
I had realized it last night but never had the heart to tell Beej yet. We had hiked miles and climbed the mountains yet neither of us felt like the reward was great enough. Now not to sound snooty but really even if we climbed the side of the mountain it looked the same as it was at the bottom. Plus the forest ranger told us that once we left the first campsite we would start seeing less people and become more secluded. Yet as we journeyed on we began to see more and more day hikers instead of backwoods campers.
This is were we started playing with the idea of leaving the Rockies early, why stay for five days and put out the energy when you aren't really digging it? (To tell you the truth I'm not too happy with the photos today)
The decision was finally made when after hiking for hours we began to realize our next campsite would be next to a tourist packed road. That was the straw on the camel's back. Also surprisingly somehow we got slightly turned around and were strangely close to our car.. (we weren't supposed to go in a loop.) Thus we packed up the car and headed for Utah.

Rocky Mountains Colorado: 2 out of 5 stars
Amazing place to drive through I highly recommend it. Yet for good backpacking/camping it isn't the best.


Other favorite Photos form the day:

 

 Good morning Rockies!

 

 All bundled up for the chilly morning.

Sassy Bird

Saturday, May, 7th

Picture of the Day: Beej's car on the way to our camp site in the Rocky Mountians in Colorado.

May, 7th, 2011

So pretty much today and yesterday blended together. Once the car was loaded up we drove out toward the Rocky Mountains in Colorado for our first 5 day camping trip. We drove 15 hours total with only a few stops for gas and stretching.
Even though I was exhausted once we were in sight of the Rockies I felt energy flowing through my veins. We planned to be out in the mountians for five to seven days. This jolly park ranger (Who reminded me of Santa oddly enough) set us up with a schedule that would keep us out of avalanche territory and on our agenda.
Once the car was parked we loaded up our gear and headed out to our first camp site. This is when I realized how much I need to adjust to both a super heavy pack, and being in the highest altitude I have ever been in. Our first camp was only a few miles away but it was a larger of an ordeal that I thought. I started feeling the Rockies as the training trip, we would find out what we really need to pack, what has flukes in it, ect.
When the tent was set up (we had a pretty nice camp site, and I was thrilled to find that my tent worked perfectly.) we decided since we had so much daylight left instead of waking up super early and seeing some sights before moving camp, we would hike to the sights that evening and then have a easy morning. I'm really glad we did.
For two miles Beej and I hiked up a snow covered mountain in search of a falls that we found out later was frozen. Even though my socks were soaked and I was exhausted it was amazing to be standing on the side of a cliff looking at the forest around us.  Sadly we never found the falls or the other sights the ranger told us of, the sun was setting and after hiking 2 miles we had to turn back. Yet it still was really enjoyable.
Sadly that night I found out the zipper on my sleeping bag was broken so it was a wee bit chilly for me.

Other favorite photos form the day:

MC Donald's Coffee from a small town in Colorado that I can't remember the name of.

Our tent and camp at the Old Forest Inn site.

Beej on the side of a mountain (my lens was smudgy boooooo)

May, 6th, 2011

Well today is the day. Everything is packed from outer wear to an extra roll of TP (ya never know when you will need it) Without food my pack feels pretty good which is a relief. Of coarse I went through the whole "am I packing enough?/am I packing too much?" But now I'm at a neutral state of waiting for Beej to come and we will head out.

I'm not quite sure where we are sleeping tonight and that's really exciting. That and I'm not quite sure when my next shower will be haha.

I will be updating this whenever I have internet access next. I was going to post my packing process but none of the photos came out to my liking.

Photos will be soon!
Onto the adventure!

Introduction

Hello!
My name is Evelyn Miller, I am an Illustration major at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I am going to be a Junior next semester so I can say with confidence I'm pretty set on an art career. (Website) Even though I am currently majored in Illustration I really enjoy doing photography on the side. I really have no knowledge what so ever on photography other than composition, but I'm hoping that will change through this trip.
Last summer I attempted to do a photo 365, this did not succeed. I plan to do a smaller version of this during the trip and continue on throughout the summer. On top of that I plan to incorporate drawings of the people we meet along the way. In hope to expand and find a new motive in my illustration.

Though the trip is 12 days away I just thought it would be a good idea to tell you what this trip is all about.

This December my friend Bryant Scannell and I had the idea to travel the West coast (and more) to backpack in as many parks as we could find. At first I thought it was just going to be something we talked about and never did. Yet four months later and a lot of preparation it's really happening! I decided to make a blog so my friends, coworkers and loved ones could see what we were up to along the way. I plan to just post my progress on this website. For cleansing of online addictions I'm blocking Facebook and Tumblr while I'm away. The photos I post on this blog and others I enjoyed from the day will also be on my Flickr site.


Here's a list of the parks and places we are planning on visiting.

• Rocky mountains national park (Colorado)
•  Great Sand Dunes national park (Colorado)
• Antelope canyon (Arizona)
•  Sunset Crater (Arizona)
• Monument valley (Utah)
• Zion National Park (Utah)
• LA (California) 
• Santa Barbra (California)
• Point Reyes (California)
• Crater Lake (Oregon)
• Mult Nomah Falls (Oregon)
• Gifford Pinshot (Washington) Maybe
• Mt. Rainier (Washington) Maybe
• Olympic National Park (Washington)
• North Cascades national park (Washington) Maybe
• Van Couver (Canada)
• Glacier National Park (Montana)
• Mammoth Hot springs (Montana)

Were really in this for the long haul. A lot of these we are going to be just driving through. 35 days is a really long time on the road so we are confident we will see all of these sights. The ones labeled "maybe" are still up for debate. 

I am oh so very excited for this adventure. I will start posting pictures on this blog on May 4th of the preparation.