Canada- Eh!

It has been a little over a week since we left Colorado and I feel like so much has happened I don't know where to start.  Our first day driving we realized that our max speed was 40mph, any faster and the trailer would start to do the "death wobble."  This is when the trailer starts to fishtail like crazy behind the jeep.  We drove through Denver and said goodbye to our good friend Cole, he was nice enough to give us an Ipod nano as a going away present with plenty of String Cheese Incident on it which is one of our favorite bands to listen to on adventures.  Nate stopped in Longmont to see if there was anything we could do to stop the death wobble, he took out the hitch extension and afterwards we were going between 50-60mph which felt like we were flying after only going 40 for so long.  Camped the first night in Big Horn National Park in WY and slept great in the teardrop.  The next day we drove through Montana and when we stopped to have coffee on the side of the road we realized the stove connection didn't quite fit.  Luckily, Nate was able to fix this problem and we had coffee in no time :).  We camped outside of Anaconda in the National Forest which is on the Piltner scenic drive, it was beautiful and we were swarmed by 'squintos immediately.  Thank god for our bug net, it has saved us from being eaten alive several times.  We washed our hair in the river next to camp it was freezing but it got the job done.
          The third day we continued to drive, drive, drive.  We listened to Eiger Dreams on tape and recognized  "once chance pass" that he mentions on one of his climbs in Alaska.  Ironically, my Uncle Todd and Aunt Stacey were just telling us about this same exact pass.  That night we stayed in Idaho near Coeur de'Alene which is pretty close to the Canadian border.  The next morning we crossed the border into Canada.  It was my turn to drive the teardrop and the first corner I took was hair raising because a van coming the other direction had drifted into my lane.  It was close!!  We headed into Salmo and got stuck in a parade, we then realized that it was Canada's independence day.  We pulled off onto a logging road and set up camp for the night.  The following day we drove into Nelson and our plan was to hike on a nearby glacier, but as we were stopping for ice the hatch of the teardrop fell off!!!!  Our plans changed and we headed back to Nelson and spent a good couple of hours fixing it in the Walmart parking lot.  Once the glue had dried we drove up towards Walhalla Provincial Park and set up camp next to a river.  That night we decided to explore across the river.  Lucy had crossed the river with us but couldn't get up the side bank, she ended up getting swept downstream over a small waterfall and Nate ran ahead and grabbed her just before she floated into a larger river system.  When we crossed the river to get back to camp we tied a rope to her collar and guided her in safely.
     The next day we headed into Nakusp and stopped at the Hut Stop and had amazing burgers for lunch.  We were on the hunt for hot springs, and drove up an old logging road towards St. Leon Hot Springs.  On the road we came across three guys walking and they stopped us and asked if we could help pull their truck out.  Nate dropped the teardrop, myself and Lucy off while he and a second truck helped pull their truck out.  The guys were really nice and we ended up BBQ-ing with them afterwards.  Then we started looking for a campsite and did some unexpected 4-wheeling with the teardrop.  The road was very overgrown and we're lucky it's still in once piece!  We ended up driving back towards the hot springs, we walked down a steep hill and had a good soak with the colorful collective.  By the way, there are tons of hippies/hitch-hikers throughout Canada and according to the guys we met most Canadians call them "Tree Planters" haha.  The next day it was the 4th of July, no fireworks for us.  We took the ferry over to Revelstoke and ate lunch in town.  We met up with the three guys we had met the previous day and one of their friends was moving into a house to watch over a herd of sled dogs.  It was nice to hang out with them and they gave us pointers on where to camp and what to see.  That night we drove over Rogers Pass and camped on a logging road.  As we were eating dinner a black bear stumbled through our camp!  Lucy immediately took off after the bear, and I let out a blood- curdling scream as she ran after the bear.  Nate shocked Lucy's collar and stood ready with the bear mace.  He took off running and we didn't see him again.(yay!)  The next day we headed into Yoho National Park which is outside of Banff.  We hiked to Wapta falls which was amazing.  This is the first time we've paid for camping so far, we stayed at Monarch campground and were surrounded by beautiful mountains and turquoise rivers.  That night we hiked along the river and drove out to Takawawa Falls.  It has been quite a trip so far.  Here are some pictures so far, I'm hoping we'll be able to update the blog again in Jasper.  Cheers :)