We love food. We love our electric cooler and not a day passes without celebrating the lack of a wet cooler and the never ending search for ice. So, that means we can keep whatever fresh foods, fruits and veg that catches our eye. Some markets are sparse, salty junk-food piles without any viable choices, others are magnificent farmer’s markets or just regular grocers.
We have freeze-dried backpacking meals (~$15 each) that are tasty and J-P informed us that by pre-taste, Peak is the best. Those are kept for deep ranged boon-docking moments where we don’t have anything better in mind. Our stores are not extensive but include oatmeal, walnuts, peanuts, cashews, carrots, eggs, butter, pancake mix, corn meal, bread, bagels, tuna, sardines, soup, Ramen, Fig Newtons, Dark chocolate (aka: our Methadone).
We have eaten two meals “out” in restaurants so far.
Sought-out treats include fresh veg of any kind, (recent squash and onions saute’), “big” steaks from the right sources, rare baked goods from the right sources. And, the rest I’ll say in pictures:
Rainy night “Dinner-in-stitches”. (we laughed so hard in the van, making peanut butter bagels that stuck in our craw, but laughed so much it was even harder to eat)
Waiting for the biscuits and gravy to share, held at bay by the best blueberry scone ever, fresh from the oven!
Some days it’s nice to take it easy and sit around, today I didn’t want to do that but Jane did. Simple solution: have her drive me out of town and then ride back on the Buffalo Gap/Maah Daah Hey. It is 15 mile section of nice single-track with rolling hills and features including switchbacks, climbs, vistas and plenty of scenery. Enough said, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Though I did ride into a field full of “cows” until one stood with longhorns and demonstrated he was not a she. I lumbered along quietly, uphill hoping that the standing would be the end of his curiosity. Fortunately, it was, but just as I realized I had turned my back on a large animal, I rode past a tree and spooked two pheasants. Or, should I say, they spooked me. I almost fell off my bike off the trail downhill into the sage, and my heart didn’t settle for at least 10 more pedal strokes laughing at myself.
Recall I was ten miles in and climbing when the boy-cow stood up…
Lazy blasting downhill
Nice Benchcuts, many were steeper but too fun to stop
As usual, one activity wasn’t enough so we went off to the visitor centers to talk to rangers about a good hike to complete the day. We listened intently to the basic bison instructions, “there may be a herd at the visitor center fields, but they are pretty docile right now, not calving and just move slow, keeping your distance of 2 school buses or more”. “They may be grazing near the trail, but you can go by, just be predictable, talk low tones and don’t go closer to them”. We picked a trail with plenty of elevation change, it drops down into the canyon with switchbacks immediately after a half mile on the flat.
The trail was dusty-dry and dropped steeply, enough so that I was sitting my butt down a bit to dig in the heels of my boots. Yes, both of us prefer heavy boots above the ankles. We know that real hikers, even AT hikers wear trail running shoes, but the tread and weight of boots is protective and predictable. yep, immediately near blinding down a narrow single track we weren’t more than 1-2 hundred yards in than I looked back and there were bison following us! I told Jane, sending her ahead of me and said I’d figure out if they were faster or slower than we. It seems our natural pace was just a bit faster, so I pressed to keep going as we surely weren’t going to go straight up that pitch to head on with a bison.
After later telling a friend, he mentioned he knew a guy who butchered a large male and its head weighed 600 lbs. The bison knew their trail and my luck such that it is, led me to keep us going down further and take a right turn on a small game-trail looking spot. As we leveled out on a plateau, we looked back again and the crew of four took a left and went to the watering hole. Boy were we glad!
It was a very nice, strenuous hike with 1000′ of descent to be climbed on our way back out if we did the whole trip as an out-and-back. We did do that, going through about 3 Liters of water, wearing dorkie hats, sunscreen and carrying a day pack with emergency supplies worthy of any overnighter. The hike went fine, we only saw people when we were about 3/4 done. On the climb we didn’t kid ourselves as we knew the herd would be grazing somewhere or another. Yep, right on our exit trail up on top. The ranger had told me that bison were the only reason to leave the trail and if they were blocking, it was okay to walk across the meadow and skirt around. And skirt around we did. Jane and I stopped for several long minutes to try to study the herd and decide if we’d be sleeping somewhere on the far side of them?
It was a long wait, but my call was to walk out into the middle of the field, outside of the first two. Then we kept going at that distance until we saw the clear chance to walk back across the field to get back onto the trail. By this time, all of this was in sight of the Painted Canyon visitor center and a huge parking lot.
Ever the indulgent husband, David agreed that he would ride horses with me at TRNP. He doesn’t like to ride horses. He says they do what they want. A bicycle or a pair of skis only do what you want.
I, on the other hand, love horses. As a child, my parents sent me and my sister for riding lessons. The lessons were for an English saddle. I have yet to ride another horse who isn’t carrying a Western saddle, but the lessons I had made me very comfortable with horses just the same.
The ride was just about an hour, which is enough for an old person like me who gets on a horse once every decade or so. Photos below.
Medora Riding Stables. The town of Medora was around in Roosevelt’s time, late 1800’s.Ready to roll. Beautiful horses and well kept.All mounted up.Me too.Off we go. I’m the one with the fat ass in the black striped shirt. The lady in the blue shirt is 82 years old! She did great.“Haha, Miss Jane! You didn’t fall off”. Yes, Bruno, I did good. So did David on Lefty.Gorgeous ride on a beautiful day in North Dakota!Well earned rest.
We decided to be stealthy, use a minivan and avoid towing and all that goes with it. Ideas on paper don’t always go the way you hope. Our first foray into minivan-stealth was during an October trip to Stowe for second-cousin Caroline’s wonderful wedding. Without any real prep other than a camping box and air mats we slept in the Adirondacks. Little things like cup holders and handles at the ceiling were noted to be needed and kept for sure. Later I added a thin wooden riser to level the whole back to be above the heavy metal clamps that usually hold the seats in place. We bought 3″ upholstery foam, deciding that two 24″ wide pieces would be easier to manage than a single 48″ mattress. Jane sewed some delightful covers with inexpensive “Nearly-New” fabric.
Cooking:
While I still have and use an ancient Coleman white gas stove for camping, it stinks when you turn it off and I didn’t feel like carrying a can of white gas all across the country in a minivan. (Though in a pinch that could’ve been a spare gallon to burn in the car). Many of the propane stoves are pretty big but we found this wonderful one at “Nearly New” it’s a Zebco, so full of adolescent appeal, think fishing supplies.
Then back to fuel. I didn’t want to leave a trail of green propane cans which are usually not recycled. Solution, IGNIK is a company who makes small propane tanks to be refilled. Holding approximately 5 of the green cans, it cost only $4.00 to fill. Update coming on how long it lasts
Coffee:
Jane’s not drinking coffee so I didn’t want to brew for one. Solution, Starbucks Via. The only instant I’ve ever had that tasted strong and consistent.
Power:
Charging Jane’s ebike was my first consideration and I went through numerous ideas and iterations including wrongly buying two inverters while searching for pure sine wave. Then after suggestions from Phil, a technical friend, I looked into it and realized it was going to burn up the minivan alternator trying to pull 150 amps from 130 amp system. (This highlights the joy of friends and people who add to your life, their knowledge comes in handy)
Again, thanks to Phil I researched Bluetti and Jackery as camp power solutions. As whole systems they would include solar but I saved some money by just getting the 1000 Watt model and charging it at electric sites as needed. Looks like it will go at least 4 days worth of travel and Mt biking and refrigerating before needing a recharge. Maybe someday I’ll add a solar panel too, but not this trip.
Cooler:
Everyone who has ever camped knows the pain of getting, keeping and sloshing through ice to have fresh food available and not soggy. With that in mind I started looking at electric coolers/tiny fridges. We are SO glad I did. May not have selected the best cooler, but the Megiu 26L is doing the job perfectly well. It runs on the 12V “lighter” outlet while we drive, stays cold for hours if left off between drives and the Jackery too will run it (could probably go 4 days straight without a plug in)
And, in typical fashion, two days before launch I made a quick, simple cover for the cooler with an insulated liner to “keep it out of the sun” and give us a table between the seats in Helen, the faithful Honda minivan.
David and Jane set out from Baltimore on May 18, 2025 for another big travel. This time, our “big” rig, The Tramper, is in temporary repose in West Virginia. Instead we’re in a 2010 Honda Odyssey, fitted out with a bed and lots of camping supplies. The Odessey, named Helen, is more nimble, frugal and stealthy than The Tramper. All good for a shorter trip.
In September 2012, David and Jane quit their jobs and traveled the country in their 1957 Yellowstone trailer, mountain biking, hiking, paddling, skiing and learning along the way. We carved out a 6 month sabbatical! It was AWESOME! Now, we’re back home and still blogging about the impact of our fabulous trip. And random stuff…
The Voyage of the Tramper 