Road and Ocean

Yellowstone

July 15, 2014December 7, 2016 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Not wanting to hang around for a second day at the festival, we packed up on Sunday morning and made our way south towards Yellowstone. Leaving Butte, the mountains changed character yet again. Nestled among the trees on the hills around the highway were hundreds of squashed round boulders, sat on their narrow ends – just like a plague of huge, swollen ticks gorging themselves on the folds of the mountain.

Early afternoon we arrived in West Yellowstone, on the border of the national park. We poked our noses into the park to see what the story was with camping, but as we’d expected, it was busy busy and all campgrounds were full. There are a few that allow reservations – which I’m sure would book up months ahead of time – but all the others are first come first served, sometimes filling up early in the morning. So we turned around back into town, found a campground, got settled with some lunch and then set out to explore the place. Lots of tourist tat everywhere – but not too many tourists – I guess they must all be in the park filling up those camp sites. The heat of the last few days is generating plenty of thunderstorms, this evening we sat outside the Buffalo Grill drinking our beers in the rain, hoping optimistically that it was going to stop and dry out before our tacos arrived. It didn’t, so we ate inside.

Monday / Tuesday

The battle plan for Monday was to get up early and go straight into the park to find a camp site. We arrived at Norris campground, pretty much right in the middle of the park, at 9am, and found a few free spots, vacated by early risers. Wanting 3 days in the park, we booked in for a couple of nights, paying the usual $20 per night in a little cardboard self-registration envelope. After a quick coffee it was time to explore the park.

The next couple of days were a blur of geothermal sites; hot springs, geysers, steam vents, mud pots, boiling pools – all a bit overwhelming, but very impressive. The park does well to soak up the 3 million people that come here each year; most geyser areas are quite large with trails and walkways over the fragile earth that go on for at least a mile or so. But it still felt busier than any of the other parks we’ve been to. Most car parks had a queue of people waiting to get in. All very well organised, just like the other US National Parks.

The range of springs, vents, pots and pools was unbelievable; with different coloured bacteria living in different temperatures. The Morning Glory pool was stunning. These pictures are not enhanced. The colours really were like that. Amazing.

And the prismatic spring blew me away. From way up the road, as we approached, we could see steam just like with all the other geyser sites, but here there was so much colour in the spring below that the steam itself was coloured in vivid orange, turquoise and yellow.

We managed to dodge the thunderstorms and get enough sun to take a bunch of pictures. Too many pictures. I often wonder why I don’t just download professional photos of the tourist sights. They can do better than I can, and it would leave me to just soak it all in without having to think about getting my own shots. But no, just like the gazillions of other snap-happy tourists, there we were, going for the best angle, best lighting, click click click.

Waiting for geysers to erupt is a funny game. Some of them are predicable, to a point. Sometimes the expected eruption times are posted by the rangers. Some geysers erupt pretty often, perhaps every few minutes, so it’s easy to catch it in action. Others erupt once every few hours, plus or minus an hour or so, and if you want to catch these doing their thing you need to get there early and just wait. And some only erupt following earthquakes, or only once or twice a century. We didn’t get any of the predictions, and just followed our noses around the park, but still managed to see a fair few geysers spouting and hissing into the sky. Perhaps the most impressive was Riverside Geyser, where (following a tip-off from a well prepared German) we waited about half an hour for it to spew its insides out all over the river.

For us, the rest of the park – the wildlife, the scenery, the history – took second place to the geothermal sights. Sure, we saw bison, elk, a bunch of small rodenty things, some birds, impressive cliffs, waterfalls and canyons, but that’s “just more nature”. Having been amongst jaw-droppingly beautiful country for over a month now, I think we’re actually getting a little desensitised.

A ridiculous number of pictures …

Montana Folk Festival

July 12, 2014December 7, 2016 Chris TannerLeave a comment

A hot, hot day at the Montana Folk Festival, which is set up among the streets of “Uptown Butte”. One of the stages is on a field, in front of one of the old mining towers, but the others are all tucked in between the buildings. Saw a bunch of different acts, some good stuff and some not so good stuff, and got roasted sitting out in the sun. We were done by early evening, partly overwhelmed by having so many people around after being in the wilderness for weeks, so we headed back to the van for an early night.

Butte, Montana

July 11, 2014December 7, 2016 Chris TannerLeave a comment

After a not-so-comfortable night lying on the hard rocky ground, we rustled up porridge for breakfast and then headed back down the valley. Various people we met on the way down (and on the way up yesterday) mentioned that they had seen a blonde coloured bear on or near the trail, but we didn’t get a glimpse of it. Perhaps we were making too much noise (intentionally, since we didn’t fancy surprising a bear on the path). We were armed with bear spray – I would have liked to see a bear at close quarters in its own habitat – but no luck this time.

Back at the car park we had a refreshing shower and then headed south. Not far from the park in Browning, in the middle of the Blackfeet Indian Reserve, we passed a mass of tepees, horses and RVs – preparing for a “powwow” we were told by the guy in the drive-through burger place where we grabbed a bit to eat for lunch.

The scenery changed rapidly – the mountains fell away into open hills, with silver, lifeless, leafless trees covering the hills. There was no obvious sign of fire, and yet every single tree was dead. Perhaps some disease that had stripped them of their bark and killed them. It was not so long ago – new growth had not yet sprung up between the dead trunks.

Soon even the dead trees were gone, and we were in the middle of wide, open grassland. The start of the great prairies, stretching from here all the way across to the east. I’m looking forward to seeing the huge, open skies and flat, flat land. Need to catch up with learning Spanish from my CDs too! Tucking back towards the mountains again, we ended up in Butte, where we’re going to be for the weekend, at the Montana Folk Festival. We’re camped in a local park with a hundred or so other people, watching a thunderstorm crash and flash on the hills behind the town. The full moon is rising behind the bank of clouds and it’s muy dramatico.

Next to us on one side are a couple travelling around in their van for the summer. He’s from Pennsylvania and she’s from Costa Rica. The other side is a couple from Billings, the capital of Montana. They moved over here from New York a few years ago for his work. Even the largest city in the state only has about 100,000 people – it’s a pretty empty place – pretty different from New York, but they love it. The state tagline is “GET LOST … in Montana”, it’s definitely a place where recreation is high on the agenda.

We’re skipping tonight’s festival activities, going to catch up on some rest and attack the crowds tomorrow.

Okotomi Lake

July 10, 2014December 7, 2016 Chris Tanner1 Comment

Expecting another scorcher of a day we started early. Cooked up some pancakes with maple syrup then hit the trail up to Okotomi Lake. The 5 miles and 2,000 feet of climbing took us 2 and a half hours, first through thick forest growth and big fir trees, then through smaller, more open subalpine trees, and finally across open scree slopes to the camp. To make sure that people and wildlife don’t get in the way of each other, the camp ground was divided into separate areas for sleeping, preparing food, storing food, and toilet. In Yosemite, they are trying to teach the bears that humans don’t provide easy food by enforcing every visitor to keep their food in bear proof canisters. Here, we have a pole where we have to hang our food and anything else that smells, well away from hungry claws and paws.

We spent the afternoon sat on a small gravel beach by the side of the lake, reading in the sun. Ground squirrels became more and more confident as we sat there, scuffling around in their incessant search for food. When we peed in the bushes, they smelt it immediately and raced to the crime scene to get a taste of salt.

Glacier National Park

July 9, 2014December 7, 2016 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Just a few miles on from our Hungry Horse pull-out [layby] is the entrance to Glacier National Park and the start of the “Going To The Sun” road – an ancient route that the Indians followed up into the mountains to bond with the gods. The plan was to hike a trail up to the ptarmigan tunnel, but the guy in the back-country permit station said that it was still closed due to snow – in mid July! Speaking to other folk a few days later we found out that they’d had 3 feet of fresh snow on the peaks just last week, finishing off a winter season with 1.5 times the normal precipitation. Not like California where we had a pitiful winder for snow.

Not able to do that hike, we got a permit for a shorter route up to Okotomi Lake. A shame, since the ptarmigan tunnel trail looks incredible – a high country route winding along cliff faces and over knife edge arêtes. The back country camping permit system here is really strict – you need to book your site a day or so ahead of time, and watch a video which explains the dangers involved. It seems like this park has a much higher bear population than other parks – both Brown and Grizzly – and as a result, the rangers need to make sure that people are sensible. Okotomi Lake camp only has 3 spaces, which looks fairly typical for the twenty or so back country camps around the park. This in turn limits the number of people that can stay out overnight and restricts the impact that people make on the pristine natural mountains. It’s pretty clear that the human presence in this park is well managed – the high country is so sensitive to people that if it wasn’t managed well it would be overrun and destroyed in no time. There would be trails everywhere, scree slopes scarred by human traffic, probably rubbish in the trees and no doubt the wildlife would have done a runner and moved elsewhere.

We drove over the Going To The Sun road, an impressive 50 mile route that wound its way along vertiginous cliff faces and past hissing waterfalls to Logan Pass, where all the tourists congregate for photos and perhaps a short walk up the hill behind the visitor centre.

Knowing that the campgrounds fill up early (previous day “full” times are posted at the entrance to the park), we headed straight for Rising Sun campground on the east side of the mountains, and took one of the last spaces at about 1pm. It was hot hot hot – and with the sun overhead there was no shade. We rigged our sheet from the van as an awning to give some shade, hiding us from the blazing ball of fire, and got down to some drawing.

Just as the sun was setting there were shouts of “bear!” further up the campground. As the bear moved down the valley, a group of campers followed its progress, until it ended up just a few yards from the back of our site. It was a small brown bear, which was actually more blonde in colour – completely ambivalent to everyone watching it. Not finding much of interest to eat round our place, it wandered off back into the bushes.

Whitefish

July 8, 2014December 7, 2016 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Another early start this morning. I wandered down to the lake to see the sun rise over the hills. An army of small clouds was marching across the sky, the lake was calm, creating amazing reflections. Every degree the sun rose higher, the clouds got smaller, until they were all burnt away. As I sat watching the show, an eagle of some sort flapped its way casually across the lake and settled in a tree behind me. I think it was a bald eagle – with a white head.

We put our new camp toaster through its paces; egg muffins with marmite for breakfast. Mmm. Then carried on south to Whitefish to hunt down a coffee shop and a laundry. The laundry was a couple of miles out of town, so while our clothes tumbled around we read the local papers, and discovered that the nearby mountain (innovatively called “Big Mountain”) had chairlifts and mountain bike trails open. That settled the plan for the afternoon! We gobbled down a crepe, popped into a huge mountain sports store to pick up some padded shorts for Rose, and then hit the hill mid-afternoon for a couple of hours riding.

Two hours wasn’t nearly enough. With lots of steep, dusty, technical trails I could easily have spent a couple of days here, but riding them solo wasn’t appealing, and we wanted to get through Glacier National Park before hitting a folk festival in Butte at the weekend … so we found a shower at a local state park campground and then drove on to find a place by the side of the road near Hungry Horse Dam.

The mountain sports stores here are huge – in fact all stores are huge. While there are a lot of people just buying kit for the sake of it, I also get the feeling that there are lots of people really attacking their outdoor pursuits seriously. I seems that every other vehicle driving around has either kayaks or bikes on top. It would be great to spend some time in a place like this (or any of the other outdoor centres we’ve stopped at) and meet a crew of adventurers. Passing through in a self-sufficient van, with fairly tight timings, doesn’t lend itself to getting really into a scene. Of course California is pretty hot for outdoor stuff, and there’s the sea too. We’re constantly wondering where we’re going to end up in the future. No firm plans yet!

Rockies

July 7, 2014December 7, 2016 Chris TannerLeave a comment

Nearly back in the USA. Nearly, because we’ve been sat here in a traffic jam just north of the border in the hot, hot sun for over an hour, with various emergency and traffic vehicles coming up and down the road. One guy says that there’s a trailer turned over further down. We passed an overturned haulage trailer a few miles back up the same road, too. A few police cars are starting to come back up this way, so maybe it’s clearing. We’ve been sat here long enough for the trailer folk in front of us to get out their generator to power their AC.

On Wednesday last week we left Marble Canyon and headed via Kamloops towards Jasper. It was another hot drive, through arid canyon country and then back into endless trees and meadows flanking the North Thomson river. We found a campsite by the river and cooked dinner while the mosquitoes swarmed in. The river was really full, and moving fast. All the rivers in the Rockies over the next few days were the same, and some lakes were overflowing.

Thursday morning; on towards Jasper, where we stopped off for a shower before heading south on the Icefield Parkway – supposedly one of the world’s best drives. Yes, it’s a pretty amazing view, all the way. So much BULK in these mountains.

The trees are very different from those on the Pacific Northwest coast – they are smaller, skinnier and more open. I guess they get a much harsher winter. I keep meaning to read up on all the different types on fir, pine and spruce trees – we’ve seen so many different species.

We spent a few days camping at Waterfowl Lakes campground with family; Iain and Helen, cousins Andrew and Alastair, their wives Kara-Lise and Kim, and two baby/toddler boys. Not doing a huge amount of activity, and staying in the same place for 3 nights in a row has been nice. We had a short walk up to Bow Lake Summit on Friday, and a kayak around Waterfowl Lake on Saturday. Plenty of eating and resting.

Last week we had our first mechanical breakdown – the 12v plug for the fridge melted and shorted a fuse. We didn’t have any spares so I stole the wiper fuse, expecting not to have any rain. We did end up having a bit of rain over the weekend, but we weren’t driving. Last night we discovered the gas regulator off our cheap cooker had failed, and even after multiple dis-assemblies, tweaks and re-assemblies it still wasn’t working. I don’t like it when I can’t fix something. So today we spent a while looking around stores in Cranbrook for a new cooker, ended up with a cheapo from Canadian Tire. The reviews are good, let’s see if it survives the next couple of months on the road.

We’ve got three weeks to get across to Thunder Bay where we’re meeting Olly and Kate, so we’re going to head south into the USA and spend some time in Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and a few other places along the way.

Eventually the traffic cleared and we arrived at the US border. The guard waved us through and told us to park up and go into the office, where we filled out an immigration form and waited while they searched the van. We’d declared our fruit and veg, but not our firewood … luckily we were just scolded and allowed to continue on into Montana – a new state!

So far, nothing to report other than the Rockies have disappeared and made way for rolling, tree-covered hills. There’s a LOT of this kind of driving up here!

We’re now camped at Dickey Lake, about 30 miles south of the border. There are a few camp fires flickering in the trees, and the half moon is bright over the lake. One thing we’ve not seen much of so far this trip is the night sky – we’ve always been tucked away in mountain valleys amongst tall trees. I’m looking forward to the desert and open plains.

Far away in the darkness I can hear the rumble of a train coming closer, along with the characteristic hoot of a North American diesel engine. Over the past few weeks we’ve camped close to train tracks many times – the roads and the railways tend to follow the same winding routes through the mountains.

It’s another warm night, just under a sheet, with the van all closed up apart from one window with a net over it. Need to make a net for the other cab window so we can get some through breeze.

Vancouver and Whistler

July 2, 2014 Chris Tanner1 Comment

Wolves are howling on the hill, across the other side of the lake, making noises I never knew a pack of wolves could make; yodeling, yelping and ululating all at the same time. I think they are getting closer. The birds are having a good sing song, sharing their morning gossip. The clouds rushing past the top of the canyon are seared salmon pink with the first light of dawn. The valley floor is still in shade, but it’s warm enough for just shorts and a tee. A breeze is starting to ruffle the surface of the water, and shooing away the mosquitoes in camp. When the wind dies off, I can hear the sound of the waterfall we scrambled across to as the sun went down last night. It’s 5am and I’m sat with a hot cup of fresh, dark coffee and a couple of Aunt Jemima’s pancakes, enjoying the start of what is going to be another scorcher of a day.

I’m up early having been woken by something crawling over my leg in the van – most likely a massive spider. The day beginning outside was too tempting to ignore, so I’m up and about. It’s been too long since I last got up with the sun. It’s also the first time in nearly a week that I’ve had to sit down and catch up.

We’ve traveled down from the Sunshine Coast, through Vancouver and Whistler, and we’re now on our way up to Jasper. Arriving in Vancouver was strange. We’d been planning to visit for a long time, throwing around ideas of maybe moving here in the future. But as soon as we found ourselves surrounded by the buildings, streets and hundreds of people, we both felt unsettled. Mainly the fact that we’d been out in the country for a couple of weeks, just the two of us, and being suddenly thrust into a heaving mass of humanity was a shock to the system. We parked up and had a wander around Granville Island, stopping in at a few galleries and studios, had a bite to eat and soaked up the buzz. In the evening we met up with Jim – the guy with the broken down motorbike we met back down in Oregon. He runs a Community Laboratory in Vancouver, where people can join and use the tools and workshop space. He was still working on his bike. A few people were building some micro-houses. Sawdust, grime and shaggy beards. A good “making things” vibe. Over the road was a micro-brewery – Parallel 49 – where we grabbed a couple of beers and a box of poutine from the food truck outside; one of Canada’s national foods I’m told. It’s essentially just chips and gravy with a fancy name, but tasty!

One of the ferries on the Sunshine Coast

We camped by the side of the road half an hour out of town as the campsite was shut by the time we got there at nearly midnight. Friday morning brought rain, we spent the day in town. A couple of hours in the library in the afternoon gave me some time to catch up with a bit of work, and then in the evening we smartened up (a little) and headed off to the circus! Driving out of town the night before we’d seen that Cirque du Soleil was in town – something we’d always wanted to see – so we booked tickets. It was impressive. The usual acrobatics, trapeze work and strong-man feats, with amazing costumes and live music. One act involved a huge, upside down, transparent cone – like a big funnel – with a man stood inside throwing glowing balls around the inner walls. It was dark, so all you could see was the man surrounded by smoke and whirling globes. Too late to find a campsite and in need of a freshen up, we hunted down a motel for the night.

On Saturday we met Will – a buddy of mine from Uni I hadn’t seen in perhaps ten years. We had breakfast and then spent the day hanging out and catching up. Knowing someone in a town, rather than being a complete stranger, makes a huge difference. Maybe also because we’d been in town for a couple of days by then, I felt a bit more comfortable with the place. But we both decided that we don’t want to live in a city again for a while.

In the evening sun we drove up the 99 – the “sea to sky highway” – through Squamish and into Whistler. The original plan was to stop for the night in Squamish. I’d heard about it being “the adventure centre of British Columbia”, there was a kite surf beach, climbing and biking all within the same place. But even on a Saturday night, it felt dead as we arrived around 7pm. We had a quick drive around, and decided that heading on up to Whistler was the best plan. After drinks and dinner in town we found a pull-out on a mountain road a few Kms south for the night.

Sunday morning; breakfast in Whistler and then on to Ali’s place. Whistler is one of the world great mountain biking destinations – a purpose-built ski resort in winter, and a mountain bike mecca in summer. The surrounding mountains are covered with hundreds of awesome trails, and the slopes north of the town form the Whistler Bike Park. The chair lifts are converted to take bikes, and the town is packed with downhill warriors in full face helmets and body armour. Rose, Ali and I started the day’s riding with a loop around the Lost Lake trails, then leaving Rose at the house we joined up with a few other guys to ride a couple of trails called “Business Time” and “AM PM”. Steep climbing and steep, fast, technical descents through twisty woods, over rock drops and slatted wooden bridges. So good to be out on these trails with strong riders to follow. A gang came around to Ali’s for the evening where I cooked up a massive carbonara to fuel us up for the next day’s ride.

Back on the hill on Monday. We started with a long, tough climb all the way up the side of the valley, perhaps a couple of hours. Hot and humid. Amazing view from the top. But squadrons of mosquitoes were out and in fighting mode so we gobbled down our snacks, hopped on the bikes and dropped into the trees, onto a trail called “Howler”. In 20 minutes we were back amongst the houses on the valley floor. Spent the afternoon hanging out at Lost Lake, and then another evening relaxing at the house. The Kiwi gang were busy making plans for the next stage of their endless summer; chasing the seasons around the world, riding bikes and working where possible. Most people are here purely to ride bikes; mostly in their early twenties, single, living in shared houses, “doing a season”. All talk is about bikes and travel. One of the guys, Nick, was planning to head to Europe in August to get back into work and career for a while, and was having to make some tricky decisions about whether to follow his mates to New Zealand and ride the southern summer or step back from the party and drop into a 9-to-5 job. Was interesting to have a chat with him, about how it can be possible to work full time in a city whilst also fitting in enough play, and whether just playing out at the weekends could compare to immersing yourself fully into a scene for a whole season.

On Tuesday folks were either back at work in bike shops or workshops, or having a rest, so I headed up to the bike park on my own with a 3-lift sampler pass. Couldn’t go through Whistler without riding the park. As I was by myself I didn’t really push it, but had a blast down some famous lines; Freight Train, No Joke, A-Line. My riding has improved in just three days here; I can easily see how spending a season in this place can take you to another level completely.

We left Whistler at lunch and drove north into the hot, hot, hot valleys around Lilooet. I wasn’t expecting it to be so dry. I was thinking it was just going to be more of the same pine trees and forests that we’ve seen all the way up the coast so far, but it’s dry and arid. A huge river has cut a deep gorge into the limestone cliffs, exposing huge slabs of rock and creating some incredible scenery.

Here at Marble Canyon, the morning sun is chasing the shade down the slope on the other side of the valley, and it’s going to charge into camp any minute now. I hear Rose stirring in the van, best get the kettle on.

Sunshine Coast

June 25, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

By 8am the sun was already hot, so we had a quick dip in the lake, packed up camp and paddled along the south shore back to the van. I’d wanted to leave earlier to be ahead of the wind, but as we put the boats back in the water it picked up where it had left off yesterday – which meant an upwind paddle where we’d had a downwind ride before. No big deal though, we still made it back in about the same time.

A successful little expedition and a real taste of kayak/canoeing around here. One day I’d like to do the whole Powell Canoe circuit. Our island didn’t have a name on any of the maps we could find, so we called it Stump Island.

Headed to the ferry to catch an early-ish ride around to the next spot on the Sunshine Coast … but discovered that the next ferry was 4.30pm; the schedule I’d been planning from was only valid until June 24th! Ah well, we just had to kill a few hours. Had a coffee and chatted with a couple of locals, took a wander around the local provincial park (lots of them up here) and then managed to squeeze a bit of work writing in as we waited for the ferry from Saltery Bay to Earl’s Cove.

What a beautiful ferry journey. It was only 50 minutes, but the views were stunning. Big, steep mountains dropping straight into the water all around us. Other than a few cabins tucked into the trees here and there, it was completely empty, or at least looked empty. A few of the hillsides were scarred by logging trails or fire roads, or had patches of missing trees – but otherwise there was no sign of humanity at all. I can imagine the coastline further up towards Alaska is incredible; like this but genuinely remote. Definitely want to sail up there some time.

Tonight we’re in yet another provincial park campground. We’re in Porpoise Bay at the southern end of the Sechelt inlet. In our bellies is a gourmet dinner of locally smoked salmon, spinach and quinoa. The van is sealed up so none of the hordes of mosquito-beasts outside can get in, and we’ve got the guidebooks out, planning what we want to do in Vancouver over the next few days.

Stump Island

June 24, 2014 Chris TannerLeave a comment

I’m really starting to get into breakfast of scrambled eggs with salami. Quick, easy, and tasty. Eggs last for ages without a fridge, and the pack of salami we bought (I think in California) is still going strong.

Weather looked good for a kayak trip, so today we headed across to the mainland on the ferry to Powell River, picked up some bear spray and a coffee, then found our way up a gravel track to the start of the Powell Canoe Route. It’s normally a 5 to 7 day multi-lake adventure with portages between each lake and awesome mountain views, but as our first time out kayak camping we figured a short paddle down the first lake (Lois Lake), and one night out would do fine.

Saw our first bear of this trip! Driving up the gravel track just off the highway a big black bear was hanging out on the track. He ran right off into the bushes, no hanging around for pictures.

We packed a tent, sleeping bags and some food, put the kayaks in the water and headed off into the wilderness in the baking sun. After an hour we washed up on a deserted beach on a small island in the middle of the lake, and decided to call this camp for the night.

What a stunning place. The lake is surrounded by steep sided, forested mountains, with their tops hidden in the clouds. Down here we’re in the warm sun, with only the sounds of the wilderness and the waves slapping on the sand. The lake is actually a dam, which means that it’s a flooded valley with thousands of dead tree trunks poking up through the water around the shores. The lake level rises and falls depending on how much hydro power they need, which creates these crazy looking tree stumps that are still standing, all the sand and soil having been washed away from underneath them.

We explored the island, I had a swim, Rose did some drawing, we cooked some dinner, had a camp fire – all nice and slow, nobody else around at all. As the sun set, wolves were howling in the distance. Optimistically we’d only put the inner tent up, as the sun was shining late into the evening, it was calm and warm … didn’t smell like rain was coming. It would have been nice to sleep under the stars. Just as I was drifting off to sleep the rain started so I had to rush the fly sheet on – at least we’d brought it!