Vehement Solutions for Trivial Problems: October 2025

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Camping 2025

Another great year of camping, including our first 2-week camping trip. Andy bought a new mattress, and sleeping is much more comfortable.

Whitewater, May

Hiked Sat and Sun to the top of Coyote Point. On Sunday we had to carry Harriet up the stairs all the way up the hill, which put us really out of breath. Dad was excited about the baby ferns. We ate Friday dinner at the St Charles Moose Lodge, and Sat dinner was porkchops in mushroom gravy.

Fort Ridgely, July

Back at one of our favorite nearby parks. This weekend was HOT. We did a couple of hikes (one with Harriet, the next with her chilling in the camper's AC). We were sweating just sitting. We struggled to put up our new-to-us screen tent and eventually learned we were trying to put it up inside out. One of the neighbors at the camp across the road eventually wandered over to see if he could lend aid. It was pretty ridiculous, really, that two pretty high-functioning adults couldn't put up a tent. We cooked pork chops in our sour cherries and baked potatoes in the coals. The air conditioning cycled on and off all night and it sounded like we were in a rocket. Not very restful. We left Sunday at 9 AM. We're discovering that we like camping better in the shoulder seasons- July, not so much.

Enjoying the blooming prairie

Glacier and Banff, Sep

See post here

Minocqua, Sep

We'd been hearing about Beef-a-Rama in Minocqua from Will and Cara and decided to meet there for a weekend together. We stayed at the nearby Indian Mounds State Forrest campground, which was lovely, with a site right on Tomahawk lake. We did the 5K, enjoyed the booths, samples and beef sandwiches, then went back to the campsite Saturday afternoon, where Cara's parents cooked a great meatloaf dinner over the fire. It was a great weekend.

Before the 5K

Even Harriet enjoyed the festival

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Glacier & Banff

Lake Moraine, Banff

We've camped many weekends, but never more than 3 nights. Our ambitious plans for this trip involved driving to Glacier, then Banff, then home, over 12 days and a total of 3,532 miles.

Our planning needed to account for a number of variables:

Significant competition and timing for booking campsites, especially at Glacier
Reservations for Going-to-the-Sun road, Many Glacier, and in Banff Lake Louise and Lake Moraine
Planning driving routes that would break up long drives with a few fun stops
Prioritizing sites and hikes, including all the work that went into making sure we could visit Lakes Moraine and Louise in Banff
Detailed menu planning and packing so we wouldn't run short of food in the parks
Planning and packing for cold weather (spoiler alert- it wasn't cold. We packed a variety of cold weather clothing and didn't use it)

We intentionally planned the trip for the 2nd-3rd weeks of Sep, reasoning that the parks wouldn't be quite as busy, but still enjoy pleasant weather. We calculated exactly 6 months earlier from our intended dates and we were online at precisely the right time in the morning to book a campsite in Glacier's Apgar campground. There was more camping availability in Banff, so that wasn't such a nail-biter.

Itinerary

Observations

We loved the historic lodges and hotels. You don't have to spend thousands to stay there- we enjoyed meals at Lake McDonald Lodge, Many Glacier Lodge, Fairmont Banff Springs, Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Tim Horton's donuts are yummy. Poutine not so much
While going after Labor Day had advantages (reduced crowd size), it also meant we were out-of-season for things we'd hoped to do, like the gondola, hot springs, and heritage park in Calgary
Gas stations are sparse in these rural areas- we'd fill up when we were at half-tank so we wouldn't risk running out. We went through gas faster than usual towing the camper
Lewis and Clark Interpretive center, Washburn ND

Fort Union
Breakfast in bed