Fall travels

brianzurek
Nov 16, 2022
3 min read

This fall I escaped Canada to spend some time riding the mountain bike from the mountains of Montana to the plains of Illinois, do a quick lap up devils tower, visit family in Minneapolis, spend a few weeks at the New and meet up with Eva in Utah.

A vanlife blog wouldn't be complete without the obligatory van parked in such and such spot so here they are...

A super quiet spot in Montana - spent 3 nights!

A couple of days spent in the black hills...

waking up outside St Louise

Parked in the desert

Sunset

under a full moon

and a snowy Walmart lot for a night in Wyoming....

Act I - Southern Alberta, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota

Mountain biking, more mountain biking, a climb up devils tower and even more mountain biking - what more is there to say?! Would liked to have climbed more but still not 100% confident in my shoulder

A few smokey days at Crowsness Pass

The mountains try to peak through the haze

Heading south I spent the night outside Waterton National park

Hanging with the locals in the Black Hills

riding in central South Dakota

Besides biking I also managed to scramble up to the top of Devils tower - something I've always wanted to do but never managed to make it happen

Looking up from the base

looking down at climbers below

no shortage of cracks to climb

On top!

Along the way I stopped at many fine tourist attractions

Badlands NP

Corn Palace

Act II - Minnesota - a family visit

Next I went to Minnesota to spend time with family and the theme this year was food.

First we went to Owani a James Beard winning restaurant (or chef - not sure how that works) run by a Sioux chef who only uses locally sourced natural products.

Some spicy yams and desert

Next we went to get Pizza at another Jame Beard winning restaurant this time run by a Korean Chef who uses her Korean heritage as inspiration for her pizzas!

Time was also spent up north at the 'cabin' and checking out the colors along the north shore.

Cuyuna

North shore

Split Rock lighthouse

A sasquatch!?

Act III - Back to the New!

3 years in a row - who would have thought... I guess I like the New!

Not having climbed much this year my expectations were minimal but my psych was high and it showed I managed to repeat a 12.b but also fell on a 5.9 - haha so it goes. My shoulder did not explode so I was a happy climber.

Happy Brian belaying - is that trad gear on my harness??? Wait, what!? Trad at the New is amazing and is the best (only?) climbing under 5.11!

Not only was Brian happy but so was this parrot as it enjoyed the sun

It was hard not to be happy given the fall colors

and evenings around campfires

I guess I must include one obligatory climbing shot - not me but I have probably done this route 20x by now... haha never again I say, but it is so fun!

While at the New I went and spent 1 weekend at the Red... The Red is fun but the New is so so much better - that said I how else can I get pictures climbing on steep routes like this