Throughout this road trip it has been an unofficial mantra of mine. I repeat time and again, “If only it were twenty degrees warmer.” If the mantra varies it is only to increase the temperature. “If only it were forty degrees warmer.” I never did specify what would happen if it were to become warmer. Continue reading “Desperately Seeking Summer”
There is some public land on the east side of Jasper National Park where the only activity restriction we could see was the ban on campfires. I like seeing the campfire ban signs because that means camping is okay. At least that is how I’m interpreting them. Continue reading “Hot and Cold and Hot”
As we headed south the air around us was progressively getting smokier. This would be the experience of anyone on the west side of North America. At the time we were traveling through, British Columbia had over 600 significant forest fires burning. At one point we were headed to find our campsite and the smoke was so thick that we were traveling at less than half the speed limit. We decided that it was time to bite the bullet and get a hotel room for the sake of our lungs. I got online and booked us a room in Prince George. Continue reading “Smoke on the Water”
My father recently reminded me that it is not a good idea to camp in dry creek beds subject to flash flooding. The thing is, the dry creek beds are usually composed of really well-drained soils so there are fewer instances of the ponding that leads to mosquito habitat. We love dry creek beds. Continue reading “Heavenly Lights and the Meatbee-asaurus Rex”
Reentering Canada on our way south was super exciting. We got phone service for the first time in a week and I got a voicemail from my folks letting me know that they might be evacuated because of a forest fire and where I would be able to find them in that event. Let it be known that potential evacuation is a great way to elicit a phone call from a child. Continue reading “Oh Canada, How We’ve Missed You”
The first time I visited Alaska was the summer of 2002. It was the year I turned 25 and about the time I realized that I wanted to go back to college. I was burning out on waiting tables in the National Parks and yearning desperately for a different direction in my life. Continue reading “Final Days in Alaska”
We have a few trails on our backpacking bucket list for this trip and traversing the K’esugi Ridge in Denali State Park is one we can now check off. This hike first got on my radar when I got an email from REI inviting me to purchase a package adventure tour of Alaska. I checked the itinerary to see what type of adventure they were peddling and saw that it included a hike up the K’esugi Ridge. Continue reading “Backpacking the K’esugi Ridge”
Planning a trip of this magnitude warrants a pretty hard look at the cost required. We are estimating about 40,000 miles of driving with an average gas price of $4/gal. We are estimating an average gas mileage for the truck to be around 15mpg. Plus, we had to look at how much time it would take to get to the ends of the Americas without ending up in winter! Also, a close peek at the bank balances had us settling on $50/day. Average. Continue reading “Slowing Down on the Kenai Peninsula”
It has been said that driving the Pan American Highway is boring. Anyone can do it. The route does not require any specialized skills beyond extensive defensive driving. This is true. If you stick to the beaten path, the trodden trail, the main drag, the path of least resistance, (you get the idea) it can be boring. Continue reading “My Mile-Long Walk of Shame and Other Missed Adventures”
As I discussed in previous blog posts, there is more than one way to drive to the Arctic Ocean in North America. There are two. Unless you want to split hairs or go off-roading, then the options are limitless. We chose to take the Dempster Highway. Continue reading “Driving the Dempster Highway”
