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Folks, we are definitely in the middle of the #wilderness now… And what a great morning to wake up to…
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We stayed at a #turn-out by a pond 100 miles before #Iskuit,BC… There was a nip in the air but no wind or breeze…
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#TheTravelingMac brewed a nice fresh pot of coffee and went for a short walk while Tracey was getting ready… I wanted to feed the ducks but they were so skittish… Once I approached the water they retreated to the other end of the pond… Not even the enticing sights of soggy bread floating in the water would bring them back… oh my, we must be way out in the middle of nowhere where the ducks are so wild they don’t even know about the free bread the weird, featherless, upright creatures like to leave… lol…
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#TheMillenniumFalcon was soon back on the road… She’s running perfectly for now… Even the check engine light is off… Getting ready in the morning, or the afternoon lol, has taken a little longer considering we now have to set up a shower to get clean…
We planned on driving through the #StikineRegion, #Kitimat-StikineD & #Kitimat-StikineA… Confused yet… Because I know I am… Who the hell names territories like this?
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What happened to good old names like georgetown or bobville? What’s with the confusing military like labeling?
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So, basically we were traveling through #BritishColumbia,CA and soon would be approaching the #CassiarHighway in the #StikineRegion…
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I actually had a gentleman sitting at my bar when I was working in #DeathValley who claimed that the drive through #Canada was boring and there was hardly anything to see… Now, I don’t know what ignites this man’s visual interests… Maybe big buildings or dancing over sized mice spreading magic everywhere… but I have no idea what this guy is talking about… If you are reading this blog guy and remember our conversation, please explain to me how you could ever consider this drive boring?
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It is by far the most exciting, beautiful, inspirational drive I have ever been on… And even though the drive up the coast to Canada was mesmerizing, it has nothing on #B.C… And this is just the tip of the iceberg folks… What we are driving through now is considered residential compared to what we will be facing on the #Cassiar and the #ALCAN…
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With the huge white clouds engulfing the sky and this lingering fog hovering around the mountains, I couldn’t get enough… If I posted all of the pictures I took on this day alone, it would take me forever just to write one blog post…
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So, I picked the best of the best… The roads were starting to get pretty sketchy as we slowly approached the #CassiarHighway…
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We would have stayed at a couple of #RVParks for shits and giggles but we were driving through B.C. so early in the season, nothing was open… We also had to keep a close eye on gas stations… We had to make sure that we had enough gas at one gas station to make it to the other, they were so far apart at some places…
But here is where my trusty #co-pilot really saved the day… Being out in the middle of nowhere, there was of course very poor to no cell service… So, we had no way of looking up stops, gas stations or places of interest… But Tracey had the foresight to get a #TravelingGuide from one of her relatives who had traveled the same route in the past… Without this guide, we would have been a lot worse off and would have greatly increased our own chances of failure out in the middle of nowhere… But this guide lead us through this trip by the mile marker folks! We knew everything around and exactly where it was, which made navigating the outback of Canada a much safer experience…
And anyone who knows me, knows I’m a pretty motivated driver considering I’m always trying to fight time and keep on some sort of a schedule… Thank god for my trusty co-pilot… She’s the one who tells me to slow down and take it easy… I know I keep on bringing this point up but its such an important one on this #RoadTrip… We were soon going to face the destructive and sometimes deadly #permafrost up here… If I am not cautious, I could hit one of these road obstacles at a speed that would surely end this #trip very quickly… Tracey is always there keeping me from doing something stupid and has saved the day a few times already…
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I don’t know how I have survived this long folks… I do some really stupid, reckless things sometimes… well a lot of times… I have definitely gotten a lot better and more cautious since I bought #TheFalcon but you can only tame The Traveling Mac for so long… His reckless ways are ingrained in his DNA… So, it’s a huge plus to have another who knows how to reel me in… What a perfect team to tackle such challenges… Reckless adventure combined with sensible cautious exploring…
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And wouldn’t you know it, the further we got away from civilization, the more #WildAnimal sightings…
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This #caribou was startled by this huge house moving towards it… I wonder what was going through his mind… He’s just survived a long, treacherous winter and finally finds some edible vegetation along this big long black strip…. And just as he decides to enjoy a quick bite, a huge, massive white thing is barreling towards him from the distance and it’s getting bigger by the second…
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They must think we are some sort of a predator at first… but when numerous different sized creatures approach in the same fashion and just whip past them, they must catch on to the fact that these predators don’t give a crap about them as long as they are not blocking it’s path along the long black strip…
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Just a different, made up perspective from what I think the animal’s point of view would be if it could communicate with us… I’m sure this caribou will eventually stop retreating into the #woods and take more chances with these strange creatures as the #season continues… I enjoy thinking that we are the first sign of civilization this caribou has seen all year, while the caribou is our first sign of wildlife out in this vast #wilderness…
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There was plenty of #snow to see… Thank god it was far away and on top of the mountains in most places…
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We obviously made it just in time to catch the thaw…
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Tracey and I pulled off at this #turn-out to get a late lunch… There was a nice, roaring river running beside us…
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Even if we wanted to eat out, we couldn’t… Unless I wanted do some hunting…
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Tracey whipped up a quick ham and turkey sandwich with some store bought macaroni salad… We stocked up the refrigerator before heading out into the wilderness, anticipating a lot of homemade lunches and dinners…
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Not only did Tracey’s trusty guide navigate the trip but it also gave a pretty detailed history along the way… With each marked point of interest, it gave a history of that place… Be it occupied by an #IndianTribe or a description of how the area was discovered and what to see in the area… As I was driving, Tracey would give information about what we were seeing around us and the history of the area… It made the trip go by faster and it was neat to hear details about what we were seeing along the way…
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We of course stopped for gas and this was one of those important stops to make because it was a long distance to the next gas station… So, we filled up…
Gas is a bit pricier in Canada… They charge by the liter, so it appears cheaper but as we all know, there are almost four liters to a gallon… So, when you multiply that price by four and do the exchange, it comes out to be quite a bit more…
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But Tracey and I knew this… We filled all the way up before we crossed the border, just to save a few bucks… We also bought our food before we crossed because we heard prices for food were more up here…
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There’s a lot to consider before you travel Canada, if you are trying to do the trip cheapest as possible… Some things we anticipated, some we learned on our way up…
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All I know is that we have navigated the first few days of this trip almost effortlessly…
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And we owe that to the combination of luck, caution and planning… Tracey is definitely more of a planner… I just like to jump into things and learn along the way…
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Not that I don’t take the time to plan when needed… I just don’t do that extra planning that saves you a lot of aggravation along the way… I just don’t have the patience… I get too anxious and want to get going… Another hard lesson to learn in life but once again, two women in my life are teaching it to me… And they are The Millennium Falcon and Tracey…
In the picture above, we caught this beaver or otter swimming up the river… I think it was a beaver because he appeared to have a flat tail…
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Here’s our first moose sighting folks!!!! She ran for the trees as soon as we approached but I was able to snap a shot of her in the tall, beige grass, as she cautiously waited for us to leave…
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I joke with Tracey that if I was an #AmericanIndian my name would be #EagleEye! I can spot any #animal from any distance like an eagle…. I’m not kidding… We would be putting along, not a worry in mind… Then suddenly The Traveling Mac would scream and Tracey would jump up, startled yet once again from the ruckus…
Tracey would look so hard for what I was seeing but could never point it out until we approached closer… But my eagle eye can see a moving dot from hundreds of yards away… And almost every time, its an animal… I can’t explain it folks… I guess these skills come with driving #TheMillenniumFalcon.. Don’t get jealous, as Tracey would, of my honed, masterful skills… (Tracey is also legally blind without her glasses… So I think I have an advantage here… lol…)
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We passed #JadeCity, which Tracey informed me was the largest producers of #Jade in the world… We wanted to stop but it was not open for the season yet or we missed their opening hours for the day… Who knows, maybe on the way back…
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And here we are folks… It’s exactly 9:25 pm when this picture was taken and it looks like late afternoon… Wow! And look at that moon! Gorgeous! The moon comes out much smaller on camera but when I took this picture, it was even more amazing in person considering the moon was much larger and apparent… Time to get a better camera…
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This picture above threw me for a loop… the line between the mountain and water is so drastic that I thought these pictures were two panoramic photos stacked on top of each other while creating this post… God nature is so beautiful…
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This was our stop for the evening folks… My backyard was a snow covered #mountain with an enormous #FrozenLake along side of it…
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It was so gorgeous out, I planned on making a #campfire and cooking a campfire dinner but the laws out here are so strict about #camping in these pull-offs, so I didn’t want to attract any unneeded attention… I was going to take my chances until I heard a dog barking in the distance…
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My theory was, if I could hear a dog from here then the owner of that dog will easily see my campfire smoke escaping into the sky… So, it’s better to be safe than sorry… We will have a campfire dinner some other night… It was on my bucket list for this trip, so I was determined to make it happen…
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I spent a good hour outside… I was definitely having one of those #SpiritualMoments… I don’t know how you can’t have a moment out here… It’s just so peaceful and quiet… The smells are addicting… The blend of snow and ice, mixed in with dead leaves, pine and the hint of things that were burned a long time in the past…
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We were finally on the Cassiar Highway and in the sweet spot of our trip… I love how I feel out here and #OnTheRoad… Here I am with two of the most important women in my life, traveling to #Alaska with everything I could ever need…
It’s tempting to just pull over and stop #traveling, hoping to hold onto this great feeling of carelessness and freedom, scared that it will be gone soon! But once you stop moving that #freedom somehow dissipates over time… For you are never more free on this continent than when you are on the road, traveling… It’s the American way and I love it!!!!