Since I last wrote, it feels like a lifetime has passed by. We finished packing the remainder of our belongings, said our tearful goodbyes, and hit the road.
True to our "Jessen" style, our trip did not start out 100% smooth. Our packing started off fairly methodical, trying to get everything in the camper, nice and tidy, planning to repack as needed to make sure our load was perfect. Towards the end we were on a mission to just get the stuff in the camper. Nervously pondering our packing job as we headed out of town. Our first night making it from Missoula to Polson, 60 windy miles. Feeling pretty relieved not to have chosen loftier goals our first night on the road. It was a long night pondering our route, feeling a bit of trepidation regarding our upcoming border crossing with 18 guns and 4,945 rounds of ammunition.
Sunday, June 10th the real journey began. Our border crossing was rocky, but not as bad as we expected. After a long 3 hours, the first half at the Amerian crossing, cataloging all of our guns, the second half at the Canadian crossing being inspected. Patiently waiting for it to be over, we wondered if we really had lost our minds like everyone thought. As painful as it was, we did expect much worse, visions of everything we owned being strewn about the parking lot. FYI pellet rifles are weapons in Canada depending on their velocity. With our heart still in in our throat, we felt it would be prudent to get as many miles/kilometers between us and the border. By way of Radium Hot Springs to Banff.
Next we found this little gem of a tunnel, as we feverishly tried to calculate feet to meters, considering our nice tall camper. We made it!! Driving well into the night it began to snow, exhausted, we finally found a place to pull over and sleep. We woke up to a beautiful view and a fresh outlook.
Our second day brought us through Banff to Jasper then finally settling in McBride in British Columbia for the night. At this point I should toss in a little opinion. Banff was an okay place, a lot of hustle and bustle, fun people watching if you are touring about. Jasper was a laid back place to grab a little lunch. Finally, McBride, a beautiful, sleepy little town. It kind of reminded me of Mayberry, I half expected to see Barney Fife with his bullet in his pocket (a little Andy Griffith reference there). It was now time to regroup and repack our precarious load. Not to mention a little tire repair before setting out again. At this point it was time to chose our route, the Cassiar or the Alaska Highway (as I had mentioned before, we are terrible planners). On the flip side, I think adventures can be over planned. What if we want to check something out, what if I don't feel like taking that road, I'm hungry at 11 instead of noon and I see the perfect place...so many variables. After getting a few reports, we chose the Cassiar.
The next few days were spent driving...and driving. Goofing off...and driving.
Believe it or not, no one ended up in the river. We drove until we were tired, pulled over and slept when we felt like it, mostly pull outs or parking lots. We've bumped into some interesting people with some cool stories along the way.
From Whitehorse we hopped on to the Alaskan Highway, through frost heaves a plenty. So many in fact, our bike rack hanging out at the back of the camper just didn't make it, nor did the bikes. I would have taken pictures, but it didn't quite seem like the appropriate time.
I get plenty of these already. On the upside we saw BEARS!! LOTS OF BEARS!
Me made it to Alaska, but the axle on our camper didn't. We spent a few days in Tok waiting for repairs. It's time now for the next leg of our adventure...to be continued
Comments
Post a Comment