Getting Close

Nice campsite on the Fraser River tonight. Less than 2 hours from Squamish. Pretty excited to get to the goods. Great view here. Rib eye on the grill!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Haylmore Pl,Lillooet,Canada

The sun is setting!

The first legitimate sunset we've had in almost 7 weeks! Before dinner too. Finally get to sleep in the dark again, it's nice to be heading south. Also it's 21 deg C. Salad and pasta and a movie in the camper tonight.









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Fraser Lake, BC

Back on the road

On the Cassiar Highway, 78km south of the Alaska Highway. Spent last night in Whitehorse, loaded up on groceries today and checked at a tire shop about the screw I pulled out of the tire. Did nothing about it, and so far so good.

We're at Boya Lake provincial park now, and just went for a swim. The water is gin clear and actually not too cold. Having a few beers, going to BBQ some chicken on our new Weber Go-Anywhere grill, and I have a line in the water with some raw chicken on a hook in hopes of catching a burbot. Life is good, the Cassiar highway is very different from everywhere else we've driven - just the way we like it.









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Boys Lake, BC

The end of the road

We made it to the very end of the highway in NA. Officially reached the most westerly point drivable ay Anchor Bay last night, then drove down to Homer today... And it was awesome! Last night in anchor bay we had the nicest campsite yet,.. We've said that before but this time it was for real! Backed the truck up onto the ocean, away from the state park and overlooking the Iliamna and Mount Redoubt Volcanoes, which are massive.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Homer Spit Rd,Homer,United States

Also this

The weather has been amazing, it was my 4th time at Kluane Lake but never have I seen glass like this. It was hard to keep between the lines with scenery that nice. Unreal that a lake this big could ever get this calm.













- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Kluane Lake, Yukon

Visual Update

The Elliott's - our home in Girdwood

LD at Byron Glacier

Typical AK road sign

Fresh Russian River sockeye salmon

Caught by this guy

While staying at this campsite

Followed by a picnic lunch at Kenai Lake

Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish

I remember the time I said I'd update the blog and then didn't. I believe that was last night! Andddd the past 2 weeks. So this has been a long time coming!

Right now we're sitting on Matt and Christi's rooftop patio in Girdwood, Alaska. We've been staying at their place for exactly two weeks now. Hard to believe two weeks have already gone by. It's been awesome staying here, Matt and Christi have been great hosts to us. Girdwood is such a pretty small town. It feels like we live here now. We've met really nice locals and fit in well with this easy-going town... too bad we don't have American passports right about now! It'd definitely be tempting to stick around!

Anyhow we've had a tonne of great experiences around this area since we've been here but I won't expand on them right now. Mike and I are leaving tomorrow to go to Dawson, YT for the Dust to Dawson motorcycle rally. Mike and Patrick are riding their bikes and I'm going to follow in the F-150. I think we'll be gone for about a week, back next Tuesday night. I'm really excited to see Dawson City and get back into Canada! I hear Dawson is a pretty cool town. Watch for our route on Spot, Mike's going to track it on his motorcycle...

Wish us luck!! xoxoxoxo

The Great Land

We made it to AK after 13,000km! We're at an RV park in Tok and should be in Girdwood tomorrow after about 5 or 6 more hours driving. Then after over a month, we can finally settle down for a bit and use our legs! Looking forward to being back in my favorite mountain town and seeing some sights, doing some hiking and sailing and fishing and everything else we can.

Pics to come when I get them on my computer and get on it. Stay tuned loyal readers... we're arriving but we're not done yet!

June does not mean summer

It's snowing! We woke up this morning and it was sunny and tshirt weather. We had the screen door open, windows down, sandals on. Then we made a huge mistake and continued north towards the snow... Definitely couldn't see this coming. Here's a picture from the car to give you an idea;


Not really June weather eh? It's apparently pretty warm up in Alaska so we're excited about that. Hope everyone in Ontario is taking advantage of the sweet heat and sun! We'll trade you?

Lizzy

June 2nd

Happy Birthday Mike!
What are we doing today to celebrate? Driving way too long and way out in the middle of nowhere...! hopefully there'll be some nice stops along the way. We'll make sure it's special!

We're headed towards Prince George which we both thought was pretty close by, turns out it's a 500 km drive from the small town we were in last night.. Distances in these huge provinces are deceiving.

Yesterday we crossed the border with ease. We took off the deer skull on the grill guard which helped our cause! Skipped past Vancouver and any other place that resembled a city and ran to the hills.. Literally. On our way north there wasn't much to see, some scattered small towns and lots of trees. Pretty boring drive,.. But then we saw something hilarious. There was a massive truck tipped over in the ditch coming around a sharp turn. At first we were both concerned (as any normal person would be!) and we noticed a guy standing beside the truck with a giant box. I immediately assumed it was the truck driver holding a pile of debris, trying to clear up the road. As we drove by the guy, he looked us straight in the eye and flashed us a huge grin. Mike and I both took a second, then realized that this guy had pulled over and was raiding the truck of all it's spilled out produce.. Hilarious! His face was priceless, like he just hit that jackpot. I think that guy has a lifetime supply of bananas now. Haha what a guy.

It's good to be back in Canada!

Lizzy

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back in Canada!

Crossed the border at Abbotsford BC today.  Nice to be back in Canada where everything is overpriced and suspiciously friendly.  Stocked up bigtime at Walmart and Safeway and hit the road, through Cilliwack and up the trans-Can #1.  We're near Cache Creek at a campground and will pass through Prince George tomorrow, probably.  Need another oil change as we passed 10,000km on the tripmeter today.  Will try to find a spare trailer tire as well before we hit the Cassiar and Alaska highways, as service is spread out and limited at best.

Looking forward to going north!  It's 22 degrees here too, and not raining.  Maybe it's summer time?

Winter!

Decided to spend another night in Oregon and headed up Mt Hood to Timberline Lodge. It's a historic hotel at a year round ski resort. The lifts were just closing as Lizzy and I walked into the lodge today in our warm city clothes. Felt a little odd for us as it's almost June!? There's easily 10 feet of snow here, snowy trees and all (I think we're around 5000'). Had a hot tub outside with the bride and groom and some other AK friends. BBQ in the friends rented camper tonight with AK fare - moose, bear, and prawns. Looking forward to it.

Planning to head to North Cascades NP tomorrow in WA and driving hwy 20 as it just opened for the long weekend. Then the long drive to AK begins. Hoping to be in Canada for my bday on the 2nd if only to be in my own country.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Timberline Hwy,,United States

The problem with having a blog is keeping up the blog! We've been slacking on writing on here for awhile so I'll summarize what we've been doing. It's hard to remember details, seems like we've been doing a lot!

We met my cousin Pat in Augusta and had a great time. Pat if you're reading this, thanks again. It was really great to experience life on a ranch and learn about all my family out in Montana. I think Mike was pretty inspired, wouldn't be surprised if he started ranching!

The night after we left Augusta we found a weird and cool little hot spring near Mammoth ski hill called Elkhorn. They had just opened for the season the day we got there, great timing for us! We hung out and camped in the parking lot, hit the hot springs and had a really great time! It was a bit run down, definitely no Fairmont but felt pretty luxurious to us. Little things definitely go a long way when you're living on the road!

We both thought Idaho was amazing and very underrated. It had a lot of great drives through the mountains, tonnes of places to park and ski backcountry, just a lot of recreation areas (not that we did any of them! haha I guess we were there at the wrong time of year). We checked out Craters of the Moon National Monument. We thought the name sounded cool, which was the driving force behind us going there. It definitely wasn't what we were expecting - I don't know, when I heard the name "Craters of the Moon" I was expecting to see a bunch of craters or holes in the ground?! Instead it was a massive lava field... very moon-y? Haha who knows! It was an interesting spot to say the least. We toured around and spent the night camping in a giant wasteland of lava - pretty neat.

We're now in Oregon and we made it out to the coast! Oregon is one of my favourite places, the trees are huge here and everything is really lush! We camped out near the beach for 2 nights and had a blast. We're now in Hood River for the weekend and heading to a wedding tomorrow night. This town is super cute and there are a tonne of brewpubs and wine bars that we're excited to check out! Our hotel faces the Columbia River and we've got an amazing few of the river and Washington state.

Anyhow it's nice to be stationed here for the next few days and have nice showers, do laundry and eat in a restaurant... pretty much be humans again! We'll make sure to take tonnes of pictures while we're here.

Love and miss you all!

Lizzy

Photo time

Lots of travel since our last post and our last internet connection.  We're in Hood River for a wedding through the weekend.  Lizzy will update, I'm sure.  Here's some pics from the last little while.

Mammoth Hot Springs, the north entrance of Yellowstone

Idaho - desert and mountains

Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho - looks just like Hawaii, massive basaltic lava fields

Bonanza City, Idaho

Old gold dredge, Idaho

Yankee Fork Rd., Idaho

Custer Ghost Town, Idaho

Sawtooth Mtns., Idaho

Oregon Coast!

As you can see from Mike's awesome photos, we made it to yellowstone! Pretty interesting way to get there, we drove way out of the way, through Jackson just to get in. Well worth it! It was cool to see Jackson and the park was fabulous. I'm not going to lie, I'm having a really hard time trying to describe yellowstone. It was seriously amazing and everyone should go there if they get the chance. The pictures say the most, so I'll leave it at that!

We're in Montana now, about to meet my cousins in Augusta. My cousin Pat told us to check out a little town called Virginia City. We went down there two days ago and it was like walking on to a set of a western film. All the original old wooden buildings are in tact and the entire town is a heritage site. It was really cool, kind of a ghost town. I guess there was a big gold rush back in the early 1800's. You can see all the mining debris along the river which is pretty interesting.

Anyhow Montana is beautiful and I think my new boots will fit in nicely! Over and out.
LD

More Photos

I'm going to throw some photos up and let Lizzy do the talking.  In short, we finally got into Yellowstone and it was great - though still winter.  Saw Old Faithful erupt 3 times, saw lots of animals including a grizzly bear.  Had good campsites, good meals, good beer, etc....  I took 300 photos in 2 days and I was holding back.  Now we're exploring Montana.

Photo time:

Lizzy and I at Jackson Hole

Teton National Park

Yellowstone

Old Faithful!

Upper Falls

Jackson, WY

Heading to Yellowstone the long way, in Jackson WY.  Been here before, love it.  Good bars, great scenery.  Must eat pizza.  Anyway, here's a few pics from the last little bit.

Devil's Tower, WY

Crossing the Big Horn Mtns, up to 9000'!

Face lift from Cody, WY.  Needed protection from pesky animals on highway.  Ramming speed!

U.S. Hwy 212 - beautiful, but all for naught.  Had to turn around due to snow.

Turning around due to snow, 1 mile passed the 'CLOSED ROAD' sign.  Lizzy didn't like taking the trailer off on a sloped icy road so we could turn around.

This guy hung out at our campsite outside Cody, WY.  Blocking me from the toilet.

View from campsite, it was free.  2 nights here.

Lots of snow on the Tetons!  This pass took us up to 9700'  - the big V8 was hating the trailer.  It was -1C and 8+ feet of snow.

The Grand Tetons!  From Elk Flats near Jackson, WY.

The Yellowstone Mission

The past couple of days have been pretty crazy! After leaving the KOA in Cody on Thursday we were all excited to get on a beautiful road that took us out to the mountains, towards Yellowstone. At the first scenic stop we made, we got out of the car to take some pictures, so excited about what was ahead of us. Suddenly a little old man pulls up beside us in a golf cart and tells us to hop on and come to the visitor centre, oh and Yellowstone's closed so you better not be driving there. Mike "you're kidding right", little old man "who are you kidding son". This went back and forth for a bit, and the conversation left us wondering who this little old man was, and what on earth he was talking about. We kept our mission on course and drove to the Yellowstone gate to see what was what. "Park closed due to 20 foot deep avalanche". Damn, the old man was right. We turned around and headed back towards Cody. We found the coolest little campground right along a river that was free to stay at. We hiked around, saw bear tracks, got suntanned and chilled out for the rest of the day - ended up being a fantastic night! The next morning we decided to get up and drive to the north east gate and get in the park that way. The drive was unreal, got up to about 9000 feet, meandering through mountains. Driving down one mountain we were stopped by a construction dude. Hey folks, how y'all doin,.. Hope you're not driving to the park, the north east gate is closed.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?
Mike: "we're driving there anyhow, I don't believe this guy like I didn't believe the little old man".... Fast forward 2 hours and find a Road Closed sign. We knew this was coming but were hopeful that it wouldn't. Next thing we know, we drive passed the road closed sign and looked for places to turn the big rig around with no luck. Middle of the highway, unhooked the trailer and turned our boat around.

Lessons learned:
1. Trust people who know what they're talking about (never undermine a little old man on a golf cart)
2. Make sure you have lots of snacks when you're aimlessly driving through the mountains. Some people get angry without food...!

Altogether it was an interesting day with beautiful roads, plenty of animals and lots of time looking at a map. We ended up going back to our campsite from the previous night after restocking our beer supply.

Good-night!

LD

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Almost Yellowstone

Visited and stayed at Devil's Tower in Wyoming yesterday.  Another sight ticked off my list, it was pretty impressive to see and nice place to camp at for $12. 

Basically hit the road early from there and headed west on I90 going over the Big Horn Mountains on a smaller state highway.  I had no idea you could drive that high.  We hit 9700' from the town below which was at 4300'.  It went from summer down low to full on 10 feet of snow winter 0 degrees up top.  I have photos but the internet here is too slow, so it'll have to be another time.  Needless to say, it was a 10/10 for scenery and turns.  Would be an amazing (cold) motorcycle ride for another time. Right now we have a view of the Tetons, they are some of my favourite mountains.  So things are good.

Heading into Yellowstone today, hopefully for a few days so things might get a little quiet around here as I doubt we'll pick up much wifi.

Mr. Richmore + the sharp needles

mike just gave a pretty thorough account of todays events so i'll keep this short. the motorcycle ride through the needles felt like a deathtrap. it was beautiful and terrifying and super fun all at once. it was like the first time you ride dropzone, you kinda think you might die but it's so exciting and fun and you wanna do it again right after! haha what a day. i definitely won't forget that ride, ever.

i managed to take a few pictures while we were blasting around turns. mike didn't stop so the photos are a bit on the motion-y side: