We have exciting news to share! A few years ago we had an idea and started planning an epic journey. The time to take this journey is approaching. We’re taking our Jeep and our tent on a little trip… for 4 months, across the continent. We’ll start in Florida, drive across the U.S., through Canada, and into Alaska. Our Jeep was purchased and modified for the purpose of this trip and many similar trips to follow. We will be tent camping the whole way, staying at a hotel maybe once a week or so, in order to do laundry, stock up on supplies, make phone calls, etc. Other than that we will be off the grid and loving every minute of it! Planned stops include several National Parks – Canyonlands, Grand Canyon National Park, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Banff and Jasper in Canada, and Denali to name a few. We will also drive the Dalton Highway up to Deadhorse in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, which will put us well inside the Arctic Circle. The Dalton Highway was featured on seasons 3 through 6 of the television series Ice Road Truckers. It is 414 miles of mostly gravel road, having gas stations only at mile posts 56 (Yukon Crossing), 175 (Coldfoot), and 414 (Deadhorse). That’s a 239 mile stretch with no gas available, so we’ll be bringing an extra supply just to be safe. You can never have too much gas… well, actually... oh, never mind!
We will come back through Alaska and get on the ferry in Haines, Alaska, travel the Alaska Marine Highway, and get off in Bellingham, Washington. We’ll visit Mount Rainier National Park, and from there head east to Yellowstone. We’re visiting Yellowstone on the second half of the trip, as we should have warmer weather than if we visited in June. After that we’ll meander south, eventually ending up in Colorado so that we can travel some of the Jeep trails. These areas will also have better weather at this time. Many of the off-road trails are still closed due to snow in May. There will likely be a couple more stops after that, and then we will reluctantly make our way back to Florida.
This promises to be one hell of a trip – the trip of a lifetime! There are bound to be awesome, beautiful and fascinating things at every turn. I can’t overstate our great excitement and enthusiasm for this adventure, which only intensifies as we get closer to our departure date.
Now for some answers to our most frequently asked questions:
How long will you be gone?
3-4 months, late May through sometime in September.
What about your pets?
They’re staying home! We have someone coming to take care of them, and checking on or staying at the house.
How much time will you spend in Alaska?
About a month.
What about communication? Is there cell phone coverage where you’ll be?
There will be coverage in many places, and not in some others, like Canada. Not that we plan on using them very often… we’re going to be on a wild adventure. Nobody needs a phone for that! So, my gentle snowflakes, don’t take it personally if we don’t call. We’ll be having too much fun in the great outdoors!
Yeah, but what if you get in trouble or have an emergency where there’s no cell service?
That possibility is part of what makes this an adventure! The risks and unknowns are part of the thrill, and also what keep us sharp and on our toes. We’d like to think that we’ve acquired our gear and knowledge and planned effectively so as to avoid such situations. However, we are realistic and don’t throw caution to the wind. Good planning does require having backup plans and solutions to unlikely but possible events. I’ll talk about our safety gear in a later post, but one device we have is the DeLorme inReach. It’s a GPS tracking device from which we can send out SOS communication if we need help. It will notify the nearest rescue team to come to our aid, and can also send texts and emails to friends or family who may be able to help us get assistance. It will also show our latitude/longitude location as we move, so a rescue team can pinpoint where to find us. Since it communicates through satellites, we’ll be visible anywhere we go. We hope to not need it, though. Help can be hours away even by helicopter in some remote areas.
How long have you guys been planning for this?
We’ve been planning, saving money, and acquiring our gear gradually for about 5 years.
So that’s our plan for this summer. I will be updating this blog regularly during the trip when we have internet access during our hotel stays. I will also be posting lots of pictures in our photo albums, as well as videos on our YouTube channel, so be sure to check those out too! You can subscribe to this blog and our YouTube channel if you’d like to get updates when they become available. If you need help subscribing, shoot me an email and I’ll be glad to help you!
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