We are leaving in the morning, driving north, in the direction of longer days, just east of the coastal mountains through the interior of
Our shopping
list included mosquito nets and bear spray.
We will be traveling through Hells Canyon
and Kitwango. We have to be sure to fuel
up before long stretches with no gas stations.
We won’t have cell service for much of the drive. It takes two AAA maps
to trace our route.
We will brush with glaciers, look for bears, and explore this new direction. We
are traveling in our 1993 Toyota Dolphin camper. Maximum speed: 55 mph. Gas mileage: 14 mpg average.
I am looking
forward to waking up each morning in our nesty camper, sliding open the
curtains and looking out on 10 Mile lake or a meadow in the shadow of a
mountain. I look forward to having nothing more pressing to do than make
breakfast, go for a walk, and drive to our next campground. I look forward to being a minority among the
mammals around us and a spectator to nature’s symphony.
We’ll make it to southeast Alaska ,
and then float our way home, slowly, on the Alaska Inside Passage , immersion in a
vast place where my presence is insignificant.
I can generalize that this is what I am looking forward to that
motivates all the effort required to get us on the road. I want to wake up in peaceful places, hearing
birds, wind, and not much more. No background
of traffic on I-5, no piercing distant train whistles, no sirens, no neighbors
starting up their engines. I want to
walk along nature rich paths with close up encounters with northern trees and
vegetation, clear lakes, awesome geological formations and vistas of mountain
peaks. I want to be outnumbered by
animals and birds, I want to be an inconsequential presence in ecosystems that
are not overrun with humans.
