Preparations

5/22/17 As many have advised me, a trip of this length and distance requires a lot of planning and forethought  in many different aspects. In each of these separate lists are essential. There is the truck, the emergency equipment, the camper and its systems,  the camping gear, the consumables, and the route planning.  Not new to the camper and its demands on the truck,  there was a base of knowledge to work with.

The truck is a 2016 Chevy Colorado 2.8 Duramax turbo charged diesel. This truck has been an improvement over the replaced Tacoma in that it has enormous engine torque (369 foot pounds) that equates to power. The fuel economy is 30% better and there is more space for gear with the added bench in place of the rear seats. The 'platform' (the truck bed) had to have support. Added to the original or replaced were: ride height adjusted shocks (Bilstein 5100), robust metal skid plates to protect the engine and transfer case, air lift suspension bags to level the load side to side, an 'add-a-leaf' added to the spring pack for the increased load, and a sway bar (Hellwig) to help cornering with the added weight. Lastly and most important E rated (10 ply) truck tires and spare to handle the added weight as well protect against sidewall blowouts.

The 2011 Eagle FourWheel pop up camper was bought new. Since, there have been a number of modifications. Yakima tracks on the roof for canoes and support for the 160 watt solar panel (a additional 90 watt portable panel is stored in the added box under the cab-over), initially a portable Engel fridge was replaced with a permanent Isotherm 65 refrigerator. An aluminum 'V' wind foil to help with milage, Brophy scissor steps, added cabinets, Blue Sea Charging relay connected to the three batteries, four 30 pound lift assists to help raising the roof, and many small amenities to make the camper our own.

Off road, "dispersed camping", requires a self-sufficiency in a number of ways but most importantly is having what is needed to extract oneself from getting stuck on the 'road less traveled'. Having two 'sand mats, essentially heavy duty four foot long traction plates to put under tires when your wheels have dug you into a hole, a three ton platform jack/jack stand to raise the truck, a heavy-duty compressor to refill 'aired down' or flat tire, a quality puncture repair kit, tow strap and chain, a good assortment of tools for mechanical and electrical problems, CB radio, emergency medical kit, spares of numerous vital truck and camper parts, 3 two gallon roto-pax diesel cans (mounted on the roof),  and a number of sensible doodads that make all repairs less difficult. This all may seem too much to deal with but once learned and done it does not detract from the experience but actually heightens the feeling of self reliance, confidence knowing you can go where it is quiet and peaceful, away from it all and not have to worry about safety. Knowing how most everything you depend on works is empowering.  It is worth it.

Lists. Where would I be without them? Over the last year I have made many and one that has been evolving for years is the camping equipment list. Actually there are a number of them each distinct. The backpack camping trip list, the canoe camping list, the motorcycle camping list and the camper equipment list; sometimes there is a combination as well. This particular trip is somewhat unique as there are a few legs of it that differ but in general it is a long trip with parts that will have us very far into the boonies. On one leg we will have the need to have diesel fuel dropped ahead for us as the truck, even with a 21 gallon tank, six gallons on the roof and approximately 20-22 mpg, we will be going into areas that are past our total range. Folks who live on a boat know how it is to refine the list by need and space to store it logically.

Food. So much of life surrounds it. When traveling it is in itself an activity. It is not a grab a meal. Thought to what would make you happy and healthy but not be a burden. Having a glass jar to throw away after a meal is both  not being "weight conscious" but also unsafe to have trash with smell to attract opportunistic feeders. A dry bear box storing sealed food as well as a solar powered refrigerator to keep beer cans cold (essential) make the trip a vacation not a forced march. Pre-planning a couple weeks of meals for two and packing it prudently takes time to hone the 'what works' list.

Our plan has been to get to Alaska and it is so far away. It has taken a couple years to think about it and a whole year to plan. The logistics had a couple obvious givens. The truck camper has got to get there and we have time restrictions on each of us, e.g. Luann must teach right up to the day before the only ferry sets sail from Bellingham, Washington. The plan came down to me driving the truck camper, departing a week ahead, so that I could have the truck serviced in Washington before Luann arrived. Luann flies to Seattle, Washington the day before the ferry and we stay the night with her friends she taught with in Brazil who now live outside Seattle. The next morning we board, with our truck camper, the ferry from Bellingham, sailing for 5 days to Whittier, Alaska. From there our first stop will be visiting my nephew Mike in Seward and Homer. Thereafter ..... touring the backroads of Alaska eventually crossing on into The Yukon on the Top of the World 'highway'. Winding our way south then east on the dirt 'Campbell Highway', 368 miles of gravel to Watson Lake. From this road we will be taking retracing side trips hundreds of miles on side roads: Chicken, Eagle, Nahanni road up to the Northwest Territories. From there on the Cassiar Highway south to British Columbia and Alberta eventually into the States of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. At that point depending on time we either both travel east to Buckland, Massachusetts or I do and Luann flies so as to have time to prepare for school. That's in the nutshell.

The time for departure is coming. This is the first blog attempt for us so a learning as well. In it we hope to post photos and maps as well as a diary of our travels. This way when we are in a place to be able to communicate we will post. I guess it will be as a trip wherein we will be testing the depth of the water with both feet. As ole Abe said: "In the end, it's not the years in your life, but the life in your years."

6/2/17 The first leg of the trip starts on the sixteenth of June. A solo drive cross country to Washington state. This will hopefully go smoothly but knowing the first couple days will be the rough part. Day one is a rural start from Buckland, Massachusetts... not near a major road so getting to the main route I-90 will take about an hour and forty-five minutes.  If the scales are open in New York I will stop and have the loaded truck/camper weighed which includes the front and rear axle loads, very important information to have.  The rear seats of the crew cabin were removed and a platform put in reducing weigh and allowing all of the gear and food etc to go more towards the front helping to distribute the load off the rear axle. No matter how you look at it getting 'out' of the northeast is a pain. Not so much in the first part but as one gets to western New York State it builds up. The goal is to get to Cleveland, Ohio or maybe Toledo (doubtful). Google maps is great in many ways but they ought to have a "reality" button. They say 10 hours....ya right. I am planning on 12 to get to Cleveland.  I know nuts... but hey it's like just get me past Chicago asap. The first night is a "Service Plaza" on I-90 that allows and has space for RV sleeping. That with bathrooms and food is all I need...that and ear plugs and eye-mask to get sleep. Up and out the next day for the kicker...It is a Saturday but still the road work and who knows what ball game will determine how it goes. I hope to get to Madison, Wis. for night two. There is another pull off for trucks right before the Wisconsin River.

From here on it is real traveling... wide open spaces across into South Dakota to the Grasslands. I intend to wander off in such and get a quiet night in open country.  Fourth night, Montana near Custer State Park rustic sights. On to Idaho or eastern Washington for the fifth night maybe near Frenchman's Coulee. If all goes well, the next day on to Bellevue WA for an oil change. BTW the pink marker is the route east to west, the blue is part of the return trip two months from now.

Packing. 6/11/17

Not something to try to do on the day before you leave. We put out 9 plastic cargo boxes, weeks ahead, on a table in the garage with a list on each: tools, spare parts truck and camper, fly fishing gear, camping gear, books and maps, footwear and the big food locker. We each had a duffle bag for clothes. Stuff sacks for rain gear, cold weather clothes. Stuff sacks for towels, bed linen and blanket (kept in camper). With the rear seats out and a carpeted plywood platform the plastic boxes stacked well. All light stuff on the drivers side stacked in the order of necessity.

In the rear seat foot space was the medical kit, three ton jack/stand. air compressor, tire repair kit, screen tent and poles. The camper sits up on a 3” platform in the truck bed. This increases the ‘empty’ space around the wheel wells accessed from both the outside (fly rod tubes, rear tarp awning, as well as through the inside turnbuckle doors: charcoal in big ziplock bags, ax, water tank white hose, and collapsable stainless hibachi grill and a tow chain. All out of the way but accessible. The two sand mats for extracting yourself from a hole are belted and locked to the back camper exterior wall. 

I had a conference in Connecticut so with camper mostly loaded I did a ‘trial run’ to get an idea of gas mileage and load feel. I discovered I needed a boost on the airbags on the driver’s side to compensate for the fact that the camper is made heavier on the that side, my diesel 21 gallon tank and DEF 5 gallon tank, is on that side as is the driver. The mileage surprised me. Going  seventy miles to the conference I got 27 MPG… nuts I know… on the way back which is up hill quite a bit I got 22 MPG. I am assuming without a severe head wind I hope to get 24 MPG on the way west with the cruise control.  We will find out.    

I am finding, that even though “I am waiting as fast as I can”, I feel like a horse at the gate. 

6/18/17 As I sit typing this I will have to reprocess the last three days and sort it out. I had hoped to write each night,  the same way I thought I’d watch a movie on the iPad. Well sleep hit real fast as soon as I had set the camper up and had a bite to eat and a beer. Bam…  I have crossed the States and Canada before, when I was younger: Once on a hippie bus the Grey Rabbit, Once by hitch hiking and taking the Canadian National train, once on my old R50 BMW and  once on the R100 BMW with Luann on the back. All of these some time ago. 

I can still do the long hauls but I pay for it more now. Having left Friday just before 6 AM, the drive to the highway took an hour and 45 minutes. That got me into the Albany morning commute… child’s play compared with what lay ahead but at the time for a hill town man it was a shock. Rochester, Buffalo built up the realization of traveling into the old industrial northern cities whose roadways are worse for your life expectancy than demolition derby. What has happened to our beautiful roadway system?

On to Cleveland, Ohio but first Pennsylvania …even just a hundred miles is too much in Pennsylvania. Their roads are a disaster. Whoever was in charge of them should be made to drive them all day every day as punishment. Cleveland is another of the northern cities who has, what could be reinvented a cool city. As it is now it seems that is in the future as so much of its past still stands gone to seed. The first day was meant as an exit not a leisurely departure. I bolted the northeast with visions of wide open spaces ahead and it would be there I could slow the pace. The first day of 660 miles in 12 hours ended at a very clean roadside service plaza on I-90 called Indian Meadow. They have 12 RV parking slots in the back of the parking lot that have electric hook ups as well as a place for ‘blackwater’ dumping…for this they ask $20. As I needed none of that it was free. Ear plugs and airline eye patches were needed to blunt the highway noise and flood lights. I was so tired I slept pretty well. Alarm set for 5 am, coffee and such done I was on the road at 6 AM again.The plan was to make it through Chicago to Madison Wisconsin. 

Well all I can say is I will never do that again. I have not seen anything more than the trailer for “Fast and Furious” but I bet they were all filmed on this route. What has happened in the last 20 years? People, mostly young males drive at insane speeds with no regard for lanes nor any semblance of human empathy. They are in a video game. My new truck steering wheel is now 20 years older. Traffic continued to be fast and bumper to bumper all the way to Madison though the number of lanes went down from 5 to 2. The place I had thought would be acceptable to do as I had done the night before was packed solid ( a truck plaza on I-90 right before the Wisconsin River). So I kept going as I had gained an hour in Indiana being Central Time. I had researched a few free spots and had packed them away not thinking I had needed them. One of which Luann reminded me of and actually texted me the exit number. So on through Wisconsin (stopping at a rest area in Sand County…. yes the home of Aldo Leopold … a hero of mine) and arrived at the end of a 10 hour drive at the Town of Blue Earth, Minnesota. They have a beautiful …”ya-ah” …little town ….(spoiler alert) of none other then the home of The Jolly Green Giant! That is right! In the center is a 60 foot green giant and right next door is the town’s fair grounds with 10, no longer free, super spots for a small camper or tents (which are free). They have a shower, bathrooms and electricity if you want. The kind of place that is squeaky clean and left wide open with no vandalism or concerns. A real lucky spot for me. 

I had done 607 miles that second day, crossing over the Mississippi River. As soon as I did life changed. Driving became civilized and though still fast all were spread out and greatly diminished in number. Again getting up early and finishing a breakfast by 6:20 I was on the hi way at 6:30 this morning, day three. As I had gone further than expected I had either a day that I could travel farther again, a day to drive slowly (hard going into South Dakota) or a day I could drive the same number of hours but get off the interstate I-90 and drive out into the prairie on ‘blue highways’. This I did and I have to say… There is a LOT OF GRASS LANDS in South Dakota. It s astounding people (settlers) crossed this expanse in carts and wagons… Even at speeds of 70 MPH it goes on and on and what you see is a small fraction of what lies hundreds of miles off at 90 degrees from the road. Everyone drives a Chevy (GM) or a Ford. Big trucks doing a lot of miles. Literally I have not seen a Toyota once today. So I wandered up route 37 north to 34 west and on to 14 west. It goes through the Crow Reservation along the Missouri River and thereafter to Fort Pierre and eventually to Wall, South Dakota, home of THE Wall Drug store. The little town is nuts….everything a theme park tourist attraction. However…. it sits on the boundary of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands where they abut the Badlands. As I type this the camper is being buffeted by fair-weather gusts as the camper sits on a bluff at the edge of the grasslands looking out on the badlands. A dispersed site in that we are allowed to go off on the dirt roads and camp within 300 feet of the road. There are a few others doing the same but they are at least a thousand feet or more away. It is quiet and it overlooks some great geology. All told I had a long day but less mileage today but the luck has held out. Rain last night but dry now. 1,767 miles  in 3 days. I hope to do a short 6 hour day tomorrow and get into Montana a bit off the beaten track too. 

6/18/17 A map of the fourth days expected drive from the Bad Lands to Custer State Park in Montana where a shower would be good idea.

6/19/17 So as the old Yiddish saying goes... Man plans, God laughs. 

Waking up in the middle of the night looking out the screen window there was a planet (in the east so Saturn?) and the sickle moon over the Badlands ...hard to get back to sleep. Waking at 5:30 (still 7:30 in my head) I wanted coffee... oh the shame... instead of sitting with a nice bowl of cereal watching the day begin slowly... duh... I broke camp and head to Wall. A sad tourist town. No coffee. Really. So I set sail on the tarmac hoping to find the elusive good cup of coffee ... not gas station brew.  Gawd.... I actually think I'd drink a Coke before that. After a 50 minuter drive on I-90 I found a cup. Should have sat with my cereal bowl...there is a lesson in there I am sure. The plan was to head to Custer National Forest and boon dock camp in the woods... as I got there I could see the forest has suffered from the blight and it is heart breaking, so many dead trees. I continued on with hope of stumbling on something and wanted to see the Little Big Horn but that too was a miss at $30. 

A command decision was made (easy flying solo) to keep going. Getting off 212 onto the I-90 again was a shock but it did allow me to make up time. There has been a persistent 30 mph wind from west and I watched my MPG plummet. I have to admit right here I overloaded the truck. Way too much stuff. I have really built up the suspension and it is handling it with aplomb. But the load up hill in a stiff wind (power is there and I can fly as fast as I want with the turbo diesel with 369 pounds of torque) but the mpg goes way down.  And so it goes.

I decided to go to the 9 hour mark and then look for camp. There was a town that looked good in name: Big Timber... so I pulled off and luckily found a small info booth just closing. A nice lady said she knew a quiet place on a fast stream with trout... nuff said.  And here I sit alongside a roaring stream with a cold beer after a wonderful shower. I am indeed a lucky man. So the map below shows the days route and all told not a big mileage day 475 but I am in a good position to make Idaho tomorrow up somewhere near Lolo pass... I hear there are boon docking spots up into the forest roads. Again ...we will seer what tomorrow brings. For now I could stare at this stream a long time.