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Vancover Island

Well as all good things must come to an end, I am currently heading home due to shortage of funds. Im dissapointed that i did not make California, but it will have to wait till another time. After Alaska, we stopped in Kluane Nat. Park and did some white water rafting, which ended up being a really good time. We stayed at the lodge wear the guide's stay after for quite a few drinks and had a pretty cool encounter with a grizzly bear, that was getting a little close to camp for comfort, but when the beast stood up on it's hind legs and seen what he was messing with (me) he scampered off. From there we wasted no time heading south to Vancover Island. Here we spent a few nights in Tufino kickin it on the beach, we also went somewhere along the west coast trail and spent a few nights camped on the beech. This has been a good end to the trip for instaed of hiking all day into the bush, we simpily drank on the beech. Last weekend we met up with Vern's old friend, and had a pretty good time. We went on a big zip line adventure, that took us all through the forest. This was exceptionaly cool, because we decided to do it at night. Pretty intence. We also went sailing for an afternoon on the sail boat that pretty much just got abandoned at the harbour. So it's wesnday now, and we're just outside of regina. I expect to be home this weekend. It's been a really fun trip, the bus has truly been magic, for it's come over 25000km and given me no trouble....well very little trouble, and the weather has been great the entire trip. Thanks everyone for reading my blog, glad people have enjoyed it. Tune in next year when I hitch-hike to South America.

The Stampede Trail

This was a very impotant part of Alaska to see for me. I have gotten a lot of inspiration from Chris McCandleles's story, and wanted to see the bus, and spot where he lived, and died. This was a tough hike. It was 30km there and 30km back. It wasen't a technical hike other then a couple places the beavers have flooded, and the famous Teklanika river crossing, which can be very tricky if you don't know where to cross. I'll save that story for another time. It took us just under 9 hours to make it back to the bus, which i thought was pretty good time. The way there I got wet boots, and hiked for the last 6 hours in them, and i don't think I'll ever do that again. The way back the next day I took great care to keep dry feet. Once at the bus soon to follow us were 4 boys from alaska who managed to bike back. Brandon, Nick, Aaron, and Carter. We came into the camp strangers, but quickly warmed up to each other and left friends. We all put our food together and had a feast. I can't say enough good things about these guys. They were some of the nicest, and fun people we've met on the road. This was the most I've hiked in 2 days, and it kicked the shit out of me, but it was also one of the most rewarding hikes, because of the history the site has. It's not quite the way hollywood depicted it, but thats to be expected. The locals have very mixed views of the site. Alot of them think that Chris was ill prepared and didn't know what he was doing, and are sick of all his followers going back to the bus. They've had to rescue a lot of people from it, and are now talking about towing it out of there. It will be a sad day if they do that. I think there are better soulotions such as running a cable across the river to help people cross, but who knows what the future will hold for the bus. I am just happy to have gotten to see it.

Denali National Park

This is an amazing park. Very touristy, and taking after my dad I get very angry around a lot of tourists, but the park has a very good back counrty set up. There is a long road that only the park buses can drive on, and 85% of the people see the park through a bus window. Cool, but not my style. To back country camp you meet with a ranger, and they make shur you're not a complete idiot that might try and feed wild life, or store food in your tent. Then they show you a topographical map, that is sectioned off into huge quadrents. You tell them roughly where you want to go, and as long as no one else is in that section of the park you're good to go. You jump on a camper bus it takes you into the mountains, anywhere between 3 and 6 hours. Once you're dropped off you are on your own. To get out you just hike back to the road and thumb a bus down. I picked a spot where we hiked 15km along a river to a glacier which fed it. We then took a day and expoled the glacier. It is very cool, but an erie, and unsettling place. Luckily I laugh in the face of danger. This was an amazing place, and I must come back to explore more of it.