By car. It had to be. It’s been my preferred method of exploration my whole life. Pack the tent? Of course. Hiking boots? Yup. Book the backcountry permits? Totally, but lets have the freedom to get anywhere. Thats what a road trip for 6 weeks allows.
The whole thing had started in April of 2015, with an old friend of mine, who I’d not seen in years, asking out of the blue “you wanna to go to Alaska with me this summer?” Now I’m a practical person but my gut took over and I replied “yep!” without any hesitation at all.
We spent a total of three months planning the expedition. Itinerary, gear, food and safety. We wanted a good plan, but not too strict that it left no flexibility. I spent a lot of money in REI, and got a few nice new gadgets to take too.
On July 2nd we headed west from Chicago. The mission, to drive to Alaska, spend 5 weeks exploring and then drive back. It would turn out to be a 10,000 mile road trip and would blow our expectations out of the water. But here on July 2nd, it was all about getting there.
After 2 days of driving, we dropped into one of my favorite places, Yellowstone, and had a look around before moving onto Washington State and crossing the Canadian border at a place called Gladstone. The provincial park is set around an unusually warm lake, and after a week on the road, it was nice to set up camp for a couple of days and unwind by some water. I also got to play with my new toy, the Stingray Tensile tent you see above, more on that later.
So this is where I leave you today. From this point forward I got to see some pretty fantastic places. Unusual, desolate, and disconnected from civilization. I’ll be taking you on the journey in the next ten weeks or so, and sharing some insights into the photography work I managed to accomplish on the way. Watch this space!
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