7,595.7 kilometers is time to turn around. It was -4°C overnight and we’re beyond the capabilities of our gear. We crossed a third Continental Divide and could see the water shedding North through the Tundra. The Trip Odometer happened to be another palindrome. Auspicious.
The North West Territories is close to non-residents due to COVID-19. It was somewhat of a relief to not be able to travel all the way up the Dempster Highway. We stopped in the Tombstone Mountains. Ragged Mountains is the more apt name. It can be fun to get muddy. It was not fun to have a hard frost.
Rain was regular. The obtuse sun glowers under the low clouds. As if the “dramatic” filter was left on.
We paddled three connected Yukon Rivers: the Nisutlin River, the Teslin River, and the Yukon River. We put in about 70km up the Canol Road and took out in Carmacks. This photo was a nice lunch spot on the Teslin River.
Junction 37 is our port-of-entry to the Yukon. Public Health staff met us at a pull off and filed our papers. With vaccines confirmed we obtained green stickers for our vehicle showing we were safe to enter the Territory.
The Stikine Plateau is a go-to place in Jagger’s mind’s eye. He might move there.
We reached 6,000 kilometers of driving on our trip odometer somewhere on the Cassiar Highway.
The Portland Canal brings the Pacific Ocean close enough to the interior of British Columbia that we could spend a night by the sea shore and paddle a little with seals.
The smoke from BC forest fires was setting in from the top of Whistlers Mountain in Jasper and stayed longer than we did. Approaching Prince George it was so thick that diving visibility was reduced to two telephone poles. It cleared the next day in Prince George.
A horseback ride along a mountain trail showed the smoke in the Jasper Valley.
The canoe touches first water since Lake Superior at Pyramid Lake in Jasper Alberta. Named for the mountian. Technically it got a 160 degree fahrenheit wash at the Saskatchewan border to keep out any risk of Zebra mussels from Western Canada.
Arriving in the Rocky Mountians is an exciting change. The girls took dozens of photos as we drove into Jasper.
Blueberry pancakes to start a short day from Elk Island Provincial Park to Jasper. We've been crossing a province a day for the two past days.
Goodbye Toronto. Wish us luck.
An auspicious start! The trip odomter reads the same forward and backwards as we begin: 289,898.2 kilometers.
Weeks of lists, shopping, and dehydrating our own fruit roll-ups has resulted in a well-prepared family.
The wall calendar shows the transition is under way: last day of school (e-school), last day of work, Canada Day, some goodbyes to grandparents, and first night of camping.
An old truck and a new canoe. We'll float accross some thousands of kilometers on the highways and gravel roads to Tuktoyaktuk with some hundreds of kilometers of river travel in between.
After three waves of contagion and lockdown, months of e-school, and a father redeployed to vaccine roll-out, her family is done. The world tour is re-imagined as a cross-Canada trip to canoe some big rivers. From narrow and digital to broad and physical. In September, we'll see what is possible.
The very day after her 10th birthday, her family was to depart on a world tour. Across the Atlantic ocean on the Queen Mary 2 for a week. Then on the Euro star from the United kingdom to Paris for a week with their grand parents after that a couple of weeks on the french sea side next to Czech republic, Russia, (maybe China), Japan and home to Ontario.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Cancelled this plan. Instead, she stayed home for a year.