Canada (and crossing the border from USA)

Several years ago, Brian Schott and I were planning a motorcycle ride from Arizona up to Jasper and beyond. Of course that was nixed due to the pandemic. I am excited to see that Canada is back open to outsiders. I would love to spend some time north of Vancouver, BC in the Fjords doing some sea kayaking. Maybe a Canadian trip for our Honeymoon would be in order.

When you planning to embark?

We're looking at mid-July most likely.   Time flies when you're planning but it's been a little difficult to carve plans in stone more than few weeks out these past couple years.    Historically we'd already have solid Thanksgiving plans by this point in the year   🙂 

The maximum plan looks like about 15 days and this:

 But as time draws closer and we know more about work obligations & any financial surprises it may get trimmed.   We'll most likely be in my wife's Mustang unless we discover some reason we really want to bring a 4x4.   Hers has an auto transmission and she doesn't like driving manual so no fancy pink Mustang this trip  🙂

She's never been to Calgary or Edmonton or any of Canada outside of Vancouver so I think it's important to share those experiences,  Vancouver is culturally identical to any American city but Edmonton is just isolated enough to actually feel like another country,  subtle differences in accent and body language and the layout of streets, it all adds up to a truly new experience even if people around the world are fundamentally the same in all the ways that matter.  

We'll be youtubing it too... hey I finally got over the threshold of 1000 subscribers so now my youtube views are paying like $0.70 per day!   I'm kinda excited about that, I never set out to make youtube videos for money I'm not charismatic enough to make a living in entertainment but even just getting a few pennies back acknowledges the effort.  

@shovel, @4x_admin

I was in Vancouver back in March & was in Calgary a few weeks ago for work.  Wasn't a full vacation, but I always take every opportunity I can to get out and see the places I visit.  Vancouver was amazing - Surprisingly didn't rain that whole week Lol.  Scott, keep an eye out for the 4X swag on display with @ Golder Ears Park pic.  Calgary was still cold and snowing, but I was able to spend about a half day up in the Canadian Rockies near Banff.

Vancouver:

Calgary:

Will be looking to go back to both places towards the end of summer!

Welcome to the States! What an epic trip!!! True overlanding. This looks like so much fun!

Damn that looks like a great trip. I sure would love to do that with Heather this year. Maybe next year. I have always wanted to go up to Jasper. Always wanted to visit Calgary and Vancouver. Good for you, Shovel!

We've been getting the details figured out and it's looking like we're either taking the Ram or the Jeep, based on being able to sleep in the vehicle.     Nearly everything that accepts reservations is reserved out,  in fact I'm expecting to be really frustrated with life while we visit Banff and Kootenay parks based on reservation volume at the hotels and campgrounds.    

Tragedy of the commons,  everyone has the right to be there but everyone ruins it for each other by trampling everything.  

So we don't have primary plans to sleep in our vehicle most nights, but we might do exactly that if we can't find accommodations otherwise and it's a lot easier to make that choice in something roomy than in a Mustang.  

Both the Jeep and the Ram get decent MPG for what they are since I built them with strict pragmatism and purpose rather than instagram appeal.  Still, even if I can average 20+ mpg on a road trip with the Ram we're easily over $500 worth of fuel at present prices  (currently looking like about $5.80 USD/US Gal in Calgary, potentially more in rural stops as of typing this) and the Jeep is really only about $150 behind that.. not a huge number in context.   Fuel consumption won't be the deciding factor,  probably sleep comfort will be.  I'll let my wife pick they both have merits. 

Rooms at the Fairmont Lodge in Banff over the weekend we expect to be through there are currently reserving at $1170 for one night, which is one hundred dollars more than I pay each month for mortgage including interest, insurance and tax escrow.    That is a luxury hotel,  but still I have a hard time processing that amount of money for a bed and a toilet for one night unless it's on the moon or the south pole.   

We're not letting any of that stop us from going just making sure we get it all fine tuned and figured out before we go including plan B and plan C and maybe even plans down to the letter R so we can just roll with the punches instead of getting stressed.    Thankfully my wife is 100% down with roughing it and improvising - no princess would ever marry me and I'd never even consider marrying a princess 🤣 if she wasn't down for eating tortillas & peanut butter on a rock in the woods we probably wouldn't share much else in common either.

I think I'm most excited about hiking to the Stanley Glacier as well as the nearby headwaters of Kootenay River (this ultimately.. after a very long journey becomes the Columbia river, joining the ocean at Astoria OR) and seeing what unexpected people and details stand out in the less tourism focused areas like Prince George

We depart July 15!

As of right now the Canadian border does not require proof of negative Covid test results,  though I did take two tests (they say to take two if you have no symptoms,  so I took two 12 hours apart, both negative) .  

Preparing to cross the border does require visitors to register within the last 72 hours before crossing with ArriveCAN,  announcing your vaccination proof, your relevant identification and your destination.  The destination part of the questionnaire does not have a good option for people who intend to tour the provinces and spend each night in a different location. We're spontaneous with travel plans,  always ready to spend the night in the vehicle or on the ground or in a hotel, whatever feels good at the moment.   I hope the Canadian border official doesn't have a problem with those plans..

I'll update from the road,  assuming we routinely have internets   🙂 

Easiest border crossing I've done since the early 00's  , we're in Cranbrook BC tonight and hiking in Kootenay provincial park tomorrow.  Banff Sunday!  

I'm gonna go yell obscenities at a glacier. 

This is a marble canyon carved by the Kootenay river - it's incredibly violent!     Throw your laundry in the top and it'll come out clean at the bottom 😀 

Eventually this water joins the sea as part of the Columbia river. 

Cities are just as important to visit as the wilderness!    We had delicious vegan Korean food in Calgary from a walk-up window. 

Sad times...  Tuesday my wife started feeling ill and took a Covid test,  came up positive.   I did too but was negative.   We decided to abort the rest of our trip to avoid getting others sick.    

We had planned to ride the monster truck busses onto the Athabasca glacier since our hike to Stanley Glacier ended early -- I guess Stacey was already sick at that point because she's usually a strong hiker but just couldn't do it.    Well we didn't want to get into the bus either obviously and spread disease,  so at Athabasca Stacey stayed in the Jeep reading and trying to feel as good as she could while I walked the 2 miles from the lodge parking lot to the glacier's toe.    There's a closer parking lot but where's the fun in that?  

Since it's an extremely popular destination this particular feature has fences, signs and personnel everywhere to keep people from getting too close.   I get it, but also this is a park where every inch of it has something that could kill you so it always strikes me as a bit of a joke to only fence off certain spots.    People are weird!

I took this photo from the closest place I was allowed to approach it.   The scars on the rock in the foreground are from when the glacier was still over that rock just a few years ago.  

After leaving the Columbia ice fields we pretty much just headed straight home,  I'm still testing negative for Covid but definitely have it maybe my antibodies just don't match what the test is looking for.    So we're sitting around feeling hot and cold and hot and cold and.. well, if you've had Covid you know what's going on.   This is my first time, I outran it until now.   We seem not to be getting hit as hard as some folks,  I can breathe fine and so can Stacey we're just gonna lay low until it passes and then plan our next adventure! 

Awesome shots, Shovel. Can I use that pic of you with the team hat on social?

I think Heather and I will start planning a BC trip for one of the next two summers. I really need to get up to that area and explore. In fact, I think we should start planning a few TEAM 4X group meet ups in places like that.

Really beautiful photos.

Posted by: @4x_admin

Awesome shots, Shovel. Can I use that pic of you with the team hat on social?

 

Sure!    I apologize that the camera on my phone is a real low point but I haven't committed the budget to find a better one yet. 

The ferries all throughout the Kootenays are free and there are several national parks all throughout the Canadian Rockies so the adventure potential is massive.   We're fortunate that from Spokane,  Glacier National Park of Canada is about the same drive as Glacier National Park of USA.   At less than 100 miles it's closer to visit Canada than it was to visit Flagstaff from Phoenix, when we lived there. 

When you visit Western Canada I hope to be able to offer some recommendations and perhaps meet up for part of it.    I've been in the early stages of planning a trip to the Arctic Ocean ever since moving here - before moving here really - but our old house needs more money than I have to split between the house's needs and 300 gallons of fuel, among all the other travel expenses. 

This photo was taken - with no special lens or filter or processing - at just before 10:00PM