Day 4, June 26th, Fort St. John, British Columbia to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

Fort St. John: Last night we stayed in the Best Western in Fort St. John in British Columbia. It was clean, quiet, and the guy at the desk gave me a nice discount. The staff was friendly; they even tried to give Tess a biscuit when we checked in. She politely declined as she hid behind my legs and shook a bit. We stayed in a hotel because I couldn’t get my ATM card to work and I needed Canadian cash to get into the national campgrounds down the road. It was only after we checked into the hotel that I remembered that Bank ATM’s are the only ATM’s that seem to recognize US ATM cards in Canada. Nevertheless, it was nice to sleep in a cozy bed and catch up on some local news. Apparently Michael Jackson died while I was off the technological grid. Crazy. In other Ft. St. John news, everyone that I met was genuinely sweet. The guy at the Subway let me go ahead of him in line because he had to order 20 sandwiches, and a different staff member at the hotel tried to give Tess *another* biscuit when we came back from our ATM/Subway outing last night. A maid at the hotel also passed on some encouragement as we headed out for Operation FFF this morning. Neither Tess nor I were very motivated to run this morning, but we did stumble through it and took in some of the local sites while we were at it. Based on a sign that we ran past at the local high school, it looks like the senior class at Ft. St. John High School graduated on Friday. Congrats Grads!

White noise: I dated a woman for many years that needed to sleep with a white noise machine because she suffered from insomnia. I can sleep through almost anything so I didn’t particularly mind it, but I did think it was a perfectly good waste of quiet. When we parted ways I thought I was finally done with the white noise machine. Well. I thought wrong. When we went to bed last night Tess started whining and pacing again, which she tends to do when she is nervous and in a new place. After about 15 minutes, I decided, what the hell, we’ll try the “AC calms Tess down” trick inside. So, although it was raining outside and perfectly cool, I turned the AC on and within 2 minutes Tess was sound asleep. I had never thought of it before, but she’s sound sensitive, so the noise of the AC must block out most of the background noise. Therefore, if any of you guys have a Brookstone white noise machine that you aren’t using, send it my way. Apparently I’m not done with white noise yet!

Notes from the Drive:
I love British Columbia. It is truly breath-taking. When you are driving through those Northern Rocky Mountains, when every corner you turn holds another spectacular view of smooth, mirror-like, crazy blue-green water and rocky, snow speckled hills, and deep, deep forests that are crawling with wildlife, that’s when you know that you are in British Columbia. Muncho Lake is particularly gorgeous. When I drove by this time I saw a guy in a row boat furiously reeling a fish in. It was like a postcard. Stone Mountain Provincial Park is covered with Dall sheep and bison and bears. Really. If you can’t make it to Alaska in your lifetime, try British Columbia. It will give you that “holy crap, mother nature is awesome” feeling that everyone should feel at least once.

The XM radio is still holding up nicely in BC. Another great thing about the XM radio, is that it clearly displays the artist name and song title for every song that you are listening to. Since I am notoriously bad at “name that band” car games, I’m hoping that 60 hrs of driving and “studying” band names via the XM radio will help me have a better showing during “name that band” games on future group road trips.

You know that you are heading into the middle of nowhere when the billboards are advertising hotels by saying “it’s just 2 hours up the road.” And, you really ARE in the middle of nowhere when, after you reach the hotel 2 hrs later, you discover that the hotel is closed . . . along with the gas station and mercantile.

It’s raining today during the drive in BC. But that’s ok. I have a fresh cup of coffee, and that makes rain seem serene and soothing . . . as opposed to a nuisance. Coffee + rain = love. The rain is also allowing me to test out the new tires that I got from Barnsley Tire before I left Boulder. They are working like a charm. I highly recommend Barnsley to any local Boulderites looking for new tires! Speaking of rain, there’s a great song called “Bring on the Rain” (but I can’t remember who sings it). Anyway, it seems appropriate for this drive in the rain, as well as this trip. I won’t post the lyrics here, but give it a listen sometime.

Today I saw the first hitchhiker that I actually felt bad about not picking up. I would never pick up a hitchhiker when travelling alone in the lower 48, but in AK and BC, hitchhiking is a little more acceptable. I hitchhiked with Gavin the last time that I was in AK after we were done hiking the Resurrection Pass trail. This great guy named Bobby Joe pulled over in what looked like a renovated Doritos van and drove us two hours back to our car. He was so nice. And Bobby Joe’s rig was incredible. He had modified the entire van to essentially be a homemade RV. There was an actual life size toilet in the back of the truck, as well as a full chest of drawers that kept sliding around on the drive. He said he had worked all winter long to get the rig ready for the drive to AK, and when May hit he drove up all the way from Florida. When I asked him why he was in Alaska he said, dead seriously, “to pan for gold.” He also said that he wanted to pan for gold in Australia someday, but he had to save up enough money to ship the Doritos truck over there first. Hey, whatever floats your boat. Anyway, when Bobby Joe dropped us off at our car we asked if there was anything that we could do for him and he said “just repay the favor someday to someone else.” So, now whenever I see hitchhikers I think of Bobby Joe and wonder if this is the time that I should repay the favor. Of course every time I start to consider it, Tess starts barking and growling at the stranger she sees on the side of the road. I guess I’ll just have to keep donating to charities instead!

I have my first new ding in my windshield. The roads are notoriously bad on this six day drive, so I expected it. As a matter of fact, the windshield was the only thing I didn’t get “tuned up” before I left Boulder. We’ll see how many new dings and cracks I have by the time I get home.

Tess encountered her first “real” dog today. By encountering a real dog, I mean Tess got to see how most dogs live in British Columbia. We were driving through the Muncho Lake area and a truck zipped by us. It had a canoe strapped to the top of it, and two motorcycles in the back. In addition to all of that gear, there was a dog just riding along in the back of the truck. It was drizzling and yet the dog seemed happy as a clam. Tess seemed genuinely confused by this dog, as she sat on her down comforter, in her air conditioned truck, high on her Chinese herbs. Tess is not a British Columbia dog.

White Horse Update: Tess and I have given up the white horse game and we are combining our efforts instead to try and spot other wildlife/unique things. This game plan has been a wild success. Now, admittedly, we are in British Columbia and that is where the wildlife really comes out but at the end of the day these are our totals:

White horses: 2
Moose: 1
Mosquitoes: 495 (Yeah we gave up on the Shoo tag once we hit the Yukon and started using cutter)
Cute firemen: 1 (What can I say? We like firemen).
Grizzly Bear: 1? (We aren’t sure if it was a grizzly).
Bison: 28+
Dogs: 3
Smoldering forest fires: 2
Scary Bridges: 2 (Tess apparently doesn’t like suspension bridges)
Black Bears: 9
Black Bear Cubs: 3

There’s nothing like seeing 13 bears just hanging out on the side of the road to make you want to camp near other people!

Day 3, June 25, 2009: Red Deer, Alberta to Fort St. John, British Columbia

Sleeping: Last night was my first night sleeping in the “Loft.” In case you are worried that I have given up my dreams of an Alaskan adventure and opted for a loft in downtown Denver. . . you are wrong. In my world, a loft means that I have gear stored underneath some 2x2 structures in my truck bed, and I sleep on a piece of plywood that is resting on top of them. When my dad first saw the loft he chuckled and said “chip off of the old block” because he’s known for making items out of plywood. The purpose of the loft is simple: in a pinch, you can crawl in the back of the truck (that now has a topper) and sleep in a quick shelter without having to pitch a tent (and yet you can still store stuff in the truck bed). I am sure that this will be the first of many versions of this loft. I am also sure that the fact that I am now sleeping in the back of my truck means that I will eventually own some sort of mobile home and travel the world panning for gold. I met a guy who did that once, but, that’s another story for another time. I will say this for the loft. It was cozy and level. Tess found her way in from the front cab via the window between the cab and the topper and made herself quite at home. One other note on the loft: after my dad inspected the loft, he expressed concern that there wasn’t much headroom between the plywood and the top of the camper shell. He was concerned that I was going to hit my head if I sat up too quickly. I will neither confirm nor deny whether I hit my head on the top of the camper last night. I will merely say that if it *did* happen, it won’t happen again.

Operation Fitness for Fear: We had a delightful run by the river in Red Deer this morning. We ran straight out of the Lion’s RV campground and headed down a street for a while and then onto a bike path that ran parallel to the river. Tess was initially frightened by the cardboard dog on the street advertising doggie day car, but after some investigation and encouragement she tried to eat it. We quickly fled the scene of her attempted destruction. Soon after our escape, as we headed towards the river, Tess found another thing that she is not afraid of. She LOVES the water. Tess would pull me straight into the water if she weighed another 50lbs. Note to self: do not let Tess gain 50lbs. Running along that bike path and watching that slow moving, wide, river reminded me of rowing races and spring break training in Waco. There’s something about morning air mixed with water that just brings all the crew memories back.

Packing up the Truck: Yes. I repacked the truck again in an attempt to get the weight just right in the back of the truck. Yes. I am sure I will think about doing it again tomorrow. Also, I pinched my finger quite hard in between the tailgate and the plywood decking on the loft. Note to self: write a letter to the loft manufacturer about this design flaw.

Operation Mosquito Avoidance: As I was packing for this trip, I had “mosquito repellent” on my list of things to pack/buy. Of course, I had this list with me when I went to buy the Chinese herbs for Tess at PC’s Pantry. While I was in there buying dog supplies the owner of the store told me I should try this magnetic tag that is supposed to keep the mosquitoes at bay. It’s for humans, and it’s called “Shoo.” It looks like a credit card. The theory is that you are supposed to put it in your pocket, with the magnetic strip facing your body, and after about 24 hours it kicks in and keeps the mosquitoes away for about 3 months. I thought I’d give it a shot since she guaranteed my money back if it didn’t work. The only kicker is, you have to have it on all the time and my running shorts and my PJ’s don’t have pockets, so I opted to wear it on a chain around my neck during the times when I am not wearing clothing with pockets. So far so good. Mosquito Bites from Day 1-Day 3 = 0. The only negative is, I think I need to get a different chain because wearing a piece of plastic shaped like a credit card around my neck looks plain silly. When it is looped onto the nicest piece of jewelry that I own, it looks even sillier. If you combine all that with the fact that it says “Shoo” on it, I just think its going to send the ladies the wrong signal altogether. I like to *think* of myself as an even-keeled, low maintenance kind of girl. This thing sends the opposite message to potential suitors (otherwise known as the Future Mrs. Kate Brandon candidates). This tag, quite clearly says: “I’m expensive, but I don’t have credit cards. I’m into alternative medicine and I have no fashion sense. Oh, and DON’T GO NEAR MY NECK OR MY BREASTS!!!”

Not the message I want to be sending to the FMKB.

Notes from the Drive:
For the past 4 years I had a CD player that skipped every time that I hit a bump. I adapted to this quirk and would stop singing prior to every bump that I hit. As soon as the CD player started again I would pick right back up with the lyrics. It used to drive my girlfriends crazy because as I was singing along I would suddenly sound like I was a DJ/mixmaster, skipping and pausing to the beat. Now, as I said before, I got a new radio for this trip. It’s great. And it doesn’t skip . . . but it has thrown off my rhythm. Now every time I hit a bump I still pause instinctively but the music keeps on playing. It’s going to be a hard habit to break.

Albertans seem to love Mustangs. Not the horses (although there a lot of those too), but the cars. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so many mustangs in one day.

The XM stations appear to have limited channel selection in Canada, but the signal is still strong! A solid investment so far.

Yesterday, despite the fact that a friend of mine packed me a care package with sunscreen in it, I forgot to apply it. Since I am heading mostly NW this entire trip, this has resulted in a sun-burn on half of my body. I am attempting to help my left ear recover from the burn by wearing my baseball hat sideways. Tess does not approve of this look.

Today we saw more trees and fields of hay. There were also more beautiful skies. Alberta is lovely, however I’m beginning to realize that part of the beauty is due to the polarized lenses in my sunglasses. They make everything look even greener. Unfortunately the sunglasses did not improve the view much in Wyoming, since everything in Wyoming appears to be brown.

Tess tends to be fine during the drive as long as we are moving at a steady pace. She gets a little more wound up when we are driving through towns and making turns or stopped at construction sites. When she gets wound up she hops back and forth from the front seat to the back and starts whining. Obviously this is not ideal. Somewhere along the way I discovered that she’s calmer if I turn the AC on at full blast when we are driving through town. Instead of hopping back and forth, she just sits right in front of the cool air and jams her nose into the vent. As a consequence, I have to wear a knit cap when we are stuck in construction zones or stopping for gas (even if it is 70 degrees out), but I’d do just about anything for Tess.

Random thoughts:
I am bruising a lot. I need to take my vitamins. And quit climbing in and out of this loft. Note to self: quit repacking the back of the truck once a day.

Ladies. I’m going to say something that you may not want to hear. Boxer briefs are the best investment you can make when you go on a car camping trip. I swear I’m not that butch girl who wears them all the time, but when it comes to trips like this, they are a must. They are comfy, they give you a little room to relax, and they provide adequate coverage in emergencies. For example: if your dog is whining inside the loft at 5am in the morning and you can’t tell if she needs to pee or puke. . . you can either hop out of the truck bed and find yourself face to face with the camper next door in your either your thong or your boxer briefs. In the thong, you look like a crazy girl with a thing for dogs. In the boxer briefs, you look like the cool girl in “spandex” who is about to go for a run with her dog. You decide which look you are going for. As for me, I say boxer briefs rock!

White Horses Update: Kate 367, Tess 3. Killer Kate reclaims the lead!

Day Two: Leaving the US and heading into Canada

(Alright, alright clearly I made it to Alaska because I am blogging again, but it’s going to take me a little time to catch up on the day by day blog. So, bear with me while I try to give you the daily breakdown of this 6 day trip). I told you this blog could put you to sleep. . . .

On day two (June 24th – Happy Birthday Dad!) Tess and I awoke in Billings, Montana and I implemented my plan to keep Tess relatively sane as I drive her across the country. Besides drugging her with Chinese herbs, I have decided to run the fear out of her. That’s right. Tess and I have officially begun Operation Fitness for Fear (FFF). Ideally the 30+ minutes of running in the morning will tire Tess out enough to get her to chill a bit in the car. The Dog Whisperer would be so proud. And, lest you think Operation FFF is all about Tess, let me assure you, it also benefits me. That’s right. Operation Fitness for Fear should help me avoid abstinence due to obesity, a significant fear of mine! (Sorry mom! It’s the truth)!

After our run, Tess was sufficiently subdued so she relaxed in the cab of the truck while I adjusted the load in the back. I’ve already mentioned the fact that I packed the truck up a little heavier than my Dad would approve, and as a consequence I kept fretting every time I went over a bump. So, after about 45 minutes of repacking the back, I was able to get the height between the wheel and the wheel well to increase by about half an inch. Was it worth the effort? Probably not. Will I stress out about it again at some point in this trip and repack it all again? Probably.

The “silver” lining of re-packing the truck is that I was able to discover an unfortunate incident before it became a terrible accident. I had packed all of my “cosmetics” into a backpack in the back of the truck. Cosmetics for me, means anything that smell girly. So: toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner, hair goop, mouth wash, sunscreen and 409. Of course, because I am a safety girl, I put everything in Ziploc bags so that if anything exploded it wouldn’t leak all over the place. Sadly, I did this with everything except the 409. This isn’t really a cosmetic at all! Explosion. Oh yes. It was in a plastic bag, but not a Ziploc. So, needless to say, my cosmetic bag is now REALLY clean. Boring but true.

After I finished cleaning up the 409 carnage, giving Tess her Chinese herbs, showering and packing up the car, I decided to take a picture of the motel, right next to the porn shop as a form of documenting my trip. Now, admittedly, I was taking a lot of pictures from a lot of different angles, so I am sure that I looked suspicious. But, less than two minutes after I was out of the truck I heard this person saying “excuse me sir . . . ” in an aggressive voice. This is certainly not the first time that someone has mistaken me for a man. Hell, people in Korea thought I was a boy when I was five years old. I am used to it. And, when I am wearing Carharts and a baseball cap and someone is yelling at me from about twenty-five yards away, I can definitely understand their confusion. But, given the fact that I was photographing a porn sign, and I was a big ol’ lesbian in the middle of Montana, I didn’t really want to chat with or correct the guy who was calling me “sir.” Nevertheless, he kept yelling at me, so I finally walked over to him and tried to figure out what I was going to say to him. Well. Lo and behold, he was a she too! As we met in the middle of that dirt parking lot of the adult bookstore I felt a kinship with that Montana lesbian. I think she felt it too. Her tone softened significantly and she said “um, hey, I was just wondering why you were taking pictures of our sign. Is it too high?” And I just chuckled and told her the truth, “Oh no! I just thought it was great that my motel was right next to a porn shop!” We both laughed and nodded in understanding as we made small talk before I hit the road. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying this was a DEEP connection, but it was memorable!

A random note: When I go on long road trips I tend to chew a lot of gun and sing. A LOT. Right before I went on this trip I had a couple of old fillings replaced. Sadly, the bite on one of the new fillings isn’t quite right, so after just one day on the road I had to stop chewing gum for 10 hrs a day. This means that the singing had to carry a larger part of the “keep Kate awake” load. Luckily, my friend made me a bunch of CD’s before I left. I’m not going to lie. I like the Pop CD the best. Who is this Jesse McCartney fella anyway!?

Cute/Pretty/Unique Observations from Day 2:
I love small towns. I specifically love small towns in the heartland, places like Montana, and Alberta, Canada. There’s something welcoming about driving through a town that’s four blocks long, where the guy in the Ford heading the opposite way on Main Street gives you the simple car wave. The kind of wave where your thumb still holds onto the steering wheel, but your fingers swing up to acknowledge the other person’s passing. I love that wave. I do it whenever I can. I don’t care if it makes me seem like a poser. I love towns where I can wave like that. I love towns with one Mercantile and one repair shop. I love towns that are so small that as you’re bumping along at 15mph you can see an old guy on his porch. Just sitting there. Letting time roll by. Taking in the day.

I love those small towns, but I love the land that surrounds those small towns just as much. Montana and Alberta are farm country. Hay and tall grass and deep greens and blues surround you wherever you turn. When the wind blows that grass around you can see all the different shades of green undulating in a crazy and completely unique pattern. If you take a minute or two to glance up at the sky you won’t be disappointed either. It truly is big sky country. There’s blue sky every where you turn, and dotted amongst it is a bevy of clouds. In Colorado we tend to get pillow-y clouds. In Chicago you usually get a sheet, a layer of clouds. But in Montana, you get a whole mixture of clouds: big poofy ones and thin, sheet-like ones, and even some that look like they’ve been left by airplanes. In addition, this time through Montana, I also saw waves in the sky. They weren’t really clouds, but somehow (and I wasn’t on drugs) there were very clear waves in the blue sky (we’ll see if they come out in the pictures). It was beautiful. If I could figure out how to get to Montana on a weekend, without having to travel through Wyoming, I’d go there once a month, just to watch the grass grow and an occasional horse chew it.

White Horses Game Update: Tess 491, Kate 0. In a stunning upset, Tess was able to pull out a last second victory when she spotted a Pet Cemetery right outside of Red Deer, Alberta where were stopped for the night. As rule # 612 of the White Horse Game clearly states “If anyone spots a Pet Cemetery they must immediately forfeit all of their Horses to the dog in the car. If there is more than one dog in the car, then the most skittish dog wins.” Clearly Tess wins on all fronts.

Trip Overview & Notes Regarding Trip Prep and Day One Activities

My dog and I are heading up to Alaska for the summer. I am Kate. She is Tess. I like to fish. Tess is afraid of fish. Actually Tess is afraid of almost everything that she initially sees. But hey, you only live once. And in this economy I may only have a cushy job that allows me to work remotely from Alaska for a finite amount of time. Not to mention that fact that neither Tess or I have a mortgage or a significant other, so why not live life to the fullest and head up to the last frontier for a summer of fishing, hiking, and camping?! Therefore, I have packed up my timid dog, loaded up my Toyota Tacoma with just enough gear that my dad would be concerned about the weight in the truck bed, and hit the road.

There are a few notes regarding my trip prep that I think you should be aware of:
1) I have outfitted my obnoxiously purple truck with a topper, home-made loft (which should double as furniture when I get to Alaska), an XM radio, new tires and various mechanical parts that the fine people at Hoshi Motors told me I must have to prevent my truck from exploding somewhere along the Alaskan Hwy. The truck is now worth a small down payment on a mobile home. I still don't have cruise control, but the truck feels practically plush compared to the Toyota Corolla (Betty!) that I made this trip with in 2004.
2) In preparation for the trip I picked up some homeopathic drugs and some straight up xanax for Tess. So far she seems quite content on the doggie St. Johns Wort. Ask me again about this on day 6.
3) I have spent the last week saying goodbye to what seems like every friend I have on the planet. This feels a bit like overkill since I will only be gone for about 1-3 months, but I am ok with it since it resulted in a lot of hugging and ego boosting tales about how great and adventurous I am. Nothing like leaving town to make your friends and/or the people who want to be your friend tell you how they feel. (I'm lucky to have great friends in my life. I know this).

Day One Activities/Highlights:
1) I actually left on Tuesday morning, despite my best intentions to leave on Sunday morning. I could beat myself up about this, but some unexpected things really came together on Monday night so I think I was meant to stay in Boulder until Tuesday morning. Another thing you should know. I told everyone that I left on Monday. Because although I love seeing my friends I wasn't getting sh*t done when they knew I was in town. If you are procrastinator, I highly recommend this approach the next time that you are packing for a trip.
2) Wyoming's Antelope appear to be related to LA mothers. They all seem to have twins. I don't know if this is normal for antelope, or if it's just the Wyoming air.
3) Every time I am in Wyoming I try to think of something positive to say about it. This is relatively hard because I usually just see a lot of wind and tumbleweeds when I am in Wyoming. But, I'm still going to try. Here is goes. Wyoming has nice weeds. Today I saw numerous stretches of yellow weeds. They were lovely. Not lovely enough to warrant a picture. But lovely nevertheless.
4) Today I played White Horse with Tess. This is the car game where you count white horses by stamping them on your hand, and every time you see a church the number of horses you have doubles (because they get married). If you see a graveyard, then everyone else's horses die. Since we were in prime horse country you would think Tess would have a fighting chance. But no. Score at the end of day 1: Kate 479, Tess 0
5) The last time I made this trip to AK (which for the record is a 3500 mile trip that takes about 56hrs) I had a stuffed moose as my mascot. I was a little bummed that I didn't have a mascot this time around, until I realized that Tess is the mascot. Admittedly she takes up more space and poops, but I would never consider trading her in for a stuffed animal.
6) Today we stopped in Billings, MT. We drove for about 9hrs, and you would think that since I built a loft for sleeping in my truck bed, we would be camping. But no, tonight we are staying in a cheap motel so that Tess can have a little time to relax and get acclimated to the road routine. It was actually surprisingly hard to find a cheap, dog friendly, non-smoking motel in Billings that wasn't already booked up. But I finally found this one. Of course, it wasn't until after I paid for the room and was pulling around to the other side of the motel that I saw that it's right next to the Porn Shop . . . . . Oh well!