Maps – Page 2 – The Destinators

Manitoulin Island

Lake Manitou from the Cup & Saucer cliffs

Look at any map of Ontario, and there’s a curious island at the north end of Lake Huron. It’s Manitoulin Island and we’d never heard of it. And it has a dotted line attached to its southern shore. Ferry! This needed some research.

It turns out Manitoulin Island is the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world. Interestingly, Manitou Lake (in the photo above) is the largest freshwater lake on an island in the world. The population (13,000) is a healthy mix of people of indigenous and European descent. Politically and culturally, the island is in North Ontario. Geologically – the Niagara Escarpment runs through it – it’s an extension of South Ontario. There are only 2 ways on or off the island – a swing bridge from Little Current to the mainland, and a ferry to and from the Bruce Peninsula that runs only in the summer. It sounded to us like a unique place worthy of exploration…

The Dalton Highway, aka The Haul Road

OK! Who wants to hear about our 1000-mile excursion out and back on a (mostly) great, (mostly) gravel road? It totally rocked!

The James W. Dalton Highway, originally known as the North Slope Haul Road and now also known as Alaska Route 11, is the northernmost road in all of North America. It is one of the most remote roads in the US. We did some research before deciding to drive it. Guide books, including the Dalton Highway Visitor Guide, all mention the challenges of the drive and warn about rough gravel, no shoulders, steep grades, trucks, flat tires, broken windshields, breakdowns (and waiting for days for a tow truck), lack of services, no cell coverage, and that you could die. The Wikipedia entry: ‘Anyone embarking on a journey on the Dalton is encouraged to bring survival gear.’ We checked in again with Ed and A-J who drove the highway last year: ‘Yeah, you’ll love it!’

Richardson and Denali Highways

The conversation went something like this:

Doug: Holy cow! Look at that!
Sue: OMG! So beautiful!
D: We’ve been driving for an hour and already have a hundred photos. Too many?
S: You’re right. Maybe we have enough for today.
D: Oh, wow, look at that. Let me get a photo…
S: You’re right. Pull over!

Heading North! (Again)

Yup, we’ve decided to head to Alaska for this year’s adventure. The concept is:

Head across the northern US toward Montana, then take a right toward and joining the Alaska Highway (formerly known as the AlCan)
Explore Alaska
Head back in the fall (August in Alaska) on a more westerly route to explore British Columbia
Get to Vermont before it snows, about November 1
Make up everything in between.

A slice of New Mexico and a speck of Texas

As we entered northern New Mexico on our way to Albuquerque to visit friends, we received word that, sadly, our friends had to cancel our visit. We’re very sorry to miss them. Now, at this point in our trip we really are heading for Vermont, so rather than continuing south to Albuquerque, we looked around for a place where we could stop for the night and consider route options.

The nearest campground was called Angel Peak. It was a few miles up a dirt road, run by the Bureau of Land Management, and it was free. And it was… Wow!

Continue reading “A slice of New Mexico and a speck of Texas”

Yellowknife, NT

Yellowknife is out there! On the north shore of the Great Slave Lake, it’s a 15-hour drive from Edmonton, AB and 5 hours from the nearest settlement with more than 2,000 people. Although geographically isolated, it’s by no means disconnected from the world. It’s a modern city of 20,000 of the most ethnically diverse, friendliest and interesting people we’ve met on our travels.

We’d made a campground reservation to stay a few days for the music festival, and we extended it a couple of times to do some more visiting and exploring of the city.

Continue reading “Yellowknife, NT”

Let’s go north, eh?

For this year’s adventure, we’ve decide to go north. Here’s the concept… Head to Montreal. Take a left. Explore nooks and crannies of central Canada. Turn around when we hit the Canadian Rockies or we happen to notice on our phones that it’s October, whichever comes first. As with our past adventures, everything in between will be made up as we go along.

Why central Canada?

Continue reading “Let’s go north, eh?”

Mud season is almost over!

Mud Season in Vermont – photo courtesy of #roxgapstat

The end of Vermont Mud Season can only mean one thing… it’s time to get ready for the next trip!

We’ve been a bit distracted because the late-season skiing has been spectacular, and we’re still mulling over and refining our ideas for the next adventure. So let’s begin this blog season with a quick recap of the 2017 trip.

Continue reading “Mud season is almost over!”

A slice of Utah and Wyoming

Did we mention snow? We planned a quick truck maintenance and re-provisioning stop in Utah. While tucked into a Walmart with an award-winning view of the Utah mountains, we checked the weather forecast for routes east through the Rockies. Hmmm… The forecast was for snow and unusually cold temps for mid-October – nights in the teens – for the next 3 days.

Continue reading “A slice of Utah and Wyoming”

Nevada

The Great Basin is an area of the West that encompasses most of the state of Nevada (pronounce the first ‘a’ as in ‘dad’ to sound like you live there). The area is so named because a drop of rainwater anywhere within the Basin never makes it to any ocean – it’s either absorbed into the ground (in some cases via irrigation) or it evaporates. Pete and Sue suggested we drive across Nevada on Route 50, AKA America’s Loneliest Road, to get to see this interesting part of the country.

We didn’t know what to expect, however, ‘basin’ conjures up visions of a shallow bathroom sink. Um. Not quite…

Continue reading “Nevada”