Archive for the “BlogSherpa” Category

Soon after my arrival in the North it became clear white water paddling is the summer activity of choice here. With very little previous experience I was soon thrown in the deep end and had some interesting times paddling a tandem canoe with Brett in the Wheaton River, the local favourite. This summer the flood waters were as high as anyone could remember, keeping things very exciting.

It was obvious I needed to learn a lot in a short time, so I signed up for a White Water Raft guide course, and had a fantastic weekend paddling on the very famous Tatshenshini River, or “the Tat” as it’s known locally. There are a couple of great class III rapids on the river, and we had a fantastic time blasting right into them with a raft full of guides in training. When given my chance to command and steer the boat, I managed to flip it in less than a minute, giving myself a long swim to safety in the process.

Back in a canoe, my tandem skills were progressing slowly, and it was suggested I try a solo canoe in whitewater. I now hold the record for the fastest time-to-swim on the Wheaten River, flipping over in the first 0.1 seconds. Multiple frigid swims and a meltdown later, my solo canoeing career came to an abrupt end.

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My kayak on the Jarvis River

Feeling defeated, it was suggested I attempt a whitewater kayak, a craft I had a very limited amount of experience in. A short float down the leisurely Watson River and an afternoon practicing my far-from-dependable roll on a lake was apparently all the experience I required to navigate the very remote Jarvis / Kaskawulsh loop in Kluane National Park.

Setting out just past Haines Junction the crew consisted of Brett in his solo whitewater canoe, Jim and Noreen in their tandem tripping canoe and me feeling very small and inexperienced in my now heavily loaded kayak. I had rolled the empty kakyak a few times in a lake, and was not feeling overly confident about my skills in this setting, loaded with all my precious camping gear, which had to stay dry at all costs.

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Brett in his solo canoe

For the first couple of hours the Jarvis river is extremely beautiful and not overly challenging, with some small rocky sections rated class I or low class II at a stretch. Gaining confidence, we all paddled around a corner and immediately found ourselves in a horrible mess of logs, branches and other nasty hazards that did not look at all friendly. Lots of yelling and back-paddling had my heart rate up in an instant. For the next few hours we slowly and carefully picked our way down, doing our best to stay away from the nasty hazards. I lost my nerve on one particularly nasty bend and decided the best thing for me to do was walk overland dragging my kayak while the others paddled down to me without incident. Dry land felt great.

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Noreen and Jim navigating a beaver dam

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Brett lining his solo canoe

We had been warned of masses of beaver dams and endless chest-deep swamps to wade through, though the reality was not nearly so bad. Two or three times the river was completely blocked by massive log jams, and we had to detour around, pulling our boats over beaver dams and down trickling streams until we could re-join the main flow. Entering the current on a nasty looking corner provided some heart-thumping moments for everyone, especially Jim and Noreen in their much larger and difficult to turn craft.

We pushed on and on, as the river grew sleepier and sleepier until finally spotting a small river joining in, where we had been told was very good camping. Staring too long at the upcoming rapids did nothing to calm my nerves, though there is nothing like exhaustion for a good night’s sleep.

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My kayak and tent camping on the Jarvis River

In the morning we immediately found ourselves in a continuous stretch of rocky class II rapids, with swift water thanks to the impressive and continuous grade of the river. I found this stretch challenging and immensely fun at the same time, grinning like mad. Though a swim here would not have been enjoyable thanks to all the rocks, I liked my prospects better than the logs and sweepers of the previous day.

Again the river mellowed, and again we pushed on, until finally coming to the mighty Kaskawulsh River, a giant muddy river full of braids draining the Kaskawulsh Glacier further into the park. Apparently just for fun we paddled to the far side, then front ferried back again, something I did not at all enjoy or feel comfortable about in my tiny kayak.
We camped here at the confluence and in the afternoon hiked up a nearby peak for impressive views of the surrounding beauty.

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The confluence of the Jarvis and Kaskawulsh rivers

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My tent at the Jarvis Kaskawulsh confluence

The Kaskawulsh is large, swift and muddy, though it does not have any difficult rapids. I had a few close calls thanks to the nasty whirlpools that form when braided streams re-join and did not particularly enjoy this stretch, feeling very exposed and small on the enormous river.
After many hours, we spotted the Dezadeash River joining the flow – our exit point.

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The mountains bordering the Kaskawulsh River

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On the Kaskawulsh River

From here, we only had to paddle a measly 8km upstream which is normally not overly difficult. In this day we paddled straight into a howling headwind and the massive waves it whipped up. I’ve surfed waves on a board many times, but I was not particularly happy to be surfing down the face of these waves, far from safety in the frigid river. Brett had the most difficult time of us all, tasked with providing steering and power with his single blade paddle.

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The crew on the shores of the Kaskawulsh River. Note the atire in the middle of summer

Many hours later we all dragged ourselves to shore, extremely exhausted and happy to have arrived at Brett’s truck which we had stashed in the bushes a few days earlier.

A spectacular paddle and an full-on introduction to out tripping in the Yukon.

-Dan

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Towards the end of my grand Pan-American journey, I thought long and hard about where I wanted to call home for a while. Obviously, I had to pick somewhere spectacular. This place would need to have lots of mountains and four complete seasons – especially winter for snowboarding. The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became.
“I’m going back to Canada”, I  realized.

During my journey, one place in Canada stood out from the rest. The people I met, the adventures we had and the spectacular beauty kept bringing Whitehorse, Yukon to the front of my mind. With adventures like The Chilkoot Trail, Chillin’ Yukon Style and Whitewater Canoeing, it makes perfect sense to call Whitehorse home for the foreseeable future.

After staying with my brother Mike and his girlfriend Les, I borrowed his car and felt extremely happy to be driving North on the Alaska Highway once again. I called my friends Brett and Eva, who were once again extremely welcoming and hospitable, and we picked up right where we left off almost 2 years ago.

In the coming weeks and months I’d like to show you the adventures we have up here in the north, and just how beautiful it really is.

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My brother Mike biking

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Grizzly on the side of the road

Soon after my arrival I joined Brett and Eva on their annual Atlin Lake camping trip, a spectacular few days of boating, fishing and relaxing right next to the spectacular mountains.

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Brett and his lake trout

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Trout for dinner...and breakfast... and lunch

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Cruising on Atlin Lake

-Dan

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While hiking around a volcano in Ecuador I realized there are a ton of Overlanders out there in the community who are extremely supportive and helpful to others hoping set out on a grand adventure. Many of us try out best to post information on our blogs and discussion forums we think will be helpful to others.
Some people have even written books on the subject.
Unfortunately, this information quickly slides off front pages, and goes stale and out of date, making it very hard to find, and usually not very helpful.

Enter WikiOverland, the encyclopedia of Overland Travel

wikioverland

WikiOverland

 

WikiOverland is designed to “pick up where the traditional guide books leave off” for Overlanders.
Everything you need to know to successfully get around with a vehicle is included.

Some of the important topics covered for each country are:

  • Crossing the border – paperwork requirements, insurance requirements, costs and permitted length of stay.
  • Gas prices, quality and frequency. Prices are converted in real time to any currency and unit you prefer.
  • Roads, Bribery and checkpoints.
  • Camping – both paying and “wild”.
  • Navigation – with paper maps and GPS co-ordinates.
  • Vehicle maintenance.
  • Buying and selling vehicles.
  • much more.

More general topics covered include:

  • Popular Overland routes.
  • Vehicle shipping.
  • Bribery tips and advice.
  • General Paperwork requirements explained.

If travel information is readily available in guide books or on the web, that information is linked to as much as possible.

To start out exploring WikiOverland, checkout the Overland Frequently Asked Questions

This is a project made by the Overland community, for the Overland community.
If we all contribute a little bit, we’ll make the entire site better for everyone.
Because WikiOverland is built on the wiki platform, you can click edit in the top right of the screen, update or add whatever you like, and click save all in less than 2 minutes.

You can help make WikiOverland better for everyone:

  • If you know a thing or two about the country you live in (like gas prices), please take the time to add or update that information.
  • If you are passing through a country, please take 5 minutes and update sections that have changed. If nothing has changed, you can just update the “last updated date” for those sections so we know it’s still good as of now.

Head over and checkout WikiOverland.org

-Dan

P.S. Now WikiOverland is live, I plan to spend more time back here on The Road Chose Me. I have some mind-blowing photos from the summer I need to share with you all.

Comments 12 Comments »

When I set out in June of ’09, I honestly thought the adventure would take about a year, and savings of just over $10,000 would see me through.
Haha! It’s hilarious to look back…

A combination of working along the way and a nice tax return helped the bottom line, though the remainder is still sitting on my credit card.
For the vast majority of the adventure I drew a few hundred dollars out in cash, spent it on anything and everything, then got more cash when I ran out. Unfortunately, this means I only have bank records for some of the big purchases mentioned below. I can see than I took out $400 in Guatemala, then another $400 in El Salvador, but I can’t say exactly what that money went into. At only $1/beer, I’m pretty sure it didn’t all go there icon smile

Major Item $USD Amount
Gasoline (calculated) $7,000
Return flight Buenos Aires->Canada $1,440
Shipping the Jeep across the Darien Gap $770
2 SCUBA courses $440
Paddling with icebergs $400(ish)
Ferry from Baja California to mainland Mexico $250(ish)
Flight Panama->Columbia $150
Everything else** $16,850
TOTAL $27,300

**NOTE: When I say everything else, I literally mean, everything else.
Food and accommodation would certainly be the next two big categories, then maybe activities (like park entry fees, etc.). Everything you can possibly imagine is in there somewhere; oil changes, small ferries, toll roads, tire repairs, flip-flops…. If I spent money, it’s in the everything else figure.

Notable Exceptions:
I did not include the following expenses for various reasons.
If you’re planning your own adventure, you may want to think about these things:

The Jeep:
The cost of the Jeep has been excluded, mostly because in my view it cost net zero. I bought the Jeep in August 2008 for $6,250 and drove it around as my sole vehicle until June 2009 when I set off on the adventure. Almost two years, and 65,000kms later, I sold the Jeep for $5000.
Allocating the $1,250 difference to deprecation before the adventure even began, means it cost me net zero for the adventure. I’m extraordinarily happy with this.

Vaccinations:
These were in fact very specific for this adventure, though with all the health-insurance refunds I’m pretty sure it cost me something less than $300. They are also good for 10 years, so I’m still getting value from them.

Camping Gear:
I had almost everything I needed before setting out (tent, camp stove, hiking boots, etc.) although I did buy a couple of pricy things like my sleeping bag. I didn’t include them because I already had most of them, and the things I bought, I still have and use regularly.

Laptop & Camera:
I owned my camera long before the adventure began, but I did buy my little laptop specifically for the adventure. I didn’t include it as an expense, because it’s a completely optional piece of equipment and I still use it all the time.

$27k is an average of about $1200 a month for the 22 months I was on the road. I hope these numbers help people planning their own adventure. Feel free to ask for any clarifications.

-Dan

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