Learning, adapting and adjusting

Dear Friends,

I’ll be honest with you, this week was hard.

It started gently in Victoria BC, our last destination on our cross Canada tour. We enjoyed some west coast sushi with some west coast pals and we couldn’t have asked for a better send off.

After saying our goodbyes we hopped on the ferry from Vancouver to Port Angeles, Washington. Crossing our first border went off without a hitch and we were officially off on the next chapter of our adventure.

Our first night we camped off the 101 using an app called I-overlander. I-overlander is a wild-camping app where people input coordinates to safe, clean and free campsites all over the world. Each campsite has a posting with pictures and details such as data signal, driving difficulty and privacy. When you have found one that you like, you pop the coordinates into the GPS and off you go!

We found a site outside of Olympic National Forest in Washington next to a river and arrived just as the sun was setting. It had been a long travel day and we were excited to get some sleep, but as the night drew near, a sense of fear for what was around us creeped into my mind. It was dark, and there were sounds I'd never heard before, and we were completely alone.

This moment felt like the start of everything. It was the first real night of what the rest of the trip would look like and there was no turning back. And in this moment I was– terrified.

I was terrified of what could be outside of my window, and nervous about all the challenges such as this, that we would have to endure. The reality of what this trip would actually look like set in, and the rose coloured lenses finally came off.

I have always been a firm believer that growth occurs outside of our comfort zones, and in this moment of difficulty I had to remind myself that we were both here for a reason.

We made it through the night and enjoyed the peace and seclusion of the river in the morning.

Working together we quickly packed up the car, and we were off on the road. The main task for the day was getting groceries and driving as far as we could. We would also have to find a camp spot for the night and were aiming to make it there before sunset.

Alex found us an awesome spot in the mountains South of Astoria Oregan. As we drove up, we passed by some animal carcasses and I was once again frightened by the imminent nature that could be right outside our door. When we made it to the top, the site was too beautiful to pass up, and I realized if I wanted to live this lifestyle I would have to get used to living alongside the wild.

We arrived in good time, and set up our roof awning, our chairs, and cozied up with a beer and a game of cribbage.

We woke up to heavy rain pounding on our roof, and with a renewed sense of “we can do this” energy we packed up quickly and hit the road.

The next day we were on the hunt to find somewhere to shower and do laundry and about 4 hours into the drive we stumbled upon a truck stop in Canyonville with both amenities. We ended up spending most of the afternoon here and set up our stove in the back parking lot to make some lunch and dinner for the evening. Although it wasn’t glamorous it was a special moment; watching the sunset over the mountain, reflecting on the days thus far, and contemplating the challenges, but also the freedom, of feeling self-sufficient.

After a good reset we drove to Medford Oregon and found a campsite at the top of Woodrat Mountain. Woodrat mountain is a launchpad for paragliding so the camp spot was surrounded by 360 degrees of rolling mountains. It was incredibly windy, but it was so worth it. We arrived in the dark, so we shuffled into bed as quickly as possible to avoid the wind, and cozied up for a much less scary sleep.

The next day we finally entered the state of California. We continued East to follow the mountains and eventually make it to Yosemite and Sequoia National Forest. After about two hours we noticed the temperature starting to drop and soon enough we were encapsulated by maybe the worst blizzard of the entire trip. The roads were covered in a thick coat of ice, and heavy winds accompanied the fat snowflake. We trudged on through the snow, which only got worse, and the thought that we had to camp in this weather became less and less appealing.

We were completely unprepared to do so. We had left all our winter gear with Alex’s mom, including our snow brush to clear the snow that was rapidly accumulating. We were worried that if we kept driving it could be like this in Yosemite and we definitely didn’t have proper winter hiking gear.

We couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. It’s always in a hard week that the challenges continue to be unique.

We were faced with two options. Option #1 continue driving into the unknown of this storm and suffer our way through 3 more potentially cold and snowy days. Or option #2, change our route and book it to the coast where we knew the weather would be warmer.

Naturally, we chose option 2, the deciding factor being that this trip was about getting away from the snow, not driving towards it. This meant that we wouldn’t be able to see the giant Sequoia  trees, or the towering cliffs in Yosemite, but it was a good lesson to remember that we can’t see it all, and that these places will always be there for us to return to another time.

After we made the decision to pivot, we drove back West and then South to Redding where we hoped for better weather to camp in. Thankfully the snow was gone, but then came a rain storm, followed by a lightning storm. Having already had some pretty rough nights in strong winds and rain we weren’t really up for the challenge of finding somewhere to camp in these conditions. We decided to stop for dinner at a local brewery, and continue driving until it would be safe to stop.

As we continued to drive the weather didn’t improve and our best bet would be to drive until morning. By we, I mean Alex drove while I slept. It would be a long night but we were invigorated by the challenge of making it across half the state of California in one day.

The rain continued on and off for most of the night, but it was fairly smooth driving until we came sheer moments away from colliding with a massive white wolf at 4:00 am.

Alex and I were pretty spooked, but he handled it with ease, and after a quick refill from our jerry can we were back on the road.

By 6:00 am we made it to our target destination of Santa Barbara, and rolled in just in time to watch the sunrise on the beach.

We were filled with a sense of accomplishment and sat in awe of the beauty and the quiet of a sleepy Sunday morning.

At this point, we were exhausted. On top of driving all night, the week had been non-stop.

We’ve been trying to move pretty quickly through America because we’ve been so eager to get to Mexico, but that has meant the time we have on either end of the day, shrinks. The time needed to feed ourselves, clean ourselves and to feel grounded. That time, we have quickly learned– is crucial.  

Going into the trip we were well aware that we would have to slow down to account for the time it takes to live out of our car. Say we need the paper towel, well that involves unpacking half the car to retrieve it. To access our car fridge the bed has to be packed away, which isn’t always the first thing you want to do when you wake up hungry. We’ve done our best to build the most efficient setup and we are continuing to adapt it to suit our immediate needs, but each and every task that needs to be accomplished, just takes longer. Which is an adjustment we knew we would have to make, but now that it’s actually here, it’s been well,an adjustment.

Considering the week we’ve had, we decided to get a campsite for the evening, where we’d have access to showers, clean water, and time to decompress.

We had a moment to make a nice meal and not feel the pressure to get back on the road by a specific time. We had time to make a campfire, nap in our hammocks and go for a swim in the ocean. We got to bed early and fell right to sleep–our best sleep thus far.

The next morning we packed everything up and drove through LA to finish some last minute errands before crossing the Mexican border the following day.

We had finally made it through America and learnt a whole lot.

We learned that any task is easier when we work together. We learnt to be patient with each other and patient with ourselves. And we learned that on the other side of challenges is growth, resilience, and a well earned beer.