nomad adventures

We have crossed the finish line!

emma-o-scott — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:31:00 GMT

hey again!

Just as summer is coming to an end, so has our adventure :-( … But what a great ending :-)

Since August 12, we have cycled 90 % (350 km) of the length of Vancouver Island and hiked the other 10 % (75 km) on the West Coast Trail. Then we crossed the Juan de Fuca Strait into the US aboard the 10th ferry of the trip and rode the last 160 km to our finish line at Scott’s sister’s house outside Seattle (on Vashon Island) on the 24th of August. We were welcomed home with Corona Beers with freshly squeezed limes – what a great finish to an awesome adventure!

Here are a few highlights of the final week – including the well-known (and technical!) West Coast Trail – a 5 and half day backpacking trip:

* Surprisingly, we had nothing but sunshine and warmth … well, for the first 3 days any way. Then, we actually had to brave rain during the hiking, at least some every day. Imagine that, for the first time in 7 weeks, we had to deal with rain in British Columbia! (yes, we did sacrificed several reindeer to the weather gods before leaving)

* The best part of cycling Vancouver Island was what was missing: logging trucks. As if our weather luck wasn’t good enough, we happened to time our trip to coincide with a logging strike that made the roads and highways quiet and the shoulders free of wood chunks. We met some loggers at a road-side camp fire roasting marshmallows and displaying signs about their refusal to work. Interestingly, when we asked them about their strike, they didn’t really know why. (If I were giving up my paycheck for a cause, I’d want to know why !). We finally spoke to an articulate local a week later who explained their unhappiness about working irregular shifts, including night shifts, to keep the machines going nonstop. Anyway, no loggers is a biker’s dream!

* So, the hike … the trail was fantastic, with lots of vertical ladders, washed out sections, wet river crossings, two person rope trolleys to pull yourself across steep canyons, unbelievable mud, slippery roots, sandy beaches, sea caves, and best of all: lots of Chanterelle mushrooms ! (Yes, yes, we know “take only photographs and leave only footprints” in National Parks, but how could we let that yellow gold rot in the forest ?!). Some sections of trails were so filled with blown down trees and mud that we could barely make 2 km/hr walking at full speed – a very technical trail (On a side note, we heard that some guy the previous week had run the 75km trail plus the 50 km Juan de Fuca Trail in 24 hrs. That’s pretty incredible…)

* So our first real challenge presented itself on the day we were supposed to start hiking. We were renting backpacks from the same company that transported our bikes around to the end of the trail. But they forgot to drop them off at the trail head!! So we stood there at the trail head, at 5 pm without backpacks. It’s quite hard to hike for 5-6 days carrying our pannier bags (cykelvaskor for the Swedes). But once again, we lucked out. The ranger called her friend who came by with two packs. They were old and a little broken, but at least they had shoulder straps :-) So after some dinner on the beach, we finally started our hike at 8 pm. One hour of light, and then it got pitch dark. We hiked the first 12 km mostly in the dark, with our tiny little headlamps. Singing on top of our lungs the whole time to scare of the cougars (bergslejon)! They are most active in the evening, and there are plenty of them. We tripped and fell a few times in the mud, and at 11.30 pm we arrived to our first campsite. It was so good to crawl into the tent!

* Oh, almost forgot. Emma almost scared the hell out of Scott at one point. She slipped in the mud, did a summersault, and went down the steep edge right next to the trail. Scotts heart skipped several beats as she disappeared over the edge …. Two seconds later he heard a giggling laugh. Luckily there was a little ledge two meters down with some soft bushes, and there was Emma, totally fine and about to laugh her head off! She dragged herself up and we pushed on through the mud with Emma looking like a big mud cake. :-)

* We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary (3 years ago Emma got on a plane to Seattle to meet a guy she barely knew…) during the hike with a bag of “just-add-water” risotto, freshly picked wild mushrooms, and a plastic bottle of wine. We landed a protected little campsite on a white sandy beach, built a campfire from driftwood and watched an amazing sunset. We even managed to get a little drunk off our rationed wine supply :-)

* 2700 km on bike, 120 km on foot, 230 km in a kayak, 20 kg pasta, 8 kg rice, 12 kg oatmeal and 8 kg granola later, we are now in Portland/Seattle, spending some time with Scott’s family before we head back to Sweden.

* As we neared the end of the journey, we couldn’t help but feel mixed emotions: There was excitement to end a successful trip and the desire for a shower, a cold beer, and a non-pasta dinner… but there was also sorrow that the falling leaves and shorter days were not only the end of summer, but the end of an adventure we had been planning for the last 18 months. But it was an obvious consolation that we had seen such incredible landscapes and reached so many of our goals in “only” 8 weeks.

We really appreciate your support and interest in our adventure. It’s been great reading your comments and emails, and we hope that, perhaps, you might be jealous enough to start planning your own adventure :-) We have already started dreaming about our next one…

Scott and Emma

Back in the saddle!

emma-o-scott — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:49:00 GMT

Hey folks!

We are back again after another amazing adventure! Our kayaking expedition in the Queen Charlottes has been just mindblowing. We have seen...Humpback Whales, Orcas Whales, Pacific Whitesided Dolphin, Bald Eagles, Otters, Seals, Sea lions, Puffins, Bears, Totem poles... you name it! We have paddled 230 km, fished Halibut and eaten the most delicious all organic dinner and breakfast!

Here come some bits and pieces, trying to give you a good picture of what we have been doing.

# So on the 1st of August we took the 7 hour ferry from Prince Rupert to the Queen Charlottes, also called Haida Gwaii in native tongue. On the ferry we spread out all our gear, including food for 12 days, on the deck, sorting it all out and packing it in ziploc bags. Got some funny looks, but many people came up to us asking about our trip, helping us with tips and info and so on. Very cool!

Then we had to bike 11 km in the dark (11pm) to Moresby Explorers, from whom we rented the kayak. During those 11 km, the B.O.B. (our trailer) broke down at least five times! So it took a while. And we saw one real bear crossing the road in front of us, and after that Emma saw quite a few more "imaginary" bears! Every other bush looked like a bear in the dark. Scott got a cramp in his hand from blowing our (bear warning) horn so many times! :-) But we made it and the next morning we started kayaking.

# For those who don't know them, the Queen Charlotte Islands consist of two big and tons of smaller islands. The southern 1/3 is a national park, Gwaii Haanas. It is total wilderness, with 2 inhabitants at Rose Harbour in the very south. The number of people in the park is very restricted, so you don't meet many others. Queen Charlottes is the home of the Haida people, a native indian tribe that lived off fishing and were great mariners and warriors. Once a very flourishing, rich and powerful society, but when the Europeans came in the late 1800's they brought smallpox (a disease). In just a few years 80% of the population had died. They were totally wiped out. Nowadays there are a few hundred, trying to rebuild the Haida nation. Left in the park are remains from their old villages, with totem poles and some house remains (it is the only place left in Canada where original poles are still standing). At these sites (total of 4) there are "watchmen", that welcome the visitors and watch out for the place (so idiots don't take home souvenirs). Camping is not allowed at these places.

# So during our 9 days of paddling the sun shined on us every day! Normally it just rains here, but the day we started the sun came out for the first time this summer, and it stayed until the day we left. Then it started raining again. Aren't we lucky!?! Still haven't had to bike/hike/kayak in the rain one single day suring six weeks! Had some windy days kayaking, but both head and tail wind, so it evened out. We had a tandem kayak, so when we had a tail wind (and favorable current) we were doing 10 km/h, fully loaded!

# We have been lucky enough to see some amazing wildlife! Saw Humpback Whales from a distance several times, but on our last day kayaking we were just 100 meters from a pod (group) of Humpbacks, putting on a big show! They were jumping, blowing, splashing, and we were just sitting there in the water with them, absorbing everyting with big eyes! The day after we got picked up by the kayak rental company in Rose Harbour (southern part of the islands), in their Zodiac boat. And on the way back to civilization a big pod of dolphins came chasing us! They played in the swells from the boat, did bow-riding (swimming right under the front of the boat) and jumped up splashing at us as we were leaning over the boat trying to touch them. They were so close! We were doing 25-30 km/h and that was nothing for them! So awesome!

Bald eagles were as common a sight as seagulls in most other places. They would sit in the big trees just above and look down on us. Also say a bear strolling on the beach in the distance. And seals, sealions and a river otter!

# One of the old villages of the Haida people was on Hotspring Island. Hot water poured out of the ground from secret underground springs. They had built three pools to collect the water, and visitors could come there to soak. We had the whole place to ourselves (usually this is the most crowded place with 10+ people), and we took a long relaxing stop there. Soaking in the hot water and absorbing the warm sun that was shining on us. Beautiful day!

# The watchmen at the old villages sites were all really nice and welcoming. At one of the places, Windy Bay, they invited us and another couple that came there at the same time, to stay in their house and sleep in their extra bed. Very comfy! And the next morning they treated us to homebaked toast with butter and jelly - so good and what a difference to our daily oatmeal and powdered milk! :-)

# The last night we camped at Rose Harbour. It is an old whaling station, that is now a guest house/organic restaurant run by Susan and Gutz (german). Susan cooks all the meals, all organic from her own garden and from what she catches in the sea. We camped in their yard and ate dinner and breakfast. What a treat and great way to celebrate an awesome trip! The food was really yummy plentiful, so fresh! For breakfast we had crepes filled with rasberrys and homemade custard! While waiting for the Zodiac to come and pick us up, we went out with Susan to go fishing. Got some crabs in the cages she had put out the day before, and also caught a big Halibut! It was really fun! Too bad we couldn't eat what we had helped catching though, since we were going back that night. Definitely a place to come back to! Susan and Gutz have lived in this wilderness for 25 years, all by themselves, running the guest house in the summers. They were really great and unique people.

# Since we had heard about how the weather can be in the Queen Charlottes, and that we could easily have been blown in for five days at any point, we had loaded up with a small library. Three books each. But we hardly had any time for reading, cause of the beautiful weather. But we are not complaining! :-)

So yesterday we took the Inside Passage 15 hour ferry ride from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. Four days of biking awaits us, and then we will hike the West Coast Trail for a week. Then our adventure is coming to an end.... :-( back in Seattle around the 26th of August. So that will be the next time you hear from us. Until then...

Don't do anything we wouldn't have done! ;-)

Cheeers!

Emma and Scott

PS. Check the "kayaking bc" photogallery for pictures

From pedals to paddles!

emma-o-scott — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:26:00 GMT

Hey, we're back again !

2000 km completed by cycle and 1000 completed via train, we find ourselves (and our very stinky clothes) on the West Coast of northern BC in Prince Rupert, amid the rainforests, huge trees, and low-lying clouds (we are unlikely to complain about heat anymore...). We will now exchange our spandex, bike shoes, and pedals for life-jackets and paddles as we embark on a 10 day kayak expedition in Gwaii Haanas National Park on the Queen Charlotte Islands, a very remote and, some say, mystical set of islands.

We just got off a two day, 18 hour train ride across Canada where we finally relaxed and mostly just ate. (The train conductor could not believe two humans could eat this much). We composed a few notes while on the train and here they are ...

Among the places we Nomad's have slept in recent days are: alpine lakes with cirques and glaciers, turquoise colored rivers, alongside a busy railroad track in a field of purple fireweed, a road-side picnic area, a closed and gated campground (we had it all to ourselves-- for free!), a city park that was closed at 11 pm (but we set up our tent and climbed in at 10.45, that's OK, right?), a ski guide's luxury condo at Lake Loiuse (see below), and the baseball diamond in the (overpriced) city of Banff (after dark, of course). Some other random adventures/stories follow.

Since our last update, we left Fernie and rode north through the spine of the Canadian Rockies on gravel roads, XC ski trails, and single track. We have had some long and epic days, some up to 140 km on dirt roads and single track (not recommended for those of you with sensitive butts :-)

Happily no injuries to report - niether to our bikes or to us (Emma's knee is doing great, thanks for your concerns!). We have survived extreme weather as expected: hot desert-like temps, frost on the tent, and awesome displays of lightning, and pelting balls of hail. At Yoho National Park we stopped to do a hike and one evening Scott was watching far away lightening bolts hit a large glacier and ridge. He was rudely interupted when Emma came running back to camp while being followed by a wall of ice pouring from the sky (hail!), as she yelled -- as if describing an enemy attack -- "It's coming ! ! ! " Scott was pelted and wet within seconds before he even reached the tent's zipper.

On our way to Lake Loiuse a road biker passed us and started chatting. He asked if we had a place to stay that night in Lake Loiuse and before we could answer he offered his futon, a shower, and a pasta dinner. Before riding away he confirmed the obvious: "you guys drink beer, right?" The kindness of strangers strikes again. Thanks Bill !

Wildlife Update: About 10 days ago we rode a beautiful and little-travelled forest road and came across a Mamma black bear and her cub. They were only 20 meters ahead on the road and when we saw them (only a second after they first smelled us - they have poor sight, but can smell really well), they took off up the road and then across, giving us an awesome encounter. They say never come between a mom and her cub, but this mom left her cub and started running away first, not even turning to check on the little one ! ....Two days later, we were at a visitor center looking out over a grassy plain with 20 other people and a grizzly bear turned up and put on a show - how cool ! ....

"Incoming !" We woke up early one day and saw a huge moose in our campsite. We grabbed the camera and starting taking pics. Then he bounded through the campsite, brushing tents, and waking up all the campers. The only other guy awake to see this yelled "Incoming!" as we watched stunned campers start to unzip their tents! .... As we're spending most of the time worrying about bears, a little squirrel snuck up right under our nose while we were reading a book in the shade and silently ate through our dry bag and took our bread and other rations. Not so happy with these types of encounters...

We recently stopped to do another hike, an overnight backpacking trip into one of BC's most famous parks: Mt Robson. We rode 8 km of single track (legally !) with our gear to get there, then loaded our small day packs with the absolute bare (and bear) essentials for a backcountry over night: sleeping bags, tent, pad, cold food and clothes (no stove, too heavy!). We headed up through old growth cedar forest and thundering waterfalls to reach the Berg Lake. It's name comes from the icebergs that calve off the adjacent glacier and float through the turquoise waters. What an amazing evening !

We are running out of space and attention span, so we will wrap this up. We did forget to mention the incredible Icefields Parkway, billed as one of the World's Most Beautiful Road. All 230 km lived up to it's billing, but it's better you view the pictures than read our adjectives describing it -- See our gallery.

So we will be off paddling for the next 10 days, so expect an update when our ferry lands on the north part of Vancouver Island. Then we will be embarking on the home-stretch: a last cycle to the West Coast Trail - a 7 day wilderness Hike on the (wet and) wild West Coast of Vancovuer Island

Thanks and till next time: happy travels

PS: See "cycling bc 3" photo gallery for relevant pics....oh, we also added 5 new photos at the end of "cycling bc 2" gallery (we couldn't upload them previously).

PPS: to Scott's Mom: If you notice a black eye in the photos, don't worry. It was not Emma (I promise), I just lost a fight with a bungy cord :)

Fernie single track!

emma-o-scott — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:09:00 GMT

Hey yo all!

Time for a new update! Right now we are in Fernie, supposedly riding some single track... (see story further down for details). We still have a great trip in the blasting Canadian sun. It's hotter than hell!! Some hightlight stories will follow, again, in no particular order;

* Had a great day off in the Okanagan Valley. It was so good to just lay in the shade under a tree a read our books, eat cherries and just relax. Emma finished sowing the Swedish flag, so now we are once again flagging the blue and yellow off our BOB trailer. We get many coments and questions about it, and it even forces Scott to respond spontaneously to strangers who address him in Swedish :)

* A few days ago, wad a really epic day of 8 hours cycling time -- 14 hours total! Decided we would take a "short cut" over the mountains, instead of riding around them. So we arose at 5 am to try to beat some of the heat, but already it was pretty hot. Climbed over Gray's Creek pass, 1500 vertical meters over a distance of 22 km, with grades of up to 14% !! It was brutal! 40 degrees Celcious (110 F) and very little shade. The climbing time was 8 hours, with many rests along little creeks where we would plunge ourselves in the water to try to cool down, and 10 minutes later we would be all dry again! Many parts were so steep that we would have to get off our bikes and walk. But that's not much easier, pushing fully loaded bikes up loose gravel roads! Two thirds up we met a guy in his big truck, going downhill, who said "I would love to tell you that you are almost there, but you are not! Now comes the steepest part! It's too hot for this kind of stuff, you guys should turn back" That's not exactly what you wanna hear! But we made it! Scott says it's the hardest climb he has ever done, and he has done many hard climbes... Then we just had to bike another 95 km, both up and down hill! What made us keep going was the surprise that awaited at the goal...

* So the surprise was for Emma's 25th birthday the next day. A super super nice B&B in the ski resort town of Kimberly! And our first shower in two weeks! Boy did it feel good!! (well, we had washed in lakes and creeks along the way so we weren't totally stinking!) It was worth every painful pedal stroke at the end to get there. The next morning Emma woke up to a delicious pancake breakfast and a beautiful flower wreath that Scott had made (taking over the tradition from Emma's mom). We decided for a day off after our epic previous day. It was needed. The hosts were really nice so we got to borrow their porch and barbeque to make a great birthday dinner! (oh, and do some laundry :)

* To catch the days we were behind, we decided to cheat a little and took the Greyhound bus between Oliver and Christina Lake. We saved two days of riding. On the bus we met this really nice guy Jonathan, from Fernie, who invited us to come and camp in his back yard in Fernie and ride some single track on Fernie's famous trails! Right on! So five days later we showed up in Fernie. Jonathan and Melody are really nice and make us feel really welcome. They have a great backyard with lots of shade and with a view overlooking the Three Sisters (the famous mountain skyline of Fernie). Had a great barbeque last night, and another one is awaiting us tonight.

* Had a fabulous single track ride with them and their friends on the evening when we came in. It was getting a little cooler in the air, and the sun was setting behind the mountains turning the sky all pink. The trails were world class! Smooth and twisty and up and down, in and out between the trees. So awesome! The next day we set off on a full day of single track riding, just the two of us. Didn't get very far before Emma took a big digger in a super steep, loose gravel down hill. Flew over the handle bars with bike landing on top of her! Busted her knee and got quite a few big scratches. Luckily we could just roll down/limp off the hill (and saw a cool Moose on our way down), and when we got down to the road a nice girl stopped and took us to the hospital. Got an x-ray and luckily nothing was broken. Quite swollen and blue and red, but nothing serious. A few days off is good, said the doctor. It feels much better today, so hopefully we can ride north tomorrow.

* During a great section along the Kettle Valley Railway, we passed through a 1 km long tunnel that was pitch black and refreshingly cool. Again, the temps that day were over 35 C (100 F) so it felt great. Headlamps were mandatory.

* We camped one night at a lake that was rec'd by Jonathan - it was famous among locals because it had great cliffs to jump off into the turquoise (and deep) water. It was a great little place, but it did require a B.O.B. portage to get up the steep hiking trail. Once there, we met some other locals that were camping out and one had brought fireworks and the other had brought a twirling baton with fire on the end, so we got treated to a free "fire" show (yeah, given the fire danger, I'm guessing the Ranger wouldn't have approved it ...)

* We took our first ferry, crossing over Kootenay Lake - an extremely long and skinny lake that runs north-south in BC. The ferry was at 9.40 pm and we had a great sunset on the way over, enjoying the nice cool evening temps. That night we camped alongside the ferry terminal on a little hidden sandy beach that we found through the woods.

* Next up: Canadian Rockies. This is our most anticipated part of the trip. It includes the off-road Great Divide Route to Banff, then through Lake Louise, and the famous Icefield Parkway up to Jasper. We plan to stop for some hiking, swimming, and hopefully get our hands on some whitewater kayaks for some paddling. We will end this section in about 10 days in Prince George where we will catch the train out to the Coast at Prince Rupert (where we'll get the ferry to the Queen Charlotte Islands).

thanks for all the comments on the website, they are really fun to read ! Please keep them coming! Sorry we don't have time to respond to them all.

We're having trouble with pics, please enjoy the ones we did manage to get up under gallery "cycling bc 2"!

Take care and be safe, and we will try to do the same!

Emma and Scott

Day off in Canada's desert!

emma-o-scott — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 23:43:00 GMT

Hey!

500 km and we have arrived in Penticton in the desert of Canada! What, Canada has a desert, you ask ? Indeed, they grow some fine wines (which we will taste during our long-awaited day off tomorrow) and lots of ripe cherry trees !

We are having a great trip so far, with no major mishaps, and we are baking in the Canadian sun! Not a cloud for seven days!

A few random highlights of our trip so far (in no particular order) Check the "cycling bc 1" photo gallery for pics to go with this update.

* Yes, we have seen our first bear. It was from a distance and it appeared to be a Mom and her cub, it was a black bear, not a grizzly (luckily). They were just crossing our trail far ahead of us, so we waited awhile and then continued forward, singing and making lots of noises to avoid any surprises :)

* Speaking of singing, Emma has now taught me the Swedish National Anthem. What else are you going to do while pedaling and trying to make noise for the bears ? We also have bear bells and just bought a new horn for our bike - like one of those little ones you had on your bike when you were young and annoyed everybody in the neighborhood ...Our throats are tired of singing :)

* Enough about bears...we've meet some really cool and interesting people. We met a BC cycle tourer who showed us a short cut over to a campsite alongside some friendly homeless ex-loggers living alongside the river. They let us camp across from them on the gravel island. Required a bit of a portage, but it was cool spot.

* We also met a gold miner with an active claim along the Tulameen River, who let us camp on his beach (A claim gives you rights to all minerals found there but isn't quite the same as owning the land). He showed us how his "hobby" of gold mining costs him more than our hobby of cycling (he just bought a new mining machine for like $5,000). He also called himself the local beach caretaker at this nice bend in the river. The white sand beach was an inviting place for us to pull out our frisbee (and to pitch our tent for the night). He even broke out his chain saw and cut firewood, gave us two fold out chairs, and a table to enjoy dinner. What service ! (and no camping fee!)

* Unfortunatley, we had to ride the Highways in some places because our rail-trail had many bridges that were washed out. We hit the highway 3 separate times in the first 3 days and got 3 flat tires! We prefer gravel grades to 18-wheelers and glass-covered shoulders.

* After our first flat, we decided to carry our bikes up a steep ravine to escape the highway and ran into two French guys who were doing the same tour we were doing. We biked together for 3 days and shared good stories and suffered through some steep, sweaty climbs together. 48 hours later, we got another flat on the highway and said good-bye as they were continuing north and we were veering east to catch a rail-trail. Really great guys to hang with - in fact, they are promoting climate change during their ride. Check out their website: www.arctic2007.org

* You'll see in some of our pictures that we are flying the Swedish flag on the B.O.B. (for those of you not familiar, the trailer i'm towing behind my bike is called a Beast of Burden, or B.O.B. for short). However, in a sad turn of events, the flag hitched a ride in the wind and disappeared (I must have been bringing up the rear at the time b/c Emma didn't noticed until it was too late and we didn't have the energy to go back and get it). But ... there is a happy ending. Emma bought some fabric and started sowing a new flag last night and, given another night of sewing, we should be flying the blue and yellow again soon. Stay tuned for future pictures of our home-made version...

* (this is not in chronological order but...) On our first nite, we biked 8 miles from My sister's place in Seattle to the train station, hitched a ride 2 hrs north to Bellingham and got off the train at 9 pm. We had slept on the train and were totally exhausted from packing the previous 48 hrs (yes, it takes that long ...), so we just pedaled 200 meters over to a city park on the coast and pitched our tent. Camping was not allowed, but we didn't care. But we got our penalty ... twice. First, the sprinklers went on at 3 am, which jolted the tent HARD every 30 seconds for about 20 minutes. Second, we started hearing some loud motors and then we heard a guy yell, "Hey, you guys in the tent - we're coming through with lawnmowers in about 5 minutes. Just wanted to give you a heads up." We were packed and gone in 4 minutes :)

* We have been biking on an old rail bed through BC called the Kettle Valley Railroad. It's no longer active, but makes for some nice trails. There have also been some spectacular tunnels and trestle bridges. Unfortunately the trail is much tougher than we thought, with lots of big and loose gravel. So it's taking longer than we thought, and we are a little behind schedule. Hoping to catch it up soon as we are getting stronger!

*Finally, we have a passenger with us: "gulebjorn" ("Cute yellow bear" in Swedish) He's our yellow bear that was given to us by a friend from Tijuna, Mexico. It is a well-traveled bear and so far, he likes BC, too.

That's probably enough for you to read for now. Next up, is a day off to drink some wine and eat some cherries, and then we continue east toward the Rockies, with some stops at/near Mt Baldy, Castlegar, Nelson, Cranmore, Elko, then north on the Great Divide Mtn Bike Route to Banff. By then, we'll give another update.

happy trails to all !

scott and emma

we are off!

emma-o-scott — Sun, 1 Jul 2007 00:25:00 GMT

Wow! We are off! It’s been quite an ordeal to get everything in order, many trips to REI (a superbig and good US outdoor store for all Swedes that doesn’t know). Now we are finally done, and in two hours we are taking the train from downtown Seattle, north to Bellingham were we will camp tonite. From there on a big adventure awaits us! :-)

preparation and planning

emma-o-scott — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:00:00 GMT

Howdy! We are now working almost full time on the preparations and planning before the trip. It´s so exciting! Only a few days until we leave!

Here is our rough itinerary. Might change several times during the trip:

July 1st Start out from Bellingham, WA, crossing the border and then biking east on the Kettle Valley Railway bike trail. Approx. 2 weeks

July 16th Biking the Rocky Mountains on the Great Divide Mtnbike trail.

August 1st Kayaking the Queen Charlotte Islands for 8 days. Then taking ferry down the coast to Port Hardy, Vancoucer Island

August 13th bike Vancouver Island

August 19th hike the West Coast Trail on southwest Vancouver Island

August 25th Meet Kelly and Jon (Scotts sister and husband) in Vancouver city!

We will try to update out traveljournal at least once a week, but don´t really know about how often we can get to an internet café.

Out and over!

Emma & Scott