Don't Throw Your Life Away - Battling Marine Debris from Alaska to Panama

[Voyager3]

Solved by camping high above town. How can you be upset about not getting a free hotdog when you can pee with a view like this?





I even saved this little guy from drowning in windshield washer fluid. No one wants that.



Now there was a decision to be made. Here I was in Dawson City, and there's this road that folks like myself might like to take to Inuvik called the Dempster Highway, and now even further to Tuktoyaktuk. I could do it, or not do it. That's the simple version of it.

I wasn't worried about a Jeep with no name. But there was time to consider, the season, and what I would get out of it.

Besides the mixed reports about road and weather conditions, going above the arctic circle in Canada was something I thought I wanted to do.

You see, back when Sam was still in the picture we talked about the circle a lot. Before her dad passed away a few years ago, their dream was to get above the arctic circle in every country it went through. One of the countries they didn't manage to check off was Canada. I was happy to think about all the future trips we would take to finish that mission for him. I could go above the arctic circle in Canada, but I would be alone. Is that something I wanted?

I could go in honor of him and take a picture there to show where I was. But I could just as easily say to her and her family, "I'm up here in the great white north, I miss you and your whole family." But then that would be sad. I wasn't finding enough of my own reasons to go the imaginary line. I'm past experiencing the midnight sun, I'm not collecting patches, I don't need to get to one end of a road or another to "finish" something. I just want to be happy, and thinking about going to Tuk wasn't doing it for me.

So after many hours of thinking, I decided that wasn't part of my vision for this trip, that I could find other ways to see more of the Northwest Territories and I could spend some extra time on the coast when I got there. That's more my speed. So no Arctic Ocean excursion for Expedition Don't Throw Your Life Away. Plus, the road to Tuk has been open less than a year, how bad could it be? For those of you heading that way, remember to keep it nice. I'd like to see it someday.

So southeast it is, but not to Whitehorse, I've been there. I want to take the Robert Campbell Highway. Here is the mighty Yukon.











I even paid for a campsite at Drury Creek. THIS IS NOT A GARBAGE CAN. The correct receptacle was 40 paces away. I counted.

 

[Voyager3]

Of course all the wood was pretty wet, and the logs were bigger than I could process gracefully with just my hatchet. Maybe I should get a big ax, too. However, with my knife, ferro rod, a vaseline smeared cotton ball, and some literature generously donated weeks ago, I prevailed. And don't worry, it was the kind of literature with such lovely passage titles as "You are Debased", "You are Defiled", and "Hell is Fair". As the late Hitchens would say, "I refuse to be spoken to in that tone of voice" and so rather than think anymore about an eternal conscious torment in fire, I made myself a lovely fire to warm me into the night. And no, I'm not cooking logs for dinner, I figured it would help dry them out. I had soup, chicken noodle. Go figure.



The next morning we continued down the sparsely traveled Campbell. You'll notice I don't have many pictures of other vehicles, as there really weren't any.





But it was very pretty, and I'm getting the impression that fall is thinking about starting.





I am an advocate of sitting on your hood, especially when eating, or waiting for a ferry or something like that. Here in Canada I was remembering the time we ate on the hood down in Baja, the scratches from our sandy feet are still there. It was at this point I was going to post a picture eating a sandwich from the hood, but as I was doing so, I realized it looked mostly like an out of focus closeup of roast beef and turkey with bite marks in it already and what could be a lake in the background. I'll save you from having to look at that.

I do wish dragonflies flew higher up though. I have hit so many in the same places over and over and over.







So now my fellow travelers, what's at the south end of the Campbell Highway?

 

[Voyager3]

Yes, Watson Lake and the Sign Post Forest, which at least back in September of 2016 had 83,886. Now I've seen some pictures posted here of it, but I guess I just had no idea how huge it was.











I had a lot of fun at the Watson Lake visitor center. I watched a film about the building of the Alaska Highway, I noted on a map of the Yukon how far ahead of the curve I was on my trip east by not going to Tuk....



Yes, good. All the way at the bottom of the Yukon instead of the top, I'm in good shape. Then there's a map next to it. I'm still here.



Canada, eh? It's really big.

I also talked with a lady at the counter there for quite a while and got some tips on what to look for on the highway to Fort Nelson, and I'm very glad I did. But for the evening, I watched a show on the Northern Lights on a planetarium screen, thought about stuff and then found a spot on the side of the road to sleep in the back of my Jeep. Life was good, and the next day's drive brings us neatly back to the picture at the rapids, happy and loving what we're doing.

 

[Voyager3]

Here's a thing that happened on my birthday when I was 8







So if you talk to the visitor center lady like I did, she'll give you a rundown of what to expect on the road out towards Fort Nelson. One of those is Whirlpool Canyon. It's a good thing she told me about it, because what I had to work with was mileage as it was unmarked. Maybe that's a good thing. If you folks find yourself on this road, it's about 5 miles west of Coal River Lodge. Just a road on the south side, there's a stop sign and that's it. But pull in and there's a space with some litter bins and if you keep going, you end up here.



You might see a dog there if you brought one







But you won't see this sock because I put it in a litter bin. You'll again have to bring your own, but take it with you when you leave.



I would love to see this river when it's hustling, seems like it can be plenty powerful. Maybe it blew someone's socks right off?

 

[Voyager3]

Dad, are you coming, I think there's more on the other side



Ahh, my boy you're right. There sure is.







By now I will admit, I was running around on the rocks laughing. So what if my sleeping pad was still deflating and I don't sleep well, then forget about it during the day and never do anything about it. So what if i didn't go to Tuk. "No Matter Where" is still on my keys. You can be a giggling child no matter where because sometimes that where is here. Places like this exist. And I will go find them and make sure they don't have any socks or pipes on them.



Plus I have him, and he has me.



He seems to like what we do.



And so do I.



Not pictured, other few cans and bottle caps. And let's talk about litter bins for a moment. Canada I think is doing a better job at this. Litter bins on the sides of the roads and most pull-offs means less on the ground. I noticed how drastic this was going into Alaska the 1st, no 3rd time. Into the interior. When the bins disappear, you still have pull-offs, but now the bottles and cans and tissues and food wrappers and just get chucked into the forest on the side. Canadians are so against road litter that they will even tell you sometimes, when the next one is.





Thanks Canada

 

[Voyager3]

And pretty much to the mile, or kilometer rather, of where the lady said there would be bison....





And Smith River Falls is definitely something you should do. The walk is short, but if you don't heed the warning that the trail is steep, it'll be even shorter.



Yeah, you want to go down there, just watch out for fallen trees, and around here when they mean steep, they don't mean reconsider taking you baby stroller, they mean, use the rope.





But that part is over quickly and you spend just a few minutes walking along the river until....



You go play at the bottom of the falls. Again, primarily laughing, watching Crazy Bones play.







And remember to drink deep

 

[Voyager3]

Yes, there's still more to this day. I told you it was good. Liard Hotsprings. The lodge and campground area look fairly normal and busy with the kinds of weekend campers we try to avoid, but the springs have been kept natural and pristine since the 40s when the Alaska Highway came through. So you take a 10 minute walk on the boardwalk to preserve the warm marsh, and then have yourself a soak. And this isn't just some lukewarm pool. The spring end is experts call proper hot. Like 126 F. Good stop, $5 bucks gets you all day.







Afterwards I drove under another bridge, because as my dad might say, "Any idiot can drive over a bridge." He also used to make angled turns on occasion back when he used to drive me to school. "Any idiot can make round turns. It takes a real driver to make octagonal turns."





And I don't often show the behind the phone shots, but every now and then I suppose it's good



And then we passed by this little spot, which I gather is a small boat ramp. For us it was a spot to get Black and White Dog to look up at just the right moment for a photo.

 

[Voyager3]

Alright, let's keep going. We're this far in, let's finish the day. If you like folded mountains, there's this...



If you like neat colored rivers, there's this...



I was in a hurry at this point, so that's really all the commentary I gave myself. I heard there were cinnamon buns at one of the next stops. These peopl eheard there was fuel. We were both wrong because they had closed.



And so finally we roll into Fort Nelson. The sun is setting, the fields are glowing.



And we find another riverbed.



So that was that day, and I'll just jump straight in to the following morning. Trash day. Starting with a big shovel.



And a little shovel



Circles...



And squares





So far so good

 

[Voyager3]

Come on now, dogs run around here.



Alright campers, what do we think. Do we adhere to the pack it in pack it out thing, or do we leave our fire pits like this?









Folks, cans just really don't burn that well in a campfire



Campfire? I thought you said canfire.



This was probably still zest-able



And after all that, trying to burn cans, throwing a lighter in there, almost a dozen of those 6-pack rings, and all the other junk, they couldn't even manage to burn the pizza box. That should have been an easy one.

 

[Voyager3]

But then, after not too long, and not even that much effort....



It's now just a fire pit

But without all this junk





And so after spending all day at the visitor center in Fort Nelson writing yesterday's update, I rewarded myself with Eskimo donuts, went back to the riverbed for another sleep.



Along the way I found a big spent firework and a shoe. And then another shoe....



Don't mind the dirt on the inside of the door, it seems I open it with my boot a lot. Always learning things about myself.



And just when I thought, "why do I never find matching shoes?"



But there are no people.....what happened to the one full person, and the other half a person that were in those shoes.....



Hello?



Some things will remain a mystery. But now though, we're off towards Yellowknife. Hopefully there are more days ahead like these ones, and I will see you all later. Don't Throw Your Life Away.

 

[Riversdad]

Has your dog ever found a stick he didn't like? Great photos and good job cleaning up after the slobs.

 

[ITTOG]

Never in my life have I thought I should take off on a road trip and see the countryside. I hate to be in a car. I like to fly places and then explore. But, for the first time I feel like getting into the truck and heading NW. Wow, thanks for sharing your journey.

I saw reference you planned this trip for a year but I didn't see anything talking about how long this trip will last, do you have specific places you want to go, etc. Do you have those answers?

 

[Masonjar]

Love your writing... and the photos are amazing! Thanks also for cleaning up wherever you go.

 

[moderndaynorseman]

Awesome job on the cleanup! Whenever I camp somewhere, I always make sure to pack out more garbage than I came in with. It pisses me right off just how disrespectful others can be towards other users, let alone towards nature itself.

 

[Voyager3]

Has your dog ever found a stick he didn't like? Great photos and good job cleaning up after the slobs.

No he has not, only sticks he couldn't pick up. Like at the river beach back near Astoria Thank you!

Never in my life have I thought I should take off on a road trip and see the countryside. I hate to be in a car. I like to fly places and then explore. But, for the first time I feel like getting into the truck and heading NW. Wow, thanks for sharing your journey.

I saw reference you planned this trip for a year but I didn't see anything talking about how long this trip will last, do you have specific places you want to go, etc. Do you have those answers?

I appreciate that very much, I'm glad it's got you thinking. So I should clear this up now, while there was a chance something big was coming maybe as far back as July, I knew for sure I was going to be going on SOME trip really about last October. The original plan was just to head south into Central America with Sam Fall of this year. Last December that all changed, and it wasn't until the spring when I decided to go north first simply because I didn't want to be in Newport through the summer. I did not however make any plans for any of it other than north, then east, then south. There was no route planning, there was no research into places I might want to go, the fact that I still had snowboard boots in the car that I didn't get shipped back to my folks in Florida until I was at the top of Washington illustrates how little prep I did before leaving. I was donating other stuff I didn't get taken care of prior along the way. It was a matter of I had to get out and go, and I left before the folks that bought my bus even had it unplugged.

I think the trip, provided everything works out that is, should last until Expo West next year, I should be coming back out of Central America by then. But specifically, no. I usually don't know where I'm going until the day, and hardly ever know where I'm going to stay until I arrive.

Love your writing... and the photos are amazing! Thanks also for cleaning up wherever you go.

Thank you so much I'm doing my best

Awesome job on the cleanup! Whenever I camp somewhere, I always make sure to pack out more garbage than I came in with. It pisses me right off just how disrespectful others can be towards other users, let alone towards nature itself.

Thanks! It's good practice, we just need more people to have the same attitude.