To the Yukon and Beyond

Alaska we are finally on our way! August 15, 2026

After 4 years of talking about it, one crashed van and a project pivot, we are finally making this adventure happen. Dropped Tazzie on Sauvie Island with the lovely Violet in charge and we were off at first light on Saturday, August 15th.

Our first day was planned to be a big travel day to get across the border and settle into driving the Sea to Sky Highway. First big stop, the US/Canada border. We waited about 40 minutes but were greeted by some very cheerful protesters who wished a safe and fun journey. We packed very carefully and read all the info on what we could and could not bring into Canada. Pulled up to our agent and all he asked was where we were heading in Canada and what did the rest of our journey look like. 30 seconds and we were across. Darn it, I should have packed more wine!

Our very friendly protesters at the border

Several hours later we arrived at our first stop, Whistler BC. Fun to see this area in the summer as the last time we were here was winter of 1999. Took Cameron and Taylor to Whistler and Blackcomb for some snowboarding lessons. Taylor loved telling everyone that she’d skied the black oggals at Blackcomb! Campsite was very close to town so we took a nice walk after arriving to treat ourselves to dinner. Along the walk we enjoyed the signage and wondered did it matter if you were traveling uphill vs downhill when you encountered the bear?

Day 2 – August 16th

Up early and decided to explore the mountain biking around Whistler – the Nordic trails become mountain bike trails. After we realized we’d ridden around it basically two big circles, we decided maybe we should try to knock off another body of water. Headed out to Alta Lake #95 before the crowds came and were able to circumnavigate the whole lake before the winds picked up. Discovered a very fun paddle called the River of Golden Dreams, sadly it was rather low and as we met up with some other paddlers were told it would take over two hours to navigate and we’d need to have a ride back, opted to turn around and head back to grab some groceries for the next leg of our journey. Learned an expensive lesson after we received a parking ticket for taking up two parking stalls with our “long” van :(. Thankfully, the dollar is stronger than the looney!