June 29th, 2013

Dear blog followers,

I am almost to Alaska! I have been driving the most beautiful road I have ever seen, but it is a long one. I have been many hours behind the wheel through these incredible valleys full of wildlife. I finally have cell phone coverage and a decent internet connection to give you a quick update. I have lost track of bear’s encounters by now. Many black bears on the side the roads, big horn sheep, moose, caribou, etc. Beautiful lakes were followed by black water roaring rivers and large mountains. But by far the most impressive part of the road is the remoteness of it and the great distances between towns and gas stations. By now I think my car does not need gas to run because I have gone to the farther limits of the gas needle and still ran long enough to make it to the next gas station. You only need to come across an unplanned closed gas station and you better start praying for a celestial intervention on the Xterra gas consumption, I have got very lucky a couple of times.

I met another interesting individual on the road, a Check Nineteen year old mushroom picker… yeap, a young kid hitchhiking across Canada making some money picking morels mushrooms in the mosquito infested burnt forests of Canada, more to come on this subject, pretty interesting.

Tomorrow I plan to make it to Tok, Alaska, and the day after to Wrangler Saint Elias National Park, to the town of McCarthy. Once I get that deep into Alaska there will be no chance to get cell or internet so it might be a while before you hear from me. I am way behind on my video and images but I will get caught up after McCarthy; probably will spend a few days near civilization before my next adventure, a five day sea kayak trip in the Kenai Fiords at the end of July.

All is good, very excited to be so close to Alaska.

Carlos