The Real Story

Okay so today is August 17th, by the time I post this however, we will have already gotten home and surprised everyone. 

So let me bring you up to speed: We have been battling an ongoing issue with the van: it stalls every 70 miles or so and we have to let it sit to get it started again…or so we thought. We discovered that if we put gas in it, it will start back up and drive another 70 miles or so…but it runs rough. We have narrowed the problem down to debris building up in the gas tank (rust most likely) and clogging the screen that filters the hose leading to the fuel pump…therefore the gas cuts out. When we let it sit, the suction fades and debris falls away. Also when we put gas in it sloshes around and pushes the debris out of the way…either way  we haven't been covering a lot of miles. If we are on curvy roads or in town it seems that is enough sloshing to keep it free of debris. On Monday August 12th we finally left Vancouver, covered 800 miles or so and made it to the ALCAN by Tuesday morning. As we turned left onto the ALCAN (north) the van sputtered and died…Even the putting gas in trick didn't work. We turned the van around and roll started it down the hill (now heading South) towards town…started and ran like a top…we took a look at the bank account and made the executive decision that neither the van nor the trip bank account were going to get us to Alaska….

The van started working perfectly the second we turned South on the ALCAN…for about 1300 miles going strong now without a problem…we took it as a sign we just weren't meant to go any further north.

We headed down to Montana to start the journey home…we arrived in Glacier National Park on Thursday. We knew that our teacher (in so many ways) was in the area so we tried our darndest to connect with her, even checked every parking lot in the park! Friday we got a back country camping permit and hiked 6.3 miles in to our camping spot on the west side of Glacier near Kintla Lake. Beautiful hike. It was pretty tough since we only had school type backpacks to carry everything (sleeping bags, tent, stove, food, water, clothes and such). 

We arrived at our campground hung our food (due to bears) and met out neighbors. About 30 minutes after arriving we spotted a black bear walking down the shore about 150 yards away heading right towards us. The bear veered off into the woods so we got off the shore and stood in our campsite with our neighbors completely still…the bear walked through our campground about 40 yards from where we were standing! Managed to get some video of it!

That evening some more neighbors showed up and we all conversed. In the back-country you have to prepare meals in the food hanging area so if a bear comes into the campground looking for food it wont bother everyone sleeping in tents in a separate area. So around 5pm everyone is making food in the same area.  We sat around the campfire that evening chatting and talking about the trip. (Note: every other person there had kayaked in..we were the only ones who hiked. so they had lots of pots and pans and even made brownies in a dutch oven…we ate beans…haha). Everyone we met was really down to earth and very friendly….great experience. 

On the hike out on Saturday some people told us they saw two more black bears on the trail, but we didn't spot them. It is now Saturday afternoon and we still haven't connected with Goulet. We are doing some laundry and then we will head east towards Canada (cutting through the Great Lakes is shorter than driving around them). We will stop in Montreal and Quebec and then be home!…Of course that part has already happened as your reading this…:)

-Adam

Where we swam in Lake Superior

The Fix