#14 - Into the Wild
Start by taking an atlas and looking where Whitehorse is. It is the city from where we write this 14th article. We give you a clue: it is in the Yukon, the most western region of Canada. If you're lazy, you can just write down Whitehorse on Google Maps: it is the most remote place we have ever been to! This week was the richest in adventures from the beginning of our journey: a week without comfort but with impressive and sometimes frightening freedom.
A little bit of help!
In Seattle, we finally have not been able to work as a caddy. The operators of the superb golf of Chambers Bay, who are preparing to receive the US Golf Open in a month, finally refused to take the risk of making work two inexperienced French guys, preferring local youth. However, we helped one of Ian's brothers to work in the garden of his new house, enabling us to save some money for future adventures. Again, our encounters take us further that where we expected to go!
The Barry's family in Seattle
On Tuesday morning, we start our ride to the north. Before leaving, anxious to remain legal, we stop to register our car in the Washington State. In the waiting room, Jules passes the time by talking about the project to its neighbor Nancy, a air hostess for 18 years for Delta Airlines. Passionate about our adventures, Nancy decides to help us, and gives us 20 dollars before ensuring that if we have any problem we should contact her, wherever we are in North America. Speechless, we accept the help of this woman whose gesture will remain long in our memories.
We then go through the border without incident: a new country for the Travelling Farmers! We arrive in Vancouver in the afternoon, last step we have before the huge drive. We put our sleeping bags on the sofas of Arthur and Clemence, two students from our business school as exchange students. We enjoy this warm night and the shower the next morning before leaving - after buying food for the next few days.
With our French friends from Vancouver
Looking forward to beginning, we start our first day of driving: the plains are getting immense as we get to the north, and the first mountains are showing up in the late afternoon. We stop at a lake where we eat some vegetables and a tin of salmon before slipping into our sleeping bags (2 per person) and spending the night in the car.
We are moved to wake up in such a place: alone, in the middle of the cold vastness of Canada. A bald eagle, the emblem of the United States flies over the lake, a fly fisherman is casting in silence. The scene is beautiful.
Looking at the map, we realize that we are still in a relatively civilized area, and we still have a huge way to go.
We get back on the road and ride all day through valleys dominated by snowy mountains. We see caribou and even two brown bears at the edge of the road. Barely awakened from their hibernation, they can be dangerous because hungry and we do not stop. The further north we go the more we sink into the beautiful landscapes: the lakes are frozen, the edges of the road are snowy, and civilization is discreet. Our new game is to count the time between two cars we meet. Although we rush at 90 mph (shaking our old car), we sometimes only see four vehicles per hour!
We stop again close to a lake and eat before reinstalling us in our home on wheels. We notice that the days are longer as and as we go north: night now falls at 10pm and even at 3am the night is very clear. We approach the pole.
We drove non-stop for two days and we have at least 4 days left to reach Anchorage, Alaska. It seems the concept of space is different here than elsewhere, and - it's a strange feeling - time seems to slow down with the immensity. Nature seems frozen: even water, frozen, no longer flows. This immensity clear of any human trace is beautiful, but we realize that it can quickly become frightening.
We leave for our third day on the road when the engine starts making odd noises. Yet we have plenty of gas ... The car finally stops in the middle of a straight line that seems endless and looking at the map we realize that the nearest garage is two hundred miles away! We stop passing cars and a mechanic engineer gives us a pretty clear diagnosis: our engine is dead and given the age of the car, repairing it does not make sense.
After a few minutes of reflection, faced with this unexpected situation, we decide to abandon the car here and head back north with Jeremy, who stopped to help us and offers to take us in his car. He plans to do seven hundred miles in the day. We take the essential and leave the accessory in the car, we unscrew our license plates and we leave towards the north with Jeremy.
Unable to stay there, we decide to take this option. It's not the ideal situation, but we do not want to risk a night in a car that does not start. Besides, Whitehorse (the city where Jeremy wants to go) seems big enough for us to find accommodation.
We spend ten hours with Jeremy and have the opportunity to discuss with him about Canada and its northern territories: a vast desert that gets packed in the summer by fishermen, hunters, miners and that gets empty in the winter because of the huge cold (-40°) that freezes all form of life.
On the road with Jeremy!
As we enter the Yukon, the most western region of Canada, the landscapes are breathtaking: huge snowy mountains, frozen lakes of sight, pine forest ... This decor is sometimes almost scary as we imagine we would not survive a night in such a desolate and wild environment. Only thirty thousand people live in this territory that is nearly as big as France is.
Always the road
We arrive at 11pm - but it's still light – at Whitehorse where we take a bed in a backpackers hostel. We do not like to pay to sleep, but we're exhausted, it's really cold outside and we have to rest to consider how to follow our adventure without a car. Indeed, we have over a thousand miles until our arrival point and we do not consider running a marathon a day for a month.
Although, despite the adverse circumstances, we kept smiling all day long, our good mood falls slightly once in the hostel. Everyone on our side, we are invaded by a surge of anxiety, certainly correlated to fatigue. It is easy to describe ourselves as adventurers when basic comfort is assured. It was easy to compare ourselves to Dean Moriarty (On the Road) and Alexander Supertramp (Into the Wild) as we had a car to sleep and move us. But now we have nothing, what do we do? Where will we sleep tomorrow, how are we going to Alaska?
A more difficult adventure awaits us, we are aware of that. But the next morning, after a good night's sleep, we feel ready. As we have done for the past three months, we will rely on our mood and energy to help us make beautiful encounters that will allow us to live in Alaska as we had dreamed we would.
We start by visiting Whitehorse, capital city of the former gold rush that inspired Jack London. The atmosphere is strange: we feel that this small community is isolated from the rest of the world and the people who live there are real pioneers. The statues in the streets show gold diggers with their dogs and are dedicated "to all those who pursue their dreams."
While we are about to order something to eat in a cafe a woman approaches us and talks to us in French. After living in Paris, Danièle lived in Canada for the past 23 years, and for twelve years in Whitehorse. We tell her our adventures and she agrees to host us for the night! Again providence smiles at us when we need it most, even if things do not go as we planned, we just go where adventure leads us. “Grandma” as we call her takes us around the city and invites us to have dinner in a typical burger restaurant of the city.
Luck seems to be with us, but a lot of new unforeseeable adventures await us next week. We have no idea from where we’ll write to you next Sunday.
We hope you will have a wonderful week, and we’ll be back next Sunday!