Driving Sir Jude: An Arctic Adventure.

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My 11 year old son and I are on our way to Inuvik on the Arctic Ocean. I'm going to try to up date as much as possible but it's been proving harder that I thought.

Our first leg was from Portland Oregon to Palouse Washington. I always love that drive and I really love Palouse Washington. I'm able to update Instagram and Facebook easier than this site. Please follow us on instagram (lenzworks) and Facebook (nathan lenz).

Here's one of Palouse and a perfect add for non refrigirated milk with Jude (my son).

 

[Walrus]

Looking forward to updates. How much time are you panning to take to reach your destination? I'll be heading to Inuvik on Jul.9

 

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we are planning a month. it's a lot harder to update on the road that I thought. The Wifi connections here are really slow. Painfully slow. I think I will be doing a final trip report upon our return I'm in Whitehorse now at a hotel doing laundry and need to attend to some hygiene issue. Solar shower will be a added item in future trips. It's been a great trip with my son and I feel completely blessed. There have been some fights but we both knew that would happen before we left.

 

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The beginning.

Nothing flew of the FJ. I count that as a success

We have discovered some packing/organizational issues, but those will be easily solved. I will say that the ARB fridge and dual battery system (thanks Landcruiser Northwest and Dirty Parts) is working great. No more FREAKING COOLERS! The rigid boxes that I found mentioned somewhere here, are also really great, everything in one spot and easily accessible. I really like those, I’ve always tossed my stuff in duffle bags and things always were hard to find.

We had a nice evening last night with supper consisting of grilled cheese with sandwich meat added as a special surprise.

The old colman stove is still an a beautiful stove. No canisters and always starts.



We strolled around camp to see if there was anything photographic. Not much here other that Jude.



We both were in bed early and slept well. Jude is a great traveling partner.

When Jude and I decided to do this trip we also decided that we wouldn’t have an advance plan, so in the evening we decided our route for tomorrow.

Looking at the map to figure out the next leg of our trip.



We did discover a stowaway.



He absolutely would not be left behind on this trip.

 

[unkamonkey]

It is sounding like you are having a wonderful trip and figuring things out as you go. That's part of the fun. I can recall all of the trips I did I did with my parents. I have a Zebra toy velcroed to the dash board in my motor home. It nods to me as I drive. I didn't plan it that way but it also tells me where the right side of my motor home is if I'm on a narrow bridge. I just got lucky when I stuck it on the dash. I laugh and refer it as my guard Zebra. Maybe you need to glue a toy up there?

 

[smlobx]

Sounds like a great rip.
Looking forward to more updates...

 

[paj54]

Are you continuing up to Tuk? Be shame to go all that way and not dip your toes in the Arctic Ocean? It is no longer an ice road, the all season road was finished in April. Will be heading up the Dempster in September. Have fun.

 

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The saga continues to Flathead Lake, Montana.

I'm sorry to not have updated this more often. I discovered that internet in Canada is painfully slow to the point I couldn't even access this site most of the time. Lesson learned.

The drive from Washington to Flathead lake was pretty spectacular. I've always loved how the scenery can change in just a small distance from Palouse to Spokane to Montana. The mountains, trees, streams and clouds alway make me thankful to be alive. It is in nature that I feel the closest to God.



Jude has discovered a new way to sleep in the car.



Flathead Lake was not like I remembered it as a kid. It's changed or I've changed. It has become a big partying place with kids crying all night while the parents are drinking around the fire and just yelling "go to sleep" or my personal favorite "don't make me come into the tent or you'll be sorry". We made the best out of it and still had a good time.



This image was where one of the partiers slept. I had visions of Breaking Bad.


Jude and I are developing our routine. I do everything while he constantly asks for something to eat. Just kidding, well kind of.... His main job is to set up the sleeping mats and bags. He has already begun his dislike with thermarests. This is the reason I want a trailer and RTT. His other duty is to get the fire started. He's become very good at it.



Even with our not so nice campsite we still went for a little hike after supper. The hours of daylight are increasing already.

Jude shot a nice image of the sunset.



Our stowaway (Flash) and I will be having some issues if his attitude doesn't improve.



I bought a special bottle of scotch to open on my first night in Montana since I was born and spent my first 14 years of my life in Livingston. Flash was not letting me to my scotch bottle.

 

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Off to Glacier

We left a little later in the morning than I wanted, but the drive for today wouldn’t be that long or difficult. We stopped for lunch or in Jude’s case a second breakfast.
I had the infamous Montana Pasty, boy was that good, yet a gut bomb.
I think this double breakfast might be the trend. I will say that boy has a hollow leg.



We got into Glacier around 4PM and found a campsite at Fish Creek Campground. We had some confusion about how to pick a site. Most places I’ve been to you find a spot and then fill out the form and deposit it. Not here, you need to get a campsite from the ranger before hand. Luckily, we got the last campsite. The camping gods are smiling on us.



On the table is all the camping equipment we brought.



The FJ is still clean.


We met a nice 24 year old (Kaitlin) who happened to work for the parks service doing trail maintenance.

We got camp setup and within in moments the sky turned grey and rain was coming. I quickly got the tarp up in the nick of time. Kaitlin was about to spend the night either in the car or her tiny backpacking tent. Jude and I invited her to share our tarp and fire.



Kaitlin and Jude bonding over a comic book.

She enjoyed our shelter and she became our camp guest for the night. Jude and her really hit it off when the discussion of comic books came up. The spent the next hour arguing about the merits of Flash vs Green Lantern. I heard “blah, blah, blah” I was never into comics as a child and never have gotten into them.

I really think that some of the nicest people can be found in campgrounds or on the road.

We made some supper and fed Kaitlin so she didn't have to eat her can of peaches and handful of gorp. After supper Jude and I went for a walk and took some pictures. It's so nice not having electronics and just hiking, photographing and talking. This is what Overlanding is all about.



Jude taking pictures of the FJ.



Jude in all his glory.





Lake McDonald in Glacier.

Later that night I found Flash guarding the wine and scotch.

 

[OutOfBounds]

Looks like a fun trip.

Flash seems like he's kind of a ********... :squint: