My Journey
- Thread starter YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
- Start date
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
tgil.....thanks so much.....it's wonderful to have you following along.....
vintageracer.....I miss the cabin daily.....I'm thinking of going home.....as well as thinking of not going home.....
mekcanix.....yep the travels are good but there's always the struggle.....the love of the mountain summits & the simple wildness of the wilderness.....then there's the easy life living in a small cabin in Montana.....always the struggle.....
Ace.....Tanner is just a natural for the summit shots. I swear he poses as soon as we make the summit. Trapper could care less. Sorry about the health issues.....
JD.....thanks.....it's always my pleasure to share. Your post is a great lead in..... because my journey actually started decades ago.....but only a decade ago here on XP. On Xmas day I was once again daydreaming & watching Alone In The Wilderness.....the life of Richard Proenneke.....and it hit me that I actually lived & worked right where this guy lived as he lived at Twin Lakes and I lived & worked out of Illiamna Lake. A Google search told me that we lived 71 miles apart.....so odd that after all these decades that I would finally realize that we were darn near neighbors.....
So I thought it might be interesting to share more of my pictures.....nearly 40 of my photos.....of My Journey when it was near it's beginning.....some of these pictures I've posted before.....many of them I have not. So once again I revisit a trip to Alaska.....a long, long time ago.....I hope you enjoy.....
Here's my Jeep that took me north.....I had worked for 6 months saving enough cash to make the drive to Alaska from the Pacific Northwest.....prior to that I had worked in Wyoming to save enough cash to make it to the Pacific Northwest.....
Driving the Al-Can Highway.....I believe these pictures were taken in British Columbia.....also could be the Yukon Territory.....
Me with my home on wheels.....
One of the knuckleheads that I traveled with posing at The Mighty Fraser signpost along the highway.....
Living at a friends' cabin in Alaska.....
Those were the days my friends.....here we're towing my friend's motorhome out to a paved highway during a spring thaw.....miles & miles of towing.....but then.....those really were the days.....
vintageracer.....I miss the cabin daily.....I'm thinking of going home.....as well as thinking of not going home.....
mekcanix.....yep the travels are good but there's always the struggle.....the love of the mountain summits & the simple wildness of the wilderness.....then there's the easy life living in a small cabin in Montana.....always the struggle.....
Ace.....Tanner is just a natural for the summit shots. I swear he poses as soon as we make the summit. Trapper could care less. Sorry about the health issues.....
JD.....thanks.....it's always my pleasure to share. Your post is a great lead in..... because my journey actually started decades ago.....but only a decade ago here on XP. On Xmas day I was once again daydreaming & watching Alone In The Wilderness.....the life of Richard Proenneke.....and it hit me that I actually lived & worked right where this guy lived as he lived at Twin Lakes and I lived & worked out of Illiamna Lake. A Google search told me that we lived 71 miles apart.....so odd that after all these decades that I would finally realize that we were darn near neighbors.....
So I thought it might be interesting to share more of my pictures.....nearly 40 of my photos.....of My Journey when it was near it's beginning.....some of these pictures I've posted before.....many of them I have not. So once again I revisit a trip to Alaska.....a long, long time ago.....I hope you enjoy.....
Here's my Jeep that took me north.....I had worked for 6 months saving enough cash to make the drive to Alaska from the Pacific Northwest.....prior to that I had worked in Wyoming to save enough cash to make it to the Pacific Northwest.....
Driving the Al-Can Highway.....I believe these pictures were taken in British Columbia.....also could be the Yukon Territory.....
Me with my home on wheels.....
One of the knuckleheads that I traveled with posing at The Mighty Fraser signpost along the highway.....
Living at a friends' cabin in Alaska.....
Those were the days my friends.....here we're towing my friend's motorhome out to a paved highway during a spring thaw.....miles & miles of towing.....but then.....those really were the days.....
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YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Working in and near the Lake Clark National Park & Preserve.....
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Working in and near the Lake Clark National Park & Preserve.....(continued).....
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Working in and near the Lake Clark National Park & Preserve.....(continued).....
My good friend & travel buddy walking along my side in the mountains of Alaska.....
Eventually we moved on to work in Denali National Park.....and eventually I returned to the Pacific Northwest where I traded in the rig for this.....
.....and a one man tent.....oh man.....those were the days my friends.....
My good friend & travel buddy walking along my side in the mountains of Alaska.....
Eventually we moved on to work in Denali National Park.....and eventually I returned to the Pacific Northwest where I traded in the rig for this.....
.....and a one man tent.....oh man.....those were the days my friends.....
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Arjan.....thanks.....I may have a few more months of travel left in me but not much more than that I think.....
halseyt.....thanks.....yea, I enjoy my Those Were The Days My Friends posts too. I hope to eventually post pictures here on XP of my time in the Peace Corps working in the jungle and traveling & exploring in an old Defender in the Andes. I've posted a few pictures in the past but most of my photographs are in slides so I've got to transfer them somehow (that's assuming that they are still in a good condition). I've also got some great Grizzly Bear pictures to post here from a trip up north which I took in the early 2000's.....
I remember the morning we left the Mormon Mountains perfectly.....I didn't really want to go. During our entire 5 day stay there we saw one person in one truck.....and that alone was amazing.....
We drove south along the highway headed to our next planned destination which was the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.....and our first stop of the day was at Rogers Spring.....
I've spent far too much time camped at this lake and I actually surprised myself that I ended up here again this year.....I think I just know it too well by now.....
That being said, I didn't know Rogers Spring.....I'd never stopped here before.....
This is not a hot spring.....at best it's a warm spring.....I decided to have a soak as it'd been nearly a week since a hot shower and I was due for a rinse. A bit of a surprise were the small fish that I saw.....
Part of me felt like I shouldn't have been in that water (due to the fish & the small area).....and part of me felt like it was no big deal as this spring really pumps out the water.....400 gallons per minute.....
The remains of Lake Mead can be seen in the background.....which would be our next destination.....
halseyt.....thanks.....yea, I enjoy my Those Were The Days My Friends posts too. I hope to eventually post pictures here on XP of my time in the Peace Corps working in the jungle and traveling & exploring in an old Defender in the Andes. I've posted a few pictures in the past but most of my photographs are in slides so I've got to transfer them somehow (that's assuming that they are still in a good condition). I've also got some great Grizzly Bear pictures to post here from a trip up north which I took in the early 2000's.....
I remember the morning we left the Mormon Mountains perfectly.....I didn't really want to go. During our entire 5 day stay there we saw one person in one truck.....and that alone was amazing.....
We drove south along the highway headed to our next planned destination which was the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.....and our first stop of the day was at Rogers Spring.....
I've spent far too much time camped at this lake and I actually surprised myself that I ended up here again this year.....I think I just know it too well by now.....
That being said, I didn't know Rogers Spring.....I'd never stopped here before.....
This is not a hot spring.....at best it's a warm spring.....I decided to have a soak as it'd been nearly a week since a hot shower and I was due for a rinse. A bit of a surprise were the small fish that I saw.....
Part of me felt like I shouldn't have been in that water (due to the fish & the small area).....and part of me felt like it was no big deal as this spring really pumps out the water.....400 gallons per minute.....
The remains of Lake Mead can be seen in the background.....which would be our next destination.....
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Our stop at Rogers Spring was brief.....from here we took a drive down to Lake Mead.....and just for a change of pace I decided to visit an area of the lake which we had never seen before.....Echo Bay.....
Oh man were those dogs ready for a swim.....
I was astonished to see the current low level of the water.....it's almost hard to believe how much it's dropped in just this past year.....
The dogs had certainly found their bliss.....hiking & climbing is great.....but swimming is their real treat in life.....
Best friends forever.....
Oh man were those dogs ready for a swim.....
I was astonished to see the current low level of the water.....it's almost hard to believe how much it's dropped in just this past year.....
The dogs had certainly found their bliss.....hiking & climbing is great.....but swimming is their real treat in life.....
Best friends forever.....
AbleGuy
Officious Intermeddler
Looking through those enticing pictures of Alaska was kind of like the visual equivalence of eating a quick lunch at a Chinese restaurant…very enjoyable but later being left hungry for more.
More of the background, more of the story behind those scenes.
That period of your young life when times were so very different…especially up there in the untamed tundra, looks like it was very raw and wild experience for you. It’d be really great for you to add some more detail to that bit of your history when have time to write more.
And please don’t shy away from sharing the interesting specifics. After all, many of us in this generation were pretty wild at that age in those unrestrained days of adventure. With the passage of these intervening years, hopefully folks would no longer feel reluctant to share some of those tall tales of our more dissolute youth.?
More of the background, more of the story behind those scenes.
That period of your young life when times were so very different…especially up there in the untamed tundra, looks like it was very raw and wild experience for you. It’d be really great for you to add some more detail to that bit of your history when have time to write more.
And please don’t shy away from sharing the interesting specifics. After all, many of us in this generation were pretty wild at that age in those unrestrained days of adventure. With the passage of these intervening years, hopefully folks would no longer feel reluctant to share some of those tall tales of our more dissolute youth.?
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Riversdad
Active member
I agree completely. Jerry, the more Alaska pictures you give us the more I'll want. I look at any and all things Alaska and my first trip is planned for August.
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
Able Guy....I get what you're saying here and I'll tell you, in my defense I guess you could say, is that one of my goals is always to limit my words as much as possible but not my pictures.....sometimes probably to a fault. I have so many stories that I could tell from those days back then.....probably best told around a campfire. Maybe I'll tell that story here one day.....but right now I'm damn near a month behind on this one.....
Riversdad.....I hope you share your travels here.....my biggest disappointment with XP is that most members no longer post about their travels and that's about all I really ever liked about XP.....
That evening we continued driving south.....30 miles further down the highway.....we pulled into Government Wash (Point).....which is the large, trash filled, dispersed camping area at the southeast end of Lake Mead.....I was really curious what this place would look like this year as last year a Park Ranger had told me that this place was getting a complete redo over the summer months so I was expecting to see something new & exciting.....but nope.....the National Park Service had not done one single thing here.....
But there was one big difference this year & it was good.....now that the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have mostly passed, the huge crowds of people are gone. My estimate is that there's at least a 75% reduction in rigs camped here (this is pretty much consistent with what I'm seeing just about everywhere I've camped).....
We only planned to stay that one night so I really wasn't too picky about our campsite (what a mistake that was !).....it didn't even occur to me when I parked my rig that I could have picked the worse spot possible.....oh that school bus seen in the background.....
I just don't get people that bring construction generators to campsites.....then turn them on late at night & then run them ALL night (as that school bus did).....what a contrast that night was compared to those quiet nights spent in the Mormon Mountains.....
The following day we were out of there early and we continued driving south with plans to climb more mountains along the Colorado River.....we didn't quite make it to our next planned destination that day so we spent that night here.....
.....at the Boulder City Dry Lake Bed.....all alone once again.....
Riversdad.....I hope you share your travels here.....my biggest disappointment with XP is that most members no longer post about their travels and that's about all I really ever liked about XP.....
That evening we continued driving south.....30 miles further down the highway.....we pulled into Government Wash (Point).....which is the large, trash filled, dispersed camping area at the southeast end of Lake Mead.....I was really curious what this place would look like this year as last year a Park Ranger had told me that this place was getting a complete redo over the summer months so I was expecting to see something new & exciting.....but nope.....the National Park Service had not done one single thing here.....
But there was one big difference this year & it was good.....now that the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have mostly passed, the huge crowds of people are gone. My estimate is that there's at least a 75% reduction in rigs camped here (this is pretty much consistent with what I'm seeing just about everywhere I've camped).....
We only planned to stay that one night so I really wasn't too picky about our campsite (what a mistake that was !).....it didn't even occur to me when I parked my rig that I could have picked the worse spot possible.....oh that school bus seen in the background.....
I just don't get people that bring construction generators to campsites.....then turn them on late at night & then run them ALL night (as that school bus did).....what a contrast that night was compared to those quiet nights spent in the Mormon Mountains.....
The following day we were out of there early and we continued driving south with plans to climb more mountains along the Colorado River.....we didn't quite make it to our next planned destination that day so we spent that night here.....
.....at the Boulder City Dry Lake Bed.....all alone once again.....
YukonMontanaTannerTrapper
Explorer
We set up our next camp somewhere along Highway 95 on a wide open piece of lonely BLM land.....spent a quiet night camped there, and then headed out late the following day.....it was a crisp, breezy morning that day as we headed out to climb in the El Dorado Mountains.....
I often struggle with directions while traveling on unmarked BLM roads since I have no odometer on the Jeep.....directions are most often useless to me. Unfortunately (or maybe it was fortunately.....I'm still not too sure) we started this climb quite a few miles from the suggested "trailhead" which meant that we had a really, really long day of hiking in the El Dorado Mountains.....
The goal for the day was to summit two named mountains and to enjoy the amazing views of the Colorado River to the east.....and of Mohave Lake to the southeast.....
Initially it seemed like we'd be hiking a ridgeline but it didn't take long to realize that we'd actually be climbing one minor peak followed by yet another.....and another.....
It almost seemed as though each unnamed minor peak that we climbed was just a bit higher than the previous one that we had just climbed.....
I often struggle with directions while traveling on unmarked BLM roads since I have no odometer on the Jeep.....directions are most often useless to me. Unfortunately (or maybe it was fortunately.....I'm still not too sure) we started this climb quite a few miles from the suggested "trailhead" which meant that we had a really, really long day of hiking in the El Dorado Mountains.....
The goal for the day was to summit two named mountains and to enjoy the amazing views of the Colorado River to the east.....and of Mohave Lake to the southeast.....
Initially it seemed like we'd be hiking a ridgeline but it didn't take long to realize that we'd actually be climbing one minor peak followed by yet another.....and another.....
It almost seemed as though each unnamed minor peak that we climbed was just a bit higher than the previous one that we had just climbed.....