Hello All,
I hope all’s well in your world. Things are rolling along in
my world after stops to visit a couple of friends (1 in Madison WI and the
other in Saginaw, MN) that I hadn’t seen for 3+ decades. Besides renewing
friendships, each of my friends helped me (or rather I helped them) to make
modifications to my adventure mobile to improve storage capacity. I think I’m
finally done touring regional and local hardware stores, Target and Walmart,
looking to find exactly what I needed to modify various spaces. Many purchases
and returns later, I think (maybe) I’m finally almost done (??) with
modifications and can focus on travel and play.
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| The closet, meant for hanging clothes in, now has shelves for food. |
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| Pegboard lets me hang things; missing is the bulky power cord, but it fits too. MUCH nicer! |
I confess to still being a little intimidated by all the
bells and whistle of my rolling home. But I’m gradually learning (some things
the hard way) many of its functions. I didn’t have to stop and read the
instructions by the 3rd time I stopped to dump the gray and black
water tanks and refill the water. I got out some warmer clothes and my down
sleeping bag when I got to MN in case it got too cold at night (I’d been
wearing shorts and tank tops until a few days ago with a very light blanket on
my bed), but I have yet to use my van’s heater.
I’ve put about 1300 miles on. The van is heavy (~3500 lbs)
but drives quite nicely. The gas mileage hasn’t stabilized yet, which I
understand is a normal thing for breaking in a new engine (I’m averaging about
15mpg but I’m told it can get up to 19).
As for van life, it’s handy to have everything with me as I
cruise along. I get back from a sweaty hike and I can sponge off (or shower if
I want) and change clothes as soon as I get to my vehicle. If nature calls and
there’s no rest stop handy, I can just pull over and use my van’s facilities. I’ve
camped in the driveways of my friends’ houses, alongside quiet gravel roads, at
trail heads, at a couple of camp grounds, and in 1 RV park; the latter because
it was only $10 more to camp for the night with electricity and dump my tanks
for ‘free’ than it would have been to pay to dump my tanks.
I am very happy to have a 100-watt solar panel on top of my
van that enables me to camp off grid. There’s a plug in for a 2nd panel
up there, but the space is tight because I’ve got the kayak racks, fan/roof
vent, and air conditioner up there. But I might try to squeeze another panel in
up there to extend my off-grid stays. Not that I know how long they can be with
my current 100W set up…
With the visiting and working on modifying my van (and a few
days of torrential downpour that altered my plans) I haven’t done as much
hiking/biking as I’d like so far, but that will soon change. I think in my last email I mentioned I’d
hiked in 2 places in Iowa (Volga and Yellow River) and rode my bike one day. I
hiked in 2 state parks in Wisconsin (Devil’s Lake and Perrot State Parks), both
of which had some very nice views, and rode a few hours along a long bike trail.
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| Devil's Lake (both pics) |
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| Perrot State Park, overlooking the Mississippi River. |
In Duluth, Minnesota I got a good hike in on cross country ski trails and a hiking trail overlooking Lake Superior. I’m in hill country and find that I need to realign my expectations. Those of us who’ve hiked in AK and other places with ‘iconic’ National Parks renowned for hiking are spoiled. In these parts, there’s only so much you can expect to see from low elevation vantage points, but I’ll attach some photos of some nice views I’ve enjoyed.
Last night I camped at the trail head to the highest point
in Minnesota – Eagle “Mountain”. It’s a 529’ elevation gain to the dizzying
elevation of 2,301’. I got to the trail
head at 4pm; a little late to make the summit so I settled for hiking in to a
lake and back (a mile short of the summit). It was dense fog as I drove the
dirt roads to get to the trail head but the sun came out as I hiked in to the
lake. Maybe I shoulda’ gone for it last night and hiked out with my headlamp.
This morning it was raining when I ‘bagged the peak’. Oh well… At least it
wasn’t torrential; more like the AK rain I’m used to hiking in.
Early this
afternoon I headed east again, back to the shore of Lake Superior and north
into Canada. I emptied tanks and topped up water, propane and gas before I
crossed into Canada. Unfortunately after I crossed the border the tourist info
was closed so I’m flying blind as far as places to hike. I stopped to buy a
better map once I crossed the border since my US Atlas didn’t quite do the
trick to show me nice routes to good hiking destinations. I also need to
‘train’ my van’s GPS that I want to take scenic routes, not the fastest routes.
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| The sunny evening hike to the lake and a hint of fall colors to come. |
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| The almost view from Minnesota's highest point. |
I am on a quest for ‘true’ fall colors but they are 2-3
weeks late this year so they are just starting to change. The farther north I
go, the more color I see, but the predominant color is still green. The color
change is less than ¼ of the way along. Much of the hiking I’ve done so far has
been on wide trails in green, deciduous forests. Had the colors been showing,
it would have been a much different experience and it looks like the trails
would be awesome for cross country skiing, once there are no leaves on all the
deciduous trees.
Hopefully I’ll see some good color in Canada and find some
good hiking, but at this point I don’t know exactly where I’m going. Maybe along
the shores of Superior and Huron to Algonquin and then south and east? I’ll
figure it out as I go. My stay in Canada has a time limit because a few days
ago we sold my Dad’s house and property. Assuming the escrow goes through, I
need to be back in the US by Oct 13 (probably in NY near Adirondack NP) to sign
the paperwork to finalize the sale.
Still on my list to do is set up a subscription for my
DeLorme GPS so I can send info on my locations so others can track my travels.
I may also look into setting up a blog (or not? I’ve never blogged before and
am not sure the advantage of that over e-mails…). Time will tell. I’m without cell coverage at the moment so my
plan is to stop somewhere tomorrow before I leave MN and send this e-mail and
some photos. I opted for international cell coverage while I’m in Canada so I
can deal with my Dad’s estate issues and research my play plans. So I’ll be able to receive any answering
e-mails to this ‘dear everyone’ e-mail.
Until next time…
Cheers, Gail
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