September 4, 2012 - Part 2 is on!

Last year, I set out to drive from DC to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, via Northwest River, Labrador, more than 16,600 miles, the first time apparently that anyone has ever done that. As it turned out, the first day out, a false reading on my Defender’s temperature gauge gave me the impression that it was overheating, so I decided to return home to fix it once and for all, which I eventually did. I lost two weeks taking care of that, meaning I would miss my ferry in Alaska six weeks hence, so I decided to restart to trip but do the newly constructed Labrador Loop, the northernmost roads in Quebec and Ontario, and then return home, which is what I did. In all, we were out for 10,000 and 35 days, camping every night at a new site except for the interesting two nights I spent on the open deck of a cargo ship with my dogs during a storm.

My plan this year was to pick up the trip where we left off last year and travel to Ontario and from there set out to Alaska, and then home again by way of San Francisco, as the three of us (Leben, Erde and I) did in 2001. Two weeks before the journey was to begin this year, though, I noticed that 11-year old Leben was cutting short his running. I took him to the vet and he recommended a neurologist, who sent me to get an MRI on Leben’s spine. Unfortunately, the MRI revealed two serious disc compressions resulting from earlier ruptures. Wanting to avoid the same sudden paralysis that happened to Sonntag, I decided to cancel or postpone the trip and get Leben the surgery, which took place on July 17th, hoping that with appropriate therapy he would recover in time for us to start some kind of a road trip in early September. I recognized, however, that there was a risk that Leben would come out of the operation paralyzed and unable to walk again, as happened with Montag. But that risk was worth it, I figured, because I already managed a paralyzed dog (Sonntag) and knew what it was all about and, without seeking to do so, became the world’s poster child for managing a big paralyzed dog. (I still get e-mails from people from around the world about the 2002 National Geographic article about Sonntag’s and my now-famous trip to Alaska, which was repeated and lengthened in the special issue on cats and dogs of the National Geographic in May 2012. Rebecca Asher-Walsh, the well-known, indefatigable correspondent for Entertainment Weekly, read the latest article, and is including a chapter about Sonntag in her soon-to-be-published book on extraordinary dogs.)

Leben emerged from the operation unable to walk without much assistance and in terrible condition, but after seven weeks of intensive therapy five days a week (swimming at the Animal Swim Center in Middleburg, underwater treadmill therapy in Baltimore, and acupuncture at South Paws in Fairfax, and thrice-daily therapy at home, he has sufficiently recovered from the operation (he is a 2.0 out of 3.0 on my 24-point evaluation scorecard) to take an extensive trip. But to make sure that his comfort is not compromised, a few custom adjustments had to be made to the Defender, which I just completed today. In addition, for camps where we will be required to hike more than a few hundred feet, I purchased a dog jogger (Defender Jr.) in which he will ride in comfort, while I get my daily exercise pushing him around. Those who know me knew that this trip was not going to be cancelled just because my dog could not walk, and they were right. So, as of tonight, September 4th, part 2 of the trip is on, starting on or about September 11th, once my satellite phone arrives.

Part 2 of the Journey to Alaska will be in four stages. The last stage is the journey home, which I will plan only when I make the decision to return home because I now have no idea at all where that will be. For stage 1, my intention is to get out of the states and that heat as quickly as I can, driving straight from Washington DC up Intestate 81 to cross over into Canada near Lansdowne, Ontario. Along the way, we will camp first at a Pennsylvania state park and then at the abandoned site of the old boy scout camp I attended when I was a kid, an experience that instilled in my life-long love of camping in the wild. Today, the abandoned camp, still recognizable on Google Earth, is part of a massive wild forest accessible only by foot and by 4WD vehicles. If my Defender cannot make it in there, no 4WD can. From there, we will sprint to the Canadian border, where the temperature drops to the low 70’s and stays there while Washington skewers in the September heat.

My plan at this point is make our way slowly from the south east of Ontario to its northwest, beyond Thunder Bay, camping along the way at often-remote and always extraordinary dog-friendly provincial parks, nine in all. Some I will stay in for two nights, some three and others more than that. Since I know from past experience (read my below blog) that each site will be difficult to leave, I decided to take nine books with me, and leave one camp and move only when a book is finished. At one of those camps, I will continue my tradition of picking one inviting road, paved, dirt or less, that heads way up north and travelling that road to its end. The one I have tentatively chosen far is the road from Ignace to Windigo Lake, 531 km with virtually no services along the way. Camping will have to be by bivouac on Crown Lands. (In Ontario, you can camp wherever you wish.)

As for stage 2 of the trip this year, I will make those plans during and at the end of stage 1. I may heed on to Banff and Jasper national parks in the Canadian Rockies, or decide something else. The same goes for stage 3. I may head up to the start of Alaskan-Canadian highway, which turns 70 this year, or I may head out to Vancouver Island and hang out there fore a few days. Time will tell.

This will be my fifth rather extensive road-camping trip, so I well aware of the risks for which I need to prepare. Few travelers, if any, are more prepared than I, although I cannot prepare for everything. Beyond the potential risks to the dogs and me, the next most important area of preparation is for the Defender. It is in great shape this year after the more than $15,000 worth of work I had done on it last year in preparation for that trip and the work I did to solve that false overheating problem (I replaced the entire cooling system, radiator included.) Fortunately, my alternator failed five months ago one block from home, and my starter failed on me two months ago, eight blocks from home, so I replaced both of those with no great inconvenience. Had they failed in the wild I would have been rather inconvenienced, to say the least. And also fortunately, my ignition key lock system showed early signs of a possible future failure this morning, so the Defender is going into the garage on Friday to have that replaced. If one is driving only locally, this is the kind of thing you wait until it fails, but not if you are planning to venture far from home and into remote areas where the closest service station is 250 miles distant, the closest land Rover repair shop more than 1000.

Beyond the mechanical things, I added an industrial strength emergency power supply for jump starting my Defender (among other things) to my extensive emergency planning inventory. I keep it in the console between the driver’s and passenger’s seats, and plan to plug it into the recharger once a day. I am also adding two more cigarette lighters to the console to recharge the power supply, cell phone, iPad, and satellite phone and cameras batteries. I already have one of those recharging devises that has three power outlets in it as well as a USB port, but I do not want to blow a fuse so I added the extra recharging outlets.

And speaking of recharging devices, the peskiest problem on last year’s trip involved the dogs in the front seat knocking out the recharger with their paws. I probably spent 10 hours on the trip last year trying to solve that problem. Well, I solved it one and for all. The cigarette lighter is mounted on a facia plate that has, from left to right, the warning lights flasher button, the clock (with no numbers, just hash marks) and the cigarette lighter. I removed that facia and rotated it 180 degrees, so now the recharged is eight more inches away from the dogs’ paws, making it more difficult for them to knock out the recharger. But to be sure, I got one of those large door stoppers and glued two simple hooks onto the back, and hang that on the ledge bordering the compartment in my dashboard. Now the dogs rest their chins on that instead of the recharger, which, of course, has been moved.

Another pesky problem I solved this year is where to place my coffee cup during drives. This may sound trivial, but it is not. Space is a premium in the Defender on these trips and every square inch is used. I had to remove the coffee cup holder mounted on the back of my console last year because they dogs would step on it to get to the front seat, ether spilling my coffee with their paws or getting their paws caught in the holder. I removed the holder and got a permanent coffee cup with a handle, which I now hang from the back of the foldable portable chair that now serves as the back of the dogs’ bed in the front seat and at other times my camp chair. If an item can serve two separate I am thrilled. But this chair now serves three.

When I give people a tour of the Defender to show all of the big improvements, little improvements and odds and ends, the most frequent comment I get is that I ought to market these ideas. I have to admit myself, , that some of them are fairly brilliant (e.g., the dog’s bed in the front seat and the sides from a dog cage that serve as my “windows”), but as I tell people, I have had the vehicle for 19 years so I have had a long time to work and improve on these ideas. (The second most frequent comment I get from people is, “What do you want for that rig?” The fact is, I have no intention of selling it and it is running perfectly as I maintain it well. But if I sell it, I will wait until the new Defender comes out for 2015. The new designs are so radically different that it will raise my asking price by at least $10,000 more to $35,000 or more.)

I have digressed. Back to the upcoming trip. I have six days remaining, probably three once I subtract out all of the therapy sessions I need to take Leben to. I will add more pre-trip postings as I think of them. And, of course, on the road I will post updates all along the way.

The blog for the 2012 trip can be found at www.ontheroad-2012.blogspot.com