Location: Missoula, MT 

Car Mileage: 229,650 

Trip Mileage: 19,359 

Three weeks ago, I flew home to celebrate my friends Ridge and Gigi getting married in the Appalachian Mountains.

The WV hills stand as a refreshing contrast to the dramatic Alaskan peaks that surrounded me 24 hours prior. For the last two months I was greeted by new breathtaking scenery every day, so it was a good break to sub in something more familiar. Flying back to Alaska meant I would reignite my appreciation for the tall snowcapped backgrounds and diverse landscape of this country. 

My vacation to West Virginia was really everything I needed. When I am nomading around the West, I’m not often thinking about the missing pieces of my life. Texts and occasional phone calls to friends and family were enough, or so I thought. I went from several weeks of solitude to being surrounded by my closest friends and was reminded of the parts of life that this adventure cannot replace. I can’t replicate the nights of laughing around a campfire with old friends, or the feeling of really knowing the city and the roads you’re walking through. Getting that taste of home halfway through this trip renewed my energy to make it the rest of way. 

After the wedding festivities, I made a point to show some out-of-town friends the newest national park, New River Gorge. Continuing the trek to national parks did make this feel like an extension of my trip more than a break from it. I was also able to stop by Morgan Stanley and say hi to my old friends. 

After a week of being a Back Home Baller (where you control every item of your parent’s shopping list, and your childhood home bends to your will like it never did when you lived there), it was time to head back to Anchorage. I never felt quite settled in WV as it only felt like I was halfway home–mentally I still felt like I was in Alaska.  

My car sitter, Scot Hines, graciously picked me up from the airport at 2:30 AM and let me sleep and shower in his house. He had also done my laundry for me. A five-star Superhost! 

On June 28, I set off on the road. The next week would be largely uneventful, but there were a couple detours I wanted to make. The first of these was Skagway, Alaska. My goal was to power through the 45 hours of driving and reach the lower 48 by the 4^th of July. It seems unpatriotic to spend the 4^th in Canada. 

Driving to Skagway involved 15 hours of journeying through Alaska and Canada and then back into Alaska. This was some of the slowest driving because there was always a bear, moose, or a mountain range worth stopping for.

Skagway is an old port town in the southern panhandle of Alaska and is one of the only places on the panhandle you can get to without a ferry. Skagway was very touristy, but the four-hour detour was worth it just to see the lakes leading up to the Skagway border. I was surprisingly one of few cars stopping on the highway, completely captivated by the complexity of the views. I haven’t kept a ranking, but I think this is a top five view on the trip. 

The next section was two and a half days and 24 hours of driving (mostly no service) to reach Lake Louise so I could finally see the lake as advertised in its liquid form. Honestly, without my camera roll I would have no idea what took place from June 30 – July 2 as the countless mundane miles all blurred together. With my photos, I am reminded of the lake that gave me a pseudo-bath, bison, caribou, and many gas station pumps that wouldn’t print me a receipt.  

Below are some of the great water views from Jasper, Banff, and Yoho National Parks. 

When I was only a few hours from the USA border late on July 3rd, the newlywed couple Ridge and Gigi invited me to drive over to Seattle to watch fireworks with them. After ensuring that this was not a pity invite to a friend that had nowhere to go on the 4th of July and receiving a convincing “I don’t care.” from the bride, I took them up on their offer and started the 5-hour journey into WA.

The fireworks alone didn’t merit an 11 hour round trip, but it was worth it to see friends and crash in the closet of their honeymoon suite after 7 days of driving. 

On my return from Seattle to Coeur D’Alene, ID (unofficial home base), I opted to take the long way to see Mt. St. Helens and drive through Northern Oregon. I came across “The Crawl” which is an old lava tube that you can crawl through. Was this what 5’7 people do for fun? I wouldn’t know. I was ready to skip it until getting a nudge from my sister. My official testimony is that this is not what 6’7 people do for fun.  

I also popped into Ape Cave. This was supposed to require a reservation, but who is gonna know if you go in after hours? Well, this was a cave with no lights. As I climbed in I heard the distant echoing laughter of a child, which at first reassured me that I wouldn’t be the only trespasser after hours.

As I kept walking deeper into the cave and the light of the entrance was gone from view (I did have a flashlight) I had a movie moment: laughing to myself that I am willingly walking into a pitch black cave following the haunting noise of a child. My bravest/dumbest moment, but maybe we can also have more sympathy for the horror movie characters that do unthinkably stupid things like hiding behind the chainsaws. After half a mile of spelunking I felt like I understood the premise of the cave. I give it a 5/5 Yelp review for darkness (I did find the kid who was happily playing Marco Polo with his father). 

The drive through Oregon to Idaho was uneventful (I skirted around Portland to make sure it stayed that way).  

Once in Idaho, my Uncle Rod brought my attention to the Trail of the Coeur D’Alenes, one of the top bike trails in the country. He and Aunt Cathy offered to pay for my bike rental so they could live vicariously through me. And why not, at the end of 9 days and 60 hours of driving, just go ahead and break down your body to the smallest fiber of its being and bike 31 miles? Why would you not do that? I couldn’t think of a reason, and so I took them up on their offer. 

It was gorgeous, 98 degrees, a stiff bike seat, with a five mile stretch up a 3% graded hill, but I feel like I’m not making it sound as lovely as it was. It was a great change to be exhausted from legitimate exercise and not just from driving.  

My last night in Coeur D’Alenes before leaving town I was lucky to be hosted once again. For such a small place, West Virginia has provided some fruitful connections. The Magners, who I’d just met at the wedding in the beginning of this blog, gave me dinner, company, and a place to sleep in Spokane, WA. I am very grateful that I had Scot and the Magners to bookend this portion of driving with amenities like mattresses and air conditioning instead of sleeping pads and convectioning in my car. (It was 100 degrees in Washington yesterday).  

I also got my car washed for the first time in two months! 

My passenger seat is filled for the next week. My buddy Daniel has flown out to visit Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP, and Grand Teton NP with me. It’ll be madness between the heat, crowds, and lack of detailed planning by us. If you have any suggestions outside of the obvious “Old Faithful”, then send me a message! 

Also, check out my One Second A Day video below that encompasses age 26 for me. It was a dynamic year between prepping for this and then leaving everything behind. It’s been a special year.