Although my planning for the upcoming 2014 road trip started the day after the 2013 trip ended, today it begins in earnest. The first thing that comes to mind as I start the planning and preparing is that I am extremely lucky to still have both Leben and Erde to go with me on the trip. How fortunate I am to have had two big German shepherd siblings for more than 13 years, especially after what those two have been through over their lives.
Although I have been tackling one task or another for this trip for months now, the first three things I will have to do are:
(1) develop a tentative plan (map) for our route this year. (see below)
(2) Update last year's ToDoList for this year.
(3) Update last year's ToTakeList for this year.
As for the trip, my tentative plan is to drive from DC to James Bay, which is actually the southern tip of Hudson Bay. From what I can tell, it looks like it may be the northern-most point you can drive to in Canada east of Manitoba. I'm not exactly sure what route I will take to get to James Bay, but I have several options. (Click here.)
After James Bay, if all is going well, after a few days rest on Lake Superior, we'll probably head west again, with our second goal being the Canadian Rockies and a few of those remote camps there for at least a week's stop.
After the Rockies, if all is still going well, we might head north again to the Yukon Territory. Time permitting, we might take a side-trip up to Inuvik along the Dempster Highway, revisiting a place we visited in 2001
At either the Rockies or the Yukon, we'll turn around and head south. My thinking is to head toward Vancouver Island again and spend at least one week there. And from there we will head home.
This would be the full trip. It may be a bit too ambitious after I put numbers and dates onto a map, but I would not label any of our trips anything but ambitious.
