Johnny's Great Adventure
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 3:06 pm
This thread is for my great adventure trip extravaganza. Here's the general plan:
-Obtain new vehicle
-Quit job
-Go completely AWOL for 3 months touring the US, Canada, Alaska, who knows where who cares
-Find work when I get back, figure up to 6mo unemployed.
Why:
I have seen the light. Sometime around October/November 2018 I had an enlightening experience that left me shattered, broken, deeply depressed, and nearly vomiting. This occurred while I was coming home one day, in the dark, after 13 hours at work doing a job I had no business running. One day I will not exist, I will not be alive, and everything from my perspective will end. I tried to figure out what the purpose of life is. I read novels by the Dalai Lama, read nearly half the Old Testament of the Bible. Bought a Qur'an with intents on reading it. After about 4 weeks the sickness in my stomach went away but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I have spent 11 years of my life in a job that has been slowly killing me. 11 years! I'm 34, 1/3 of my life has been working here already. I remember college like it happened yesterday, I was HALF MY AGE when I started college. Time flies when you're having fun, no, time is limited and it goes by regardless if you're having a good time or depressed.
So what do you do? Work for something that has meaning? Aspire to be something great? Really make a difference in the world? All of it ends. One day, the Earth will be swallowed by the Sun and it too will end. And one day the entire universe will collapse back in on itself and it too will end. Or not, but all these fusion reactors we call stars will one day expire, if you believe science.
These are questions that I do not have answers to. I do not know what I want to do with my life. I do not know what my life's purpose is. I don't even know what I believe. And I need time to escape all the shit I'm in to figure it all out.
So that's the why.
Who:
Just me. GF is on board with this. She took a trip like this after college to figure out her life, drained her savings acct, NFG would do it again. She's encouraging me to do this and find myself.
Where:
Rough outline is as follows:
April
-DC
-Charlotte
-Pisgah National Forest
-Birmingham to see the parents
-Boondock on the Gulf coast
-Canyonlands
-Antelope Canyon
-Grand Canyon
-Sedona
-Joshua Tree
May
-San Diego
-LA
-Death Valley / Alabama Hills
-Sequoia / Kings Valley
-Santa Cruz
-San Fransisco
-Oregon
-Seattle
-Anchorage
-Denali
-Jasper National Park of Canada
-Banff National Park of Canada
-Glacier National Park
June
-Yellowstone / Jackson Hole / Tetons
-Denver
-Ouray / Telluride / mountain passes
-Engineer
-Ophir
-Yankee Boy Basin
-Black Bear up but maybe not the switchbacks into Telluride by myself
-Chicago
-Detroit
-Maybe Toronto
Rough estimate is around 14,000 miles.
The red ones require a 4WD vehicle with ground clearance acceptable enough that I don't get stuck and eaten by a bear. Nothing overly crazy, mountain passes like Engineer and Ophir have been done in stock Foresters with more aggressive tires.
Start south, roll north, get to Alaska while still coldish so I have a high chance of seeing the aurora borealis. Jasper and Banff likely to just be mountain town visits, drive-thrus, and short hikes. Hopefully some snow is gone for CO in June.
How:
Gear needed:
-Camping supplies (stove, fuel, pots/pans)
-Good cooler, thinking a smaller Yeti for ~3 days at a time off grid
-Garmin InReach
-New cell phone because mine is a company phone
-Power brick to recharge stuff overnight. Solar? IDK, probably just recharge it from the car.
-LED lantern things
-Tent footprint (I have a tent)
-Camp toilet
-Camp chair/table
-Camp shower, maybe just a bag with a nozzle on the bottom lol
-Water jugs
-Foam mattress thing
-GPS puck and tablet mount
-Hatchet, axe, saw, whatever
-America The Beautiful National Parks pass
-Possible backcountry camp permits, haven't got too far in that, I know Texas requires one.
Budget:
Vehicle: Up to $20k
Trip itself: $9-10k
-2 hotels or airbnb per week (staying with friends or DFD'ers if they'll have me, reduces this)
-5 nights in campgrounds per week ($2600 on camping fees alone!!! Boondocking reduces this)
-4 restaurant meals per week
Unemployed millennial lyfe for 9mo total: $16k
Roughly $30k lit on fire (Maxmath resale value of vehicle included in this ). I can afford this.
Where I'm a little stuck:
-Want a new mountain bike. My hardtail will be seriously out-gunned in Sedona and Colorado. So full squish. Trek Remedy, Kona Process, or Santa Cruz 5010 are leaders in my mind.
-Vehicle....
The vehicle:
My STI could technically do this trip. Throw a roof rack on it, bike mount, and space pod and go. But it is not ideal for it. I would not be able to do any of the off road stuff with it, and most backcountry (FREE) camp spots in the US require traveling dirt roads for a few miles. Nothing a CUV couldn't handle, but my STI cannot at all, so I think it should go. The Free bit is sort of important, as camp sites in a campground will be $20-40 a night which will destroy a budget quickly. But they do have benefits like some have hot showers, most have toilets, fire rings, etc. The bike is the wrench in this. The bike is coming with me, this is non-negotiable. I don't know how to tote it along. Roof rack works until you get off road. Hitch works until you're dealing with salt and winter spray. Inside works until you have to sleep in the car because it's 10F and windy as shit outside.
So. I need to be able to sleep inside the car if needed. Long day, nowhere to sleep, illegal to set up camp on side of highway or whatever, pull over and crawl in the back and lights out for a bit. Bike needs to be able to be in the car from time to time. When I'm in San Diego or LA, or off for a hike, or driving through Alaska with salt/chemical spray all over the place. Throw it on the roof if I need to sleep in the car, that's fine, put it back inside to continue on. I'm 6'2", I cannot lay down in a Crosstrek.
Fuel mileage is sort of who cares because the difference between 35 MPG and 18 MPG is like $1k. So meh. Lower fuel cost is better though.
Cruise control required.
Size, eh, not retarded long. I don't want to sell it immediately when I get home, so full size trucks are likely out. If I can sit up on the sleeping platform to make some coffee that's awesome. Need ~30" of head space to do that.
Price wise the closer to $15-20k the better. It becomes a wash with my STI around that price range.
I do not want an old broken piece of shit that I'll need to constantly fix on the side of the road.
In my mind this leaves a few good options:
-4th or 5th gen Toyota 4Runner. 5th gens are huge, I think I could figure out a bed AND interior bike storage in these.
-Jeep Grand Cherokee but reliability scares me on these
-Older land cruiser
-Tacoma extended cab with a bed cap, although this is a little less useful actually, and likely a lot colder to sleep in. Frontier beds are shorter sadly. Dakotas might work. There's that Doge reliability again though plus they're old and likely beat to shit now.
I figure I'll need to build a sleeping platform in whatever I buy. Pull the 2nd/3rd row seats out temporarily, which will also boost interior cargo carrying. Interior ceiling mounted cargo net thing for blankets, helmet, jackets and whatnot. Exterior roof mounted cargo basket for jerry cans and recovery shit like MaxTrax, shackles, and slings.
Exterior accessible spare highly desired.
That's about all I got so far.
Now tell me I'm