The Great Szerminski Adventure

The last couple of nights around the campfire we have been making lists of our favourite things about the trip, as well as some ‘non-favourite’ things. The list is for us more than anything, but if you like lists this post is for you too! Each list is in no particular order, and we all contributed. Summary Stats: 127 nights: 88 of them spent in our tents, 93 in our sleeping bags (some cabins and yurts did not have beds!) 14 states and 5 provinces ~27 000 km driven At least 317 km hiked Favourite Campgrounds Fruita (Capitol Reef National Park, UT) Indian Garden (Grand Canyon National Park, AZ) Lake Pleasant (near Phoenix, AZ) Skidaway Island State Park (GA) Needles Outpost (near the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park) Agawa Bay (Lake Superior Provincial Park, ON) Sleeping Giant Provincial Park (ON) Echo Lake Provincial Park (SK) Favourite Non-camping Accommodations Ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert (BC) Earthship (NM) Chelsea ...

We have been collecting some fun trip stats to share as we finish up our journey. This shorter post is dedicated to the Canada portion of our journey. Number of nights: 34 Nights in a tent: 23 Nights on a ferry: 3 Provinces: BC, AB, SK, MB, ON We have stayed in 9 Provincial Parks and 3 National Parks. ~7000 km driven No major car problems, though a red squirrel stole something from under the hood. Insulation? Cabin filter? We can’t be sure. Watch out for red squirrels at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park! :)  Animals spotted in Canada: Sand dollar, deer, slug, bear, raccoon, Richardson ground squirrel, dog tick, chipmunk, black fly, mosquito, bald eagle, sea otter, crabs, elk, big horn sheep, rabbits, crayfish, ravens, bison, leech, garter snake, red squirrel We have had the pleasure of seeing friends 3 times! (Yes, we have friends. Sort of.) Tom and Nicole graciously hosted us in Vancouver. We apologize for the bloody nose. We feel responsible. ;) Th...

Today is the last day of the trip. We have been in Ontario for nearly a week, and driving across this huge province has been an education on its size. We knew it was big, but now we have an idea of how big ‘big’ is. As soon as we entered Ontario the landscape was becoming more familiar. We were back on Canadian Shield territory, with rock cuts along the highway and lovely lakes dotting the landscape. We stayed at Aaron Provincial Park the first night. It was a beautiful park. Our campsite was on a small peninsula which allowed us to enjoy the sunset and sunrise. It is definitely a place I would come back to if we make this trip again. The next night we passed through our last time zone change on our way to stay in Thunder Bay at the home of a friend. Deb, John, and Noah were great hosts. We enjoyed the opportunity to share a meal and conversation with other people! Their home is lovely and back onto some really gorgeous country. We loved hearing about life in Thunder Bay and...

Manitoba June 20, 2019 Yesterday was a day for everyone to just relax and recharge one’s batteries. The kids played at the playground and beach at Echo Lake. I went for a 10km run, a first in a while and therefore tough. Today we headed out on the 3.5 hr drive to Riding Mountain National Park in our penultimate province: Manitoba. We’re staying at Wasagaming Campground that has more than 700 sites.  The visitor centre had some really well done taxidermied animals: wild cats, black bears, owls, deer. We also walked to the beach of Clear Lake, which is lovely. Troop moral is a bit low these days. Lucy and Amy are quite home sick from what I can see. Miriam is quite happy to plan things like the pool game at Grollis’s house a week after we return. I’m sad that less than two weeks of our trip remains and then only 2 months before going back to work. June 21, 2019 Last night Lucy came back running from the washroom. She was freaking out because she had discovered...

Blogger: Miriam   SO many Crabs Watching crabs move is one of the most interesting things. Near the start of the trip we would be walking near a beach and then see a crab smaller then a penny scuttling sideways. You need good eyes to see the tiny little guys crawling all over the place. For awhile we did not see and crabs at all. That’s why when we went to a beach in a park called Humbug Mountain State Park the crabs were a surprise.  We were looking for pretty rocks when Lucy called us over to see something. It was a crab huddled under a big rock looking at us like ‘really guys?’ We looked at him for awhile and then I went to the washroom and when I came back Lucy and Mama were showing  me crabs all over the place. If the crab moved you would be surprised that it moved sideways. They look like they could move forwards but somehow they legs make them go the other way. Most of the ones we saw were purple coloured but there would be the odd greenish or yellow. The ...