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...

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...

June 18, 2019 Our first stop today was Moose Jaw. It is great luck for the photographic record that we caught the giant moose (named Mac) with his pants down, so to speak. What I mean is that his antlers have been temporarily removed for embiggenment. This is so that he can outdo his recent evil Scandinavian twin and again be the giganticest moose on the planet, by like 30cm or something. As we ate lunch beside Mac dozens of cute squirrel sized creatures scurried around us hoping we’d drop some food. They had dug holes everywhere, including one under our picnic table for easy access. We were told at the visitor centre that they are gophers or “Richardson’s ground squirrels”. Next we ventured to the Sukanen Ship and Pioneer Museum. Here lies Tom Sukanen’s ocean vessel that he built with his bare hands to sail him back to Finland. She is named the Sontianen (the “little dung beetle”). Amy and I had just learned of this craziness (unless you think ships in the prairies are normal) ...

June 17, 2019 After leaving ‘Ksan campground we spent one night at Purden Lake Provincial Park (close to Prince George). Purden Lake was pretty but had tons of mosquitos. We struggled to survive dinner and campfire. Next we drove to Jasper National Park for 2 nights at Wabasso Campground. Regarding Jasper:  Wow, wow, wow! Beautiful. We went to hang out with the Knights at an H.I. (Hostels International) in the town of Jasper. Miriam almost exploded in anticipation of seeing Maya. The hostel itself is brand new and not even complete constructing. It is huge and offered plenty of kitchen and dining/lounging space for us to prepare dinner and eat it. It was a lovely reunion. The next morning we drove out and hiked Maligne Canyon with the Knights. I know we’ve seen several spectacular canyons on this trip but here was another one with its own beauty. We climbed to a nice lookout for lunch near Fifth Bridge. Here I showed the Knights our tapir figurine. Maya took him to play...