Finale
We rose early to a beautiful sunrise burning the morning dew off of the surrounding forest. Excitement filled the air knowing what lay ahead of us on the trail today. The plan was to pack up camp as quickly as possible in order to reach the top of Racehorse Pass before the sun was highest in the sky. If you know a thing or two about photography, you know that lighting is everything when it comes to snapping the perfect shot. Most would say that mid day, when the the sun is directly over head is the worst time of day to shoot because it takes all the shadows and depth out of the image, making it look very flat. For this reason, we wanted get there early enough to capture the best possible light, but who were we kidding, neither of us were about to get out of bed before 7am!
By 9:00am, camp was packed and dust was disappearing behind the vehicles as we made the charge to the top of the pass. Our maps showed that we needed to gain over 600 meters in the next 4 kilometres. Things were about to get steep!
The trail was tight and very overgrown in some areas and at this point, we were still well below the tree line. It seemed as if this area hadn’t been traveled or cleared in quite some time as the branches of trees and bushes drug along the sides of the vehicles, taking their share of paint.
Around the next bend, the trail took a sharp upward turn, revealing the final climb of the journey. I’ve mentioned before that the 4Runner does not do well under the load of a prolonged steep incline. Big tires, factory gear ratios and a 20 year old engine do not add up to a good time when it comes to lugging up the side of a mountain. There have been situations in the past, dealing with overheating problems half way up a big climb, but that usually only occurs when the outside temperatures are above 35 degrees Celsius. Needless to say, staring up at a climb so steep and so long was triggering my stress response. The last thing we needed was an overheating engine or worse, a blown head gasket or any other gasket for that matter.
Haakon on the other hand didn’t have a worry in the world with his new Jeep Gladiator! I always swear i’ll never own a brand new vehicle and that buying something old and used is the way to go. But I’m realizing that having peace of mind from a new, reliable vehicle is definitely something of value when out in the remote back country.
My worries dissipate as the crest of the pass comes into view. Looks like we’re going to make it without issue! The 4Runner held true, not skipping a beat on the inclined trail. I really should give it more credit than I do sometimes but it’s been on the back of a tow truck a few times since I’ve owned it. Building trust in a machine like that can be a tricky thing to accomplish, but in the end, I love that old truck to pieces and always will.
Finally, after more than 60 kilometres of 4-low, we made the top of our last mountain pass and broke the tree line, revealing beautiful high alpine views in all directions. This is what it’s all about. This is why we love exploring more and more through vehicle based travel.
We spent the rest of the morning behind our camera lenses at the top of the pass, pretending we were the next big National Geographic photographers on a highly specialized assignment to capture the worlds greatest images. Now, I don’t expect to be featured on the cover of their latest issue any time soon, but it was still great fun!
The route down the opposite side of the pass back into Alberta proved to be rather easy compared to what we just went through, and it contributed the best views of the entire trail.
Feeling accomplished as we rolled back on to the main forest service road, I had a feeling this was only the beginning of something great to come. The beginning of an era attributed to exploring our local areas more in depth, with greater passion. You never know what you may find just by scouring a few of your local maps!
