Trans Canada Expedition - Day 18

Note: Photos will be uploaded in the morning (it’s past midnight right now where we are and we need to sleep). Sorry for the inconvenience!

July 31, 2013 – Day 18

Locations: Whitehorse, YT; Watson Lake, YT; Fort Nelson, BC

We had an early morning wake-up at Casa Loma Motel, earlier than the scheduled wake-up time. Everybody did an amazing job of quickly packing up quietly. We ate the healthy, fibre-filled breakfast that was distributed yesterday before leaving and continuing on our journey. With the idea to try to push as close to Jasper as possible, today would have been an uneventful, long car ride. However, as fate has it, the more you try to rush, the more problems will arise…

First involved a very fast passing truck and a rock that flew out and hit one of the vehicle’s window; it made a rather big crack. This is fixable but it would still need to be fixed as soon as possible. Second involved an air leaking tire from the trailer; we made it to Watson Lake then.

At Watson Lake, we parked back near the Sign Post Forest. This time, each group had a sign that they made while we were at Inuvik. We scrambled to find a spot to hammer it up while the HQ team attempt to fix the tire and the cooking team made a quick lunch. As we were looking for areas separately, we found several new poles have been posted up. And so as a team, we all hung our plaques in the new post area, took a group photo, and continued our way towards Jasper.

The tire wasn’t exactly fixed. It was very slowly leaking out air, but because we could not find the hole, we tried to be very careful with the tire as we drove on. We made another stop hours later to switch navigator and driver, as well as to take a look at the trailer tire. Before long however, we had to stop at the entrance of a campground we don’t know the name of, and fix the really flat tire. We also chose this opportunity to make dinner. The light was fading; it was getting dark; we could not stay for long; we worked as fast as we can in unloading everything off the trailer, fixing the hole in the tire, cooking dinner, writing blogs, typing blogs, loading everything back into the trailer, and getting back on the road to head towards the nearest town (Fort Nelson). Work was delegated efficiently; everybody had something to do. What an excellent use of human resource!

Now on to the third incident of the day: it was already dark and as we were driving towards Fort Nelson, when suddenly, the tire we just fixed blew up! We heard the noise, we saw the sparks, we had to make an emergency stop and replace the tire that was gone for good. This time, taking only the strongest students, we unloaded everything off the trailer once more and helped lifted the trailer up a bit to better move the equipment in replacing the tire.

The night is dark, the stars are shining, the crescent moon is big and beautiful, and very orange, it is a beautiful night to be stuck in the middle of the Alaska Highway in the middle of the night, replacing a blown tire. Uneventful this day is not.

As they say: Every obstacle has meaning and is a challenge we must overcome.

By the way, we saw more animals today! First it were 2 moose, one calf and one possibly teen moose. Then a herd of bison plus one lone bison running on the side of the road a little while later. Finally there were deer, a family of 4 (one of which is a calf!). (We couldn’t remember if baby moose and deer have names other than calf). We also saw cars of hunters in many places, hiding, waiting, preparing to hunt.

Alan

Today is the last day of july. I found out we were going to mount edive, today we are going about half the way. We are trying to push to fort nelson but I don’t know if we are goingto get there. We stoped for dinner at about 10;00 pm.ON the way we stopped at sign post forest, we put the signs we made in the past week about our groups we also had our lunch there tonight.

Quince

Today we woke up at 6:00am. We drove a long way today. We stopped at the post forest and ate lunch. After that, we start driving. Oh yeah, we putted our own sign placks on on of the posts! Maybe we could go back there in the feature and look at it ( Maybe not) So we drove the hole day today. Still didn’t find shelter to sleep in. Well we are now, so that is Tuesday.

Roman Wang

Today was similar to yesterday! Another day of driving. We are headed towards fort nelson.(Now I am at a stop on the right side of the highway; the cooks are cooking dinner and everyone else are doing their jobs. We passed by Watson Lake again in the afternoon. This time instead of looking at another people’s signs, we put our own signs in the sign post forest. Luckily they put up a new posts, and we got a chance to put our signs in the front row on the new posts. Everyone else around me are saying : I am starving! Or when will dinner be ready? But for the some reason I am not that hungry. I have been greatly inspired by Billy’s lecture this morning. I will tell you what I learned when I get bck home.. Home sweet home…

Justin

Today is general boring, nothing special to write about. However, I still have to write down something: Why do we have to write down our blogs everyday when there is nothing to write about?

We write and speak to deliver the ideas in our mind. The process of writing and community is to translate what we think to words that people can understand. We use symbols, for example, in my case is English alphabets, to store ideas and explanations. Each symbol or each word, has a meaning implemented into our mind. To a person who doesn’t know a word of English, what I write here are just meaningless symbol.

Most of the people in the world are not capable of mindreading. Thus, the art of communication is to make what we write and speak at close to what we think as possible. Unfortunately, human mind is far too complicated to be fully expressed by there primitive mind symbols, that were invented thousands of years ago. Therefore, people who excel in communication use not only words, but also body language and facial expression to deliver their ideas.

Grace

I was the navigator in the afternoon. It is really interesting to sit in the front, beside Billy, I can see a very beautiful view, and the clouds looked like cotton candy. But after about an hour, I got bored, so I started to write down 07 cars or trucks and some other things I saw. In the four hours, there were about 07 cars or trucks and motorcycle passed by; 7 bugs hit on the windshield; 12 birds flew across the road; 2 mooses crossed the road; a group of bison was eating grass on the left side of the highway, and one more bison sauntering beside our vehicle. We arrived at signpost forest at about 2, and nailed in our plagues.

Kathy

Today was the eighteenth day in monticle. I’m a cook today, I like doing this job. We still spent almost all day on travel, but today was special. In the morning my sleeping matter get some wrong, so that I could not put it in the bag. At last, other team members help me did it, I must say thanks. In the afternoon, we got to the sign post forest again, and put the woodboard which we drew something on it ourself in the sign forest. Although my roup had not got enough time to painted our own board, I still like this board. On the way in late afternoon, we were so lucky that saw full rainbow and double rainbow as well. I like rainbow, I can seldom see rainbow in Shanghai.

Mireille

Today we leave Yukon and arrived to British Colombia. I woke up at 6 am, at 6:30 am we ate cereals with milk for breakfast. It was so so good! Yummy! Then I helped to load the luggage to the car. For lunch I ate 1 cup noodle and some Chinese noodle. Then we had candies, dry mangoes, chocolates, cereals and pistaches to eat. But as I cannot actually eat sweet I only ate some dry mangoes, pistaches and cereals. It is so difficult to see them ate chocolates. :(

In the car I read my book “L’appel de l’ange” of Guillaume MUSSO> Also I continued my work in computer. Now it is 8:45 p,m. and we are still in the vehicle. I think everyone is hungry. So funny, as we are so hungry, outside we saw 2 animals and people in my car wants Billy to take out his shoot gun to kill it! We are gonna to eat dinner in the woods

Howard

Today has been a relatively nice day. In the morning, Billy revealed to us that we have already travelled enough distance to round a third of the earth, a very interesting and aweful fact, and our goal to reach by the next day: Jasper and the infamous Mount Edith (I suppose this is how you spell if I don’t actually know). Today, we are aiming to reach at least Fort Nelson, around the half-way point on our route.

Also, today for the first time, I was assigned to cooking team for the day. At first, I was sort of unsure whether I would be able to do my job properly. However, today has been a relatively light cooking day so I did not have to do so much.

Later, we arrived in Watson Lake, home to the sign post forest. For the past few days we have been carving out message on pieces of wood. Upon arriving at Watson Lake, we found a number of empty posts and added our signs. It was really fun, seeing the signs nailed in.

Overall, it has been an exciting day.

P.S. We saw a herd of Bison near the road.

Lemuel

We are aiming for Jasper today which is about 2000 km away. Billy predicts that we will make it there by 8am tomorrow. Our first major stop was at Watson Lake to hang the plaques from each team onto a piller at signpost forest. We also encounter some issues with the sprinters. Namely the blue plate had some issue with the slicing door popping open during the drive. We also had to fix a tire on the trailer. Fortunately none of these problems did more than just hinder the trip. Currently we still have about 10 more hours of driving. Most likely more…

Calvin

Today was very interesting driving. There were many more animals on our way back than going. I am thankful I am not tired as I would like to experience driving at night. I usually do not drive in complete darkness, so this will be 9 new experience for me. Hopefully we will reach Jasper by tonight.

Mike

Today, we went back to the sign post forest to nail our newly carved signs for our respective teams. For me, I was in a team with Grace and Ryan with the callsign “fearless”. After we nailed our sign post on, we were back on our long 2-day journey to Jasper.

However, today’s trip consisted of several vehicle faults. First, Bravo vehicles side door air seal kept opening up when the car was moving, this is sort of fixed, as it have not happened again. Second was the tyre of the trailer had a hole, which was also fixed. Lastly, the long wheel base Sprinter had a rather deep crack on the windshield, but I don’t know the situation on that.

Anyways, now we are at this “side stop” for dinner while the tyre is being fixed, along with other things happening. Although this was very rushed, I think we worked efficiently so far, with most things being organized well.

Oh and to my mom, I spilled cooked ham juice on my jacket, so it smells of ham. I don’t know how long it will stay but if I get eaten with a fleece jacket on, at least you know why. Hehe.

Tiffany

Regretting my stupid thoughts about recognition, I learnt my lesson about seeking recognition instead simply doing a good deed. People learn from their mistakes, they grow from them, I guess this concept is another thing I will put in my life line, to always remind myself that is not recognition that we should seek, but simply the thought of the good deed. I had a deep and intimate time to think along the long ride, about my essay and conclusion, but also about my concepts and ideas as a leader. How can I improve myself as a leader? How can I take the people beside me as example to better myself, to better people? Consider others benefits! Today we back tracked into Watson lake, the sign post forest and posted our long worked boards. A sign of relief came as the lady of the visitor center came up to me and asked: “ Do you need nails, hammers, and paints?” Man, that lady can read minds! As we were struggling to find nails and ways to post up the boards. Everything seemed to be falling in place, as the day went on smoothly, and quietly, I trust that our team is beginning to fall in place, and onto the track we planned. The track of execution and success. Well, I don’t have a lot to say today as you will hear from my 1500 word essays. But just a brief report: We stopped in the middle of nowhere, finishing dinner, loading up, gradually increasing efficiency within the group, how the rest of the night be like? I don’t know, but surely will see for myself. I will learn and have learnt along the way, but the mission I have to complete ahead is somewhat challenging but exciting! Good night guys! Peace! I’m out!

Marco

A really long ride today. I had car sick., When I drank my water I almost barfed it out. I am so hungry right now,I could eat anything right now. We were singing in the car, the singing helped me not barfed in the sprinter. There was good news and bad news today. The good news is we put all out placks to the sign post forest, the bad news is someone got demoted. Not I am waiting for dinner. I am out of energy now. I can’t think of anything else. Bye!

Mickey

Now is 10:07 we star cooking just now. I feel hungry . Maybe we will sleep in the car. The car one wheel is broken. The HQ is try them best to save it. Wake up! Car! We need you! I feel tired now. the weather is more and more cold. In the way on the road we winging, talking. So happy! I miss you mom

Jason Wang

Today, we were on the road again. We started the day off at the Casa Loma Motel in Whitehorse with wake up timing at about 0630. We were on the move for most of the day, with the exceptions of few gas stops, washroom breaks, safety stops for us to inspect the sprinters and trailer as well as our lunch stop at Watson Lake’s sign post forest again, to nail up our new signs. Right now, we are writing our blogs and waiting for dinner at a road side rest stop before we push into the city.

Owen

Today was another day in the car. This morning, Billy told us that the distance we had travelled was as long as one-third of the world’s longititude. The time we get back to HQ, will be more that a half of the world. Is this amazing?

We all had a good time in the car. We saw double rainbows, and even triple rainbow. We also saw some wild animals such as goats that passing through the road. We almost hit them.

The night is more darker and darker. 24 hours daylight is no more being with us. Someone asked Billy why they can’t see the northern light. Come on, 24 hours day light!

Accidents always happen accidently. One of the ties of the trailer has broken in the middle of the highway. The more w0rse was, we may have to stay a night with bears! Hope they won’t eat us for dinner.

Ryan

Today I am writing our blog in a really strange and dangerous place. This is because we are in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the light and I think I heard a wolf howl.

Scared? Now, I am fearless more like hungry cause we started to have to ration after a very long drive. Funny thing is to keep ourselves occupied we started singing loud we were getting closer and closer to insanity so we started singing as well.

Some kind of accomplishment that we achieved today is that we were able to nail our plaques on the sign posts. Sadly enough some one got demoted. I would not say who it was but it was a moment of great sadness and shame for that person. Even though I personally think that he deserved it through it is still a great shame and I hope he gets his rank back.

Jason Wong

We woke up around 6:00 a.m. and had our breakfast which was Raisin brand cereal and skimmed milk in our rooms. The skim milk didn’t taste like milk. We got into a chain to load the luggage on the sprinters. I was the first to Navigate today. Not surprisingly I stayed awake the whole shift. During our first pit stop Billy surprised me by saying I was the best navigator for the 18 days so far. I got some sleep when I was not navigator. We went back to Watson Lake to put up our wooden plaque in the “Sign post forest” and had cup noodle for lunch. They gave us some snacks since cup noodles wasn’t enough. We continued driving until we stopped and went into some picnic area in the middle of no where in British Columbia. As I’m writing my blog we are in the picnic area. I felt that I did a good job as a navigator. P.S. Mom I got the username and had a roomate request and sent him a message to contact me by email.

Kendra

We finally reached the entrance of Yukon, Watson Lake. We were welcomed by the sing pst forest but this time we had placks to put on. It took our group forever to find our plaque we were looking everywhere, we thought we had lost it for good, until… we found it somewhere unbelievable, somewhere right next to us. We were rushing to nail the plaques since we only had a minute to finish, so everyone was rushing to the pole like they were about to finish a race. I was super happy that we found it cause I may never be able to go back. The next day was just driving. Right now we are stopping for dinner. That was it.

Jennifer

                I feel like a selfish self-centered person and that I still can’t be trusted. I’m made to feel that I’m taking opurtunities away by sitting shotgun. But everyone in our vehicle has been cycled through already, and the students in particular have been complaining about some students in particular that had been co-driver multiple times. A few of them that had sat there less times did not want to do it again. So to settle the dispute, I sat up front to give them all a break and to be impartial to them all.

                That had been my plan since last night I was making the job and vehicle arrangements that after they’d all been cycled through that I could take over and they could rest awhile I continued to make plans in my notebook. The fact that I have to write out my rationale like this is insulting to me. I can feel the self-confidence from Billy’s lectures last night and this morning fading away because I feel like I’m still not trusted no matter what I do and there’s nothing I can do without worrying about vague implications of it in ways that I never even thought the perception of my actions could be twisted into. Or perhaps such assessments are because of certain people in my vehicle, in which case I’m even more offended because of the assumption that I don’t take my work seriously and that my emotions hold sway over me to an extent that interfers with my performance.

                However, I still do think today was a good day. We are currently pulled over on the side of the Alaska highway to repair the tires. There’s been a lot of unprecedented incidents today such as the blue plate’s door popping open multiple times and the pressures suddenly dropping. It’s ten at night in BC’s bear country and we’re running smoothly with our system and cooking food while carrying out, repairs, Efficient and I feel proud of this arrangement of jobs that I made last night because I can see my plan being carried out by the right arrangement of people! I’m excited for tomorrow arrangement to begin!

Matt

Again today is another dry driving day. Today we drove more then 10 hours from Whitehorse to somewhere near Fort Nelson. We stopped earlier because everyone weas hungry. Our car (black plate) was hungry, we began singing. Luckily Ryan had beef jerky so we pretty much just sang for the food. Our dinner location is somewhere in bear country near Fort Nelson. So I guess I can say we’re having dinner with the bears.

Crystal

This morning was very efficient and everyone finished packing and loading super quick. Even though we had raisin bran and lactose-free milk for breakfast, everyone enjoyed and soon we were needed to the next province, British Columbia.

Today is the last day of July and it has already been 18 days since this expedition started. Time passed by very fast and I’ve enjoyed all the experience and learned from all the mistakes we have made.

After a few hours of driving, we finally arrived back in Watson Lake in the afternoon. Since we completed our group plaques, everyone hung it up in an area in the sign post forest nearby. We had a quick instant noodle lunch and took a group photo before leaving Watson Lake.

As of now, we are located basically in the middle of nowhere. There is people preparing food, writing blogs and just doing nothing. Hopefully after a quick ham and mashed potato dinner, we can continue back on the road and arrive at our target destination soon.

Michael

Theme of the day: Expect the Unexpected.

Right now I am standing beside the 97 Alaska Highway, writing my blog while starring HQ team sorting out the trailer’s left flat tire and helping the cooking team open the ham. Before stopping at this spot, we originally planned to head towards Fort Nelson. We had a smooth departure this morning. We even woke up earlier than Billy’s official morning call time and get the loading up done on time.

Yet, unexpected obstacles are always with our trip. We had our Blue Plate’s door air seal mal-functioned; we had the trailer’s tire flast; we had our long-wheel base’s windshield suffering from a bit of cracks… We had our delayed lunch and dinner…

But, Billy reminds all the time: if there is any problem, be fearless. Billy shared his life story to all the leaderships the night before. His life is definitely one of the best examples to prove a good leader having the ability to suck everything up. To all of us, this eventful day is quite unexpected. But to Billy, everything, including those which are uncommon, is expected and planned. Contingency plan, man.

I extremely appreciate today’s conversation with Billy when being his co-driver. He told me not trying to be humble at this stage. People who are qualified to be humble are mostly those with power, status and capability. I will try harder and harder to be MYSELF and at the same time defeat myself. People with power will not pay much attention to (intentional) appreciation. Qualifying for leadership or not? Let’s see. :)

Edwin Cheung

Today, we wake up at Motel in Yukon. We drive and cross through Yukon terrtorie and he drive and drive long long time … we then have few break stop. Late we the stop in midde of no where cost we traler tire was lasing air. So we ask the group  a team to work together to form a chant and put everthing out. We also ate mashed potato with meat for dinner. I learned that what teamwork.

Edwin Chan

Today we left Whitehorse to get to Jasper which is about 1200km away. Not much happened when we left beside knowing that we had a flat tire for the trailer. Now we stopped in the middle of nowhere to have dinner and to fix the tire. Just a little bored since I can’t drive yet due to my break owell. I guess that’s all for today. Have fun.