the animal's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
MBBboy
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by MBBboy »

Congrats! Best of luck as you figure out being a new parent, its a blast!

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

We have been enjoying our time with baby animal. I didn’t do much last month outside of that last month besides work and spending time with some friends. Towards the end of the month, we did go to a public use cabin that we hadn’t been to before and were able to do some hiking in the area.

I replaced the brake rotors on my car a few days ago, another skill to add to the car maintenance category. I somewhat enjoy doing the maintenance and am getting more comfortable with it. Definitely more so than with bike repair, which remains difficult for me. I have a friend and know some others with repair experience so eventually I’ll have to see if I can work with and learn from them.

I have taken less Spanish lessons but have nonetheless improved my Spanish mainly just by talking with baby animal. I’d figure about 75% of what I say to her is in Spanish.

As I’ve mentioned previously, Mrs. Animal and I have talked about going to live in the arctic on a long term basis. A few weeks ago I messaged the guy who’s cabin I stayed in, asking if I could build an addition. A 12 x 12 log cabin was fine for a 25 year old bachelor, not as much for a family of 3. Well, he asked me to send him a proposal and said he would consider funding it. I sent in what I envisioned and he responded this week saying that not only would he pay for the materials but would also pay me a few thousand extra for my time!

We are on the road in Yukon Territory, Canada and will be entering British Columbia today. Initially, we thought we would stop for a few days in the Banff region on our way south but may just push through to get to spend more time in warmer areas. Nights have been in single digits and the teens but so far we are plenty comfy in our scamp, sleeping on bear skins under a pile of sleeping bags and blankets. We let our house freeze when we’re gone so we brought all of our produce with us in addition to our and normal traveling set up. So it is us 3, one of our dogs and about 175 lbs of potatoes :P

classical_Liberal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

I remember when you lived up there at that cabin, at least from your journal. Like the generator story when you first arrived :).

It's super exciting that you have an opportunity to do that again and make money in the process! What will you do with the place you built near Fairbanks?

Have fun on your trip! I really wish I could make it work, sorry.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

theanimal wrote:
Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:19 pm
We let our house freeze when we’re gone so we brought all of our produce with us in addition to our and normal traveling set up. So it is us 3, one of our dogs and about 175 lbs of potatoes :P
I love this image. It is the kind of story you'll be telling your grandkids about many years down the road. Enjoy the trip and stay warm!

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Well things have gotten interesting. We spent the past few days making our way south, enjoying the drive through the mountains, passing dozens of woodland bison and caribou and visiting a hot springs along the route. All was going according to plan until we reached Alberta. Mrs. Animal was driving just outside Grand Prairie when the car and/or trailer lost grip on some glare ice. On the 4 lane highway, we went from the far right lane, diagonally left through the snow across the grass median and across the 2 oncoming lanes into the ditch. The car went down off the side upright towards the fence of the nearby farm field and the trailer followed. As the trailer reached the bottom, it spun around and then turned over, falling on its side. In the process, the frame separated completely from the axle.

We got really lucky on all accounts. just happened to go across when there was no oncoming traffic, right outside of a big town and we suffered no injuries whatsoever, all are ok. Baby animal slept through the whole thing. A few minutes later a very, very kind and generous local stopped, helped us get all of our stuff and brought us to his house where he hosted us last night and will host us again tonight . The trailer is totaled but the car, outside of a couple flat tires, appears to be OK. I was able to drive the car out and to the place we are staying now. The tires are getting fixed now and we are reorganizing. The plan for the moment is to continue on. We will make a priority to reach warmer climes and for the nights in the interim will find somewhere indoors to stay. Once we reach Utah, we will continue as planned and stay in our tent.

I am feeling very thankful for health and the generosity of others.
Last edited by theanimal on Mon Nov 07, 2022 3:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AxelHeyst
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by AxelHeyst »

:shock: Super glad everyone is okay!

AnalyticalEngine
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by AnalyticalEngine »

Glad to hear you all are okay and uninjured! That had to be a harrowing experience.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Wow! Glad you are all okay!

RoamingFrancis
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Glad you're all right

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Ego
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Ego »

Oh no!

Little Animal has slept through more adventures in the first few weeks of life than many of us have had in years. I can only imagine how terrifying that must have been. So glad to hear you are all okay.

This is a good time to be in the market for a second-hand trailer, if that is still the plan. You might message some RV storage facilities in the towns you are passing through and ask if they have any lien sale trailers they want to unload quick for cash. They often have a few that they got stuck with for the price of past-due storage and are faced with a winter of lost revenue on the storage space it occupies.

Hug those two tightly tonight. You have a lot to be thankful for.

classical_Liberal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

Crap man! I am so happy you are all physically ok! My thoughts are with you.

Also glad for the reminder that humans are generally helpful to each other.

7Wannabe5
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Yikes! I hate black ice! So happy you and loved ones weren't injured.

mathiverse
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by mathiverse »

Glad to hear you and your family are safe, theanimal!

ertyu
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by ertyu »

Joining the chorus: glad everyone is well.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

Thank you, all. We are back on the road now and should be back in the US tomorrow.

We were beyond lucky with meeting the guy who picked us up. He reminded us a lot of @Ego, both are extremely generous. First he pulls over a few minutes after the accident and offers to call a tow truck, then decides that he can bring us to his house with all of our stuff. He then offered for us to stay at his place until we get sorted out. 6 week old baby and small dog too? No problem, we stayed for 3 nights. He has his own building business and took the past 3 days off, hanging out with us, taking me around town to get certain parts and helping work on my car outside at -10 F. Each night he made dinner for all of us, not just any meals either. Last night we had lobster, scallops, shrimp and various veggies, freshly caught by his family from the Newfoundland coast where he grew up. Without the scamp we have a lot less room than we have things, so he offered to store our stuff for us at his place for the winter and we will pick it up in the spring. We got along great and spent each evening talking late into the night. Mrs. Animal was sad to leave, but we are both excited to return to spend time with our new friend in the spring.

Amazing at every turn. The world could use a lot more people like this and Mrs. Animal and I aspire to embody that sort of attitude. We believe it has to do with operating from a mentality of abundance rather than scarcity. Not from a material standpoint, but more from a psychological one with an emphasis on cooperation rather than competition.

rube
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by rube »

I am glad that you all came out well after the frightening accident and wonderful to read about the follow-up experience.

ffj
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Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2021 8:57 pm

Re: the animal's journal

Post by ffj »

Yikes.

Well at least you met a new friend. That guy sounds awesome. He's letting you store your stuff for the entire winter? Who does this? I'm guessing it has something to do with the quality of the refugees. ;)

Happy nobody got smushed, especially the little one. Be careful out there.

Scott 2
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Scott 2 »

Glad everyone is okay. Getting back behind the wheel after something like that can be hard. Continuing without a trailer may be for the best.

It is kind of the stranger to take you. Also a testament to the quality of your family's company.

theanimal
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by theanimal »

We have been on the road for a month. After the accident, we continued south with a sense of hurry, eager to leave the cold and snow behind. It was also imperative to get further south so that we could find more favorable climates to camp. As it were, it took us 3 full days to get from Grand Prairie, Alberta to my brother’s place in Salt Lake City. With temperatures in the negatives and single digits in southern Alberta and Montana, we opted for a couple hotel stays en route. After staying with my brother for a night, we finally set off for the canyons and desert.

Our schedule has largely been the same, generally following the route I planned prior to our trip. We stay in one location usually from 4 days to a week. Each day we go hiking somewhere within the area, averaging about 4 hours or so of walking per day then return and hang around camp/eat potatoes. Since we are carrying baby animal with us wherever we go, I get the benefit of the added ~25 lbs to carry around. Baby animal is at the 99th percentile for weight, so she is doing her part to ensure I stay fit. Who needs a GoRuck plate when you have a baby? 8-)

As of today we have now been in Utah/Northern Arizona for 3 weeks. San Rafael Swell was our first stop and we spent a week there, splitting our time between the rim of the Little Grand Canyon and Buckskin Draw.

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We then went further south to Capitol Reef, where I would learn that National Parks in the lower 48 are a bit different than Alaska. Here they are much smaller, closer to large population centers, more rules and more infrastructure to improve access. Alaska’s parks are almost the exact opposite. So after a day around Capitol Reef, we realized it wasn’t really what we were looking for and decided to leave early and go to Hole in the Rock Road to explore Grand Staircase Escalante. We had one more day in Capitol Reef after our decision and checked out the more remote southeast portion of the park on Notom Road. That was our type of place! We really enjoyed that area and decided if we were to do a similar style trip again we would spend a week out there.

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Hole in the Rock proved to be an excellent time. Some of our best hikes to date happened there, with unique hikes through wetlands, to remote geological features and through very narrow slot canyons.

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We then planned on spending ~5 days hiking around Zion, but after driving through the park we vowed not to return and carry on. The place was beyond crowded, and ironically I think it gave me a better understanding of what Jacob means by the Anthropocene. Every single pullout was packed with cars, we were part of traffic in the main road and people were walking up and down the sides as well as absentmindedly into traffic. It didn’t seem much different than an amusement park. This is all in the 2nd least visited month of the year! I can’t imagine what it is like during peak season. I’m sure the views are nice, but we have seen a lot of nice places and are more interested in wilder intact ecosystems, rather than just scenery. No views are worth that hassle.

So, we continued on to a spot in relative isolation above the Grand Canyon and Colorado River near the Vermillion Cliffs, where we have been for the past week. I first learned about the spot from @c40(who was a massive help with some route info, many thanks!) and then had a friend in Kanab independently recommend the same exact spot. It really is an excellent location. Stunning vistas. Diverse and excellent hiking. Very little traffic.

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If we were to do the same trip over, we would spend our time in Capitol Reef on the Notom Road, a week around Grand Staircase Escalante and skip Zion. We would ideally do this trip with bikes as well and think it is feasible. Once baby animal’s neck is strong enough (~1 year) perhaps we will try it, here or elsewhere. That will cut down on almost all the costs associated with the trip as our only costs beyond food are gas and car related expenses.

A couple things miscellanceous things that have stood out to us on the trip.
-Small town Utah appears to be very well put together. I imagine this has something to do with the Mormons but I can't figure out how. Buildings are new, there are very few yards full of junk cars and there appears to be a good bit of economic activity. The exact opposite from most small towns throughout rural America.
-We have a 100% hit rate with determining if someone is from CA (likely LA). We do the customary greetings when you pass others on the trail. I started noticing that there were some that would just stare back without saying anything like you were an alien. On trails, especially remote trails this is a very common practice. Well, I eventually had a hunch they were Californians, later confirmed by trail registers and license plates. Very odd, but perhaps a result of just being around too many people and seeing strangers as inanimate objects?

Three more weeks on the road for us and we will begin to slowly make our way east. Next up is Valley of the Gods for a couple days, Grand Gulch/Dark Canyon for a week and a half, then Chaco Canyon and from there more or less northeast to Chicago. We have a few days to play with due to skipping some sections that we had planned and may check out other areas or extend our stays if anything piques our interest.

I wrote a few essays on my blog about the trip if anyone is interested in reading about our travels in more detail. animaltreks.wordpress.com

Miscellaneous household things
We have finally received all the bills for the birth of baby animal. We will end up paying ~$10k out of a billed $35k. Mrs. Animal requested an itemized bill for the bulk of the charges, so we had the joy of reading through ridiculous charges like individual pills of ibuprofen costing $10 each. What a joke.

It is very unlikely that we will have another kid next year though and combined with Mrs. Animal not likely working, our health care premiums and overall costs are about to fall off a cliff. For next year, I have a selection of plans from the marketplace for $1/month for the entire family. Thanks, Obama!

With the trailer totaled, I am kind of in limbo with regards to housing during my time doing the woodworking course. Before the accident, I/we were planning on living in the Scamp in town. With the trailer out of the question, I have been kind of scrambling to find another option. I first looked at rentals, both from a list the school provided and also on Craigslist. Damn, renting is expensive. The minimum for a studio seems to be about $1k, often much higher. Mrs. Animal and I are not interested in paying that and started looking for other options. We considered just living in our tent, but so far the nearest place where it seems we can camp is 45 minutes away from the school. Too far. I floated the idea of buying and living on a sailboat to Mrs. Animal but she shot that down. A minivan? She was more on board. Then I had the idea of checking out Workaway. Sure enough, there are a few hosts in town looking for people. So far we are still working things out but seems likely that we have at least 1 months’ worth of stays lined up. Mrs. Animal and baby animal will not be with me for the first month, so I am planning on either finding somewhere to camp, or living out of my car for the interim. One month still unaccounted for.

We very rarely go to restaurants, usually only at the insistence of family a few times a year. However, every so often Mrs. Animal gets a hankering for something and will pester me to go somewhere if she sees something she likes on a menu. Well, there is a small lodge with a restaurant not far from where we are camped. Inevitably, Mrs. Animal found something she liked and after a week’s worth of persuading, we went last night. We walked inside and began talking with a guy sitting by himself at one of the tables. Turns out, his friends had just bought the lodge a month ago and asked him to come up from Phoenix to help out and manage it in the interim (owners are in Arkansas), while working on some improvements/expansions. We keep chatting and he mentions how they are looking for a couple to run the place and ends up more or less offering us the opportunity to be that couple. The job would be managing the lodge, restaurant, store with gas station, boat rentals and Grand Canyon raft outfitting among other things. High salary with free 3 bedroom house and more or less 0 expenses. Mrs. Animal and I have been talking it over. She is on board, but I am unsure. It would be a very large change and prevent us from doing some of the things we are interested in doing in the near future like hiking the PCT and building the cabin addition in the Arctic. However, it would be a heck of a learning experience and challenge with 0 downside risk to us. Hmm..

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Slevin
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Re: the animal's journal

Post by Slevin »

theanimal wrote:
Thu Dec 01, 2022 11:25 am
-We have a 100% hit rate with determining if someone is from CA (likely LA). We do the customary greetings when you pass others on the trail. I started noticing that there were some that would just stare back without saying anything like you were an alien. On trails, especially remote trails this is a very common practice. Well, I eventually had a hunch they were Californians, later confirmed by trail registers and license plates. Very odd, but perhaps a result of just being around too many people and seeing strangers as inanimate objects?


We very rarely go to restaurants, usually only at the insistence of family a few times a year. However, every so often Mrs. Animal gets a hankering for something and will pester me to go somewhere if she sees something she likes on a menu. Well, there is a small lodge with a restaurant not far from where we are camped. Inevitably, Mrs. Animal found something she liked and after a week’s worth of persuading, we went last night. We walked inside and began talking with a guy sitting by himself at one of the tables. Turns out, his friends had just bought the lodge a month ago and asked him to come up from Phoenix to help out and manage it in the interim (owners are in Arkansas), while working on some improvements/expansions. We keep chatting and he mentions how they are looking for a couple to run the place and ends up more or less offering us the opportunity to be that couple. The job would be managing the lodge, restaurant, store with gas station, boat rentals and Grand Canyon raft outfitting among other things. High salary with free 3 bedroom house and more or less 0 expenses. Mrs. Animal and I have been talking it over. She is on board, but I am unsure. It would be a very large change and prevent us from doing some of the things we are interested in doing in the near future like hiking the PCT and building the cabin addition in the Arctic. However, it would be a heck of a learning experience and challenge with 0 downside risk to us. Hmm..
The not saying hi to everyone you pass on the trail has infected Colorado to a large degree too these days. I was always taught to smile and say hello to random strangers on the trails, but it seems like that is considered "old school" these days and not passed down (or just never learned in the first place as many of the "new hikers" or "vacationers" might not have had people who taught them hiking manners). At the same time when you live in a place with a lot of hustle and bustle and walk through crowds a lot, other people do tend to become problematic in some sense as in the crowded areas the people who try to talk to you are generally asking for money from you or soliciting in some form or another (buy me food, buy this random useless thing from me, etc) and so I find my goodwill and common trust towards other humans just getting brutally erased due to being harassed by these people all the time in crowds, when in reality most other people in the crowds are generally nice and pleasant, its just that those aren't usually the people trying to interact with you. I may be a weird case, but I really don't think so. Something something capitalism destroying the social fabric.

The managing job sounds like it could be interesting as a shorter term stint, with basically 0 expenses and a nice salary if you need some more financial cushion or some $ to replace the trailer. Could even be worth doing as a stint while you wait for PCT permits or whatever to come through?

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