Preparing to Survive a Solo Expedition to Alaska

I'm pretty sick. After running that ultramarathon the other week I just came down with the cold. My body was just like nope no more you're done. So I'm sitting here in a hot tub and thinking about the fact that in exactly five days I have to leave for Alaska. For Alaska. Because Expedition Wild continues right? And I made up this destination that I have to get to and that destination is Prudhoe Bay in the very north of Alaska. Two and a half thousand miles away from here one way which makes for five thousand miles return trip minimum. So I'm like visualizing this trip I'm thinking about that endless highway you know the beautiful mountains all the nature the remote wilderness and all I want to do is curl up on a sofa and not move for a week. But that is not really an option. It's an option for the next two days but that's about it. I need to start preparing to go to Alaska like right about this second. I need to seriously start thinking about things like the mechanical stuff. I got in touch with one of the few Defender workshops in the area Defenders Northwest and Brian the owner kindly offered to help me. Number one an oil change. It looks like like lava. Well this is middle to western states of the United States. Does that make sense? This is all the way from Colorado through Wyoming and Montana all the way to Idaho, Oregon and now we're in Washington so this next portion of engine oil should take me through all of Canada. Believe it or not this is my first time actually changing the engine oil. I love doing this it's like so therapeutic. You really do. Yeah. All done. Number two a general checkup. She seems to be good. Number three a new temporary set of tires. My current tires are total liability on ice and if you're traveling to Alaska this late in the season you better have good grip on ice. So I got this used set of tires thanks Rick and Michelle and I'm putting them on just for this leg of the trip. Hey how do you like the new tires huh? How do you like the new tires? We are winter ready. I mean just putting these tires on in case there's snow and ice in Alaska which you know at this point in the year it's likely that there might be. Might not actually need them but you know better safe than sorry. Nice. Thanks Jonathan. There's also all the logistical stuff that I need to prepare like things that I'm gonna be surviving with you know like protection against bears and food and water and fuel and camping and just the sheer logistics of traveling to Alaska with a puppy. Oh my god. The immigration stuff in Canada is pretty simple. I just need to fill out this arrive can form and that should be it. Honestly I am worried. I am worried about the crossings because of what happened the last time I crossed the border. I can't believe they freaking handcuffed me. What? That was such a horrific experience and it really scarred me a little bit so I just really really hope that none of this none of that stuff happens again this time around. There's a couple of other documents I'll need. The rabies vaccination certificate for VUQ and my Canadian car insurance. So one of the things that I need to figure out before I go... No. That is a rabbit foot. Dehydrated. Shake. Good boy. Kids. Good boy. Okay you can have it. Enjoy. So one of the things that I need to figure out before I head across the border to Canada is what can I bring? What can I not bring? What are the things that I want to leave behind? So one of the things that I definitely want to bring and don't want to leave behind but I'm not sure if I can bring it is pet food. So this website says that I can bring meat into Canada just not raw poultry. This is beef. This is rabbit. This is lamb. So this should all be good. I believe that has chicken in it but it is cooked. So one of the things that I definitely want to leave behind is Felix's crate that he sleeps in. I mean I usually put it on top of Odyssey but it's so heavy. It's like 40 pounds or something ridiculous that getting it like off the roof and then back on the roof is just like ridiculously difficult. So we're gonna have to we're gonna have to go without a crate for a little while buddy boy. There's a couple of other things that I'm gonna leave behind too such as VUQ's own personal aircon unit. That one. It's really great. It actually works really really well but I don't think we're going to use it in Alaska and it's a little bit bulky and heavy. So I think it's going to come in a bit more handy when we start heading south towards Mexico. So for now it's staying right here in Washington. How do you feel about us leaving behind the aircon unit huh? How do you feel about it? Huh? Don't care too much? And one more big thing that I'm leaving behind is the Starlink unit. That is the satellite wi-fi because apparently it doesn't really work very well north of like the border so I just don't want to be lugging around a massive piece of gear that I'm just not going to use. We're going to be offline VUQ. We're going to be offline. Oh no. You don't care do you? You don't care do you? You don't care do you? You're a good boy. You're a good boy. You're a good boy. You're a good boy. And a quick word from the sponsor of today's video. So one really essential piece of gear that I'm bringing with me to Canada is my Jackery kit. The Jackery solar generator is something that I bring with me absolutely everywhere and it's going to come in especially handy in Alaska where I'm going to be wild camping off the grid in remote places and without much access to electricity otherwise. One of my favorite things about it is that it's super lightweight so I can just haul it around wherever I want. I use it to charge all of my devices on the road and it's super easy because I can use any of the USB or USB-C outlets. Hey little boy! Or the AC outlet or the 12 volt. Yeah you love it too don't you? You can charge the power station either using mains electricity at home or using the solar panels that are compatible with it. Oh my god. Yeah you are definitely heavier than my power station. There's some really exciting news coming up too. Jackery have just revealed an all new flagship product at the IFA in Berlin. The IFA by the way is like a super fancy really high profile tech conference and trade show in Berlin so that's exciting. All right all right all right okay yeah. You ready? Shake. Good boy. Yeah good boy. Jackery tell me that the solar generator 1000 pro is going to be a game changer in the industry and I can't wait to get my hands on it once I'm back from Alaska. Meanwhile you'll actually be able to purchase it directly from jackery.com starting on the 15th of September. This is V eating a carrot. Cannot. Cannot wrap his head around it. That's it. So this here is a mesh kind of net which I'm gonna stick to this door and then the front windows because you know mosquitoes. And this here is my emergency windscreen. So apparently apparently there is a very high chance that one of my windows or the windscreen might get smashed by some of the gravel that just gets thrown around by trucks passing by on the on one of the Alaskan highways and apparently that's something that happens a lot and obviously if you lose your windscreen that could be a big problem. So I've been advised to just bring along this nylon sheet just in case it doesn't wear anything but it could be a massive lifesaver. Very important. Laundry. I'm not sure when I'll have this opportunity next. There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh laundry to remind you you live a pretty luxurious existence. Now this is a purchase I'm very proud of. This is a tarp. It's a tarp for when it rains you know and this guy needs to get back in the car to avoid things getting completely muddy every single day and you. I got a tarp for him. So this is great. This only cost like a few bucks and it's gonna save me so much stress. Amazing. Okay so my old gas stove became a bit of a hazard recently. I'm not surprised because I did get it like four months ago. Use it very frequently but I got it for like 10 bucks in Mexico so it was bound to break at some point and so I got myself a new stove which works and shouldn't be a safety hazard and it's a very very simple stove that just works with these very simple very basic canisters which I can get anywhere. So I got four just in case but we should be able to get these anywhere along the way right? I left a whole bunch of non-essentials with friends in the area and as for the essentials I am bringing with me well now that there's so much storage space inside odyssey things just slot right in what a relief and then there's also all the like navigation so I need to figure out which highway I'm taking because there's like two and I need to figure out what I'm gonna do for like offline navigation because there's no cell signal in so many places up there I just need to like figure out my route and that is pretty urgent. Given the size of Alaska you would think that there's all kinds of roads and highways crisscrossing the state and leading you up north that's not quite the case there's one highway that goes to the north of Alaska only one the one the iconic highway so I don't really have much of a choice in terms of route planning I mean in fact even all the way through Canada leading up to Alaska there's only two different highways so again not really much of a choice there. Choice number one the Alcan or the Alaska Canada highway it's better maintained with more services along the way and definitely the safer option. Choice number two the Kasyar highway much of it nestled in the wilderness with less infrastructure worse road quality but better views and less traffic it also happens to be the shorter option if you're traveling from the Pacific Northwest like I am. So I've decided that I'm going to be taking the Kasyar highway because it's wilder it's shorter it's prettier I don't know just just my heart says I should go for it so Kasyar highway it is. And then last but not least I also need to like figure out my ---- you know because this trip is gonna be really rough and really basic and pretty extreme like I need to mentally prepare myself for not washing my hair potentially for a month how about that? I know that sounds really silly but I think like as long as you prepare yourself for such scenarios it just makes it a bit easier to deal with them you know when your head starts itching I hope that doesn't happen I need to mentally prepare for this challenge because it's going to be a really big challenge physically and mentally to do that kind of road trip while filming it with a puppy in such a short time I really need to give myself this pep talk before I leave and I leave tomorrow so it's high time this is gonna be a really intense few weeks five weeks six weeks you don't know how long it's going to take and this is not going to be easy it's not going to be daily life you're not going to have time for self-care you're not going to have time for routines you're not going to have time for meditation you're going to have you're not going to have time for workouts you're not going to have time for nice healthy all organic food. You're not going to have time to read and to journal and to rest and to relax. You're not going to have time for anything because this is an expedition. You're embarking on an expedition so you can't survive an expedition if you take on a day-to-day ordinary mindset. In order to survive an expedition you have to take on an expedition mindset and that is what I need to get in my brain. It's gonna get really messy by the end but that's why I'm doing it. That's why you're doing it. I don't think there's gonna be a second chance to drive all the way up north to the northernmost part of Alaska and back. This is an expedition and I have to take on an expedition mindset. No complaints just roughing it, just doing it, going and going and going until I get there. As a side note I don't know where my tripod is so I just want to share this with you guys. I have the camera on this bar stool with like a goat's horn propping it up. That fjork was chewing on earlier. You gotta do what you gotta do. It's an expedition. I get a bit distracted sometimes so I decided to write down five expedition commandments that I vow to read every day until I'm back from Alaska. Hopefully they'll help ground me when things get hectic as I'm sure they will. Okay so you know what I think with trips like this you never feel like completely ready. I think you're always left with like a little sense that you could have done something differently or done something better you know. So I'm trying not to sweat it too much even though obviously I'm doing my best to prepare for like all eventualities but I'm just gonna have to give myself a bit of leeway and continue sitting in this really nice hot tub for a little while so that hopefully I can get better in the next couple of days to go to Alaska. Can I take the hot tub with me please? Can I please take it with me? It's so nice. Oh my god it's so nice. I never want to leave. Alaska here we come.