Sand Hollow State Park, Utah

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We chose Sand Hollow State Park because it was close to everything: the amazing network of mountain bike trails in Hurricane, the many rock climbling routes in St. George, Snow Canyon State Park and Zion National Park. Little did we know how beautiful this place was with it's turquoise reservoir water and orange cliffs located a mere 5 minute walk from our campsite.

Little did we know too that the "jumping rock" was a favorite spot of the college kids on Spring Break. As we were quietly exploring the cliffs one morning, they arrived en masse,  with cheap beer, tiny bikinis and selfie sticks. They were loud as only self-rightous college kids can be and left piles of trash in their wake... We came back a few days later and filled 3 big black bags of water bottles, broken beer bottles, candy wrappers, sunblock bottles and fast food containers... I can only hope my girls feel a greater connexion to the land when they grow up and treat it with respect. 

2015 Fulltime Families Boondocking Rally

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You might think that what we do is quite unique... but there are more and more families chosing this great lifestyle. There is even an organisation called Fulltime Families that help traveling families connect and learn from one another. A few times a year, they organize rallys for all the families to come together for 4 days of fun. It is an amazing way to get to know other likeminded travelers.

This time around, the rally was held in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, at Government Point, so it was not a campground, which made it super fun (and challenging with the crazy heat and limited water supply). The rangers from the National Park service came for 9 hours of learning activities for the children (in 3 blocks of 3 hours). They even brought a telescope for a star watching Program. It was amazing!

The wonderful organizers worked hard to make this event the success it was! There was a tie dye party, lots of crafts for the kids, a black light hike to find scorpions (did you know that scorpions glow in the dark?! We didn't see any on the hike, but our friend found one in her outdoor kitchen... !). There was also a family building challenge (teams had to build the tallest free-standing structure from uncooked spaghetti, a piece of string and tape, and a marshmallow on top... our engineer friend won the first place!), an epic water gun and water balloon fight, a talent show (our girls prepared a magic show with their friends and got second place),  a campfire cooking class, a super funny auction night with professional auctionneer Mike and more.

We met great people and had a really good time!

Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Las Vegas Bay Campground

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I think I can say without a doubt that this has been the best campsite we have ever had in our life! You see this overlook in the last two pictures? It was on our campsite. Our own private overlook. Every morning, we watched the sunrise in bed, snuggled together.

There was a beautiful trail to walk along the cliffs and amazing rocks to collect and crack open (inspired by the beautiful geodes our friends' parents found near Rockhound State Park, NM, and showed the kids while they camped here with us for a few days. It was so lovely to have such sweet grandparents around!).

We also went mountain biking in Boulder City (Bootleg Canyon is a moutain biking mecca!), but the camera did not come with us...

Craggy Wash BLM, Lake Havasu, AZ

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We found another great spot for boondocking in a gorgeous location, 5 miles from Lake Havasu. It is on a BLM land (the exact spot is called Craggy Wash BLM, if you'd like to go). There were wonderful hiking trails and biking trails right at our door. Another great thing is that there was excellent Internet signal (4G 5 bars!), because you know, we need to work, even if you might have the feeling from my posts that we don't work much (which is not the case AT ALL!).

One of the things I love the most when we arrive late at night when it is dark is discovering the amazing spot we are parked in the next morning.


The full moon was so bright that we registered a small charge on the solar panels at night!
So cool! Charging our panels with the moonlight! 

Boondocking in the Anza-Borrego desert

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The friendships that you create on the road are quite unique. You spend many hours a day together, every day (if you choose to stick together, of course). You drink coffee in your pj’s around the bonfire, explore, drive places (and get stuck) and talk, talk, talk…

They have some of your forks and cups and you have their card decks and coats in your rig. You feed each others’ kids and care for them like they were your own.

Day after day, you share a bit more of who you are with them. It’s like a group love story on fast forward, friendship on speed. As the days go by, you realize that you will have to say goodbye at some point. And that feels heartbreaking.

It is hard to imagine that you have known each other for only 4 short months. It is hard to imagine life without them when they have taken so much space in your life. In your hearts.

And you realize that home really is an experience more than a place.

 

"When you travel, you release all ties to who you were yesterday, and you succumb to the person you are now. With that comes freedom and the ability to relate on a deeper level with the people you meet. This freedom brings celebration. (ytravelblog.com)"

Quartzite: Bluebird Wanderlodge meet or Burning old man

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People get old couches at the Salvation Army at the beginning of the season and make pretty cozy set-up outsides. There is even a hot tub under that screen tent!

Quartzsite is one of the largest boondocking site in America. Boondocking, in nomad lingo, means a place where you can camp for free (usually without services). This place is huge and people can camp there from December to May in the BLM longer stay areas with dump station and water for $170 for the season (or for free without access). Needless to say, the place has a pretty interesting vibe! It kinds of feel like a huge Burning Man Festival.. but given the average age of the campers, it's more like Burning old man...

Many owners of Bluebird Wanderlodge motorhomes (like our bus) were gathering this week in the Nest, so we joined the crowd. It reminded me of our old VW bus meets pre-kids. People setting up in circles with bonfires in the middle, potlucks outside, incredibly dark starry skies... and the gentle hum of generators in the background. 

On Saturday, we decided to go to the Big Tent to explore the Gem Show, which turned out to be part flea market and part RV show too. The place was packed and dusty. We made our way between ethnic statuary and knick-knacks, fake fossils, Tigger shirts embedded with fake diamonds, RV brushes made from recycled tires, foot long hot dogs, teeth whitening and pain relief mud foot bath (I'm not making that up), pet rats and a bunch of other things that were just plain weird before finding the well hidden gem show. As the locals say, If you can't find it in Quartzite, it hasn't been thought of yet.

Hiking to the Romero Pools

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I don’t travel because it’s easy, I travel because it’s challenging and humbling. I travel because it allows me to connect more deeply with myself and the world, because it brings me outside of my comfort zone, and everytime it does, I am reminded I am capable of more.

Catalina State Park, Tucson, AZ

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On Christmas Eve, we watched the sun rise over Mt Lemmon from our bedroom window, went for a hike among huge saguaro cacti with friends and ate popsicles in the sun. It amazes me how the shifting of our traditions comes as a relief. Like one less thing to carry with us. 

Under the palm trees...

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We were delighted to find out that the campground where we decided to stay for two weeks was also a working farm. We slept under date palms (that had been harvested in September; we bought a pound of those delicious organic dates on location for $5!) and picked our own citrus (oranges, grapefruits and tangerines) in the trees near our bus for free!!

We swam in the pool, played pickleball (mini-tennis), shared meals outside at night, made some new friends from Quebec. There were roadrunners zooming through our campsites, a magic show by a fellow traveler that inspired our girls to create their own show, singing Christmas songs in bathing suits, sewing Christmas stocking outside and rollerblading hand in hand.

You can read an article I wrote on our unconventional life choices that was featured on the Rawfood Family blog.

Kayaking in the waves

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We sure made the best of that last day at the beach with our friends!

There were pelicans skimming over the water, a big puddle that became a lake for the little ones, hand-clapping games, Christmas songs thaught in French and English and a bonfire under the full moon by the ocean.

It was hard to leave this wonderful camping spot (Faria County Park, near Ventura, CA) and say goodbye to some of our friends who were continuing their adventures on different routes. 

By the ocean

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I was woken up by the waves breaking on the rocks and splashing the bus’ bedroom window. I pulled the curtains open and watched with amusement, feeling like I was sleeping in a car wash.

All of a sudden, I see dolphins playing in the surf and we all get up and dress quickly and go outside. Our friends join us, there is laughter and soaking wet kids (and adults!) and salt-water coffee.

Later in the day, as the tide rolls out again, I sit on the rocks and listen to a friend’s wise words. There is a Skype music lesson with a view of the ocean. And kids swimming together at sunset and almost washed away sandals. Oh this is life!

The sense of purpose

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I used to be so busy. I was, like many, sucked by the glorification of busy. It never was a 9-t-o-5-at-the-office-breaking-a-sweat-at-the-gym-before-soccer-practice kind of busy, but a make-everything-from-scratch-and-tell-wonderful-stories-by-memories-to-the-kids-with-homemade-needle-felted-puppets-while-they-wear-handnits-from-wool-I-dyed-with-plants-I-grew kind of busy. It was the good kind of busy, right? The one that is full of satisfaction. The one that gave me a sense of purpose.

But it still was busy. I still derived my sense of contentment from everything I made happened every day.

So, I aimed for less busy. And the less busy I became, the more bored I became. It’s like I didn’t know how to be happy without being productive. Like my sense of purpose was directly related to my level of busyness, to the end product of that busyness…

As I wrote when we lived in Costa Rica, I realize how much boredom is a luxury in our society and that many people haven’t experienced boredom since they were 12 or 13 yo. But boredom is uncomfortable and unpleasant…

“If boredom is simply a lack of stimulation and the unpleasant feelings that go with it, then the antidote is not finding a source of entertainment – it’s finding motivation to brush away those unpleasant feelings.”– Tsh Oxenreider, Notes from a Blue Bike

When I told my dad I wanted to travel full-time so we could live an epic, exciting life, his answer was baffling. He said: “Your life on the road will become your new ordinary and it won’t be as exciting all the time. Life cannot be exciting all the time. 90 % of life is made of ordinary little things. One has to learn to live the ordinary.”

I thought he didn’t understand. Of course, life could be amazing and fascinating most of the time!

The more we travel, the more I understand what he meant. Our days are filled with beautiful moments together discovering new places, but a big chunk of it is still everyday life stuff. Life cannot be (and probably should not be) exciting all the time. But to accept that, I need to learn to live with moments of boredom, of non-entertainment, of ordinary little events. I am not used to be idle, to not be stimulated by conversations or activities, to not feel productive and useful most of the time. 

I know I am blessed to have the space to wonder what to do with parts of my days. I have no more to-do lists to check, no agenda or calendar to fill, no appointments or classes to drive to. I wanted a low-stress life and I truly created it, but I realize that there is a fine line between too little and too much. I know I have to learn to live with less full days and still find this exciting. To learn to not be productive and feel worthy and good about it.

“If entertainment isn’t our right, does this mean our days have to be drudgery? Well, sometimes, yes. Life has never promised us non-stop parties and parades. But our everyday rituals can also become our entertainment, if we let them. (…) As an adult, my struggle isn’t recognizing the value behind the little things – it’s intentionally setting aside time, energy, and focus to breathe them in, deeply. Sucking the marrow out of life requires that I sit down in the silence, un-entertained.

And then, remarkably, the marrow-sucking becomes the entertainment I crave.” – Tsh Oxenreider, Notes from a Blue Bike


**The pictures have been taken at Lost Creek State Park, OR

Mountain biking at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park, OR

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We finally got our bus back on Friday night at 7 pm and we were more than ready to leave Portland. We took the road towards the coast not knowing where we would camp that night. When we arrived at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park, we were lucky enough to score one of the two last campsites available and we soon discovered that we had stumbled across an amazing playground. The mountain bike trails have been created by mountain bikers for mountain bikers and it shows! The single track was so much fun! 

A weekend of hiking in Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon

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Mt. Hood National Forest is about an hour drive from Portland. We camped at Still Creek campground at 4000 feet, an awesome little campground with the most beautiful campsites where barely no light filters through the tall trees. A land of moss, ferns and lichens...


On Saturday, we went hiking to Mirror Lake (so-called because we often can see the reflexion of Mt. Hood in it) and kept going up to Mt. Tom, Dick and Harry, where we had an incredible view of Mt. Hood. It was a perfect 10 km hike that we all loved!

Taking in the amazing view!

Great lunch on the trail!

On Sunday, we went to the Timberline Lodge and hiked the Timberline Trail (which is part of the Pacific Crest Trail, an interesting synchronicity since I am finishing the great book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed). The view was just stunning, especially on the ridge where we stopped for lunch. JF kept going and ran the Paradise Park loop up and down the canyon.

One of the most amazng campsites I have seen!

I could stop here and lead you to believe that we live the most idyllic and perfect life. And in a way, we truly do. But I wouldn't be honest if I didn't tell you that we have had rough patches. The bus is spending a week at the garage for a radiator problem and we have been sleeping in the garage courtyard in the Westy for a few nights, while JF tries to find places to work at 5 am... Portland is an awesome city, but it is not exactly camping-friendly. Boondocking is not allowed anywhere (not even in Walmart parking lots) and the only campgrounds less than 40 miles from town are two ugly and expensive RV parks. Finding a place to shower was a half-day feat! 

We are now at the hotel. We have electricity, a shower and a place to do our laundry. JF can focus on all the work he has to do while I try to fill our bellies with half-decent meals. The girls have been pretty awesome through all of this and we are spending amazing moments together everyday. It's just incredibly intense right now. 

Hayne's Point Provincial Park, Osoyoos, BC

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It had been a really long day. A day of waiting at the garage for the Westy to be ready (and then, seing the bill…) and then waiting for hours in traffic because of a car accident. It was warm and sunny outside. Clearly not the best day for being stuck in the bus.

When we arrived at Hayne’s Point Provincial Park at 9:30 pm, the campground was full. Fortunately, there was still some room in the overflow, right by the lake. The girls had been sleeping for an hour, but when we arrived, Aïsha said she was too warm. She joined me outside. It was pitch black. And we stood there in silence, hugging each other, looking at the stars. She decided she wanted to go for a swim, climbed down the rocks to the lake and jumped in! Ahh! The feeling of swimming in complete darkness! She was smiling from ear to ear as I let the warm wind wash out the frustration of the day.

Funny how morning never knows what evening will bring…

 

P.S. The photos have been taken the next morning...

To Haines, Alaska

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Haines is only an hour from Skagway by ferry, so we decided to do the loop and go visit that town that we love so much. Haines is not on the cruise ships run, so it has a very different and authentic feel. We used to come to Haines every summer with the girls when they were little. If you want a better idea of this small town feel, read this great book called If you lived here, I'd know your name by Heather Lende.

There, we met another traveling family that we connected with online. Joy and her two boys have spent the last 3 winters in Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru and Ecuador. We connected instantly and spent most of our time there around the bonfire, talking. It is so awesome to meet like-minded family on the road.

On the way back, we stopped at Kluane National Park to make dinner in the shelter and enjoy beautiful Kathleen Lake. 

Skagway, Alaska, the heart of the Gold Rush

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In the first couple of years of the Gold Rush, the city of Skagway was the type of frontier town we see in western movies. It had makeshifts buildings with false fronts, gambling halls, saloons and dance halls.

We personnally do not go to Skagway to visit the now fake Gold Rush cardboard town. We go because the road between Whitehorse and Skagway is one of the most amazing roads one can drive. We go because we love to see how the landscape changes dramatically in less than 200 km as we cross over the Pass into the valley and down to sea level.

Skagway is now a cruise ship town and when we arrived, there were 3 cruise ships at the dock. The town was overflowing with tourists from all over the world, buying souvenirs by the dozen. We retreated to the Starfire, the local thai food restaurant, that felt so exotic when we lived in thai-food restaurant deprived Whitehorse. When we left, the town was empty again, the stores were closing and the locals were biking down Broadway Street again. They had their city back, until the next cruise ships...

We camped at the National Park Service Dyea campground, the heart of the ancient Gold Rush town and talked a lot about that amazing piece of history with the girls. We picked giant American bush cranberries, saw a seal playing in the sea right beside our campground in the Lynn Canal, spotted a few bald eagles and filled our lungs with the wet salty air. It reminded me of how we came to Skagway every spring, when it was still winter in Whitehorse and our bodies were hungry for the warmth of the sun, our dry skin drinking in the humidity of the Coast. 

Dyea was much less developed than its sister town Skagway. The first stampeders who arrived at Dyea Harbor found endless tidal flats stretching before them. A 2 mile long bridge was built on the flats for the stampeders to use to carry their 1,500 pounds of provision off the flats. Little remains of Dyea today, as it only existed for a single year and was deserted when the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway was completed in 1899. The upright post that you see in the sand in the next photo are all that remains of the pier that jutted across the flats of the shallow harbor. When the people left, they brought back all the wood they had used to build the houses and now, and nature has reclaimed Dyea. 

As you can imagine, standing right there in the middle of the flats sparked really interesting conversations with the girls, as we tried to imagine how busy it once was here when there were 8 000 people getting ready to leave for the gold fields. Four years ago, we briefly participated in a documentary/reality show made for TVO with the historian Gerges Hébert-Germain on the Gold Rush. We will watch it with the girls in the next few weeks, so they really get a feel of the stampeders' reality (and see their dad and themselves in it for a few seconds!).

The only real remnants of this era is the Slide Cemetery, in memory of the many  people who died in an Avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail, trying to reach the gold fields.

Hiking the Tombstone

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As we cover the 7 hours that separate Whitehorse and the Tombstone Territorial Park, I try to make sense of my impatience of the last few days. That’s one thing the road does for me: it allows me to sit with my feelings. Sitting with discomfort is never fun. It’s so much easier to run away and get busy with something else. But here, between Carmacks and Pelly Crossing, there are only rows of spruce trees and the nagging rain. I feel frustrated. As I talk to JF, I realize he also feels the same. There is 100 reasons to feel frustrated. There always will be if we choose to be frustrated. It’s all about attitude. We can choose to focus on what we wish we had or we could try and turn this frustration into gratitude for what we actually have. And we do have a lot. By Steward Crossing, the frustration had dissolved and we both felt lighter and ready for a weekend of fun.

We arrived at the Tombstone campground a bit after 11 pm (yes, it was still light out. And no, there would be no Perseids watching for us this year!). In the Yukon, you don't make reservations, you just show up. For $12 (or $50 for the entire season in any Yukon government campground if you are a resident) you get a gorgeous campsite and free firewood! 

On Saturday monrning, the sun was shining. We made cinnamon-apple latkes while the girls made their most beautiful fairy garden ever (because there is all sorts of mosses and berries here, mama!) and we hit the new interpretation center for some more info on the hikes. There, we got to try some bannock bread and delicious tea made of yarrow, blueberries and labrador tea leaves, while the girls practice a puppet show with Joanna, a park interpreter that also spoke French. That interpretation center seriously rocks!

We decided to drive North a bit more (we were a mere 350 km from the Arctic Circle!) to do a hike called Surf Bird in the alpine tundra. It is quite fascinating, 20 km North of the campground, the boreal forest is no more, there is only alpine tundra.

When we arrived at the trailhead, there was no trail. Only 360 degrees of mountains and wet and mushy tundra. There were tons of ripe blueberries and moss berries and almost ripe cranberries. We feasted on them every ten steps. The dwarf birches and alder were already starting to turn red and yellow. We could see the moon the whole time we were there. Is it because we were so far north?

The next day, we decided to do a guided hike (with our beloved bilingual interpreter Joanna) to Grizzly Lake overlook. It's fun to notice things we wouldn't notice without an interpreter and it seems to motivate the girls to be in a group. Here, Aïsha gave highbush cranberries to an Irish man for him to try.

I stopped at the lookout with Mathilde who had a sore knee, while JF and Mara and Aïsha kept going up. Here, we can see Monolith mountain. Many people do an overnight hike to Grizzly Lake (11 km) down in that valley. We'd like to do it in 2 years with the girls.

The man, on top of the world!

Farmers' market and the Great Lakes

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One of the things I love about living on the road is discovering the local farmers' market. We love our greens and sprouts and supporting local organic farmers is very important to us, so wherever we go, we try to shop at health food stores that carry local produce or at farmers' market when the timing is right. This is a great site to find the farmers' market in every town we visit.

The other night, we stopped to make dinner at one of our usual spot near Pancake Bay Provincial Park (Ontario) and the girls swam in cold Lake Superior while we sat in the soft sand. We looked at them jump in the waves and scream with glee and smiled in silence.

Things felt more right than they had in a long time.