After leaving Ottawa on Sunday the 30th we hopped onto the Trans-Canada Highway and began our 2,400 mile drive to Jasper National Park in Alberta. I had spent the last few months simultaneously planning our National Parks trip alongside the QB-5 adventure, and though I didn’t want to rush things, we absolutely had a tight itinerary for driving. Taking things one step at a time, we had a 2.5 hour drive to Mackey, Ontario, where I had reserved us an Airbnb. Our first hour on the road painted a vivid picture of what the rest of our journey would be like: an exceptionally well paved road only two lanes wide, pine trees that stretched forever in either direction, and oncoming cars just feet away traveling at an equal 100 kilometers per hour. I was initially uncomfortable with this, thinking of a tired driver in the other lane veering just a few feet and crashing into us with an immense amount of force, but eventually got used to it and kept razor sharp focus on the road ahead as we traveled along.
As darkness set on Ontario at the same late hour as we had been experiencing with the Jeep club, the dashboard mounted iPad spoke up and announced we were nearing the campground the Airbnb would be located at. For those unfamiliar with the company/trend, Airbnb is an online-based “hotel” network where people list spare bedrooms or even entire houses for others to rent for a night, week, or even month. Prices range depending on where you are in the world and how nice the space is, but I have had great success using the platform in the past to book places to stay, and Dani and I agreed it would work well for the trip. For a mere $37 we had a small cabin to ourselves, nestled at the back of a popular campground along a wide river just off the highway in Mackey. I met our host, April, at the campground office and she gave us the key for the one-room cottage we’d be staying in. After well deserved showers we quickly fell asleep, a small desk fan providing white noise and a bit of air movement throughout the night.
As darkness set on Ontario at the same late hour as we had been experiencing with the Jeep club, the dashboard mounted iPad spoke up and announced we were nearing the campground the Airbnb would be located at. For those unfamiliar with the company/trend, Airbnb is an online-based “hotel” network where people list spare bedrooms or even entire houses for others to rent for a night, week, or even month. Prices range depending on where you are in the world and how nice the space is, but I have had great success using the platform in the past to book places to stay, and Dani and I agreed it would work well for the trip. For a mere $37 we had a small cabin to ourselves, nestled at the back of a popular campground along a wide river just off the highway in Mackey. I met our host, April, at the campground office and she gave us the key for the one-room cottage we’d be staying in. After well deserved showers we quickly fell asleep, a small desk fan providing white noise and a bit of air movement throughout the night.
Headed West
 McKee Road - Deep River, Ontario |  Airbnb Cabin |
We woke up the next morning after sleeping in a bit, packing up our stuff and eating a small breakfast before meeting April at the main office. In messaging her prior to our trip she had volunteered to do a load of laundry for us for an agreeable $10, which we discovered she had even folded up for us before handing it back in a large trash bag. Thanking her endlessly we hopped back in the Jeep and began our 580 mile drive (I used miles in my pre-production planning, and maintained it as we travelled) to Longlac, Ontario where we would spend Monday night. The Trans-Canada Highway continued to be the same layout as the day before, though we faced more hilly terrain as we moved westward throughout the day. We stopped for gas around 11h30, getting more accustomed to recognizing “good” prices while converting liters to gallons and CAD to USD all at the same time. Ontario seemed to have decent prices, usually around 88 cents per liter. As our small breakfasts wore off I put my trusty navigator in charge of finding us a lunch restaurant, looking at the maps and picking the city of North Bay as our ideal lunch location. She called around to a few places that Google listed as gluten friendly, and we eventually settled on Urban Cafe as our restaurant of choice. Pulling into North Bay we refueled for the first time since early the day before, and got the Jeep a well deserved car wash to rid it of the mud that was caked onto all of its surfaces.
After an incredibly delicious soup and sandwiches lunch we hopped back in the car and stopped by Wal-Mart to resupply some of our more perishable foods, picking up veggies and fruits to store in the fridge as future snack items. At that point it was nearly 13h00 and we had another 497 miles on the Trans-Canada Highway until we reached our destination for the night. We carried on for hours, watching the sun slowly sink in the vast Canadian sky, making a few stops for bathroom breaks as we went along. Darkness set on us at 21h00 as we travelled along Highway 11, and with the abundant lack of other vehicles I turned on the 30” Black Oak LED bar mounted on the Grand Cherokee’s roof. Lighting up the road for almost a mile ahead, it was an immense contributor to my comfort level as we navigated winding roads over countless hills. A heavy rain began as we carried on into the night, and I began to get nervous as the gas needle gradually sank below half a tank. We drove late into the night, getting closer and closer to lightning and storm clouds ahead of us, eventually passing over the last of the small mountains and descending into Longlac, arriving with just 10 miles of fuel left in the gas tank. All in all we had gone over two and a half hours without seeing a town, a street light, or any kind of fuel station; I cannot convey how glad I was that we had made it without running out of gas. We scoped out a remote campsite that had been listed on iOverlander.com, and after deeming it suitable I rushed out into the rain to set up our tent as Dani got the inside of the Jeep organized and ready for bed.
We climbed into the tent and laid down to the sound of heavy rain falling on the tent fly and loud cracks of thunder echoing through the area, shaking the ground beneath us. A few times a minute cracks of lighting would illuminate the entire sky, and for a moment the inside of the tent was as bright as daylight. Despite the sensory overload, we fell asleep quickly after a long day of travel, resting up before continuing on to Winnipeg when the sun again crested the horizon.
After an incredibly delicious soup and sandwiches lunch we hopped back in the car and stopped by Wal-Mart to resupply some of our more perishable foods, picking up veggies and fruits to store in the fridge as future snack items. At that point it was nearly 13h00 and we had another 497 miles on the Trans-Canada Highway until we reached our destination for the night. We carried on for hours, watching the sun slowly sink in the vast Canadian sky, making a few stops for bathroom breaks as we went along. Darkness set on us at 21h00 as we travelled along Highway 11, and with the abundant lack of other vehicles I turned on the 30” Black Oak LED bar mounted on the Grand Cherokee’s roof. Lighting up the road for almost a mile ahead, it was an immense contributor to my comfort level as we navigated winding roads over countless hills. A heavy rain began as we carried on into the night, and I began to get nervous as the gas needle gradually sank below half a tank. We drove late into the night, getting closer and closer to lightning and storm clouds ahead of us, eventually passing over the last of the small mountains and descending into Longlac, arriving with just 10 miles of fuel left in the gas tank. All in all we had gone over two and a half hours without seeing a town, a street light, or any kind of fuel station; I cannot convey how glad I was that we had made it without running out of gas. We scoped out a remote campsite that had been listed on iOverlander.com, and after deeming it suitable I rushed out into the rain to set up our tent as Dani got the inside of the Jeep organized and ready for bed.
We climbed into the tent and laid down to the sound of heavy rain falling on the tent fly and loud cracks of thunder echoing through the area, shaking the ground beneath us. A few times a minute cracks of lighting would illuminate the entire sky, and for a moment the inside of the tent was as bright as daylight. Despite the sensory overload, we fell asleep quickly after a long day of travel, resting up before continuing on to Winnipeg when the sun again crested the horizon.
 Car wash in North Bay  49th Parallel |  Restocked Refrigerator  Campsite in a Storm |
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