The Inside Passage

Links: Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS, Inside Passage)

Outbound

Preview of the Week

Unless Dee and Cal happen across another camper with satellite internet service, they will probably not be able to post again until they reach Skagway. Knowing the rest of us they way they do, however, the trikers have kindly posted a list of their predicted overnight locations. Not only are these sites tentative, I am not even certain of their exact locations. Nevertheless, the map above is an approximate, speculative, provisional preview of the final week (325 miles) before ALASKA.

Verizon Digital Wireless

It is hard to know how accurate or precise this Verizon Wireless Digital coverage map is, but in any case, it appears that communication may be at least an intermittent problem for the next few weeks.

1000-2000 Mile Map

Rural Municipalities

As Dee and Cal first approached and then entered Saskatchewan, I noticed on the Google map (when zoomed in pretty close) numbers associated with names. I was curious about what those numbers meant, but couldn't figure anything out. Tonight I found out that these refer to Rural Municipalities (RM) in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. For example, the trikers are in Kenaston tonight, which is in the RM called McCraney No. 282 (pop 431). Here is a list of RMs.

Tools for the Vicarious Journey

The thing that probably drew me into this adventure more than anything else was looking at the planned route from Wichita to Alaska. I quickly realized that after the first 300 miles or so, I hardly had a clue where any of these places are. So I pulled up Google maps and searched for each of the cities listed. It then occurred to me to save this as one of "My Maps" so I could look it up frequently, and subsequently to update it as the trikers post their location on their blog each day. That map can be found at: tinyurl.com/cjgm39. You can also always find it in the "Tools for the Journey" gadget in the upper right-hand corner of this page.

The fun thing about the map is that it is interactive. You can zoom in or out for more or less detail by clicking on the + or – on the left-hand side of the map. You can also move the map by dragging the hand, or with the upper left-hand control. Between the two controls is a little yellow figure that you can drag to a given location to get a "street view" of that location. Talk about vicarious! (Unfortunately, the street view doesn't work in Canada, at least not yet.) In the upper right-hand corner of the map you can select from Map, Satellite, and Terrain views.

The other tool that allows me to travel vicariously with the trikers is the live Doppler radar. I will do my best to keep their location updated on the area radar tool as well.