I grew up reading Calvin & Hobbes as a kid, and kept doing so well into my late teens and early twenties.
It may sound childish to many, but the wisdom and sense of adventure those tomes imbued into me have manifested as someone who now worships the outdoors, and is actively passing that along to my children. Honestly, I'd rather be outside right now than typing this story.
But those stories that Bill Watterson wrote continue to inspire me to have adventures, and clearly others maintain adventures can be had in an ever-shrinking world. And this next story not only inspires me to have more of those life-altering treks, but that I can still have them well into my older age. Because, not only did these fine gentlemen take on a challenging 5,000-mile snowmobile trek, but they did it in their 60s and 70s.
The men, Rob Hallstrom, Paul Dick, and Rex Hibbert left Grand Rapids, Minnesota in March of last year. Their heading? Fairbanks, Alaska. The route was 5,000 miles long and criss-crossed Canada, went into the Arctic Circle, and came back down to Fairbanks. In total, the trip took 38 days, as while routes and trails existed, parts of the trek included nights in the woods, bushwhacking new trails, and sorta making it up as they went along.
That didn't have to be the case.
In the past, most who embark on such an expedition use roadways, marked trails, and road shoulders as they're easier to traverse and get to Fairbanks. "We intentionally went the opposite of that,” Hallstrom told the Park Rapids Enterprise, adding, “We took an extremely remote route.” While they knew where they were going, the trail often required them to navigate by GPS plots they'd made ahead of time.
The trio chose Arctic Cat steeds, though they had also had a fourth snowmobile that had been disassembled for spares in the sleds that caried their gear, food, and other necessary items. More adventures are being planned, too, though a followup was aborted as last year's lackluster snowfall impeded the trip. They're all hopeful this year could see their long-distance return.
But what the three men's trip prooves is that adventure is still out there. It can be had no matter if you're young or old. You just have to have the imagination, will, and cash (they said they spent $500 on each gas fill up, easy) to do so. It gives me hope that I'll still be crunching leaves, cashing elk, dirt biking, snowmobiling and more, maybe even with grandchildren, well into my old age.
So to paraphrase Watterson, "t's a magical world, get out exploring."
