On the Move

I left Mica today for the last time, and am on my way to camp out near Whittier, where I will try to catch the ferry tomorrow.

Went climbing again yesterday.

Still Here

The van is at the park and sell lot, but rather than ride off right away, I decided to take the ferry from Whittier to Bellingham, WA, then ride home. The ferry only sails 2x month, and the next sailing is on Monday the 13th. The ride is 5 days long. I tried getting a reservation, but the ship is full apparently. However, I'm pretty confident I can get on by going stand-by, so I'm going to try that. If it doesn't work I'll just have to ride some long days to get back to DC.

Vagabond Blues

So this is the Palmer coffee place where I spend a lot of time. The name is fitting, not only for me but lots of travelers who come through here.

Ice Climbing

I went ice climbing yesterday with a couple of Mica clients and our guide, Chris. Click on a picture to go into full screen slide mode.

Hiking over the glacial moraine 

Chris, our guide

Chris explaining glacier movement

Practicing ice ax technique

Chris setting anchors

This was my anchor while I was taking pictures up top.

Random Pics

Not much to report. I've been hanging out at Mica lately, as opposed to Palmer. All the guides there are super cool people and are fun to be around.

Hanging Out Around the Fire

Tina and Don, the owners of Mica Guides

Rich, Chris, Tina and Don

Joolee

Alyssa

Matt

Meagan and Abra

Carla

Animals and stuff at Pinnacle Mtn RV Park (showers)

Llama at Pinnacle Mtn RV Park

International travelers at Pinnacle RV Park

Cool Dog, Pinnacle RV Park

Mica Guides Yurt

Mica Guides--purple flowers are called Fireweed.

Mica Guides, Glacier, my van to the right.

Alaska Toy Rental

Yesterday I found a place called Alaska Toy Rental, and they have a lot where I can park the van for sale for $25 a week. That's about what it would cost to store it anyway, so I'm pretty happy with that. What's even better though is that they will handle the sale in my absence. This is great news and quite a relief. I have to spruce the van up a little but might be heading back within a couple of days now. Need to start planning a route.

No Luck Selling the Van

Well, it's August 1st and I still have the van. I had hoped it would sell by the first of August so I'd have a month to get home. I'm not really getting any interest even, and I don't think it's the price as much as it's a niche market. I've got it on eBay and craigslist and the Sportsmobile forum. I'd like to leave it on a park and sell lot, but since I'm living in it I'd have to move into my tent, and I'm not crazy about that idea, mainly because it rains a lot.

Some have suggested I advertise in other cities and tow my motorcycle. The main problem with that is that a motorcycle trailer costs about $1,000, it only gets 13 mpg, and I really don't want to drive the van down to the lower 48 when I could be making that drive on the motorcycle. Still, I guess I'll advertise in some other cities anyway.

Today I'm going to visit an RV place that might buy it or let me put it on their lot. If anyone has any out of the box ideas I'd love to hear them.

Zipline
Rode the Mica Zipline yesterday. I need to get rid of that belly. You may recognize my zipline guide Abra as the shotgun toting flower girl in my previous post.