VagabondExpedition adventures...

[vagabondexpedition]

Experience some of my overland adventures, right here on Overland Bound....
(looking for details on my build? Click here.)

I'll post a few teaser photos and videos of my overland trips and adventures for everyone to see and comment on... they might not always be in order - and really, the 'order' of them might be scattered all over the place until I catch up with a few posts!

Right now, I'm limited to not much more than weekend excursions, but Alberta offers a lot of diverse territory to explore.

Enjoy!

 

[vagabondexpedition]

Jun 20-21st
I could have turned around and been happy with my weekend getaway after coming across this Land Rover well outfitted for overlanding. www.beyondthehorizon.be was the web site and this couple have been travelling quite extensively. I wished they hadn't been setup for the night as it would have been quite interesting to meet them and share some stories.

Continuing on, however, I setup camp for the night;

The next day, road trip adventures began with coming across some wildlife:

Stopped for a scenic photo:

Did some hiking up "Opal Hills Mountain":

The next day, let the legs rest for a bit and explore open road

Vist an old homestead:

Watch more wildlife:

Witness a "family dispute":

Spot more awesomeness on the highway on the drive home:

(Nissan Pao).

I'll post an update when I finish processing my photos and some video of the adventure.
Stay tuned!

 

[vagabondexpedition]

June 27-28th.
Another weekend adventure into Jasper National Park, Alberta.

My adventures aren't just all about "overland travel (in a vehicle)". I need to get out and explore - sometimes on foot, sometimes boat, sometimes by air.

Once I arrived at my location, I parked the VagabondExpedition Overland Jeep and jumped into a kayak and started paddling out into Maligne Lake.

Although it was a hot summer day at 34C, the lake is fed by mountain snow and ice melt and sits around 4C - enough to cause hypothermia in about 5 minutes of being exposed to the water. You definitely don't want to be too far from shore, or without a life vest on.

After a 6km paddle, the adventure returned to land when I came across The Three Bears - well, momma bear and two cubs as they strolled along a river. Here, baby bear eats his veggies (some dandelions).

On the way back to 'civilization', I crossed paths with a couple of other outfitted overland rigs - one from France, one from Denmark. A long way from home here in Canada. Really, we could group in any of the RV'ers in as 'overlanders' as well - depending on how you want to define the term "overlanding" - but hey, we're all explorers right?

Adventures continued into "Mount Edith Cavell" to see the angel glacier.

Summer melt has snow and water running in unpredictable bursts.

There is actually a glacier pool under the mountain glacier.

After a full day of adventuring, it was time to find a spot to camp for the night....

... and to grab some photos of the mountains being lit up orange from the setting sun.

I would have liked to have done some starry sky photography, but a half moon kept things too bright, so I climbed into the tent for bed around 11pm.

Rounded out the next day with a bit more exploring and shooting some photos:

 

[vagabondexpedition]

Limestone Mountain - Alberta, Canada

An easy climb, but great views of the area.

Feel free to jump over to my blog for more photos and info.

 

[deeker]

Great photos of a real great part of the country.  Thanks for sharing.

(and the pictures of the Jeeps are great, too.  Nice set-up.)

 

[Michael]

I love your photos! Great shots! Thank you for sharing!

-M

 

[vagabondexpedition]

Although I'm going back in time to late May, this was a great weekend excursion with a great group of new friends from various local off road and Jeep clubs.

This part of Alberta is called "The Spillway", and it's a 30km+ run through a bit of a canyon that is used as a over flow area for a man made reservoir at a hydro-electric dam.

None of the water is considered fish-bearing, so despite the water crossings, we really are 'treading lightly' through here. The day long trail run offers up a course that beginners and more advanced off road drivers (and their rigs) can all have some fun in.

For me, I love taking the easy paths, running a head of the pack and then shooting video and stills.

Here's a sampling of the line up... most of us aired down a little bit. I took the VagabondExpedition.com Jeep tires down to about 20psi to smooth out the rough spots just a bit.
VagabondExpedition.com blog here.

 

[vagabondexpedition]

It's been a busy couple of weeks here in Alberta.  Some very turbulent weather patterns, and as an amateur storm chaser (when I get time), I've spent some time out following some of the weather patterns close to home.

From my downtown "headquarters" (home)...

Next plan is to try and get some good stormy weather and lightning shots with the Jeep in the foreground!

 

[vagabondexpedition]

Took a break out of storm chasing to attend an off road 4x4 fundraiser for a local animal rescue group.... not so much overlanding/exploring, but it was a fun day none-the-less. I didn't put the overland jeep through the course, but donated my time to take some photos for the event and participants.

Hop over to my facebook page here for the full album.

 

[vagabondexpedition]

Another weekend, another adventure.
Seventeen of us all met-up to do some exploring along the David Thompson Highway area of Alberta (Crescent Falls). Myself and a few others were only able to depart on the Saturday morning, but we caught up to the group for a 'family portrait'.

The plan was to find the back way into Crescent Falls, but the trails became tight with over growth and we had to turn around.

After all that, we returned to camp and setup for an early night.

Here is the view from my "kitchen table":

As the sun set, we enjoyed the moon rise and hit the tents to get some rest for day 2.

Jump over to the VagabondExpedition.com Facebook page for the full album.

 

[vagabondexpedition]

Day 2.

Early to rise and work on some sun-rise photography. Funny how everyone said they were up at 5am, but yet I was the only one up moving around.

I think out of everyone here, I was the only one who had been to Crescent Falls (and seen the falls) before, so I had a chat with the group and after seeing the falls "the easy way", I ventured off solo to do some hiking while the hardcore offroaders decided to take some more challenging trails elsewhere.

Parker Ridge was only about 80km away from the camp location, so in about an hour I arrived at my hiking location.

It's an easy hike, but offers up a lot of great scenery and you get to watch the already small parking lot get even smaller as you make the climb (about 300m elevation gain).

Watch your step!

Wildflowers everywhere...

As you get to the top, the view opens up to the Saskatchewan Glacier in the distance.

Over the years, hikers have created stone wind-breaks for some much needed shelter - these could save your life from exposure if you were up here in the cold!

At the top of the main hiking path, you can travel in three directions. Left will get you a better view of the glacier

Right took me to see some Big Horn sheep - and this young one fighting for a drink of milk:

Travelling further forwards, well, I'll have to return and try that another day - it looks like it could add another couple hours onto the hike.

End of the trail...

In both the right left directions, I ran out of trail, so I made the trek back down to the parking lot and ventured back off to camp.

If you're venturing through the "Ice Fields" of Alberta, be sure to add this hike to your list of things to do!

More photos of the "Parker Ridge" hiking adventure are on my Facebook page here.

 

[SonOfNeptune]

Seriously, some awesome photography... I really need to get back at some shutter time.

 

[vagabondexpedition]

Seriously, some awesome photography... I really need to get back at some shutter time.

Thanks! My first DSLR, so I'm still doing lots of learning!

 

[vagabondexpedition]

This trip, we'll classify as a "microadventure" as it was close to what is currently "home" and only for the a few hours in the evening... but it was my birthday present to myself, and some much needed solitude!

Photos are at Elk Island National Park, Alberta. It's a 30 minute drive East of the city of Edmonton, where home is at currently.


I've been wanting to get out and enjoy the fall colors...
a cold front moved in recently and the strong winds cleared most of the leaves off trees.. managed to find a few though...


got stuck in "traffic" for a few minutes...


found parking for the beach...


enjoyed the sunset...


hung out under the stars while aliens invaded in the distance...


did some geomagnetic storm chasing...


too many Jeep lights...


in the dark...


almost missed this one...


Jump to my facebook page here for more photos.

 

[stoney126]

So going to Canada

 

[deeker]

Do it. We're friendly.

 

[stoney126]

I figure I can get across the border in a day. Spend 5 days then a day back

 

[Overland-Indiana]

Some beautiful pictures... Nice Jeep also!

 

[vagabondexpedition]

Went for a drive in "winter wonderland" a few days ago. I had a four day trip planned, but shortened it down to just a couple of days - the roads I was planning to be on were closed to heavy snow and ongoing storms - and with a prior engagement on my last planned day, I didn't want to be stuck or 'storm-stayed' in the middle of no where with no cell service. It's all ok though - made the most of the situation and was out enjoying the outdoor life!



Shot a few animals... like this wild mare and her young colt.


Stopped to setup camp

It's cold (-17C or about 1F) and windy so I'm sporting the Tepui Tents "Weatherhood" to trap some extra heat and block the wind. I've pushed snow up around the fire ring to block the wind from going between the stones and extinguishing the fire. Yes, it does melt a bit, but by that time you generally have the fire going well, and it won't fully melt away either. It'll harden up and keep working as a wind break.

Made some early dinner - hot chocolate and corn chowder. It's easy to 'car camp' and bring other types of foods (I often run with canned soups and chilli) - but when I find some interested dehydrated food, I like to test it out in an environment where I have 'backup' food in case it's really nasty stuff. This corn chower gets my approval and will get added to my 'backpacking' supplies! The Optimus Heat pouch is handy to have so your food doesn't get cold why re-hydrating! If you jump to my facebook page, you'll see a few other shots of the meal.


Snownado... not your usual winter storm. I grabbed a few shots in the series of this "snownado" (no, these don't register on the Fujita scale) but it didn't last long enough for me to grab any good video, and no others spawned while I was here.


I originally hoped to be doing a lot of night sky photos. Clouds and high wind moved in and ruined my plans... Went for a drive and took a few "low light" photos instead. It's too bad the wildlife doesn't like to sit still and pose for low-light photos - I had a beautiful black wolf cross paths with me, but he had no interest in hanging around for me to setup the camera gear.


I definitely need to get out and do some more winter exploring this season, but this trip out wasn't as "fun" as I thought - my Dunlop Fierce Attitudes used to be good in the snow - but maybe with them now being two seasons old, they've lost their abilities despite lots of tread. I actually slid into ditches twice on this trip. Sure it was slick, but I've always had more grab than I was getting this past weekend.

Any good tire recommendations for "all season"? I'm running 35"s. Been strongly considering BFG KO2's - looks like they have lot's of siping for a bit of extra grip on icy surfaces.

more photos on my facebook page here

 

[RescueRangers]

Man you guys suck up there, keeping all that cool stuff in your backyard a secret. My wish list just got a lot longer.