By the Grace of Bryce / Skinning Dipping in Northern BC

Some of my most memorable experiences happened in the weeks leading up to my 21st birthday. One of the greatest and most unique adventures I have ever embarked on was a hitching hiking trip from Western Colorado to Seward Alaska. While most college students head to the beach for Spring Break, my best friend, Nash, and I decided to avoid the crowds and head north. Our official spring break only lasted one week, but being the studious and respectable gentlemen that we were, we decided that we had earned our selfs at least an extra week. The plan was incredibly simple, we bought ourselves uninsured one-way flights from Anchorage Alaska back to Denver Colorado —all we had to do was hitch the some 3300 miles to Alaska in two weeks to catch our flights home. 

Off the Coast in Alaska - Resurrection Bay 

Fast forward a couple thousand miles and we found ourselves in Fort Saint John, British Columbia. The snow banks on the sides of the road were at least five feet tall forcing us to stand uncomfortably close to the snow-packed Canadian highway. We decided it best to move further down the road to find a clearing so our future ride would have room to pull over and allow us to climb aboard. 

Hitching more than anything is a waiting game. If you are not in a car you are simply waiting with your thumb up. Unsurprisingly the further north you travel on the continent the fewer cars you encounter. Fewer cars = fewer possible rides. So we prioritized having at least one thumb in the air at all times, running to the woods to use the bathroom in shifts. 

Nash and I were walking single-file as to avoid becoming Canadian roadkill — our backs were to the northern traffic, but we kept the thumbs up in hopes of a trusting soul. A small Honda Fit with California plates beeped its horn and half slid to a stop on the road ahead of us. WE GOT ONE! Nash and I hustled up to the car. Behind the wheel was a young dude about the same age as us —Bryce. We told him our plan and climbed aboard. 

Nash took the passengers seat and I crammed myself in the back with all of Bryces personal belongings. The first few minutes of any hitching ride are always a little awkward. It usually involves both parties dancing around questions like, “are you going to kill me?” Bryce was no different. I remember holding back a smile as Bryce informed us that is mother specifically told him not to pick up hitchhikers and now he was out-numbered two-to-one.

But after the first couple of times that Nash and I pushed the car out of deep snow and back on the highway the tensions began to ease. It turns out that Bryce was also heading to Alaska, but he was heading towards Juneau for some seasonal work. Being lonely and quickly discovering our goofy and light-hearted humor he agreed to take us as far as he could (miraculously this would end up being nearly a 20 hour ride). 

It didn’t take long before all three of us were telling jokes and laughing so hard our sides were hurting. Three twenty-something-year-old dudes in a car together for hours in the frozen tundra is the best formula to creating quick bonds. 

Just after lunch sometime Nash noticed the sign for “Liard Hot Springs.” Some locals in back in Jasper had tipped us off that this was the coolest place to stop south of the Yukon. Bryce was on a bit of a time crunch as he had already purchased a ticket to ferry his car from Canadas coast to Juneau and was already running a bit behind schedule (it turns out a front wheel drive Honda is not the most efficient vehicle to take on a Canadian winter.)

Using some tag-team peer-pressuring Nash and I were able to convince Bryce to stop in for a quick skinny dipping session. 

The first hour we had the hot spring to ourselves, but we were later joined by 3 Canadian dads and their three teenage sons. 

“If you boys want to keep a hand dry we’ve got a joint that we are about to light up,” you seriously gotta love that Canadian hospitality. 

With out a second thought Nash and I both shot a right hand up out of the water to dry. Bryce followed our lead and also put a hand up, but I could definitely tell he was being a bit more timid. I decided to treat this like most things in my life and not over think it. 

The joint made its way around the group a couple times until it was gone. Now that we were all good and stoned we continued to swim around giggle and swap travel stories. I’m not sure how many hours we spent floating around, but as the sun-set Bryce decided we should hit the road. All squinty-eyed and smelling like a bunch of skunks we said good-bye to our new Canadian friends and hiked back out to the car. 

Life couldn’t have been in any better. We were going to be crossing the boarder into the Yukon within the next couple of hours, we were stoned, and didn’t have a care in the world —I’m not so sure Bryce was having the same feelings. 

Who Packs a Swimsuit to Alaska? 

We all piled back into the car and started off down the road —but we weren’t going that fast… Bryce was white-knuckling the wheel and doing about 20mph on the highway. After the second logging truck passed us Nash checked in, “Everything ok man?” 

“Yeah, yeah, sorry dude just spacing out a little bit,” Bryce assured us he was fine and sped up to about 40mph. This was very short-lived and eventually we crept back down to 20mph. 

“You sure you are ok man? Do you need me to drive.” 

“No, No man I’ve got this. I just usually don’t smoke pot.” There it was. Turns out Bryce had never smoked before and being a Souther-California boy he had very little experience driving in the snow. After a slightly awkward couple of hours of doing 20. We finally pulled off the road in the Yukon and slept it off. 

The next morning we had to say good bye to our new friend Bryce as our paths were no longer the same. In Jakes Corner, Yukon, Nash and I watched Bryces car fade off into the woods and spent the next hour laughing and reliving the experiences from the night before. Within the next few days we would find ourselves in Anchorage Alaska celebrating my 21st. No worries. 

Seward AK