I'm leaving June 7 and heading in a general thataways direction (*points west*) on the trip of a lifetime. I'll be dirtbagging it across the USA and Canada from the day I graduate high school until orientation at UNBC. I don't leave for a couple more weeks but I'm working 6 days a week and going to school and working on the truck and gear etc which adds up to zero days a week off and not much time to check stuff on dA/flickr etc. So to everyone who's faved a picture or watched me (and anyone who does in the next couple months), thank you. I'm 400 messages behind and that's not going to get any better in the next couple months, so belatedly or in advance, I appreciate the support.

I'm bringing both cameras and I'll be seeing things that can't be described or imagined, but if a grizz doesn't eat me on the way back there will be photos starting to go up September ish. Everything you've seen up to now is just a warm up act for what's going to be going up here, I'm going to camp out in the most beautiful places on this side of the world, you'll be seeing the north side of the Great Lakes, the Badlands, Black Hills and other spots in the Dakotas, the Wind River Range of Wyoming, maybe the Sawtooths of Idaho and then many many photos of the mountains and rivers and glaciers of British Columbia, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. It's going to blow your mind.

So to answer the usual questions, yes I'm going alone (used to that one, the question and the answer), yes I'm going to try to minimize my chances of dying but I make no promises, shit happens, just don't make a goddamn movie about me if I don't walk out (I might be cool with a book), yes I've got bear spray (and yes it's UDAP, the good stuff), yes I expect to use it, no I don't completely expect it to work but it's worth trying, yes I know what I'm doing better than that Into the Wild guy and I think I'm good enough at this to survive (again no promises), no I'm not going to shower much, yes I'm going to grow my hair out and yes it will look hot even if I smell like shit (argue, I dare you), no I don't think I'm going to burn out, if anybody can take it it's me, no I won't have internet or a computer but yes I have a milk crate's worth of books I'm going to be reading, yes I'm going to be very bad and stealth-camp in Wallmart parking lots etc (it's actually allowed there, kinda handy), yes I've got a nice little gas stove and will do most of my own cooking and will probably not lose weight while on the road, yes I've got a converter to charge my camera batteries off the truck, yes I'm going to be one huge bug bite by the end of all this, yes I'll be stopping at laundromats, yes I'll be writing plenty and will probably type some stuff up when it's all over (winters are long up there, I'll probably have time), yes I'll have pictures of the aurora (lots of them) but it won't be until winter since the nights aren't very long where and when I'm going, yes I'm going to blow my 50-hours-without-seeing-another-person record straight out of the water, and yes I'll probably miss you at one point or another during that time, but I'll get over it.


So that's about it, I'll be on and off for the next couple weeks, time to say goodbyes, but after that I'll catch you on the flip side.


Peace.


EDIT: DRAWING REFERENCES/STOCK USE, WHAT'S COOL:



Well I've obviously got the computer now (thanks ma), I've got most of my processing and posting done for what I've taken up to now. I probably won't be prompt responding to comments and notes (sorry, that's road life.), so heres what I've got to say to anybody who wants to use any of my pictures for stock or as a drawing reference:

Drawers: Use anything you like, drop a comment or something with a link if you post it on the internet, I like to see the results. Send me a note if you'd like higher resolution for a wing reference or what have you, the size I post here might not be as useful as it could be.

Stock: If you're just having fun, ie you don't sell your work, and you need something I've put up for part of a larger work, go ahead, but be very explicit about where you got the stock in the artists comments. Contact for higher resolution or color version of a B&W image. No playing with the contrast and reposting, that's not cool. If you want to color in a B&W that is kinda cool, go for it, and I want to see when it's done. Others should contact me by note and wait for a response. Don't really expect that one to come up, but hey, you never know whats going to happen tomorrow.