THE ROAD TRIP IS A QUINTESSENTIAL RITE OF PASSAGE in every outdoor pursuit. Climbers make the pil- grimage to Yosemite and Joshua Tree; mountain bikers drive to Moab; backcountry skiers cross snowy passes in the Rockies; and canoe trippers haul their boats north to the subarctic. It’s no different for sea kayakers. We plot our GPS units for rockbound coastlines, set the cruise control, shuffle the tunes and anticipate what we will find.
In the past 10 years I’ve traveled coast to coast, from British Columbia to the Maritimes, the Carolinas and Florida. I felt like an explorer the first time I took to the wheel, loading up my tired old pickup and roll- ing west until the roads ran out. I was on my own and driving hard, logging 16-hour days. When my eyelids grew heavy, I’d push aside my gear in the bed of the truck, unroll my sleeping bag and catch fit- ful rest at roadside gas stations and information center parking lots. I drove by doughnut shops and fast-food joints to save for gas money, instead buying bagels and bags of carrots at the sort of discount gro- cery stores that will never stock artisan breads or organic greens.
Since then, I’ve hauled a laden kayak trailer through downtown traffic in Montreal; hitchhiked across half of Newfoundland; and endured icy roads and snowstorms in the Appalachians on a Christmas paddling trip. Through it all, I’ve thrilled at the nervous excitement of merging into highway traffic, accelerating, upshifting and hearing the familiar groan of an underpowered, overworked engine in fifth gear. The road trip reaffirms the overplayed metaphor that life’s a journey, not a des- tination. And yet it’s also merely a precursor to the real, soul-fulfilling reason we make the trip—to park the car, cut free of fossil fuels and set off on another voyage by simpler means.
In the pages that follow we’ve laid out itineraries for three of the best paddling road trips for every budget. FILL THE TANK AND LOAD YOUR BOAT: IT’S TIME TO HIT THE ROAD. —Conor Mihell
62 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SPRING 2013
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