Last Trip Before #Vanlife

                 I grabbed my keys and flew up to Talkeetna again. I mean why not its beautiful, great fishing, and has some quality people up there. I parked the van and set up the hammocks to just chill for the first night. The next day was spent hanging out in historical Talkeetna with the never ending masses of tourists. I penny boarded around town and eventually ate some lunch at a local burger pub. Near the evening of the day we headed back to the van and packed up camp. When I went start the Van... Dead. the next hour was spent waving down people to give me a quick jump and eventually a nice older man stopped buy and helped out real quick. I made my way to my next camp, a lake between Willow and Talkeetna. Ended up being super windy at first but calmed down in the evening so we could enjoy a nice fire! Woke up the next morning, got another quick jump and headed to the family cabin for the next adventure!

Ham mocking off the Roof Rack

Fishing During #Vanlife

           Friday morning I woke up and picked up my fishing buddy Aaron Campbell to shoot up the Parks Highway to get some fly fishing in. Same creek, still no name.. As soon as we got there we didn't even take time to setup camp. We immediately had our waders on and rods rigged up and were in the water. We fished a couple bends and caught nothing but as soon as we fished the first big hole, "Boom!" we began to pull out fish after fish. Consisting of Rainbow and Grayling. We fished the whole first day and had spaghetti back at camp for dinner and had a huge campfire. We awoke the next day to a couple other cars parked around our campsite so we had to get in the water quick. I fried up a couple eggs for each of us and we started fishing. Again the same luck as the day before! We were catching fish left and right, only stopping to take pictures with my Nikon of the decent ones. We ended up pulling out 92 fish in the whole trip. Which. Is. Insane! After that day of fishing my girlfriend Jana came up and we all went out to pizza at Mountain High Pizza Pie in the historic town of Talkeetna. So delicious and even got away with having my dog Omzee at the table! Who a bunch of German women adored. After a late dinner we set of home. On our way at about 11:30 at night we spotted Denali fully visible with a sunset behind it an decided to take #Vanlife and mountain pics! It was super Magical!

Me, Jana and the #Vanlife

Aaron with the biggest fish of the trip!

First Trip in the Van!

       So my real #Vanlife adventure doesn't begin until June 1st. At that time my girlfriend Jana and I will road trip in my van until near the end of August when our first semester of college begins. I mean, I would love to skip college but I do need a backup plan just in case. So in between graduation and the start of that adventure together I have to break in the van. This consists of smaller 2-3 fishing/camping trips. So this Monday I picked up my buddy Kyle and we went up to one of my favorite creeks to fly fish! ( No the creek name will not be given) It was a great trip and we slayed the fish! We landed 12 Rainbows, 11 Grayling, and 1 Dolly Varden. It was Kyle's first fish on a fly rod which was definitely magical for him! I also hooked and landed my biggest Arctic Grayling yet! 20 inches long and it had a lot of thickness too.
         The living out of a van i can already tell I'm going to love it! It fits all my gear and the bed is super comfortable, though my feet hang off just a little bit.. I love the fact that everything I have is in my own portable vehicle! We ate good too, our meals consisted of eggs, hot dogs, spaghetti, and pb+j. Considering I just started buying my own food, it tastes a whole lot better when you buy it yourself. Not to mention I'm camping so I'm starving all the time! The 3 day camping trip came to an end and I was a bit sad but had to get back to town to get some essential things done. I'm really excited for my next camping trip and especially for June when we head out!

Cooking Spaghetti for dinner outside 

the van on the propane stove!

Monster Graying I caught

#Vanlife Build

   

What the Van first looked like on the outside.

What the Van first looked like on the inside

Ripped out shelving and cargo dividers!

Cleaned and Plywood floor!

Installed Plywood walls and ceiling

Oak floor vinyl in with matte gray spray paint!

Bed built with storage underneath and all stained.

Kitchen cabinets with miniature fridge

Ending product!

 (plasti-dipped rims and bumper)

Roof rack and Thule box on top

Introduction to my #Vanlife

            #Vanlife to me all started when I was 12 years old and saw all the hype about outdoor enthusiasts, just like me, living out of their decked out van and camping everyday. Right away I knew I wanted to do that one day. As the years passed I figured I would set off on my adventure after college. But when my senior year of high school came around I thought, "Why not now?" Over the next 4 months I searched Craigslist and Facebook trying to find an in-good-shape van at a low cost. Hard to do up here in Alaska as some of you already know. Eventually I found one and decided to take a look at it. From the start I was super cautious and eventually bailed on purchasing that van when the man selling it wouldn't let me get it checked by a reliable mechanic before-hand. About a week later my good friend from high school said his father was selling their cargo van. So we agreed to take it for a small test drive after school. During the entire thing my head was reeling with designs for what it all would look like. Lots of vision for this future home of mine. I bought the van the next day. Over the next three months I gutted, cleaned, and built my future home in it. It was quite easy and affordable at that! I am a lot better at carpentry than I thought. Keep in touch with my blog to keep updated with all my #Vanlife adventures in Alaska!