Our Story
GrandTaiga began with a van build, a rough plan, and a decision to stop watching adventure from a distance and start living inside it. Anchored by the phrase "A mari usque ad mare," which means "from sea to sea," three curious adventurers set out to push beyond the familiar, crossing the United States and Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific, building not just a route, but a life defined by movement, risk, and the pursuit of something real.
Explore the North Gallery
Storybook Timeline
Phase 1
Life as a college student can take many forms for different people. Things like high hopes for a brighter future, naitivity about what comes after, and a quest to understand oneself can all contribute to shaping students future. Frustrated and unsatified with the status quo, two young explorers chose to use this time as a means to reshape the boxed reality the school creates.
Phase 1
While keeping an open mind, they searched for what was to come next and ended up finding profound inspiration from the great photographers and outdoor athletes of their time. They called upon Burkard, Strohl, and Fursty to guide their way. Instead of daydreaming of the enchanted lands shown by these photography legends they decided to take action and insert themselves into the reality they were inspired by. This was a life they wanted for themselves.
Phase 1
After getting a taste of what life on the road could be like, and honing in on their photography skills, the friends began to dream bigger. What if the adventure never stopped? What if there was a life out there that was uninhibited? With little experience and insight into this newfound free-to-roam, free-to-create routine, the boys were powered up and ready to test their theory on a journey much larger.
Phase 2
To their excitement, most of Canada had yet to be explored and there was an entire country out there waiting for them. While researching they came across a phrase that would change their lives forever, 'A mari usque ad mare.' This Latin saying loosely translates to 'from sea to sea,' and from that day on, is exactly what their hearts were set on accomplishing. In one vast loop, they were to drive from Wisconsin to Tadoussac, Quebec reaching the Atlantic Ocean, then up through the Canadian Rockies and down to Washington State on the west coast reaching the Pacific Ocean, then finally traveling back to their Midwest starting point to finish the entire loop.
Phase 2
The mission had become real enough to shape daily life. Build, work, plan, repeat.
Phase 3
Ten days in the trip and 1,400 miles out from home, in a French-speaking foreign country, the comrades sunk into their first major issue. After a night out playing pool and getting to know the locals in the small tourist town of Tadoussac, it was time to find their home for the night. Images of other van lifers gloriously parked on the beach danced through their heads. With the sound of the ocean echoing down the road, they drove down a beachside ramp only to become stuck within seconds of the tires hitting the sand. It was now 1:30 in the morning, and the three boys frantically began to dig out the now-sunken tires with nothing but their hands. After what seemed like a day's worth of digging they freed the van and sprung into another heart-wrenching problem: the power steering was out.
Phase 3
After being stranded in Tadoussac for a few days, the boys began to find their rhythm as a unit, comedically similar to that of a committed relationship.
Phase 3
With the van all patched up and many more locations on the busy itinerary, the team said their goodbyes to the small whaling town. The days could be summed up as early morning cafe runs, nature walks, and climbs along the rocky shoreline of the St. Lawrence River, thus completing the first ocean milestone in their Mare Usque Ad Mare adventure. In comparison to the fast-paced life back home, time slowed and the boys were able to begin to relish every moment presented, through the good and the bad. The trip was not only a journey far and wide but a journey of the mind.
Phase 3
As with any proper hero's tale, the boys triumphed while exiting the East Coast. First, they backcountry camped on top of the highest point in the Montagne des Erables before making their way west along the famed Trans-Canada Highway. Driving from Quebec to Alberta is a staggering feat. Hardly any civilizations can be found for hundreds of miles combined with the endlessly straight and repetitive tree line on both shoulders of the road. To break up the madness, and in true GrandTaiga fashion, they paddle boarded random lakes at sunset and bathed in freezing cold Canadian water.
Phase 3
The miles were long, the routines were strange, and humor became part of survival.
Phase 3
Even the roughest stretches of the trip kept producing stories the crew would laugh about later.
Phase 3
As they made their return to civilization, and just as the team began to find a natural travel flow, BAM, the ball bearing burst. Thus flinging them into oncoming traffic and seconds away from obliteration by the mouth of a semi. With added adrenaline and split-second awareness, Sam swerved back into the right lane getting the van back on track, saving the comrades from impending doom.
Phase 3
Frustrated and imprisoned to the side of the road, the boys trekked into town in search of the first mechanic shop they could find, fearing the possibility of being stranded again. Worst of all it was Friday at 4:45 PM and they knew local businesses would be closing within minutes. They jolted into the nearest Chevy dealership, quickly explained the synopsis of Explore the North, and were reluctantly told Tuesday was the earliest they would be able to get help. Just when all hope was lost, a coverall-suited mechanic hero from behind the counter came forth and volunteered to get the job done that very night.
Phase 3
Grateful and a bit shocked, the boys were happy to be on the road and headed to a photographer's dreamland: Jasper, Alberta. Upon arriving during golden hour, from the cockpit to shotgun to the back seat, the excitement was shared amongst all. Beaten down from the Trans-Canadian Highway, they were drifters and Jasper was an oasis.
Phase 3
Now in full stride, the team was enjoying raw daily backpacking adventures in the Canadian Rockies. They summited everything their boots touched. In a testament of strength, at times they carried stones along with them just for the added challenge. They did pull-ups on trees. They raced, they played. They were hypnotized by the magnificence of mother nature.
Phase 3
With the morning light shimmering through their rooftop tent, at one point they found themselves waking up to the sound of tour buses. They climbed down and began a familiar breakfast routine when an old woman from one of the groups caught them off guard by joining in to help them cook. She didn't speak one word of English, but her smile and engagement that morning was infectious. The boys and the woman couldn't even exchange names, but they exchanged something more: human connection and hospitality.
Phase 3
The boys were now sunburnt, beat up, fatigued, but whole at heart. While enjoying many external triumphs, road life offered them so much more. The group shared meaningful experiences, like intimate chats on rainy days hunkered down in the van, and through this difficult yet rewarding journey a communal bond grew between them.
Phase 3
The routines of the road turned even rest into a shared system with its own logic and comedy.
Phase 3
By then the road had become less of a disruption and more of a clear rhythm.
Phase 3
Marching deeper into the adventure, the young scouts found themselves cast away onto the northern beaches of the Olympic Peninsula. A dragon lurked in the water, a crawling ocean floor sprang to the surface, and a red dwarf coastal sunset lit fire to the sand. From the mountains and bushes, through rivers and streams, the boys marched on, no worries, just happy spirits with eyes met with a gleam.
Phase 3
In true celebratory vagabond style they decided to stay a while and experience all that they could. In a day or two, they managed to explore atop the sea stacks, trek far along the sharp cliffside coast only to get cut off by the tides, bushwhack their way back through heavy towering brush, stumble into a campsite of three seventy-year-old ladies, play 18 holes of rock golf, build a driftwood castle, and sleep fireside underneath the stars.
Phase 3
The Pacific leg opened a new world of coastal details and discoveries that felt completely unlike the mountain portions of the trip.
Phase 3
Early on, cliff jumping and icy dunks became tradition and when an opportunity to do so arrived they went for it with encouragement from all. On this particular day Sam was the chosen warrior around a popular hiking spot in Glacier National Park. After Sam took flight and swam back, he was met with a huge round of applause and shared excitement.
Phase 3
The three of them encountered grizzlies almost daily during their escape through Glacier, but one of the days surely turned grim. A planned two-day backpacking journey was quickly put on hold by one close call after another, including a trail closure, an accidental bear mace cloud, and multiple grizzly sightings. By nightfall they found themselves miles from their designated campsite and chose to settle in for the night instead of trekking back through the black, grizzly-infested forest.
Phase 3
Like Glacier National Park, the Tetons were another destination to embrace the call of the wild. As the group's last regional stop of the trip, the scouts had planned yet another jam-packed, fun-filled week. During one scramble high above an alpine lake, Matt fell and warned Nick that a bear was heading his way, turning the descent into another adrenaline-charged route choice.
Phase 3
After a staggering 11,000 miles on the road and 200 miles hiked in just 50 days, the scouts had done it. With curious minds satisfied and hearts full, they set out in a big red van to explore North America in search of the most scenic vistas the continent had to offer. Explore the North was over but their bags were more full than when they began.
Origin Story
Quick links into the original GrandTaiga storybook, plus fresh reading from the modern site.
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