Our mission, #50states.

Our story

Alaska, born 2/15/2016 in Fairbanks, AK, found herself the protagonist in a poorly written Facebook post advertising her sudden and immediate availability for adoption. Intelligent and easily bored, she had found a few too many devious ways to entertain herself around the house, much to the displeasure of the unfortunately-too-busy family that had purchased her just 5 months prior. Having just recently recovered from the loss of his previous adventure dog just 2 years earlier, Gabe, a long-term traveler and explorer who happened to be in Fairbanks at just the right time, took one look at this hyper-energetic fluff-butt and fell in love.

It was a perfect match. Gabe had been restructuring his life to allow for more freedom and long(er)-term travel, and wanted a loving, loyal, enthusiastic canine companion to share that journey with, and Alaska, a beautiful blend of brainy + cuddly, fit right into his plans.

Our philosophy is simple: love your dog, and your dog will love you back. Trust your dog, and your dog will trust you back. Give your dog the life she wants, and she will be the companion that you have always wanted 🐺🐾💕.

Alaska's indispensable accessories include a Whistle3 GPS tracker, a Ruffwear Palisades pack, and her endless assortment of Barkbox toys. Gabe shoots with an old Canon EOS Rebel XTi and a hand-me-down iPhone 6, favoring a 50mm f/1.4 lens for closeups and a 28-135mm zoom lens for everything else.

Our travels

Our mission is to live meaningfully and explore. Currently, that means visiting all 50 US states by ground, experiencing the best and most exciting that each region has to offer. We travel out of a 2017 NV200 cargo van converted into an off-grid mobile home and office. Traveling out of the NV allows us more flexibility in our schedule, less expensive stays, and the ability to always sleep in our favorite bed every night. It's like a permanent camping trip, except with running water and 6 inches of memory foam underneath us.

Our first big trip took us from our home in California on a tour of the Western states and British Columbia, as far East as Yellowstone NP and the Four Corners Monument.

Our second trip took us Coast to Coast, from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back through New England and the Great Lakes, and was twice as long as the first.

Our third long trip, scheduled for summer 2018 will take us across Canada and back. In the meanwhile, we are exploring coastal California a week at a time.

Our goals.

Alaska is a two year old female Siberian Husky. She was born in Fairbanks, AK (her namesake) and brought to California to start a new life when she was around 7 months old.

Smart and motivated, she proved incredibly easy to train -- although her determination and husky stubbornness often get in the way of her immediate cooperation. She listens, eventually, and she cooperates, eventually, but that eventually requires a little (ok, a lot) extra patience from her human (we're working on it 🐺🐾💕).

Our goal is to spend one third of the year out exploring the world together, reenforcing our training in increasingly complex environments, and strengthening our bond of trust and understanding through deliberate and meaningful time spent together.

Life is too short to spend frustrated with your dog, and a dog's life is even shorter to be spent left behind.