So you might be thinking “Their plan sure sounds exciting, but what’s the carbon footprint going to be?” or “That Earthmover deal is, perhaps, a tad out of synch with the green gestalt”.

I have wrestled with these questions too. Having ridden my bike to work through rain and cold and snow the last 7 years, I have banked a considerable carbon offset. This store of credits should easily last the first 7 minutes of the trip.

After those first freebie miles are done, I could, perhaps, run the camper on bio diesel. Unfortunately we are going to be away from McDonalds and their energy-rich fry grease for most of the trip. And diesel forums explain that biodiesel basically clogs every filter and line every other day (just like your arteries!) so it isn’t really practical.

The other hand (also known as the Fox News and The Republican Party version) is that with urea exhaust treatment to remove the dreadful nitrous oxide and a filtered common rail diesel engine emitting almost none of the carcinogenic particulates diesels are famous for, the exhaust is mostly rainbows and I’m really vacuuming up stray CO2 from the atmosphere. Not that we need to do that because there’s no problem, no sir.

So what to do? The basic problem is we should always stay home in a house 1/4 the size we have and not heat it or cool it nor eat and if all of Canada did the same, nothing would change in the world because no matter how high our per capita CO2 output is, our capita is insignificant. We’ll try to be good world citizens while we’re gone but admit that we are doing our small bit to entrench the anthropocoene period.

At least Brenda talked me out of replacing the diesel with baby seals and pandas.

I took the truck down the Sekunka River South of Chetwynd, BC, for a trial of rustic camping this weekend. Our neighbour, Harvey, is a fly fishing enthusiast (not a nut, lets be clear, as he might read this before I leave) and, after years of watching his early morning departures, I finally barged onto a trip for my first ever fly fishing. I got to try the kayak on a (gentle) river and found the quick, tipping-upside-down exit a breeze. Harvey caught 68 fish on the run down the river on my first day while I essentially finished off the species with TWO. All fish returned to the water, mostly just terrified.

The truck revelled in the environment. I slept soundly, experiencing pleasantly little guilt over my total comfort as the others tossed about in their sorry tents. It’s going to be a good trip.