Ordinary Sherpa

Home
Canada
Pemberton, BC
Ordinary Sherpa

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Ordinary Sherpa, Podcast, Pemberton, BC.

01/11/2025

Our first week was in Minnesota (in winter)❄️ 🎿🚐

Things we wanted to experience:
🎿 skiing on Tuesday
🚐winter camping
💧frozen waterfalls
all checked off the curiosity chart on week 1. We repeated them multiple times and learned how different the same experiences can be.

Some staples in our planning were also small batch homemade ice cream shops, Science Museums (ASTC), Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome, and public libraries, friends and extended family.

In the travel world everyone is always looking for the hidden gems and access to local favorites. My lesson from Grand Marais, Minnesota is never underestimate the chill of Lake Superior or the value of 2 hours at the laundromat.

Photo by locations:
1-3: Jay Cooke State Park: the draw was winter camping with electric hookups, but the best part was everything else including the hiking, sledding and history of the bridge. is a great place year round
4-5: the frozen waterfalls at Gooseberry Falls State Park was the draw but the walk to the falls still reminds me to keep things simple.
6-9: had been a Midwest ski destination that always just too far away. The views of Lake Superior from the top. For some reason a cheeseburger in the parking lot of a ski hill tastes much better than any grill in the summer
10-11: Grand Marias, MN in winter
12: Minneapolis Public library has a gorgeous baby grand that allowed the kids to practice piano while traveling. This is somewhat common in public libraries.
13-14: was the perfect option to challenge the kids. We spent HOURS with the volunteer teaching us brain teasers.
15-18: Meeting up with friends and peers on the road was one of our favorite things. started our podcast together.

Have you ever winter camped? What feels like the hard part?

01/08/2025

As I write the book I thought it would be fun to recount stories from Gap Year.

On January 19, 2023, we set off on our family gap year—Day 0. It’s the first story in the book I’m writing about our journey, and let me tell you, nothing went according to plan.

Months of thought, energy, and experimentation went into this launch day. I was determined—DETERMINED to make this work, determined to stick to the plan. There are moments when you have to surrender to the universe, but this wasn’t one of them. We powered through.

Looking back now, I realize the chaos of that day was the perfect symbolic start to our gap year. It mirrored the life I was living as an adventurous mom navigating my achiever mindset. It was messy, challenging, and full of lessons I couldn’t yet see.

Thankfully, we had a soft landing planned with friends—a much-needed moment of grace that set the tone for a year defined by one word: intentional.

This is where our story begins.

Any guesses what happened in the last picture?

12/20/2024

Are you a snow lover or hater?

We are snow lovers and seeing them get all suited up to play outside tonight makes me smile. Tonight’s outside activity was pulling the kids in a sled behind the 4-wheeler.

01/01/2024

Cypress knees and boardwalks please!

Louisiana is my 50th state. From the Live Oaks to Cypress trees we have been draped in southern hospitality trying all kinds of local flavors.

Here’s to new adventures in the coming year.

Share an adventure you are excited about experiencing it in 2024 in the comments!

08/22/2023

Not a bad place to be stranded for the day.

In case you didn’t see the story we were rerouted due to wildfires in Brotish Columbia and ended up needing to take the “scenic” route which because of the smoke weren’t able to enjoy. It was a very winding and steep road of 11-15% grade. The husband pulled off to cool the brakes and noticed a fire on the dolly axel. The brakes were so hot the melted the seal on bearings and started a fire. He was able to act quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher and get it out before major damage occurred.

So today we are in Pemberton, British Columbia in an adorable quaint and delightful town. Our first stop is the with crossiants and coffee. Library and park to follow.

Sometimes the most unexpected adventures allow us to experience the best untourist destinations.

Ordinary Sherpa inspires families to connect through adventure. We are a family of 5 on a gap year traveling North America in an RV.

07/28/2023

Simple Adventure Win: See if you can find a rock shaped like a heart.

Adventure doesn’t need to be an epic summit, it just needs to be something new and little different to help desire your brain to seek and explore things outside the norm. Simple adventures with kids are a practice in building resilience skills, experimenting with different, and navigating unknowns.

Side benefit you end up with 3 heart shaped rocks.

Share your simple adventure win in the comments.

07/15/2023

It’s Christmas in July 🎄

Each year we gift experiences for the holidays. The kids gets 3 small gifts from us (and many other from extended family). Their big gift is an experience of their choice. This year each got to choose a thing that they want to experience on our gap year. My little man chose a fishing guide in Alaska.

The boys had a great time fishing these sockeye on the Kasilof river along the Kenai peninsula.

A resource to help you with experience giving is Episode 101 of the Ordinary Sherpa podcast title Start Here | Less Stuff, More Experiences. (Ordinarysherpa.com/101)

07/14/2023

You can still want and seek success but have it k very different than the status quo. Lifestyle design is about getting clear about what that looks like for you and experimenting with the options.

Dawn from talks about this on episode 121 and through her book Lean Out. You can find this podcast episode on Ordinary Sherpa on any of your favorite podcast players.

06/26/2023

Our favorite stops along the Alaska Highway (previously known as the Alcan) from Dawson City, BC (Canada) to Tok, AL (USA)

1. Playing in the Mud Flats in Silver City
2. Seeing a number of Grizzlies (several sow and cubs) the stretch North of Kluane National Park to Destruction Bay. Our total count thus far is 8.
3. Learning about Dall Sheep at the north visitor center of Kluane National Park
4. Skipping rocks and morning hike to Kathleen Lake in Kluane National Park.
5. Exploring the south Kluane National Park visitor center and Da Ku Cultural Center (same building) in Haines Junction. By far one of the wheat visitor centers we have ever visited. The kids did not want to leave!
6. Trying Namino bars (a local Canadian recipe) from the Watson Foods grocery store.
7. Scrambling driftwood along Teslin Lake (PS this was 10 PM)
8. Finding our friend’s sign from Sign Forest in Watson Lake
9. Taking a relaxing soak in the Liard Hot Springs. One of our top 5 hit spring experiences.

Save this post for Alaska Highway stops or visits to British Columbia or Yukon Territory!

Have you ever traveled the Alaskan Highway? Which of these stops looks like one you’d like to experience?

06/22/2023

Chess is a good analogy for life. A constant experiment, adapting the plan and making adjustments to position you for the next big move.

When the idea of a family gap year was the vision, it was 3+ years to get the parts and pieces figured out to make it work for our family. Not just the money but also health, social, learning. It was a series of moves figuring out which piece to move where.

June 19th marked 5 months on the road as a family of 5 exploring North America in our RV with our dog. It still feels like we are playing chess ♟️

06/15/2023

We spent 10 days in May at home with doctor appointments, friends and family meet-ups and loads of laundry. We have since been back on the road exploring Glacier National Park and then in Canada on our way to Alaska.

In this episode I walk through our transition and the definition of bittersweet was that comes with change.

The Joy Audit I refer to in this episode can be found in the link in my bio. The full episode is available on the Ordinary Sherpa podcast on any of your favorite podcast player platforms or by heading to ordinarysherpa.com/119

06/08/2023

On Day 2 in Glacier National Park we explored Many Glacier area. We hiked as far as we could to Grinnell Glacier, unfortunately on June 1 the bear activity combined with snow melt made the last 1.5 miles unsafe.

We started at Many Glacier entrance and parked at the Swiss Alps inspired Many Glacier hotel parking lot. We hiked the the north side of Josephine Lake Trail (which is where our family picture was shot).

The trail splits to Grinnell Lake (read flat) or you can look the lake and take the Grinnell Glacier hike. I highly suggest getting up even a bit to see the lakes from above. The blue turquoise hue is even more rich from above!

The hike to Grinnell Glacier had many waterfalls, sone created a stream crossing in the trail. At the 3.5 mile mark the rain picked up pretty heavy and we decided to head back to complete the 7 mile hike. Trekkiypiles we’re not required but nice for the Grinnell Glavier portion of the trail.

🥾Hikes to consider from Many Glacier Entrance are:
- Grinnell Lake (3.5 mi one way with minimal elevation) *there is a boat that cuts hiking distance in half, but I wouldn’t recommend. It is coded as a challenging hike but mostly because of the distance. It’s mostly flat with some roots and uneven ground.
- Grinnell Glacier: details above
- Ptarmagin Falls 2.6mi one way (and the split to Iceberg Lake is 4.8 mi one way) have much steeper elevation but if you have an extra day and want to do one challenging hike this is the one I’d suggest. Trekking poles in June are suggested as the trail sometimes still has snow cover in places.
-Fishcarp is an area you should ask about at the visitor center. There is usually good wildlife viewing.

Noteworthy: a vehicle reservation is required from July1-Sept 15 at Many Glacier. Passes are released months in advance on recreation.gov There are passes released 24 hours before the arrival day as well. Reservations are needed from 6 AM-3PM.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with our review of the Two Medicine area!

Follow as we travel to Alaska for the summer.

Address

Pemberton, BC
V0N

Website

https://ordinarysherpa.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Ordinary Sherpa posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Ordinary Sherpa:

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company in Pemberton?