TRAVEL- ING FAM- ILIES
TEXT BY ANNIE FAST
TRAVELING FAMILIES Hitting the road in the mobile homes of snowboarders. Snowboarders are by nature nomadic in their pursuit of powder, but some have taken this liberated lifestyle to the next level. These riders have embraced the DIY ethos and the life on the road in their custommade homes on wheels. Their plans are collectively loose—the goal is freedom—freedom from the trappings of society, freedom to chase powder, to pursue creative goals, and to deeply experience life and friendships. This is what success looks like.
DESIREE MELANCON Desiree Melancon has always been a bit of a gypsy. This has become even truer since embarking on her United Slopes of America tour this past winter with the goal of visiting every resort in America. Her home on wheels is the foundation for this tour—it started as a rustic camper that she acquired by swapping the owner for a SUP board. Along with her dad, a mechanic by trade, Desiree took three months to build the home. She says the build was 100 per
cent “winging it.” The initial plan was to fix it up to make it fit her truck, but once they got it down to the studs, the whole thing was rotted so it essentially became a build from scratch. The rig is called the Maiden Voyage and Desiree has lived in it full-time for two years now. The highlights are too many to list, most recently she’s pulled off a successful 30-park skatepark tour, camped in Yosemite, summered at Mt Hood, and toured across resorts in Tahoe and the
Northwest for the United Slopes of America. Next winter she’s eyeing the American Midwest resorts. Desiree’s advice, “Just do it, even if you don’t have a plan, just do it. You’re going to make mistakes along the way—I made a ton. But just from building this one, I now know I can do so many other things. Oh yeah, and if you know how to, weld your frame out of metal.” Follow Desiree: @unitedslopesofamerica
97
Above: Desiree Melancon’s full-time camper ‘The Maiden Voyage’ is en route to every ski resort in America. By the looks of the stickers on the door, it’s time to tick off Southern California. Photo: Desiree Melancon
Photos: Ben Gavelda
SCOTTY AND MARISSA WITTLAKE
Above: Just because you’re living life on the road, doesn’t mean you can’t have creature comforts like a fireplace pictured here inside Mike Basich’s mobile home. Bottom left: Mike serves up a hearty homecooked dinner in the Mt Baker carpark. Bottom right: J-Rob is one of the most authentic travellers in snowboarding. He’s hitched across America on trains in true hobo style and can be found in the winter living out the back of his delivery truck in Alaska.
MIKE BASICH Longtime pro and master of DIY, Mike Basich has a long history of trailblazing, from his early adaptation of action self portraits, to building his off-the-grid Area 241 tiny house in Tahoe long before tiny houses were a thing. Of course Mike has a unique take on his home on wheels. His is known as the Tin House, it’s completely custom and constructed primarily with reused materials at a total cost of $6,000. He’s been trailering it around to snowy destinations for the last three seasons, finishing up in Alaska where he films with Absinthe.
He’s also trailered it around the West—the highlight this past winter was the 30th anniversary of the Legendary Baker Banked Slalom. “It was super fun to have that setup up there,” says Mike, “sharing the parking lot with all the mobile snow chasers is pretty fun.” His cabin comes complete with a wood burning stove, which he claims is key for drying out gear in the damp Pacific Northwest conditions. With epic snowfall in Tahoe this year, Mikey took advantage and stayed put for most of the winter, but that didn’t mean the Tin House didn’t
still see a lot of action. In true DIY fashion, he put skis on it and towed it with his snowcat up to his cabin, parking it next to the creek to act as an epic guesthouse for friends. His advice for aspiring DIYers: “The one thing I would suggest is to stop thinking about it and just do it, “says Mikey. “I’ve met so many people with notepads, plans, and research who just need to take the first step. It’s like building a doghouse that’s a little oversized. Just move forward and you’ll learn everything you don’t know as you go.” Follow Mikey: @mikebasich 98
Scotty Wittlake and his wife Marissa went deep for the build of their one-of-a-kind home on wheels. Everything is completely custom and hand built. Scotty started with a 1988 Toyota pickup, took on a mellow engine swap and then upgraded the transmission, the drive train, the suspension and the gearing. Up next, Scotty taught himself to weld and made a flatbed, which he covered with sheet metal using watertight welds, they even sewed the canvas for the poptop. The camper hinges in the back and the front raises up, which makes for a less top heavy rig while allowing for a spacious interior. “I think it’s a lot cooler when you make things yourself,” says Scotty. “We made every inch of the whole thing with our hands.” After finishing the build, they let the steel rust for a few months and sealed it up. The rig now alternates between monikers including Rust Bunny, Rusty Springfield, The Rig, Rigormortous, and yes, the Mad Max mobile. The maiden voyage was a threeweek snowboard trip to Nelson, BC this past winter where they camped out comfortably in below zero conditions. But the main mission is on the horizon—Scotty, Marissa and their 13-year-old cat Fang are headed south indefinitely. They quit their jobs with a plan to cross the border into Baja and keep heading south. Scotty says, “We really wanted to go live for a year in Central America and immerse ourselves in a Spanish-speaking country. Then we thought—well, if we’re going to Central America we should just go to South America too.” Scotty adds, “ It’s a pretty cool idea that you could drive to see penguins from here.” The plan is to leave the truck down south and fly back this winter to get in some snowboarding. His advice for someone thinking about making the leap: “Do it. People always come up to me all over and they’re like, ‘I can’t believe you built this. Where did you get the roof? Where did you get the canvas tent?’ They always say, ‘You must be a fabricator by trade’ and I’m, like, ‘No this is my first welding project ever. Anyone can do it.’” Scotty gets philosophical—“How many people have regrets that they did something in life regardless of how it turns out? They don’t—they have regrets for what they didn’t do.” Follow Scotty and Marissa: @noplannoproblema
“I’ve met so many people with notepads, plans, and research who just need to take the first step. It’s like building a doghouse that’s a little oversized. Just move forward and you’ll learn everything you don’t know as you go.” – MIKE BASICH
Left: At a quick glance, Mike Basich’s mobile home might look like a shanty but it’s well-thought construction is as safe and stable as a brand new Jayco. Photo: Ben Gavelda. Top right: Scotty and Marissa Wittlake single handedly constructed the entire camping setup on their truck themselves. While they’ve had many campers, they reckon that this one is their best yet. Photo: Nick Hamilton. Bottom right: It’s tough, it’s tidy and it’s all Tim and Hannah Eddy’s. This capable camper provides full-time residency for snowboarding's most fun-loving couple. Photo: Tim Eddy
TIM AND HANNAH EDDY
Tahoe-based Tim Eddy is no slouch when it comes to DIY home building. He and his wife Hannah until recently lived in their “Childerness” cabin in Tahoe, an off-the-grid tiny home complete with a concrete skate bowl. They recently moved into their home on wheels—a 1994 Ford F250 turbo diesel converted into veggie oil and upgraded with an aluminium flatbed. Tim says, “It’s the smallest big truck we could find.” The camper is a 1991 Northern Light cab over camper, a four-seasons fibreglass shell that excels for being lightweight and heavily insulated. Tim says, “It’s good for cold and hot, that was key. We were looking for something that would not deter us from going into the mountains, the whole point is to go into the mountains.” Tim and Hannah have been living in the camper, dubbed the Radical Roamer, full-time since April 2016 working on a project called Do Radical. They’re shining light
JASON ROBINSON
on people doing positive things environmentally and socially. Tim describes it as, “a media platform for people in the skate, snow, and surf communities doing awesome things—humble people that people need to know about.” Recent visits include a permaculture farm on the Oregon coast, an off-the-grid recording studio in a tiny house, and a mechanic shop working on green/veggie conversions. Everything they own is in or around that camper including surfboards, splitboards, “regular” snowboards, and skateboards, with other gear stashed in utility boxes welded to the exterior. The current plan is to visit with these inspiring creatives and document their lives. Tim’s advice for someone thinking about taking up the home on wheels lifestyle—“Less is more for sure. Just start simple and work your way up. And don’t be afraid to fail.” Follow Tim and Hannah @doradical
Jason Robinson sports one of the most unusual rigs of the bunch, his is a delivery truck from the 1960s that he bought near his home base in Northwestern Montana and repurposed into a cabin mounted onto a flatbed trailer. He tows this behind a 1990 Dodge Ram, which runs off waste vegetable oil. This season was its maiden voyage after an on-and-off build over the last three years. J-Rob hit the road in March and headed due north. He says, “My first real trip with my house and my vegetable oil truck was a 2,000 mile one-way journey to Haines, Alaska.” Using almost exclusively vegetable oil, he was able to drive to Alaska for a mere $200 taking the scenic route up Cassiar Highway. Having a home on wheels has definitely had a positive impact on his life, “In a lot of ways it has given me more freedom—financial and time freedom,” Jason adds, 99
“Through the process I’ve also learned valuable skills to fix or replace everything.” These skills led to Jason getting his dream job this summer as a national forest station guard in an off-the-grid cabin—a job he would have never been qualified for without the experience gained building his home on wheels. His advice for someone looking to tackle their own project trailer home, “I would say smaller is definitely better,” referring to some of the challenges of maintaining a low profile while road tripping with a large house versus a van or truck. Follow Jason @j_robble
TRAVELING FAMILIES Hitting the road in the mobile homes of snowboarders. Snowboarders are by nature nomadic in their pursuit of powder, but some have taken this liberated lifestyle to the next level. These riders have embraced the DIY ethos and the life on the road in their custommade homes on wheels. Their plans are collectively loose—the goal is freedom—freedom from the trappings of society, freedom to chase powder, to pursue creative goals, and to deeply experience life and friendships. This is what success looks like.
DESIREE MELANCON Desiree Melancon has always been a bit of a gypsy. This has become even truer since embarking on her United Slopes of America tour this past winter with the goal of visiting every resort in America. Her home on wheels is the foundation for this tour—it started as a rustic camper that she acquired by swapping the owner for a SUP board. Along with her dad, a mechanic by trade, Desiree took three months to build the home. She says the build was 100 per
cent “winging it.” The initial plan was to fix it up to make it fit her truck, but once they got it down to the studs, the whole thing was rotted so it essentially became a build from scratch. The rig is called the Maiden Voyage and Desiree has lived in it full-time for two years now. The highlights are too many to list, most recently she’s pulled off a successful 30-park skatepark tour, camped in Yosemite, summered at Mt Hood, and toured across resorts in Tahoe and the
Northwest for the United Slopes of America. Next winter she’s eyeing the American Midwest resorts. Desiree’s advice, “Just do it, even if you don’t have a plan, just do it. You’re going to make mistakes along the way—I made a ton. But just from building this one, I now know I can do so many other things. Oh yeah, and if you know how to, weld your frame out of metal.” Follow Desiree: @unitedslopesofamerica
97
Above: Desiree Melancon’s full-time camper ‘The Maiden Voyage’ is en route to every ski resort in America. By the looks of the stickers on the door, it’s time to tick off Southern California. Photo: Desiree Melancon
Photos: Ben Gavelda
SCOTTY AND MARISSA WITTLAKE
Above: Just because you’re living life on the road, doesn’t mean you can’t have creature comforts like a fireplace pictured here inside Mike Basich’s mobile home. Bottom left: Mike serves up a hearty homecooked dinner in the Mt Baker carpark. Bottom right: J-Rob is one of the most authentic travellers in snowboarding. He’s hitched across America on trains in true hobo style and can be found in the winter living out the back of his delivery truck in Alaska.
MIKE BASICH Longtime pro and master of DIY, Mike Basich has a long history of trailblazing, from his early adaptation of action self portraits, to building his off-the-grid Area 241 tiny house in Tahoe long before tiny houses were a thing. Of course Mike has a unique take on his home on wheels. His is known as the Tin House, it’s completely custom and constructed primarily with reused materials at a total cost of $6,000. He’s been trailering it around to snowy destinations for the last three seasons, finishing up in Alaska where he films with Absinthe.
He’s also trailered it around the West—the highlight this past winter was the 30th anniversary of the Legendary Baker Banked Slalom. “It was super fun to have that setup up there,” says Mike, “sharing the parking lot with all the mobile snow chasers is pretty fun.” His cabin comes complete with a wood burning stove, which he claims is key for drying out gear in the damp Pacific Northwest conditions. With epic snowfall in Tahoe this year, Mikey took advantage and stayed put for most of the winter, but that didn’t mean the Tin House didn’t
still see a lot of action. In true DIY fashion, he put skis on it and towed it with his snowcat up to his cabin, parking it next to the creek to act as an epic guesthouse for friends. His advice for aspiring DIYers: “The one thing I would suggest is to stop thinking about it and just do it, “says Mikey. “I’ve met so many people with notepads, plans, and research who just need to take the first step. It’s like building a doghouse that’s a little oversized. Just move forward and you’ll learn everything you don’t know as you go.” Follow Mikey: @mikebasich 98
Scotty Wittlake and his wife Marissa went deep for the build of their one-of-a-kind home on wheels. Everything is completely custom and hand built. Scotty started with a 1988 Toyota pickup, took on a mellow engine swap and then upgraded the transmission, the drive train, the suspension and the gearing. Up next, Scotty taught himself to weld and made a flatbed, which he covered with sheet metal using watertight welds, they even sewed the canvas for the poptop. The camper hinges in the back and the front raises up, which makes for a less top heavy rig while allowing for a spacious interior. “I think it’s a lot cooler when you make things yourself,” says Scotty. “We made every inch of the whole thing with our hands.” After finishing the build, they let the steel rust for a few months and sealed it up. The rig now alternates between monikers including Rust Bunny, Rusty Springfield, The Rig, Rigormortous, and yes, the Mad Max mobile. The maiden voyage was a threeweek snowboard trip to Nelson, BC this past winter where they camped out comfortably in below zero conditions. But the main mission is on the horizon—Scotty, Marissa and their 13-year-old cat Fang are headed south indefinitely. They quit their jobs with a plan to cross the border into Baja and keep heading south. Scotty says, “We really wanted to go live for a year in Central America and immerse ourselves in a Spanish-speaking country. Then we thought—well, if we’re going to Central America we should just go to South America too.” Scotty adds, “ It’s a pretty cool idea that you could drive to see penguins from here.” The plan is to leave the truck down south and fly back this winter to get in some snowboarding. His advice for someone thinking about making the leap: “Do it. People always come up to me all over and they’re like, ‘I can’t believe you built this. Where did you get the roof? Where did you get the canvas tent?’ They always say, ‘You must be a fabricator by trade’ and I’m, like, ‘No this is my first welding project ever. Anyone can do it.’” Scotty gets philosophical—“How many people have regrets that they did something in life regardless of how it turns out? They don’t—they have regrets for what they didn’t do.” Follow Scotty and Marissa: @noplannoproblema
“I’ve met so many people with notepads, plans, and research who just need to take the first step. It’s like building a doghouse that’s a little oversized. Just move forward and you’ll learn everything you don’t know as you go.” – MIKE BASICH
Left: At a quick glance, Mike Basich’s mobile home might look like a shanty but it’s well-thought construction is as safe and stable as a brand new Jayco. Photo: Ben Gavelda. Top right: Scotty and Marissa Wittlake single handedly constructed the entire camping setup on their truck themselves. While they’ve had many campers, they reckon that this one is their best yet. Photo: Nick Hamilton. Bottom right: It’s tough, it’s tidy and it’s all Tim and Hannah Eddy’s. This capable camper provides full-time residency for snowboarding's most fun-loving couple. Photo: Tim Eddy
TIM AND HANNAH EDDY
Tahoe-based Tim Eddy is no slouch when it comes to DIY home building. He and his wife Hannah until recently lived in their “Childerness” cabin in Tahoe, an off-the-grid tiny home complete with a concrete skate bowl. They recently moved into their home on wheels—a 1994 Ford F250 turbo diesel converted into veggie oil and upgraded with an aluminium flatbed. Tim says, “It’s the smallest big truck we could find.” The camper is a 1991 Northern Light cab over camper, a four-seasons fibreglass shell that excels for being lightweight and heavily insulated. Tim says, “It’s good for cold and hot, that was key. We were looking for something that would not deter us from going into the mountains, the whole point is to go into the mountains.” Tim and Hannah have been living in the camper, dubbed the Radical Roamer, full-time since April 2016 working on a project called Do Radical. They’re shining light
JASON ROBINSON
on people doing positive things environmentally and socially. Tim describes it as, “a media platform for people in the skate, snow, and surf communities doing awesome things—humble people that people need to know about.” Recent visits include a permaculture farm on the Oregon coast, an off-the-grid recording studio in a tiny house, and a mechanic shop working on green/veggie conversions. Everything they own is in or around that camper including surfboards, splitboards, “regular” snowboards, and skateboards, with other gear stashed in utility boxes welded to the exterior. The current plan is to visit with these inspiring creatives and document their lives. Tim’s advice for someone thinking about taking up the home on wheels lifestyle—“Less is more for sure. Just start simple and work your way up. And don’t be afraid to fail.” Follow Tim and Hannah @doradical
Jason Robinson sports one of the most unusual rigs of the bunch, his is a delivery truck from the 1960s that he bought near his home base in Northwestern Montana and repurposed into a cabin mounted onto a flatbed trailer. He tows this behind a 1990 Dodge Ram, which runs off waste vegetable oil. This season was its maiden voyage after an on-and-off build over the last three years. J-Rob hit the road in March and headed due north. He says, “My first real trip with my house and my vegetable oil truck was a 2,000 mile one-way journey to Haines, Alaska.” Using almost exclusively vegetable oil, he was able to drive to Alaska for a mere $200 taking the scenic route up Cassiar Highway. Having a home on wheels has definitely had a positive impact on his life, “In a lot of ways it has given me more freedom—financial and time freedom,” Jason adds, 99
“Through the process I’ve also learned valuable skills to fix or replace everything.” These skills led to Jason getting his dream job this summer as a national forest station guard in an off-the-grid cabin—a job he would have never been qualified for without the experience gained building his home on wheels. His advice for someone looking to tackle their own project trailer home, “I would say smaller is definitely better,” referring to some of the challenges of maintaining a low profile while road tripping with a large house versus a van or truck. Follow Jason @j_robble
