Seven years ago Monday, Felipe Masetti left the Calgary Stampede on an 800 day trip across the Americas. Now, not quite ready to settle down into a 9-5, he is in the midst of another epic trek, and this one will take him through Grande Prairie.
The mission, which will take him from Fairbanks, Alaska back to the Calgary Stampede grounds in July 2020, currently sees Masetti in the Yukon, learning more and more about the world from a very different perspective.
“It’s a very unique way of travelling. When you’re on horseback.. you can only travel 30 kilometres an hour, you have no sounds, you hear everything. The horse is a universal language, and those who love horses right away will do anything to help you. Take you into their home, feed you, cloth you, take care of you.”
While he enjoys some of the beauty of Whitehorse during the peak summer months, Masetti knows if he hopes to make it back to where his adventures all began by the start of the parade next year, he has to get a move on.
“I hope I will get to Grande Prairie in November if my math is right. Rest over the winter in Grande Prairie, hopefully, find a ranch and someone will allow us to keep our horses there and stay there to document their lives. I’d love to film what a ranch is like in Northern Alberta and help them out.”
Masetti, who is currently travelling with Clara Davel, whom he met on the first cross-continent adventure, says the generosity of Albertans has already made a gigantic impact on the trip.
“This family out of Claresholm just lent us a motor home to make the horses lives easier, my life easier. I’m so blessed to have met people like that.”
Masetti says if winter rolls in early, they will have to keep an eye on places a little further west, like Fort St. John or Dawson Creek.