Come Saturday, islander Connor Herrington and his friend Michael Stone will head to Vancouver, British Columbia, slip their kayaks into the water and begin what may be the journey of a lifetime: paddling to Alaska.

The two men will make their way some 1,000 miles up the Inside Passage to Glacier Bay National Park, which lies west of Juneau in Alaska’s panhandle. There, after a break of a few days, they will do more kayaking this summer, guiding those who want to experience the wilds of Alaska from the water.

Paddling the Inside Passage — with its dense spruce forests, countless islands, deep fjords, calving glaciers and abundant wildlife — has been something Stone has wanted to do for a long time. Now, after months of preparing, he and Herrington plan to spend from March 4 to May 15 heading north to Alaska.

“The Inside Passage is just awesome. This trip has always been in the back of my mind,” Stone said last week at Herrington’s family home on Maury Island, with kayaks resting in the grass and supplies for the journey filling a room.

Herrington, 26, and a 2009 graduate of Vashon High School, said his introduction to kayaking came as a college student at Western Washington University and trips then to the San Juan Islands.

“Once my buddy took me out on my first kayak trip, I was sold,” he said. “There’s access to beautiful scenery, being on the water, it’s all pretty great.”

After that trip, he said, he took 7- to 10-day trips every summer before becoming a kayaking guide in Alaska in 2015.

Stone, 27, who is from Montana, bought his first kayaks when he was in art school in Portland and taught himself the finer points of paddling. In 2012, for a kayak guide training school, he took part in a 24-day kayak trip in Alaska and has been guiding since 2013. The two men met as co-workers for Alaska Mountain Guides, and have used more conventional methods to get to their jobs in previous years: flying, driving and taking the Alaska ferry.

Two years ago, Stone said, he shared his idea of paddling the Inside Passage, and Herrington was the only co-worker to say yes to the long trip. For a year and a half, the two men — who resemble one another so much that they are routinely confused for each other — have been planning this journey, gathering charts, preparing food and obtaining emergency supplies.

Through good luck and Craigslist, they bought all the nautical charts for the area between Bellingham and Glacier Bay — $1,000 worth of charts for $100. They have electronic charts as well, but say that paper charts are not subject to the vagaries of technology and are essential.

Over the winter, Stone said, his parents dehydrated food for them to take: meat, noodles, fruit and rice. The two men combined the food, making meals such as biscuits and gravy and curried chicken. They have tried them out and profess the food to be as good as any commercially packaged dehydrated food .

“They are definitely going to be awesome on a hungry day,” Herrington said.

Their meals will be supplemented by what he characterized as “tons and tons and tons” of snacks.

“The food was a really big, daunting project, but once we got it in front of us, it came together quickly,” he added.

Their travel plan includes stopping at four towns along the way to resupply their food, one to buy fresh food and the others to pick up mailed packages waiting at businesses that agreed to hold their provisions.

The two men say they are also prepared for emergencies, with a satellite phone, satellite messengers, flares, lights that can be seen for 4 miles, an extensive medical kit and VHF radios.

It could easily be two to three weeks of paddling between towns, Stone said, making the emergency equipment essential. This is especially true given that they are setting off with the challenges of winter weather still looming. While other kayakers take this trip annually — akin to hikers completing the Appalachian Trail — Stone and Herrington said they expect they will be the only kayakers they encounter this early in the year, though they believe they will see larger vessels.

While the men are aiming to make it the full distance to Glacier Bay, they say ending their journey in Ketchikan, Alaska, might be more likely — which would cut at least 200 miles off the trip. Paddling 35 to 40 miles a day would be a big day for them, they agreed, and if they can average 20 miles a day — knowing there will be days when the conditions will prevent them from paddling at all — they should make it to Glacier Bay in 50 days. Their goal is to arrive by May 15, after what Herrington called “the most exciting commute.” This date would give them a small window of time to stretch their legs before they begin a 20-day kayak instructor course on May 20.

While the two men have spent countless hours preparing for the trip, they have not trained physically for it, which Stone acknowledged while crunching on some chips. They did take a sea kayak instructor course a few weeks ago, which Stone said was good for “de-rusting” their skills, and they recently went out onto Quartermaster Harbor to practice rolling. Last weekend, they planned a four-day excursion off of Anacortes “to make sure everything fits in the boats.”

They will take with them 200 pounds of gear each; with themselves and the 60-pound weight of their small vessels, they will each be paddling boats with approximately 500 pounds of weight. Both men will be in Necky kayaks, one 17 feet long, and one slightly longer. They do, in fact, know that all the gear will fit because they packed the boats last week.

“I think we did good,” Herrington said, recounting how that process went.

Stone concurred. “We could have put in more, but with our guiding experience, we have been able to think (of taking) less.”

Herrington and Stone are adults, of course, but questions of what their parents think of the trip inevitably arose.

Stone’s parents, who live in Montana, are nervous about the weather, he said, but are excited for him to do what he wants to do. The technology they are taking along will enable them to check in every night, which they have promised their families they will do.

“For the most part, they are excited that I have shown them I am thinking of safety” Stone added.

Close to home, Herrington’s mother, Paula Herrington, and stepfather, Kevin Britz, have expressed support for the trip. Paula, despite some worries, said that she can see that the two men have been thoughtful about their planning, resources and safety, and she noted they are level-headed.

“I can only trust that at this point they have the tools to make solid decisions,” she said. “You need to admire them for being courageous and living what their passion is, despite the fear.”

She added that she is proud of Connor and the person he has become: someone who is wise and curious and has a good sense of humor about his life and life in general.

“He has always had the courage to chart his own course and navigate that course with his own personal integrity and curiosity,” she said.

Just days from leaving, Connor Herrington and Stone acknowledge there will be many challenges ahead: rain, living in dry suits, contending with large bears and simply facing the unexpected. But the two men finish one another’s sentences when talking about the upcoming highlights the journey will provide: being “out there,” away from everyone and electronics with only the distraction of the outside world.

“This is something I have always wanted to do,” Stone repeated. “With the skills I have from guiding and this time in my life, and with the perfect partner, I figured why not?”

Herrington credited Stone with the being the force behind the trip, saying he would not have undertaken it without Stone’s suggestion.

“I have never taken a really big trip, and ever since I started guiding, I have not been able to do many personal trips,” he said. “I have taken pretty much every route to Alaska. Why not take my time and do this?”