Beautiful British Columbia

Because I didn't have much internet access on my trip to British Columbia you are going to get the entire trip in ONE blog post.   This will be a long one....

I was heading for Prince George BC to attend a weaving conference.   A local weaving friend, who also has a teardrop trailer, drove up with her husband.  We decided to make a trip out of it, so we didn't go STRAIGHT to Prince George.

June 7:  Drove from home to Conconully, Washington.     I have been here before, staying in a friend's cabin.  It is a tiny place, but has a lovely lake and large 'city' park with camping and showers.  There was some sort of mud-bogging event going on, so the place was full of these:

But is was relatively quiet, and except for the HUGE thunderstorm that came through it was a nice place to be for the night.

June 8: Drove from Conconnelly to near Kamloops British Columbia.   The border crossing was easy.   I had to pull into the boat inspection area because of my kayak, but since it hadn't been in the water for quite some time, they were not at all concerned about it and sent me on my way.

That night I met up with my friends at Paul Lake Provincial Park to camp for the night.   This was a very nice camp ground and the lake was spectacular.

June 9-10:  From Paul Lake we drove to Mt Robson Provincial Park, which is very near Jasper, Alberta.   I make a brief stop at Rear Guard Falls, a quick little walk from the highway.  Not a large falls, but very wide, and you get very close to it, so the shear power of the water is very obvious.

We stayed 2 nights at Lucern Campground, about 30km east of the Mt Robson Visitors Center.   Again, this was a lovely spot, not at all crowded.   We tried to go for a hike, we were blocked by a train, which conveniently stopped RIGHT across our path.   The weather was iffy, but we had a good walk to that point.

June 11:  Drove to Prince George.    We were booked at Hartway RV park, about 8 miles north of Prince George.   From the web page it looked like a lovely place.   In reality it was an urban RV park and the proprietor, though very nice, was clearly into maximizing her income and JAMMED the RV's in as tight as possible.   I was sandwiched in  between 2 RV's that were somewhat permanent residents.

This was not too much of an issue because I was spending most of my time at the weaving conference, which was at the Civic Center in downtown Prince George.  And they had HOT showers and laundry facilities.

June 12 - 15 - Weaving Conference

Took a number of workshops.   One on Shibori Dyeing, one on block-weaving designing, and one on plying yarn on a drop spindle.   There was a market place, an exhibit hall, a fashion show, and lots more to see and do.

June 16 - Drove south to Wells, British Columbia.    It was nice to get out of the city and back to 'camping'.    This night we stayed at Lowhee Campground near the historic mining town of Barkerville.    Very quiet in the campground, and we had power and showers.

June 17-18 - Barkerville and on to Bowron Lake Provincial Park.   Barkerville is an old mining town that has been turned into a tourist attraction.   We decided it sounded interesting so paid our entrance fee and spent the morning exploring the old buildings, interesting history and staff who are dressed in period costume and playing the part.   There are hotels, restaurants and shops that are open for business and LOTS to look at and learn from.

From there we drove the 35km up to Bowron Lake Provincial Park.   This is a very interesting place.   Evidently renown for the canoe/kayak circuit one can do around a series of lakes.    It is in a spectacular location.   We hiked to the 'put-in' spot, about 2km from the campground, and were greeted by a busy beaver.   On the way back we encountered people who were going to start the circuit the next morning.    The trip has to be booked in advance, and is closely regulated, but what a great trip that would be!

There is a beaver out there if you look closely

One of 3 large piles of bear poop in the road on the way to Bowron Lake.  We saw one black bear crossing the road.

We settled for putting our kayaks in Bowron Lake for about an hour.   The campground was nearly empty, but the circuit parking lot was pretty full.   And the mosquitoes, black flies and no-see-ums were brutal.   We were so glad to have a bug tent.  I'm not sure we would have stayed without it.

The road to Bowron was not bad but VERY muddy.  Poor Waddles!

June 19 - Heading for home.    Long day of driving, but I took the scenic route and ended up at Allyson Lake Provincial Park for the night.    A small park, which I had completely to myself.

June 20 - Got up VERY early and drove the 2 hours to the border and continued on home.  

Waddles did very well on this trip.  I used the Pa Ha Qua side tent at any site where we stayed more than one night, and the bug tent (over the picnic table) was a life saver for sure.

The Norcold refrigerator worked GREAT for the first 4 days without shore power.  I was SOOOO excited about that.   The next 5 days I was plugged in to shore power, and started smelling a bit of an electrical smell.    At Lowhee campground I started getting the error light blinking, indicating low voltage.  My battery was fine, and I was getting the error whether I was plugged in to shore power or not.     So the Norcold simply quit working.  The lights come on, but it is unable to cool.    It might be the 20amp fuse, or it might be something else, but I'm afraid I maybe fried to Norcold.   We will be doing some investigation to see what's going on.  When I got home I reconnected to old wiring and plugged Waddles into the shore power and I still get the error light.    I may be switching to a regular cooler.  Stay tuned.

This whole trip was really wonderful.  The scenery was spectacular and I still LOVE having Waddles behind my car.

Next trips will be much shorter.  I have two scheduled for July.

Summary Data

Now that my amazing journey has come to an end I am reflecting on the entire trip.   Here are some statistics, and some lessons' learned.

• 37 - Number of days away from home
• 6,043 - Total Miles driven (including traveling around when Waddles was parked)
• $633.54 - Total spent on gas
• 13 - # of states visited
• 2 - # of Canadian Provinces visited
• 4 - number of nights in a motel
• 16 - number of nights mooch docking in someone's driveway or yard
• 7 - National Parks visited
• 1 - National Monuments visited
• 8 - # of showers taken
• 14 - # of nights with shore power
• 28˚ - 95˚ - Temperature range
• 11,312' - Highest elevation
• 15 - number of friends visited
• 51 - most years since I'd seen some of these friends!  We were all very young.
• 2 - number of times the car was washed during the trip
• 1 - number of times Waddles was washed during the trip

Things I took that I didn't use:

• Lots of kitchen implements
• Extra sleeping bag
• Coleman stove
• Folding kitchen table
• Screen tent - I didn't stay in one place long enough to justify setting it up
• Lots of clothes
• Lots of food
• Air conditioner
• TV
• DVD Player

Things I used a lot:

• Check list for hooking up Waddles
• Solar light
• Tea kettle
• Small frying pan
• Stove
• Refrigerator
• Heater Buddy
• Extra blankets - when it was cold
• Light weight fleece blanket - when it was hot
• Car navigator
• 'Allstays' phone app for finding camping spots
• Handy Wipes
• Plastic coffee can for garbage
• Solar panal
• Spot Tracker - so others could see where I was, and to hide inside Waddles when I left her alone for any length of time, so if she wandered off by herself I'd know where she was.

Problems I encountered:

• Bad trailer battery - replaced in Illinois
• Lack of car wiring to charge the trailer battery while driving - fix in Illinois
• Keeping things cold in the refrigerator.  Works well with shore power, but sucks the battery otherwise.

I've been trying to think about the best and worse parts of the trip and that is impossible.  There were no bad parts.   I loved being on the road, loved seeing all the spectacular beauty around this country, loved visiting old friends, loved living in Waddles.   I discovered that I was sad whenever I unhooked from Waddles and drove away without her!

Waddles and the car have been unloaded and washed, lots of laundry has been done, and dishes washed.    I truly can not wait for our next adventure together.