Putting miles and mosquitos behind us: Our first week in Canada.

After Vancouver we realized we were a bit behind schedule. I wanted to be at 1500 miles driven and we were only an 1000. We had been driving around 150-200 miles a day since leaving Modesto. So we decided we needed to pick it up a little. After leaving Vancouver we drove 250 miles to a town called 100 Mile House to the aptly named 100 Mile House Municipal Park. No utilities (not that we needed any) but there were trash cans and it had a water tap to fill your tank. Someone came around every few hours to collect the $10/night fee. It was nice and there was a short walk to a waterfall and a large beautiful park. The camp spot was quite nice backing right up to a creek with lots of trees and space. Unfortunately Victoria was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and she couldn’t even take the short walk to the waterfall so we left the next day.

I should mention that in Canada they have free parks that you can camp at called Recreation Sites. They don’t have any hookups but they are FREE. There are also municipal parks and provincial parks but they have a fee although some of them have hookups. Our goal is to camp for free as much as possible since the gas is ridiculously expensive here at about $5 a gallon. We have been using Backroad Mapbooks as our guide for finding these sites. I bought the whole British Columbia set for like $180 Canadian. Sounds like a lot but the commercial campgrounds can be anywhere from $30-$50 a night. So they will pay for themselves in a week.

The next day we drove another 200 miles to the town of Prince George, the largest city in Northern BC. We needed to have the truck battery looked at because the truck wasn’t starting like it should in the morning. I only had those batteries a little over a year so I knew they were under warranty. Low and behold Victoria found an Interstate Battery store in Prince George! Unfortunately they were closed for the weekend by the time we arrived. So we were stuck at a commercial campground called Bee Lazee Campground. We needed to do laundry and take long hot showers after two weeks of navy showers. Plus Victoria vacuumed the truck out, I didn’t think it was dirty but man it looked better afterwards. It was a decent park other than the lady was a bit rude who ran the place and at $35 a night Canadian (about $30 American) I expect better service. Victoria said she had hotter showers in Mexico. Anyways I got the truck to Interstate early Monday morning and sure enough one battery was bad (Replaced for free) and the other just was hooked incorrectly (they placed the battery in the center rather then fully to the right so it didn’t seat all the way down) both of which the guy fixed for $20 Canadian.

Recreation sites are very similar to National Forest primitive campgrounds in the United States. It can be a good bit of work to find out if our rig will fit. It seems to be a 50/50 chance on if the rangers know much about the campgrounds and roads to get to them. The roads are often dirt and gravel and often you just have to go with your gut. We had initially picked out Bulkley Lake Recreation site. When we turned off the highway the road seemed ok at first but then it came to a dead end but the road continured into a narrow forest road. Victoria said “Hold on there! You better go check that out first.” After a like mile and a half of rough road I ran into a gate, and I thought, “thank God we did come down here.” On the way back I noticed a map and the trail to the campsites was so over grown I would have had to machete my way in, much less drive a 35ft fifth wheel down it. This was really disappointing as we’d been in the car since 8am and it was 5 pm, luckily the sun doesn’t really set till 11pm here. We had a plan B though, Chapman Lake Recreation Site which was another hour and a half away. We also realized that we can’t fully trust that when the recreation site is listed to be ok for RV’s it doesn’t necessarily mean LARGE RV’s.

Even though I’m so tired of driving at least it has been scenic. It’s like you think you’ve seen the best and then there is something even better around every turn. So finally we make it to Chapman Lake and we picked out a nice large spot with grass over looking the lake. It was such a pleasure to see after traveling 10 hours. There was a little dock and yellow wildflowers all around. There were only like 8 sites and we had the entire campground to ourselves.

The first day we just chilled by the lake as it was warm and sunny. I had my folding rocking chair out, Victoria was laying out, and Zygi was running around on the tarp watching Marilyn play fetch. It was a nice relaxing day, well needed after the long drive the day before. I should also mention that with the incredible amount of day light our two 100 watt panels really pump out the energy. So we can watch TV all day and night if we wanted and charge all our other devices and not worry about the power. The only thing I used the generator for so far was to use my laser jet printer (I just have a 1000 watt inverter). They must draw an incredible amount of power because I have a 2000 watt generator for backup and it really revs up when the printer first starts.

The next day we tried to do some hiking. I say try because the first trail went to a lake at about 3 miles but we only made it about one mile because the trees blocking the trail were too numerous and large, especially with Zygi on my back. So we then went to another one that was nice and and open, Ski and snowshoe trails in the winter and hiking trails in the summer. Unfortunately they had record snowfall this year and so the trail was like walking on a peat bog, it reminded me of our hiking in Florida. In fact it was so much like Florida that the bugs were actually worse. For some reason the mosquitoes seem to have a thing for Victoria. She said it was the worst hike she ever did. So again after about a mile we turned around and said lets go enjoy the lake before we have to leave, which we did.

I have to mention that we have never seen so much wildlife so close in the wild. We saw two black bears on separate occasions right along the road, We saw a bald eagle quite close and then another that chased him off. We saw two foxes cross the road and countless deer. It was/is amazing, we’re are really getting far into the wild now. On most trips I’m really into the actual activities, hiking, biking and camping, but the driving is so incredibly scenic it’s an activity on it’s own.

Nest up taking the Cassier highway to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK on a road called 37a that is supposedly the most scenic in all off North America (I’ll give you a hint, it very well may be.) See you then.