Kelowna - Banff - Jasper - 100mile - Fraser canyon - home

[jessef]

Logging in with a single bar on the wifi monitor from Jasper.

I wished my wvo conversion was going to be finished by the time we left but time was against us. I took 40L of spare veg and dumped in another 40L of veg in the tank before we left. Hot weather was making the veg drive smooth.

This is a taking it easy trip. Maryna's work schedule is hectic at best so when she found out she had a week off, we decided to follow the good weather.

Penticton and Kelowna were nice and toasty. Not too hot so that you can't breath but hot enough to swim and drink wine or beer.

Hot all the way until Banff and Lake Louise. Towards Jasper right before the Athabasca glacier, we hit snow flakes on our windshield. I had the propane heater cranked and every blanket we could find that night. It was pretty cold.

Saw bears, mountain goats, a porcupine and elk all in one day.

Will post more when we get home.

Hope to take bigbar ferry over from east side of Fraser to west and take an old miner's road that 4x4 groups frequent nowadays along the fraser bank close to watson bar down to Lillooet.

Signing out.


Slideshow : http://www.flickr.com/photos/26976821@N ... 3780/show/

[PlantDrive]

Love the pic with the Icefields "tour bus"!

[jwfchase]

even at that scale, Turtle Camper still looks petty darn awesome!

[flyfishn]

Great pics on flickr. Where was that great tree house?

[Luna-Sea]

Did you tow that ice bus out trouble or what?

Woot Woot! Happy wife, happy life!
Right on!

[jessef]

We're back. I'm tired. Lots of driving in little time.

The slideshow in the first post above is updated with new pics. Lots of 'em. Just wait to load.

We had a blast. If I'd do it all again, I would take 3 weeks instead of 1.

The ferry in the last few pics is about 1.5 hrs from Clinton west off a FSR.

Big Bar Ferry. It's one of two or three left operating in whole of Canada.

I remember people's reaction when they can't find the prop or motor and then I point up and they see the cables.

It's an old school cable ferry. Takes you across the mighty Fraser in French/Big bar region. 40* celcius is common.

They received 3 days of rain since January this year. Hot and dry.

The road on the west side of the fraser at that point is not a road. It's a sand/dirt path that ascends up really quickly.

Turtle made it in 4x4 mode only with the tires deflated to 8 psi. I tried going up around a switchback at 20psi and the tires would not grab. Those who have seen these tires can attest to their godzillla like grip. At low psi we made it.

The view was amazing. If you look closely you can see the level of the clouds as they get closer the higher we got up. It was pretty nice but hot.

We got lost a few times, Maryna got carsick and dying of heat (our AC crapped out) but we made it. Glacier creek at Watson Bar was a welcome.

Every summer for 8 years my dad took me up to Watson Bar. We have family friends that own a cattle/alfalfa ranch roughly 1,200 acres of grazing land in the hottest region in BC. It takes about 2 days on horseback to get to the neighbour's ranch border. In 3 hours of driving we crossed only 3 ranches.

I awoke early morning with about 30 cattle snorting and butting against Turtle. Wolves howling at night. Grizzly and cougar tracks all over the place.

Not country for city people.

All in all, it was great.

The Edgestar 12v fridge we took with us was a godsend. I would never do a trip like this again without it. Waking up in 35 C and having cold drinks and ice cream is amazing in the middle of nowhere. I had a hard time justifying $450 and change for it but after this trip, it almost paid itself off from soggy food, throwing away food that would only last a day with a block of ice in this weather. It was great. We bought fresh pies, wine, fruit as we went along and just tossed it into the fridge for yummy eating along the way.

We left sat night and hit :

day 1 Vancouver - Kelowna - Penticton
day 2 Penticton - Revelstoke - Golden
day 3 Golden - Lake Louise - Banff
day 4 Banff - Jasper
day 5 Jasper - Watson Bar
day 6 Watson Bar - Duffy Lake
day 7 Stayed at Duffy Lake being lazy
day 8 Duffy Lake - Whistler
day 9 Whistler - Home

[flyfishn]

Sounds like a wonderful trip.
Where did you find that fridge?
Does it just plug into the cig lighter or did it have it's own battery?

[sasquatch-hunter]

Here is my picture with the Icefield Bus

[jessef]

I see an egg in the picture

[sasquatch-hunter]

That egg makes me wanna install an intercooler. Any idea?

[jessef]

Any intercooler.. I'd put it down where the oil cooler is.

Something like this :

the inlet/outlet look perfect

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/pts/1270237733.html

[sasquatch-hunter]

Thank Jesse! I will give that guy a call tomorrow.

[sasquatch-hunter]

Hi Jesse! I bought the intercooler, now what?

[jessef]

Get someone to either bend or fab up some pipe to route to your exhaust/turbo similar to Gary's :

http://www.delica.ca/forum/some-new-upg ... 47-30.html

[sasquatch-hunter]

HI Jesse! The Audi intercooler has inlet and outlet on the same side. I think that the piping will be easier than Gary's. I am thinking to mount that thing in front of the rad (the lower right corner). I may consider the Holley intercooler spray system as well.