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Reisender

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Posted: 10/01/22 01:10pm

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Hi folks. We just got back from our trip touring the interior of BC. the lower half of the island, the sunshine coast, sea to sky highway and returning via Hwy 99 and the Duffy Lake route. Wow. Amazing trip. Wish we had a few more days but the provincial parks were starting to close for the season which rushed us along a bit on the last part of the trip.

I'm not great at narratives so will mostly let the pictures speak for themselves. Maybe a little caption on some.

So we are off in our little combo. This is our third significant trip this year. We have toured over 15000 kilometres this year across Canada to Quebec and all over British Columbia. We have been wanting to do this for many years but our big class A was just too big for most of these spots. Our little combo is a perfect fit for us and our new adventures.

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We stayed in Emory lake provincial park for a night. This is close to hope BC where Rocky "first blood" was filmed. This was supposed to be a two nighter so we could explore some trails here. But weather was moving in and we wanted to get on the ferry to the island before any cancellations from weather. Its a great little provincial park in a historic area. Right on the Fraser river. No reservations accepted but we had no problem finding a site...just not right on the river. Seems to me it was 23 bucks as most provincial parks are.

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Smokies for supper. (yes I know the grill is upside down. Once I realized it it was to hot to change. duh [emoticon]

Into the ferry line up at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. 3 hour wait and then off to Sydney and then Victoria.

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And we made it.

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We stayed at the Fort Victoria RV park. OK park and fairly central to everything. Lots of seasonals.

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Victoria harbor with the empress hotel in the back.

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Our provincial British Columbia parliament buildings.

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Butchart gardens. Highly recommended. There were tons of American and British tourists here. My guess is a cruise ship was in.

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Our chihuahua Radar looking quite regal here. We did over 10,000 steps that day. With his little legs he did a lot more. We named him radar after the name of our military trade. Seemed appropriate [emoticon]

Fisherman's wharf.

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A noodle house in china town.

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After a few days in Victoria area we moved on to Saltspring island. An eclectic little island with lots of artists, old hippies and small farms. Beautiful hikes and great goat cheese. Can you spot the trailer and the tesla on the ferry?

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Unfortunately I didn't get many pic from Saltspring island. It was fun for a couple days and some nice hikes. People are very friendly. We found supplies to be a little pricey there. That is to be expected.

Another ferry over back to the main island and then on to Little Qualicum falls provincial park. We were here for three days as we used it as a base to take in Parksville, Cathedral grove and a few other spots.

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Beautiful forest trails.

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By day 3 in the shade our battery was getting down and we were getting cool nights at that point so we fired up our trusty champion for an hour. Problem solved.

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On to Ucluelet and Tofino. Fair amount of construction on this route right now. Some 13 percent grade gravel sections. I could feel the all wheel drive digging in with the regenerative braking. You could tell the traction control was fighting to keep anything from slipping. This is the stretch along kennedy hill.

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Arrived safe and sound to the Ucluelet campground. Great campground. Its built on an old RCAF base and is right on the harbor.

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The base was built as a direct response to pearl harbor. It was started a week after.

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Looking out our kitchen window there.

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The next few shots are of various hikes and sites in that area.

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Back across the island to Port Alberni. We pulled into a grocery store and while Angela was shopping I sucked up a few electrons at a BC hydro charger. Another Tesla model Y pulled in towing a very similar trailer to ours. We saw half a dozen other EV's towing small trailers like ours but these guys had perfect timing. Got a couple cool shots and made some new friends.

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On to comox where we stayed at 19 wing air force beach campground. They do allow American service people and veterans here as well. Its a nice spot, decent facilities and right on the beach. 27 bucks a night full service. There is a anti sub squadron there as well as a search and rescue unit so be prepared for a little noise. It is literally almost right off the end of the runway. There are some bigger spots but many are smaller.

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After a little while in Comox we got back on a ferry and headed for Powell river and the sunshine coast. Back into the belly of the beast.

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At this point we were starting to run out of time before the campgrounds started to close for the season so there is not much in the way of pictures of the sunshine coast. We knew we would be coming back this route next spring when we do the inside passage route to Prince Rupert and beyond. But we did spend a couple days in the Gibsons area. Canadians may remember the series "The Beachcombers" with Bruno Gerusi. This was based out of this little village. We loved the village.

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Notice the picture of the cast behind Angela. Great restaurant by the way. Much of the filming of the series took place in this cafe.

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Nice thing about a small rig, you can park it on main street. Cutesy town.

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Back into fast mode as we climbed the sea to sky highway and thru squamish and whistler. Lots to see here but it will have to wait till the spring.

We overnighted in Pemberton. Now the dreaded duffy lake road. This highway (99) is known for overheated engines and hot brakes. Lots of switchbacks etc and some serious 13 percent grades. No shoulders and the road was iffy in many spots. Very quiet highway though. It is exactly 101 kilometres from Pemberton to Lillooet. We left this chargepoint charger at 89 percent charge on the battery.

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We arrived at the lillooet BC hydro charger with 50 percent. Notice the electric Harley Davison motorcycle charging beside us. He was the only one that passed me on the way up. [emoticon]

So about 40 percent of the battery to cover that beautiful but challenging piece of highway. There was a trailer in front of us on the way down the other side and we could smell his brakes until he pulled over and let things cool down. For us the Teslas regenerative braking handled it all and I literally never had to touch the brake pedal once. And 450 horsepower on the uphill climbs made it seem like there wasn't even a trailer behind us. Very good experience from that aspect. Not much in the way of pics as there was only one pull out that I was willing to take.

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This is the energy graph on that stretch of road. Can you tell where the 13 percent grade started? [emoticon]

A couple of interesting pics for those interested in the Electric vehicle aspect. So a total of 2212 kilometers.

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Total "fuel" (electricity) costs were around 190 bucks for the whole trip. This graph doesn't show that well as I didn't have the car setup to include the BC hydro charge stops. Probably around 40 bucks ish for those. Also ignore the first 7 days as we were only on the road 21 days and Tesla only has this sliding 31 day window. The red was superchargers, the grey was other chargers like campgrounds, BC hydro and other touristy free charge stops, usually at marinas or tourist info centres. The blue is home charging so ignore that.

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Hope you all enjoyed the pics. We are already planning next years spring trip up to Prince Rupert via the insode passage on a ferry and then east bound to Edmonton and then points south. Should be fun.

Safe travels all.

J and A

bgum

South Louisiana

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Posted: 10/01/22 03:20pm

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Looks like you have the perfect combination for your needs.
Nice pictures.

Reisender

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Posted: 10/01/22 04:05pm

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bgum wrote:

Looks like you have the perfect combination for your needs.
Nice pictures.

Thank you. Unfortunately our adventures are over for the year and we winterized it a few days ago. Sigh. [emoticon]

pianotuna

Regina, SK, Canada

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Posted: 10/01/22 07:41pm

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You are a wonderful Pioneer! Looks like a magnificent trip.

Regards, Don
My ride is a 28 foot Class C, 256 watts solar, 556 amp-hours of Telcom jars, 3000 watt Magnum hybrid inverter, Sola Basic Autoformer, Microair Easy Start.

Reisender

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Posted: 10/01/22 07:56pm

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pianotuna wrote:

You are a wonderful Pioneer! Looks like a magnificent trip.

Thank you Don. So much to see. But winter is on the way. It’ll have to wait until spring.

qtla9111

Monterrey, Mexico

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Posted: 10/02/22 01:21pm

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What a cool trip! Thanks for sharing.

2005 Dodge Durango Hemi
2008 Funfinder 230DS
Living and Boondocking Mexico Blog

Reisender

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Posted: 10/02/22 01:35pm

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qtla9111 wrote:

What a cool trip! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Chris. Great trip. Ucluelet was the highlight. We’ll go back again. So many trails to hike….but bring bear spray. [emoticon]

Reisender

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Posted: 10/04/22 07:46am

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I wanted to mention that this trip is better done over a 4 or 5 week period as opposed to the 3 weeks that we did it. Towards the end we were rushed a bit as some of the provincial parks were closing and there is not a lot of commercial campgrounds along some of those stretches up the Sunshine Coast and the sea to sky highway. Probably best to be thru by 15 th September at the latest. As well there are snow tire restrictions on 99 as of 1 October.

Cheers.

Yosemite Sam1

Under the pines.

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Posted: 10/06/22 08:34am

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Wow, wonderful pictures and inspiring narratives. You should blog your trips, lol.

You inspire me to do trans-Canada someday instead of just specifically Banff.

You also reinforce my directional decision to go for truck camper on my Cybertruck or F!50 Lightning for those small villages, park and dine and limited parking trailheads.

Sad even just to hear that somebody will be homebound for the winter. Except for holidays and the family get together, we might do snowboarding down south.

You brought cheers (am smiling reading these) indeed with this post. To think, I almost miss this as I'm not much around over the months (or a year).

Reisender

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Posted: 10/06/22 10:23am

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Yosemite Sam1 wrote:

Glad you enjoyed it Sam. I think an interesting trip for an American would be to start at the ferry in Port Angeles Washington and go straight to Victoria. From there work your way up and around the island. Then when you are done with the island head for Comox and take the Ferry to Powell River. Work your way down the Sunshine Coast and decide from there which route you want to take from there.

Happy travels Sam.