Bri and I were somewhat apprehensive about the border crossing as mentioned in a previous post. We went so far as to document every item in the truck so we'd have a manifest to present if asked. We got to the border at Sumas, Wa in pretty good time. We were well prepared. It took...all of five minutes. DOH! I guess its better safe than sorry.
Cultus Lake
After crossing the border in record time (according to me) we stopped at a rest stop, let family know, touched base with our friends in Kelowna, then started off towards Cultus lake. Honestly I had only read a few reviews online about this location and figured we'd find somewhere close to the lake, I was wrong. Cultus was not so much a lake as a small city, even with is own volleyball courts full of Canadians in board shorts and tanks. Not really our scene. I quickly loaded up Gaia GPS, I already had downloaded BRCMB, and found us a few options on the way up to Chilliwack. Bing, bang, boom we've found a spot right along a creek (what Canadians call creeks would count as raging rivers in Arizona, seriously, like monsoon season flash flood walls of water are call called creeks up here!). We quickly setup camp and got a fire going which was nice after a no-burn in Oregon.
Kelowna
We started up to Kelowna pretty early the next morning. What a drive! We spent a few hours driving up through some pretty steep mountains with amazing views. If you've got to spend this much time in a car I don't think you could ask for a better drive.
We arrived at our camp in the afternoon, checked in, and stopped long enough for a quick shower before heading out to meet up at our friend's robotics shop. We've known this couple for quite some time, but since they moved back to Kelowna from Arizona we had not had a chance to visit. We were looking forward to reconnecting with them and getting to meet their children.
We got to tour a the shop, see some robots swing some stuff around, and showed off our rig before we set off for dinner and a nice walk around downtown Kelowna. The food and company was excellent.
We spent the next day catching up on a few things and getting a load of laundry done before we went to a little place called Kangaroo Creek Farm. It's a small little farm where they have been keeping kangaroos and wallabies. It was nice because we were able to let the kids run around and be kids but also enjoy ourselves.
We parted ways with our friends that night and headed back to our camp. It had started to drizzle that day and continued on and off into the night so we only got to have a small fire.
Hogsback Lake
We try to get out pretty early every day but we wanted to grab one last hot shower before we started to get deeper into the northern portions of B.C. We were still on the road fairly early.
We made a stop in Logan Lake on our way up to grab gas and found a nice surprise across the street in the form of some decommissioned heavy machinery. Seriously, the dump truck and digger were insanely large. Bri could stand inside the rim of the dump truck if they let her. We grabbed a few photos and started off again.
As the day wore on the clouds kept at it. By the time we made it through Prince George it was a steady drizzle, thank God we have the awning, otherwise we'd be miserable. We caught sight of our first black bear from the highway.
We made it to Hogsback fairly late as we stopped more than a few times. The park was deserted except for one other couple who took the most accessible spot at the entrance due to the car they were driving. We were able to take the rougher road up and got the best spot in the house. Right on the water with an amazing view. The rain eased and our spirits were up! We set it all up and got a fire going and just as we started in on our nightly meal we got rained out. So it goes in B.C., me thinks. It's at this time we are starting to notice the drop in temperature as well.
Before we hit the sack we were greeted to some howling from coyotes and were visited by what may have been a cat, a fox, or el chupacabra (we're well out of his range though) during the night. I am unsure as I was getting ready to tuck in when I caught its eyes in the woods. When I redirected the beam back it quickly darted off leaving me to only catch a blurry face and puffy tail.
Bell II
From Hogsback we headed to Bell II deeper into logging country. The drive is starting to get more and more remote but we're still encountering bigger pockets of civilization and ranchers as we pushed on, early in the day. But as we left highway 16 for 37 this changed pretty fast. Gas stations grew less and less frequent and so did the ranches. And as we edged closer and closer to Bell II it was quite clear there really was nothing up here but small communities of 10's and logging outposts. The terrain was growing more and more wild.
We stopped for gas at Bell II Lodge and pulled up Gaia again to find somewhere to sleep for the night. We had a few options ahead of us and explored a bit. We found a great little road that led to a secluded pull off far enough off the highway and tucked back enough behind trees to make us feel alone, which we most definitely were.
It was still drizzling and low clouds hung over the mountains making our spot feel somewhat out of a movie. We had a warm meal, did some mad libs, took tons of photos and tucked in getting cozy in the back of the truck for what would be a damp and cold night.
Upper Liard
We hoped to wake up to clear skies and to see the peaks that had been covered when we made camp. No such luck. We woke up to more rain and bleak skies. Bummer.
We packed up and got warm as we drove on to Upper Liard. Slowly the skies began to clear and it seemed after every turn we were greeted with ever better vistas and expanses of snow covered peaks and deep forest valleys. We even saw our first bald eagle as we pulled over to throw some trash away and grab some water out of the footwell.
But as we edged closer and closer to the Yukon the huge green peaks gave way more rolling hills with smaller trees and in some areas large dead forests. Not the most scenic but how can you complain when you just drove the hundreds upon hundreds of kilometers of Hwy 37!?
It was a very long day and by the time we hit Jnct 37 in the Yukon, Bri and I didn't feel like backtracking the route to Upper Liard cause it meant that much longer of a drive the next day. We pulled up Gaia again and found our options, cross referencing with a couple other apps we use to find camps. We found one that looked okay and we "saved" as a backup. Another lead brought us to what we thought would be an amazing spot but ended up being a giant time sink. It was the most heavy off roading we've done. Having to move fallen aspens or hold them up as the truck passed under. Or passing through paint mutilating narrow bushes. Only to get to what we deemed to be too risky of a mud pit. Had we been brighter in the eyes and not so drenched we may have tried to push through it but I felt like we'd made too many mistakes already and some times you have to call it before you start making even worse decisions. And back down the trail we went still keeping our backup in mind.
We put a few more kilometers on the odometer and found a pleasant little spot down a much lighter forest road in a big pull out. Probably good for caravans but empty for us. We pulled way back and had a great view with our backs to the woods. Probably not our favorite spot as we felt a bit exposed even with our parked like we were but sometimes you just have to make do.
Kloo Lake
Further into the Yukon we went, heading towards Kloo lake, our final stop before heading into Alaska! We knew we weren't camping at Kloo exactly, none of our "destinations" were really the spots we ended up camping in the end. We planned ahead a bit and had been scoping out spots via our apps when we had service so we already had some spots in mind.
We made a quick stop in Whitehorse for gas and some souvenirs. After so little in regards to population pulling into Whitehorse made the size of the town seem massive! We did our business and moved right along.
Since we had a few options picked out we started to scope them out as we pulled closer to Kloo but the majority were closer to a smaller lake up the road a bit called Sulfur Lake. We had a favorite in mind and found our forest road, which we prayed was not like the previous forest road we took that cost us a lot of time and headache. Boy were we in for a surprise. The road was narrow to start but nothing like the previous one. And it pulled out to what I believe to be our coolest spot on the trip.
The camp was nestled just outside Klaune National Park and had a beautiful view of the mountain ranges that run right through the park. These hold some of the largest ice fields in north America. It was a bit windy but the skies and cleared and we were just dumbfounded that this spot wasn't taken every day of the week. We setup camp but it took a bit longer than normal. Because the wind was a coming at us pretty good we took extra precaution and used all the extra tie-down points on the awning. The last thing we wanted was to wake up to the whole thing a mangled mess! We even got to have a little fire once the wind died down later in the evening. I'll reiterate that this was the most amazing spot since the start of our journey. Simply breath taking.
Sorry for the long post but we've just been going, going, going and without any kind of cell service its hard to get things posted! We've just passed the second week mark of the trip and are pulling closer to Alaska. Look for more updates soon!
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