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2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada!
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thatbaldwinlife
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 9:25 am    Post subject: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Another Baldwin family summer road trip in the books! This one not only took us out of the country, but we also had some deadlines and schedules to keep so it was a bit taxing at times. But it was all worth it! Our overall route:
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My wife and kids have never left the United States. I have traveled for work (more in the past) and have seen a lot of Asia and Europe and used to drive to Whistler quite often to ride the downhill mountain bike trails so Canada has not that foreign to me. But the family was pumped! We have four daughters. Yes you read that right. Our oldest is 21, we have an 18 year old and the twins are now 14 (!). Last year was the first year for our trips that it was just my wife and I with the twins. The older girls stayed home as they were not that interested in spending two weeks in a van with the family. Can't blame them as I probably would not have done it at that age either. This year was a bit different when our oldest heard we would be going through Vancouver BC, she wanted to meet us up there with her best friend. We arranged an AirBnB house in the city for 3 days and they then took the train from Portland up to Vancouver BC and spent a few days with us exploring the city. It was fantastic! We were so excited to have her out exploring with us.

Anyway we left for our adventure on July 5th and headed up towards Port Angeles where we were going to take the ferry to Vancouver Island and explore for a few days. The first day is usually just trying to make some time up and get away from familiar surroundings. We headed north on I5 towards Centralia and then headed west towards the coast. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Oakville and made sandwiches at the local market/gas station.
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Our goal for the day was to get to spend some time at Lake Quinault as my wife and I were there a few years ago but did not get much time to explore. Our first stop was the beautiful lodge on the lake where we spent some time just
taking in the views
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We wanted to make the loop drive around the lake so we headed east and stopped by to see the largest Sitka Spruce tree

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Our next stop was an amazing waterfall that we spent some time at.
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Getting late in the day and still needing to find a place to stay, we did the loop around the lake. It turns to gravel pretty quick and then as you head back west, the road becomes quite rough and rocky for a short section. Of course the Westy did just fine.
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We stopped in Forks to get gas and check iOverlander for free sites on our route. There appeared to be a few options a few miles outside of Forks near a campground. As we neared the area, we made a wrong turn and as we were turning around, we saw this very nice pull off right on the river! Score! We quickly set up camp and got to making dinner as we were all starving. Our new Thermacell kept the mosquitoes at bay while we ate dinner.
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The next morning we were scheduled to take the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria so we headed east but of course not without stopping to take in the scenery at Lake Crescent. The water was this amazing shade of blue and so clear!
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We could have spend all day there but had places to be. After stopping by an autoparts store to grab a new headlight bulb, we got in line at the ferry dock and walked around town. Saw a syncro in line at the ferry as well.
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Ferry entertainment
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We landed in Victoria without much drama and headed out to exchange money and explore the town. The twins absolutely loved the city. There was even a local VW group driving through the town headed somewhere and we got to enjoy the parade of cool VW's passing by.
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We did not know where we were going to sleep that night but knew we wanted to be near Butchart Gardens as that was our destination the following morning. Not a lot of camping in the city so we headed up to Sidney and got a nice little cottage on the bay for the night.
Route planning from the cottage:
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The next morning we headed to Butchart nice and early to avoid the crowds. I will just let some pics describe it here.
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We had reservations in Tofino at Bella Pacifica for Monday so we had time to wander around the island a bit. We (I) decided it looked fun to take a small coastal road out to Port Renfrew and then back up to Nanaimo. Well we got much more than we bargained for. As we headed west on highway 14, it became rougher and rougher. Not in a pothole kinda way but in a dip in the road kind of way. But many small and big dips back to back where you had to slow down to almost a crawl as to not bottom out the suspension.
The not rough part of the drive
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Our Westy is equipped with Moog front springs and Rancho 9000s and GoWesty 1.5" rears with Bilstein 5600 shocks and we were very grateful for the improved suspension on this road. We finally made is to Port Renfrew and then headed north hoping the road would improve and luckily it did. After a very long day we called it quits in a campground in Nanaimo.
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Packed up camp and heading west to Tofino. Had to stop and see the goats on the roof in Coombs
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Next stop was at Wally Creek
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From there we drove towards Tofino and were stopped by the road construction for 30 minutes or so. They are working on the top of the pass to make it a bit safer and less rock fall and landslide prone. In a day or so we were going to understand that in a whole new way.....

Will try and get the next post up soon as we have a lot of adventures ahead!
nate
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Last edited by thatbaldwinlife on Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:00 am; edited 2 times in total
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joetiger Premium Member
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 11:58 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Popcorn Looks like a great trip so far!
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Ride_On
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 1:18 pm    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Great route!! Can't wait to take my kids out west...

And... I married into the Baldwin family. Smile
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 1:31 pm    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Awesome. Cannot wait for more. 😀
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 1:45 pm    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

looks like a great trip, most important the girls seem to be having fun, nice van btw.
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 1:49 pm    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Looks like a great trip!
Looks like a great family!
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 9:58 pm    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Ride_On wrote:
And... I married into the Baldwin family. Smile


Is that you Bieber? Razz
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 10:15 pm    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

excited to see the tofino entry. we almost headed that way from n. idaho a couple weeks ago but decided to stay local ... darn good thing too bc Totoro's clutch decided to give out and did about half way to our local camp spot. Found a ride back to the house leaving the fam in the bus, grabbed the F-350 and drug 'er home. Crying or Very sad
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 3:55 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Awesome trip with awesome photos! Thanks so much for sharing your adventure. I was bummed when i got to the end of the thread. Definitely looking forward to more. It was like a good book that I couldn’t put down.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 7:46 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Your trip reports are the best! I love the family vibe, the photos and stories. You even get some tech info that's helpful.

Thanks.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 7:52 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

We rolled into Bella Pacifica and checked in to our site and immediately went down to the beach to play in the water while the sun was out. We inflated the paddle board and the twins tried to surf the waves with some success.
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Link


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Back to camp for dinner and to "politely"ask our camp neighbors to be a bit quieter, we hit the sack. The next morning was a bit overcast and we went out to explore the beach a bit.
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We were not all that stoked on Bella Pacifica in general so we decided to give up our reservation for the second night and head into town for some supplies and then just head east and find a free site for the night. While in town, we overheard a conversation about the road (the only road in and out of town) was closed due to a landslide and they were not sure when it would re-open. Normally that is not a big deal to us but the next day we had a ferry to catch to Vancouver to meet our daughter! After some investigation, we found out they may open it at 4:00pm so we decided to head that way and see if we could just wait at the road closure. We arrived at the closure and the worker let us by to get in line with the others. The nice thing about the Westy is we can make lunch, play games and hang out in relative comfort.
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About three hours later we saw cars moving!

Quickly packing up, we drove slowly past the landslide and saw the line of cars waiting to get into town. It was miles long. I felt bad for them as they had likely been waiting all day there and had quite a long wait coming up. We decided to make the long drive back to Nanaimo and ended up in the same campground from a few nights ago as it was close to the ferry.
What a long and stressful day but we are one step closer to seeing our daughter tomorrow!

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It was a rainy evening so we just made dinner and retired to the van to watch some downloaded Netflix on the laptop.
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Off to the ferry under rainy skies

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Off the ferry and into the beast that is Vancouver. Traffic everywhere. We stopped and got groceries for the next few days at the house and headed to the AirBnB. I was a bit disappointed in the parking situation at the house as it was on a very busy two lane road but not much I could do. I flipped the kill switch and disabled the engine in other ways to assure the Westy would be there when we left. I could see it from the house which was nice.
Airing out the wet tent
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Our daughter and her friend arrived around 5pm and we spent the next two days exploring the city. It was fun and exhausting and by Friday, I was ready to be out of the city.
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Took them to the train station early Friday morning and headed back to pack up. We headed north to Whistler but first stopping in Squamish for groceries, liquor and to eat lunch while watching people climb The Grand Wall. My girls
and I do some bouldering and were a bit jealous of the climbers today.

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We stopped by Bradywine Falls park to get some exercise and see the falls.

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Our next stop was Whistler so I could show my girls how cool I used to be on a mountain bike. We didn't have time to ride but I was able to show them the trails a bit and the lift but they were not as impressed as I thought they
would be Smile
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We then took a break in Pemberton at the local water park to cool off.
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Pemberton is a cool little town that seems to be trying to be a Squamish like area. Lots of potential. We had to keep going and find a place to sleep that night so we headed east on 99 and the road started to climb. Like second gear climbing and in a few spots I almost needed to be in first due to the switchbacks. I am so glad I installed the oil cooler and fan this winter. Temps never got above 220F on the climb.
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iOverlander did not show a lot of places but we were confident we would find something out here. As we came down the hill a bit, we saw a gravel road heading into the trees. As we drove down it opened up into a large gravel area right next to the raging river that would drown out the road noise. Several fire rings showed many people have camped here before. Result!
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My wife keeping it classy
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Popped the top and got to making dinner. About an hour later a white Chevy Astro van came down the road and parked behind some trees down the road. A bit later we saw a man and woman walking our way to the river. We walked over and introduced our selves and found out they were from Germany and and traveling and living in the van for a year through Canada. We quickly hit it off and invited them over to our camp fire for drinks. We stayed up late into the night talking about life, travel, politics (interesting POV from Europeans on our government), and everything else. We really had a lot in common and shared views on simple living, debt free lifestyle, etc. This is what I love about traveling the most. These random encounters that open your mind to new perspectives and the connection you get from like minded travelers. It was also good for our twins to see this and reinforces the lessons we have been teaching them. No pics of the night as they are not social media people and we respected their privacy.

Off to bed, at least for a while until we were woken by a furry visitor.......

nate
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Last edited by thatbaldwinlife on Sat Jul 27, 2019 10:06 am; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 8:20 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Popcorn
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:01 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Another great trip report, Nate! Very Happy Extra fun for me as I'm familiar with much of the territory so far! Cool
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:12 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Fun to travel along! Haven't been that way in a few years. We found Goldstream Provincial Park to be a great overnight stop between Victoria BC and Butchart Gardens.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:48 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

termuehlen wrote:
Fun to travel along! Haven't been that way in a few years. We found Goldstream Provincial Park to be a great overnight stop between Victoria BC and Butchart Gardens.


We saw Goldstream after we left Butchart and were a bit disappointed we did not check it out. We really did like the area north of Victoria quite a bit though. Sidney was a neat town.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 4:25 pm    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwins' venture to Canada! Reply with quote

We live in Victoria -- it's really interesting to see people's reaction to the place where you live!

Safe travels!
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2019 7:36 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwins' venture to Canada! Reply with quote

I woke up around 3:00 am to the sound of someone or something going through our food cabinet. I laid there thinking that it must have been something else.Then another ruffling. A mouse! We jumped out of bed and did a quick search around. We did not see any evidence but know we had a visitor. We made sure our open food was closed and hoped for the best.
The next morning we were greeted with mouse droppings on our cabinet lids. We pulled everything from the van and washed the dishes, counter tops and dry goods containers. We then put any open food bags in the Yakima box for a few days to detour the mouse from staying. It must have worked as we never had a problem after that.

With that taken care of, we were back on 99 heading east admiring the amazing views all around us.
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We saw a farm stand off the side of the road and we were in need of veggies so we decided to stop and do some shopping. They also had a really neat small animal petting area with a variety of animals. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time hanging out there.
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Our goal for the day was Kamloops and the BC Wildlife Park. We arrived a bit late which was nice as the crowds were mostly gone. We spent around two hours walking around looking at the animals on display. It was like a small zoo but the twins enjoyed the bears and wolves.
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It was time again to find where to sleep so back to iOverlander. It showed an interesting place in Chase that was billed as "Safety Mart Parking". It was in a grass field next to a grocery store. We needed groceries so we headed that way.
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There were two RV's in the grass already so we picked a spot as far from them as possible. Really not a bad place. Not a remote, amazing view kinda place but it was free and had bathrooms in the store till they closed. About 15 minutes after we made camp, an older lady who lived in the house directly behind our Westy came over with some hot food for us for dinner. Turkey legs with squash and peppers. Though we are mostly vegetarians, it was such an amazingly nice gesture we decided to eat it. She saw the twins and knows how hard it is to travel with kids and thought we could use the help. We talked with her for sometime and then she went home. Another encounter on the road that we love so much.
Walked to Subway to refill our Hydroflask water bottles and a few cookies for the twins, we found some free WiFi outside of the bank and soaked it in for a bit.
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Our first stop in the morning was in Sicamous which has a very nice public beach on Shuswap Lake. Though the weather was supposed to be a bit rainy, luck was with us and it was nice and sunny. Out comes the swimwear and we spent several hours playing in the water and eating lunch.
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A short walk around town rewarded us with our first taste of ketchup chips which seem to be so popular in Canada. Can't say we were huge fans.

We only needed to make it to Revelstoke that day and the next adventure was the Enchanted Forest just up the road. Though obviously a tourist stop, we wanted to compare it to the Enchanted Forest we have in Oregon. This one is a bit different as it does not offer rides and other interactive areas. It is basically a walk in the woods with themed areas and small houses to go in. The twins liked it enough and it was nice to stretch our legs a bit.
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Once we reached Revelstoke, we had a decision to make. Either head south on 23 and meander back towards the border or head east on 1 towards Glacier/Yoho/Banff. We had originally planned on heading south as I thought we would not have the time to take the 1 but we had somehow gotten ahead of schedule. Not that we really had a schedule now but here we are. As we were thinking about our next move, we looked around and saw a huge black cloud coming over the mountain and the winds picked up significantly. We needed to find a place to sleep quick! There are only a few campgrounds around Revelstoke and some were already full. We decided since we needed internet to plan our next few days, we would spring for a hotel and get out of the storm and use some WiFi.
The Stoke Hotel was nice enough and had some vacancy. After checking in and making dinner in the van, the storm never materialized. It was now sunny and beautiful! Oh well, we still were glad to have some WiFi to do some route planning.
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We decided to head east in the morning and are so glad we did. The area east of Revelstoke and out to Banff may be the most beautiful part of the trip. We stopped in Revelstoke National Park to do a short hike at the Giant Cedar Boardwalk.
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Next stop was the Canyon Hot Springs as the twins wanted to see if they could soak. We pulled into the parking lot and what do we see? Another Westy from the states! We talked with Claire and South for sometime about travel and good places to stop as they were headed the opposite direction as us. They live in their Westy almost full time as we swapped travel tips and ideas. We will see them at Descend on Bend in September!

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As we approached Glacier National Park of Canada, there was a lot of road construction around but traffic was flowing. Lucky for us, they had the speed limited to 50 km/hr so we got to enjoy the scenery as we drove through the park.
We did not stop much along these routes as going east put us in kind of a time crunch and gives us a reason to head back and spend some time there.
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We need fuel and groceries so head set our sites on Golden BC. After a quick stop at IGA, we decided to walk the small town a bit. A little window shopping and then onto a small pub. My wife and I each had a fantastic cider and the girls got some onion rings to go with their Doritos Ketchup chips. Yep.
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We then took a walk down to the river and decided we really liked this town and decided to iOverland a site that was recommended to us by Claire and South. It was a day use area down by the river and across from the tiny airport.
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Saw this unusual Westy on the street
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We arrived and no one was there so we had the place to ourselves. It has a nice pit toliet restroom, picnic tables, and trash/recycling. The airport was empty and the road was fairly quiet. We set up camp and made some dinner.
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A light rain started to fall so we deployed the awning and Thermacell and played Clue till dark. A short movie and we were off to sleep.

Next we get to experience even more stunning scenery and finally start heading south!
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Ride_On
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2019 8:59 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

I spent 2 summers planting trees in Revelstoke. Such a great area. Much too late for you now, but if you head north from town, there is a paved road basically to nowhere for 160km/100miles to Mica Dam. There are many, many, many forestry and mining access roads that you could likely find a spot to call home for a night.

Great trip report! Fun to follow!
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2019 9:23 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

Yeah we figured there would be some wild camping somewhere outside the city but we had to use data/wifi to make some decisions. So beautiful up there.

I hope to wrap this report up today or tomorrow but they take so much work to write, upload pics, insert pics, etc. Thanks for following along!

nate
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 27, 2019 9:12 am    Post subject: Re: 2019 Summer Road Trip report- The Baldwin's venture to Canada! Reply with quote

We awoke to cloudy and foggy skies that gave the mountains an erie feeling.
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We were excited to see what the road would bring today as we headed towards Yoho National Park and Lake Louise. We made some breakfast, packed up and slowly climbed out of the town sometime after 10:00am.
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Soon we would cross into another province, Alberta! We did not expect to come this far east so crossing into a new province was exciting for us. We drove at a leisurely pace taking in the sites and secretly hoping Lake Louise would not be crazy crowded. As we approached the first parking area, we saw the sign that read "full". Oh well, let's see if the overflow lot is available. As we drove up, lines of cars were waiting to get in. That did it for us. It was not meant to be today. Gives us another reason to return.
It was approaching lunch time so we found a trail head with picnic tables and made hummus, tapenade, and lettuce in whole grain wraps. Delicious!
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Great lunch views
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We needed to start heading south so we took hwy 93 through Kootenay National Park. The road climbed quickly and the mountains jetted up on both sides of us. We pulled over for pics and to let some cars pass.
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Soon we saw a sign for Paint Pots so we decided to check it out. We started down the trail and soon came to a river with a nice bridge over it. The water in the river was a beautiful glacial blue and freezing cold!
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We crossed the bridge to continue on to Paint Pots but soon the trail turned to mud and we did not have the right shoes on so we turned back. We still had fun though.

We were soon at Radium Hot Springs and like the last two, extremely crowded and just a big hot pool. We stopped for gas and to figure out our next move.
On Google maps, we saw a municipal park not too far up the road with a lake so we decided to head there to cool off.

It was not very crowded and the water was decently warm. We broke out the paddle board for the twins and just chilled for a while.
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After a few hours we decided we needed to find a place to camp. iOverlander led us to a remote site down a dirt road that turned into a downhill rock filled
road to the lake. Unfortunately it was already occupied so we turned around and headed back up. I think the campers at the lake were surprised to see an old VW come down this road as they were all driving 4wd trucks. Westy made it back up without any wheel spin and we took another side road only to find another truck. We pulled off the road in a clearing and thought about making camp there but with dark clouds threatening rain, we decided we did not want to be at the bottom of the dirt road in case of a storm. We headed back to the highway to keep searching.
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We eventually ended up at Wasa Lake Provincial Park which was a nice but busy campground. At this point one of the twins had come down with a cold and her throat hurt so we just needed to get camp set up and get her to rest a bit. This was another night in the van watching Netflix.
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As we packed up the next morning we decided to skip making breakfast and head out and pick up something on the road. In Cranbrook we found our calling- Tim Hortons. They are now serving Beyond Meat in the breakfast sandwiches so we grabbed a few. Pretty damn good!
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Bellies full, we heading to highway 3 going west under drizzly skies. We didn't expect this road to climb like it did. We eventually settled into a
second gear climb, slowly enjoying the sites around us.
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Link


At one point, we saw something darting across the road. After a second it sunk in that it was a bear! Our first wild bear encounter on the trip! We were all pretty excited to see such a majestic animal.
As we crested the top, we stopped to use the bathroom and watch the fog roll over the lake.
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As we descended, the fog was so thick we just put it in second and slowly crept down the hill until it cleared up.
We meandered into Fruitvale which reminded us a lot of Hood River in Oregon with all of the fruit farms and stands, and made lunch trying to use of the rest of our fresh veggies so we wouldn't have to take them across the border.
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We then wanted to use the rest of our Canadian cash so a stop by the liquor store was in order. We set our sites on a tiny border crossing on road 22A and headed out. As we approached the crossing, it was clear that it was a good choice as there was no line. No cars at all. We pulled in and he asked us to shut off the van. A few questions regarding weapons, drugs, and cash and we were off. Back in the states, though we already missed Canada.

We pulled off a bit later to snap some pix an right when we did, another white Westy drove by. Well of course he turned around to see if we were ok and we talked for a bit. He was from White Salmon which is not too far from where we live. Small world.
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At Kettle Falls we had another decision to make. With now two girls not feeling great, windy and rainy weather and many more miles to cover to get to our original goal of Coulee Dam, we decided to head to Spokane and get a hotel. Well we ended up in Spokane during rush hour traffic so it took some
time to finally check in. We made dinner in the van and ate in the room.

That night we decided to cut the trip a day or two short and just make the long drive home tomorrow. Wanted to get the girls home and we didn't need to wander around northern Washington just to do it so early Thursday morning we headed south. We wanted to try and get through Portland before traffic got miserable.

My wife took driving duties first under a severe head wind. We were pushed all around and tried to maintain a 62mph speed the best we could. It was
brutal. Hours later we finally crossed back into Oregon! Around Boardman, I took over the final push home and the winds did not let up. All the way
through the gorge it was rough. Makes for a tense drive. Just outside of Troutdale driving at a around 63mph, the van kind of bucked three times very
quickly like it was running out of gas. It was very quick and as I let off the gas pedal, it went away. Didn't really seem to do it again so I am
not sure if it is Vanagon syndrome (I did put in a newer used AFM a few months before the trip) or fuel pump/filter. Have to keep and eye on it.

Just when the winds let up around Troutdale, the traffic took its place. Stopped on I84 at 1:00 on a Thursday. Welcome to Portland. We slowly made our way west and arrived home safe and sound around 2:30 in the afternoon.

Map filling up!
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We did around 2200 miles in 14 days. No van issues besides the small hiccup. This was by far one of our most challenging road trips due to the
schedule we had to keep the first week but so worth it. As you watch your kids grow up and start to live their own lives, it is rewarding to see them
want to join you on an adventure even if it is for a few days. We also know that we have limited time to take these adventures with the twins. They
are entering high school this fall and within a few years, they will have jobs, responsibilities, and may not want to spend this time with us during
the summer. We cherish these trips to spend time together and show them what traveling can do to your perspective. We hope they take these lessons
and experiences and use them as they grow into adults.

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” -Gustav Flaubert

We could all use a little more modesty at times.

Thanks for reading along!
-Nate
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