Builds Ozzi, 2000 HZJ78 in Canada - travel/maintenance/build

[janyyc]

There we came to a very abrupt halt, as the end of the track was at a sheer cliff.

Even turning around was a challenge, given the space limitations and extreme angles involved. At least the view was beautiful!

If you look in the left top corner of the Troopy, you can see some sage - it is hanging free and is a good indication of the true angle...

The top of the track did not have enough room for a camp, and was extremely exposed, so we decided to head over the adjacent hill, where there was an abandoned fire lookout tower.

Descending in 1st LO, the gradient meant engine compression wasn't enough, and some braking was required!

 

[janyyc]

After successfully descending from our extreme location, we traversed the mountains and found the entrance to the next track. Here, we suddenly encountered a BLM sign pointing towards a lake, with a flat area that could serve as a campsite. Before proceeding further, I grabbed the radio and ran ahead to see how camp would look near the fire lookout, still a ways up. Luckily, the area was very beautiful and some flat ground could be found, so I signalled to my dad to proceed and join me up top.



First things first, we set about making a fire - a remarkably easy task, since to make a fire ring, we simply had to remove some rocks to form a hole.

Steak, corn on the fire, and baked potatoes. Gourmet!

We were treated to another beautiful sunset in a great location...

 

[janyyc]

I climbed the little hill to the remains of the fire lookout, scavenging for wood, and came upon a deer quite literally a few feet away.

It was completely unfazed, and continued calmly grazing.



The sunset turned into a stunning alpenglow...

And before heading to bed, some long exposures were taken with the new setup.

----

The next morning, we woke to a beautiful sunrise, made colourful by the lingering smoke.

 

[janyyc]

Breakfast was had above the cliff - with a view straight down onto a beautiful lake.

After packing up, we proceeded down to the lonely sign, parked up, and hiked down to the lake.

The very peak of those walls is where we had spent the night...

It was quite clear that few people make it out so far, and the lake was pristine. On one of the stones, there was an engraving - Sep 27 1915. Likely members of the crew erecting the original fire lookout. To think what an ordeal it would have been to get here in those days...

Plenty of blueberries slowed our progress on the hike, as we could not restrain ourselves from feasting upon the delicious, ripe berries.

 

[janyyc]

We navigated safely down the mountain, stopped in Wallace once again for a coffee, and made progress towards Montana. There, we encountered familiar views which made us feel "at home".

We stopped in Kalispell for groceries and a meal, as it was getting late in the day. A nice burger with an awesome habanero beer (actually spicy!).

Our camp for the night wasn't especially exotic: a free NF camp on the banks of a stream. As we settled in, a pair of bike packers rode in. I offered them beers, and we got to chatting - my dad mentioned that a year ago he met two bike packers in Watson Lake, Yukon, who were heading all the way to Montana. It turned out they were very close friends... a very small world, indeed.

To finish our evening, we enjoyed a beer which had a very appropriate label - an almost-perfect representation of the lake we had visited earlier that day,.

A little drizzle accompanied us through the night and into the morning, but the awning setup already proved its worth - covering both the barn doors in the rear and the paramedics door.

After breakfast, we headed to the nearby Canadian border, crossed without issue, and drove rather directly towards home, stopping in Fernie BC and Lundbreck AB to stretch our legs and break up the trip.

 

[AirheadNut]

Loving your trip chronicles, the storytelling and photography is fantastic, and the Ozzi is looking amazing with the new top.

We navigated safely down the mountain, stopped in Wallace once again for a coffee, and made progress towards Montana. There, we encountered familiar views which made us feel "at home".

View attachment 3754909

We stopped in Kalispell for groceries and a meal, as it was getting late in the day. A nice burger with an awesome habanero beer (actually spicy!).

View attachment 3754910

Our camp for the night wasn't especially exotic: a free NF camp on the banks of a stream. As we settled in, a pair of bike packers rode in. I offered them beers, and we got to chatting - my dad mentioned that a year ago he met two bike packers in Watson Lake, Yukon, who were heading all the way to Montana. It turned out they were very close friends... a very small world, indeed.

To finish our evening, we enjoyed a beer which had a very appropriate label - an almost-perfect representation of the lake we had visited earlier that day,.

View attachment 3754912

A little drizzle accompanied us through the night and into the morning, but the awning setup already proved its worth - covering both the barn doors in the rear and the paramedics door.

View attachment 3754911

After breakfast, we headed to the nearby Canadian border, crossed without issue, and drove rather directly towards home, stopping in Fernie BC and Lundbreck AB to stretch our legs and break up the trip.

You passed right through my stomping grounds on your way! I grew up just outside of Whitefish and have driven the stretch of highway in the first photo probably a hundred times. Was the campground you stayed at Tuchuck CG? I've been through there but never camped at the campground, it looks nice and secluded. Popular route for bikes and motorcycles too, my cousin rode his bike through there this spring as part of a race on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Banff, AB to Antelope Wells, NM.

Next time you're going to be passing through give me a shout, I'd love to say hi and see your epic Troopy.

 

[Willis]

Great read! Finally got around to it.

The new buildout looks great!


I still don't want to install another headspace though!

 

[janyyc]

Time to catch up on some writing

When we got home, the first order of business was to unpack and open the roof to dry it out.

Next up, some small maintenance issues to take care of - correcting the orientation of some bolts, tightening some bolts up at the front of the conversion, etc.

Fits beautifully in the garage.

We wasted no time in getting the Troopy ready for the buildout, taking everything out and cleaning up the interior.

The moment of truth was upon us - plans made purely using technical drawings and measurements were put into place for the first time.

 

[janyyc]

Everything was fitting together quite nicely...

It was wonderful to visualize and test some details.

Then, I got around to fixing my winch. I had pulled it before the June trip, and ordered the parts which were obviously broken... Now I started disassembly. Really nothing complicated, but it was an absolute mess. The internals had been exposed to the elements because of the cracking of the casing, so the grease was contaminated with everything one could imagine. Cleaning it with all the grease-removing products (and a sly use of the dishwasher...) was fairly successful, but not fun in the slightest.

 

[janyyc]

The outer case cleaned up quite nicely, here paired with the new central part.

I cleaned up the spindle from all the burrs from the metal rope in advance of feeding it synthetic line...

Getting it to this point was a lot of tedious work... de-greasing, washing, etc., and then rust removers.

Finally together!

 

[janyyc]

I also installed a very nice GME folding antenna mount, which I sourced from Australia. Not difficult in the slightest but it did require routing the antenna cable through the firewall (again).

Here is the completed front of the Troopy. Factor55 offset fairlead (needed to get new, longer bolts, and bought some new square nuts), folding antenna mount, wiring all nicely concealed. At some point I'll need to respray the front bullbar...

With all these little "mods" done, a trip was made to celebrate - just to Southern Alberta, a favourite of ours.

 

[janyyc]

Quite the view from the penthouse suite...

Our camp setup for this - and the following - trip. Brings back memories from Oman camping with Ali, with our plastic bin setup.

Speaking of the next trip, a few days later we went on my final trip of 2024. Early September was beautiful, with warm weather, no more fire bans, and generally calm campsites.

Our first recreation site was in an actively-logged swath of land, though the nature nearby was pristine. Following a bumpy, narrow, overgrown track, we ended up at a lake, with some small campsites right next to it.

Again, a great view from the penthouse...

 

[janyyc]

We had the entire recreation site to ourselves, and it was beautifully maintained, with a clean outhouse a bit of a hike away.

I managed to forage some mushrooms in the surrounding forest:

And in anticipation of dinner, a charcuterie plate was put together.

 

[janyyc]

I threw my line a few times, but nothing was biting - the lake is described as "stocked", but I did wonder how many years ago that would have been... Instead, dinner was a steak from the fire and potatoes from the ashes.

After dinner, I started to hear some fish jumping... so I threw my line to the approximate location of the jump. Bam, a little rainbow trout. A few minutes later, another jump. Bam, another, larger rainbow. After three caught and kept, my dad decided to get ready for bed, and during the time it took to walk up to the outhouse and back, I had caught two more large rainbow trout and reached the daily limit (5). Always a little luck involved... We cleaned and bagged the trout and put them in the fridge for the next day...

After a great nights' sleep, we woke to a perfectly still lake, beautiful sunshine, and vivid colours.

Though the water was ice-cold, I jumped in a few times from the end of the boardwalk and the warm sun made quick work of drying me out.

Breakfast - bagel, scrambled eggs with those mushrooms, and some veggies.

 

[janyyc]

A video of the beautiful site, since photos can only depict so much:



We drove out of the camp, monitoring on the radio for any active logging trucks (none that day), and headed to a little town for supplies - we had forgotten to take any water with us. Luckily, this is really never a problem in Canada, but it would be nice not to have to boil water all the time. After checking in with home and purchasing what we needed, we headed off to another site which I had dreamed of seeing for quite a while: a "secret" location, but still rather well-known in the local community. We knew being alone for the night (something which we strive for!) was unlikely - despite that, the unique location would hopefully more than make up for that detail.

The road in was "closed" due to washouts, which were significant, but still passable for most vehicles. Unfortunately the washouts and the lack of active logging (historically, mining) past this point mean that the road will likely become impassible in the years to come. We headed up the narrow, steep switchback with ease, and eventually arrived in a breathtaking area - a high alpine valley, surrounded by larches, with a crystal-clear emerald-coloured lake at the end of the road.

We chose our favourite spot next to the lake, and set up camp.

The towering mountains gave a spectacular backdrop to this awe-inspiring campsite.

 

[Rigster]

A video of the beautiful site, since photos can only depict so much:



We drove out of the camp, monitoring on the radio for any active logging trucks (none that day), and headed to a little town for supplies - we had forgotten to take any water with us. Luckily, this is really never a problem in Canada, but it would be nice not to have to boil water all the time. After checking in with home and purchasing what we needed, we headed off to another site which I had dreamed of seeing for quite a while: a "secret" location, but still rather well-known in the local community. We knew being alone for the night (something which we strive for!) was unlikely - despite that, the unique location would hopefully more than make up for that detail.

The road in was "closed" due to washouts, which were significant, but still passable for most vehicles. Unfortunately the washouts and the lack of active logging (historically, mining) past this point mean that the road will likely become impassible in the years to come. We headed up the narrow, steep switchback with ease, and eventually arrived in a breathtaking area - a high alpine valley, surrounded by larches, with a crystal-clear emerald-coloured lake at the end of the road.

View attachment 3840883

View attachment 3840882

We chose our favourite spot next to the lake, and set up camp.

View attachment 3840884

View attachment 3840885

The towering mountains gave a spectacular backdrop to this awe-inspiring campsite.

View attachment 3840886

Thank you Jan for all the photo's! This is bringing back so many memories of my younger years exploring all of southwestern AB/Southeastern BC. That is a beautiful spot indeed.

Emerald Green Lake = COLD water.

 

[janyyc]

We were amazed that we had the area to ourselves, and I even jumped into the absolutely frigid water once or twice...

The water was absolutely still, offering both a crystal-clear view of the bottom of the lake and artistic reflections of the surrounding mountains.

I even encountered a ptarmigan which was already beginning to sport winter plumage...

With the sun beginning to hide behind the mountains, I took some more pictures of this stunning setting.

 

[janyyc]

We also enjoyed a walk up to the "end of the road", where some mining (exploration?) had taken place many decades ago. Some people dare driving up, though I failed to see the point, especially given the very limited turnaround opportunities on this steep and exposed road. There was a misty waterfall turning into a small stream, and feeding the lake we were camped at.



For dinner, we prepared the rainbow trout I had caught the previous evening.

On the fire...

And served...

The sun had long ago receded behind the mountains, but I figured that the drone might be able to catch some more rays of sunshine...

Indeed, the fading rays of sunshine provided some spectacular alpenglow on the multi-layered, endless horizon.

 

[janyyc]

Late at night, just as we were brushing our teeth and about to go to sleep, suddenly there's a huge display of trees on the mountain behind the lake... Surely enough, a few minutes later a Chevy Colorado with AluCab outfit and enough lights to project a movie a kilometre away shows up and heads directly for our spot. There are quite literally a dozen spots, lower and higher, that could be private for him and for us... eventually he settles for one just next to the outflow, and tries to level his truck in the dark (and proceeds to set up his Starlink). Needless to say, we didn't really interact despite me having a friendly "good evening" and inviting him to stop by for coffee the next morning.

The rest of the night was quiet, though, and we woke to a beautiful sunrise.

Before the sun was fully up, I wandered around to explore the remnants of the mining camp.

From the foundations of an old log cabin, a very solid picnic table had been cobbled together.

Some old machinery.

Always the high-quality chrome!

Somebody had intended to build...

 

[janyyc]

And most importantly, an outhouse with an incredible view - the plywood having long ago been eaten by porcupines.

And despite this being September, still some fireweed blooming at this high altitude!

A very luxurious and enjoyable breakfast was prepared.

We found a larch with some soft moss under it to prepare a shower, hidden away from the unexpected guest and with the below view. You can make out the switchbacks which were used for the mining operation.

And just before leaving camp, we were visited by a beautiful late-summer butterfly.