Rockies Roadtrip

[BC40]

Hey guys. Mentioned to a few of you at the last meeting I was planning a trip to the Rockies. This is a very brief summary and pics.

We did an 8 day blitz across the province and back. Visited Wells Gray Park. Found a perfect place to camp on the beach south of Valemont. Hiked some around Jasper. Saw tons of wildlife. Headed south on the Icefield Parkway. Saw lots of interesting stuff and even managed to find amazing areas without tourists. Saw a few interesting rigs like a camperized MANN. Explored briefly around Lake Louise. Relaxed at a cabin by Golden; hot tubs are great after several days of hiking. Headed up Kinbasket Lake to a huge party hosted by the Czech community. Camped with the parents a couple days and explored the side valleys to the western edge of the icefields. Then saddly had to head home.

Truck worked great. Very glad for the turbo in the mountains. Only real problem was an annoying rear driveline vibration between 90 and 105km/hr. Think it might be the pinion angle, going to try shims to see where I stand.



A2B Bruce, if you still check out mud, PM me. I have some great pics of the dogs I can email you.

 

[BC40]

Another trio of pics.

 

[BC40]

Couple more.

Was an awesome trip. Light on the wheeling but I did get to lock in the hubs a few times.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Thanks for sharing ...

 

[mainlander]

Looks like a great time and trip!

 

[AJAEbj42]

Mountains and Land Cruisers always look good together!

 

[Greg_B]

I would love to see a MANN up close. I would love even more to see an Earthcruiser RV Expedition Overland all terrain motor home close up!

Looks like a great trip.

gb

 

[Deny]

Thems some nice hills.

 

[Fantom]

More pics! more info!

 

[LanceCruiser]

Great pics.

 

[canucksafari]

Looks like a good trip Martin and very nice pics. I've a friend up in PG who knows the Rockies pretty well - especially the Robson Valley. Darwin use to wheel a nice old 40 until he got tempted and went over to join a few of us on dark side. If you are ever thinking of another trip up that way, then I would contact him. He is good friends with Dave Harries, who a few local Cruiser Heads may also know. They would likely be open to giving some tips and ideas of where to go to responsible wheelers who also are interested in photography. Darwin can be contacted through his photo web site: Wild and Free Outdoor Photography - Darwin Paton Wildlife and Nature Photographer, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada

 

[BC40]

Thanks guys. The goal on this trip was camping hiking and just seeing the Rockies. Jenni had never been past the West Kootenays so there was a lot of ground to cover.

We lucked out on the trip as far as weather was concerned. Only 2 of the days were low cloud and rain.

I can say June is a good time to tour the mountain parks. Most of the hiking trails are open, except in areas of really high avalanche hazard, elk calving, or grizzly feeding. Best part is the crowds are still relatively thin. So amazing places like Helmken Falls in Wells Grey, the glacier access trail (hiking), and roadside attractions for the lazier visitors only have a handfull of people, whereas in the summer its bumper to bumper tour busses.

We left the park one of the evenings to camp at Brule Lake area. I'm not a fan of pay campsites in parks, not my style. That said did spend a couple evenings in maintained sites but being off peak season, it wasn't that bad, I guess.

Lots of remote country to see around Kinbasket Lake. Wildflower meadows, glacial runoff rivers, jagged peaks. Quite nice. But again, most of what we did was easy access areas.

Pic 1: We missed Game 7 to do this hike. Shocked and depressed seeing the news the next day . WTF is wrong with people

Pic 2: Helmken on a day with almost no tourists (probably rare)

Pic 3: angel glacier

 

[BC40]

I would love to see a MANN up close. I would love even more to see an Earthcruiser RV Expedition Overland all terrain motor home close up!

Looks like a great trip.

gb

Sorry Greg, no more up close MANN pics to be posted .

It was a German truck. I didn't look it over too closely, but from what I could see it looked to be a no expense spared build. Spotted that one at Athabasca Falls in Jasper park, then oddly enough again 5 days later as we were headed home he was east bound between Revelstoke and Sicamous. Would have been interesting to chat with the owner about their journey.

 

[BC40]

Thanks for the tips on local knowledge there John. It might be a while before we get a chance to head back. There is certainly a huge area to explore. We got a good sampling of Jasper park, but only a cursory look at Mt. Robson Banff and Yoho, mostly because of the weather. Rogers Pass to Mt Revelstoke was still closed due to avalanche hazard I assume. Some great backcountry areas outside of park to explore by truck in the eastern areas of the province. Definitely hope to see more of that in the not that distant future.

 

[Deny]

How are your July long plans looking? We are probably planning on Thursday (maybe head in Wed night to the start) to Sunday if you are still able to make it.

 

[BC40]

Wish I could say Deny. Hiring at least one new person and not sure how well it would work out to leave them on their own during training period. Need to talk with the boss. Tumbler would be awesome though so I'm trying to make it work.

 

[LanceCruiser]

I'm still in awe......... Great waterfall pic.

 

[BC40]

Thanks Lance

This trip covered a lot of ground. We only spent a half day in Wells Gray for example, and that was just on the paved tourist route. It's a huge park and I'm sure you could easily keep busy for a week there alone.

Mt Robson apparently has some amazing hikes for people interested in backpacking.

We barely spent any time in Banff because of the weather, and once on Hwy 1 we only spent a few hours in Yoho.

Anyways, my photo strategy after getting my digital camera has been not to hold back on the photo opps. Then I am almost certain to have some keepers. Much different then when I used to head out with my film slr in hand.

OK, a few more non-cruiser content pics.

Pic 1: Big bull elk in Jasper. Tons of wildlife in that area.

Pic 2: orchids in a meadow near Kinbasket Lake.

Pic 3: Bow Lake. About 1/4 of the lake was still frozen. Gotta get creative when the weather isn't cooperating. We'll be back some day to see what was hidden.

Better stop before they make me buy a silver star.

 

[prado t]

Nice trip Martin! Thanks.

 

[ElectricDyck]

Great pics! The rockies are my favorite scenery! Here's a pic from our trip to the Northern Rockies (north of fort nelson)