Driving Through BC Canada

I'm on my way to Alaska again, after having such a good time in 2011.  I took off about 3 weeks later this year.  An area of BC that I've never been to is the Okanogan area.  I assumed it was like ours in Washington State, but I was wrong.  The terrain is similar, but theirs is populated where as ours is only slightly.  Lots of Canadians retire in their Okanogan.  One of the cities along the way is Kelowna.  Frankly, I've never even heard of the place, but it's big.  Along the lines of Tacoma or Spokane.  Kamloops was also bigger than I expected.  From there I went pretty much the way I had before via the Yellowhead and Cassiar highways.  

Penticton BC

The trip north was a little more eventful than what I had hoped.  About a third of the way up the Cassiar I noticed that my engine battery voltage was dropping to the point where the battery warning light came on.  When I pulled over, the engine would not start again the battery was so low.  Fortunately, being in the motor home, I can combine the house and engine batteries, which got me going again.  I also started the motor home's generator to charge things back up.  It appeared that I had a bad alternator. I made it Meziadin Lake campground where the campground host has a phone (no cell service in this part of the world).   The Napa autoparts store in Terrace could get a new alternator the next day, but it was 150 back the way I had just come.   I took the alternator out thinking I'd ride the motorcycle back but then thought better of it.  So, I put the alternator back in.  Now it was charging, but just barely, nothing like it should have been.

OK, so I drive back to Terrace, install the new alternator, and start back.  Wouldn't you know, the new alternator also is just barely charging.  Dang, now what?  This makes no sense.  One thought was that the battery might be causing problems.  It's the original one that came with the motor home and was probably 7 years old.  I don't see how, but figured I'd continue on to Whitehorse, a little more than a day's drive away, and get a new battery there. 

Flooded Highway

Except, Whitehorse was actually 4 days away.  When I got to Dease Lake a road sign was stating that the road was closed 80km ahead due to the highway being flooded.  To drive around is only 1600 miles, takes 3 days, and would cost over $800 in fuel.  Needless to say, that was not going to happen.  I'd wait it out at this really nice little campground about 15 miles up the road called Sawmill Point.

I had camped at Sawmill Point in 2011 and really liked it.  The road leading into the campground has two steep sections.  In 2011 I arrived right after they had completely refurbished the campground and the road down was nice but loose gravel.  This year I decided to walk the steep sections just to make sure I could get back up.  They were fine so off I went.  Big mistake.  Just beyond, the road was over half washed out.  Now I'm stuck.  There was no way I was going to be able to back up the steep sections with the motor home and trailer.  My only option was to plow ahead with half the motor home on the road and the other half in a creek bed.  The water was so high that there was a whirlpool where the culvert inlet was.  You couldn't see the culvert.  When I got to the campground I just turned around and got the heck out of there.  It looked like the road could wash out completely so I wasn't taking any chances.  

There was a rest area a few miles back and since there was no traffic to speak of, I figured I'd just stay there until the road opened again.  As I was getting ready to set things up, I notice that there was a single campsite a few hundred feet more down the road with a nice view of the lake and a road leading down to the lake.  And it was vacant.  Not a bad place to have to sit for 4 days while waiting for the highway to reopen.

When they finally reopened the highway, it was still flooded but only had about 4 inches of water on it.  They were letting vehicles through one at a time down the middle of the road.   I was really glad to get through and to be on my way again.

All the way to Whitehorse the alternator was still just barely charging the battery.  At Whitehorse I bought a new battery at the Canadian Tire store.  After installing it there was still no change.  At this point I was stumped.  Things just weren't making any sense.  I figured I would just take the motor home to the Dodge dealer in the morning.  Walmart was just down the street and they literally cater to having RV's spend the night with a dump station and water at the end of the parking lot.  They also had a McDonalds inside with wifi so I started searching.  I was about to give up when up pops a series of posts talking about my exact same issues, the problem being the cable between the alternator and the started.  All cars have a similar cable and they never to bad.  Except Mercedes did a weird double cable crimp at the started which have a tendency to fail.  That was it.  The next day I went to the Napa store, bought a new single cable and connected it alongside the bad one.  It would have taken many days to get a new Mercedes cable.  So I'm on the road again, charging batteries like there is no tomorrow. 

I spent one night at the trail head to Twin Falls just outside of Smithers.

At the intersection of the Yellowhead and Cassiar highways is the first nation village of Kitwanga.  It's a pretty depressed little community.  

I found this lone totem at the far edge of the village.

The Bear Glacier is on the road going to Steward BC and Hyder Alaska.  That road has just some amazing mountain scenery.

This avalanche was just down the road from the Bear Glacier.  It must have been really something when it came down.  

Hyder Alaska has changed.  The main road through town is now paved!  I was hoping to make it up to the Salmon Glacier but there was just too much road construction on the road. I wouldn't make it to the viewpoint anyway because of the snow so I just turned around.