Prince George

by

Boondocking Success

I probably won’t be able to give a write up of my trip from Nugget City to Campbell River, complete with pictures, until I arrive, so in the meantime, I’ll just share my experiences with the house batteries this time around.

I noticed last spring that my house batteries were not charging while driving. I started by blaming the installation of the new truck battery, which proved to be correct as there was no voltage on the cable from the truck solenoid to the house batteries.

There were no loose wires around the truck battery, so I examined the connections from the solenoid to the battery and found them loose. I cleaned the terminals, applied conductive gel, and tightened the connections. After that, there was proper voltage going from the truck to the house batteries. But that only solved part of the problem as I found that the charging was not satisfactory, especially after long days of driving.

My next suspect was the refrigerator. I guessed that by putting it on ‘auto’ it was switching to battery power rather than LP and that I was draining the battery as I drove.

When I left Nugget City, I purposely left the fridge on ‘auto’ and when I arrived at my spot for the night, my voltage read 12.3. I had left with a fully charged battery and driven almost three hundred kilometres. This did not seem right. I switched the fridge to LP. The battery voltage dipped to about 12.0 overnight as I left the inverter on to recharge the laptop.

The next day, I stopped after about one hundred kilometres of driving and my battery was at 12.6, fully charged! This confirmed to me that my charging problem was resolved. When I parked for the night at the turnout, I still had a fully charged battery. However, I had no sooner turned on the furnace than my battery was at a 50% discharge evidenced by an 11.1V reading!!! I turned off the furnace and the battery reading increased to a more reasonable 11.5 to 11.6 range, more than enough for a comfortable night.

I had recently checked the distilled water levels for the batteries and found them to be satisfactory, but decided that maybe they did need a bit of topping up. They each took on a little water, not enough to make a difference I thought, but I was in for a surprise.

I parked in Prince George with the battery at 12.6V. I ran the furnace all night while recharging the laptop and the battery levels dipped down to the 11.6 to 11.8V range and stayed there steadily.

From Prince George, I returned to the Chasm. My voltage was at 12.6V upon parking and 12.1V upon going to bed after running the furnace and charging my laptop. I left the furnace on all night and awoke to a voltage of 11.8. During the day, the only direct use I made of my batteries was to charge my laptop and the voltage hovered in the 11.6 to 11.8V range. It was a nice sunny day and without doing any math, so take this with a grain of salt, I suspect that I was getting enough juice out of the 15W solar panel to compensate for the laptop charge.

I stayed a second day at the Chasm just for a rest and my battery remained at the 11.6 to 11.8V reading right straight up to my departure (so, two nights of running the furnace). I drove only about a hundred kilometres, including careening down a mountain, before my stop for the night where my battery was at 11.5. It was at 11.3 when the tow truck came this morning.

It seems that my batteries rapidly discharge into the 11V readings, but then stay there steadily. I was glad to be hooked to power tonight, but would have had enough juice for running the furnace.

The generator will be useful to help me boondock in one place for several nights, but I now know that I can boondock from place to place with a small of driving in between each and still be perfectly comfortable. This knowledge is very comforting. I’m starting to feel like a seasoned RVer. 🙂

by

Quick Update as I Boondock My Way Across British Columbia

Very quick update!

I am posting from Prince George. (Les, if you’re reading this, I won’t be stopping in on this trip, thanks!) I can’t do justice to the last four days with a free Starbucks wi-fi connection, so details will have to wait. 🙂

I am now at my third day of boondocking and will be boondocking again tonight, with no hardship whatsoever. I have plenty of battery juice, heat, running water, a fully charged laptop, and plenty of reading material. And I’m not even running the genset! I just solved my battery charging issues from the spring; more on that in my next post.

As for the genset, it probably needs a new fuel filter seeing as no fuel whatsoever is getting into it but it runs fine when I inject gasoline directly into the carburetor. I’m going to go price one at Canadian Tire this morning, but if it’s expensive, I won’t bother for this trip seeing as I’m not in dire need of the extra power.

My decision to take the Cassiar Highway was one of the best I have made in my thirteen months on the road. More about that will follow. 🙂

Unfortunately, the weather being what it was in Nugget City, I didn’t make nearly as much money as I would have liked, so I’m in a real rush to get to Campbell River and a new job. I’m therefore doing long days of driving and provided Croft says it’s okay ( 🙂 ), I might be there at the end of this week!

Long days and cold nights not withstanding, these have been my absolute best days on the road so far, bar none, just because I’m finally living my dream of a self-contained life. If only I could have my own internet, but I’m now back in ‘civilization’ and my Starbucks account gives me two hours free DAILY at their hotspots so I can at least check in periodically. 🙂

by

Prince George to the Other Side of the Pine Pass

I left my friends’ place late Saturday morning:

the best non-advertised campground near Prince George :)

the best non-advertised campground near Prince George 🙂

Getting out Prince George was harrowing. Instead of using my common sense that told me that highways 16 and 97 north would intersect with signage at some point, I used Majel. She led me down a road with a bridge with a 2m clearance. Miranda needs just over 3m. Thankfully, there was a crescent road right before the bridge, so I was able to turn around effortlessly, get back to the 16, and ignore my GPS all the way to the 97 north. 🙂

I stopped for gas at a Mohawk station that sanidumps.com claimed had a dump station, but it was closed. 🙁

My next big stop would be Dawson Creek, about 400km north. I decided to go halfway to arrive in Dawson Creek mid-day Sunday and stay through to Tuesday morning.

The drive was lovely and fairly easy. Lunch was had at a rest stop on the Crooked River:

Crooked River from rest stop

Crooked River from rest stop

There was a couple in a large class A parked here with me. They pulled out before me, but our destinies would be matched for a time…

During the lunch stop, I decided to get over the Pine Pass and then stop for the night at the first suitable rest area.

Pine Pass is the lowest and most northerly highway crossing over the Rockies. Everyone I spoke to in the past few days told me to beware this crossing, that the climate would change quickly and that the going would be treacherous. I’m getting tired of people working me up like that because the Pine Pass was easy peasy to cross!

There was a beautiful rest area just after the summit:

Azouetta Lake, just past the Pine Pass summit

Azouetta Lake, just past the Pine Pass summit

The couple from Crooked River were there and I was asked where I planned on spending the night. We had both had the idea to stay right there as the views were spectacular, but the high winds coming over the pass worried us. We therefore decided to rendez-vous at the next rest area, about 40mi (75ishkm) north.

So, that’s where I spent Saturday night, at the West Pine Rest Area:

West Pine rest area

West Pine rest area

It was just going on four when I pulled in, so I went for a quick walk to stretch my legs, gabbed with the couple for a bit, then just crashed with a cold beer. What a tough life I lead. 🙂

The evening was pleasant, if a tad noisy, and I slept way too well, awaking this morning at 8!!! The couple was long gone and I was equally eager to be on my way. Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway was just 200 km away.

by

Out and About In and Near Prince George

Prince George, located at the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers, is called BC’s Northern Capital. It is a beacon of civilization in a vast and empty land of black spruce and open blue sky set against snow-capped mountains. Prince George’s primary industry is lumber, followed closely by tourism.

Yesterday had me move from the Bee Lazy Park to my friend’s place of work (10km north of the RV park) where I parked Miranda for the day while I went exploring for a few hours.

There wasn’t much ‘touristy’ stuff that interested me. The town is renown for its railroad museum, but I was feeling very ‘meh’ about that, so the only museum I did yesterday was The Exploration Place. This small museum is a hodgepodge of mostly hands on exhibits. It didn’t take long to tour, but is still worth a visit. I paid for the ‘deluxe’ entrance that included a simulator ride. Having ridden one in Las Vegas that had me racing down the Strip in an Enterprise shuttle with Klingons firing full phasers at us and another that had me assimilated by the Borg (I’m Geek!Girl and proud of it! 😀 ), I didn’t have very high expectations for a small town, small museum sim ride, so I was very pleasantly surprised by the fun, ten minute ‘under water’ ride.

stained glass windows at The Exploration Place

stained glass windows at The Exploration Place (blurry because of no flash)

I turned from the stained glass to find these guys! Yes, I jumped!

I turned from the stained glass to find these guys! Yes, I jumped!

I then stopped to watch a movie that was straight out of my childhood. I’m fairly confident that it was my first viewing of it that gave me the bug for the north:

cimg0009

cimg0010

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Nechako River

Nechako River

I spent most of the afternoon at home (in a parking lot; love this life!) watching a movie before following him out to his spread, about 25km from town. It was a rather dizzying drive here (so much so that I asked for help back to civilization this morning!), but it was so worth it! I was especially grateful for the offer of cold beer once I was squared away. 🙂

Today, I decided that some hiking was in order, so I set off along the desolate Yellowhead highway, heading east back towards Edmonton, to visit the only inland rainforest in the world.

The views were, well:

Yellowhead Highway heading east towards McBride

Yellowhead Highway heading east towards McBride

Unfortunately, the trip was for naught; I should have brought my snowshoes!

cimg0025

The trip wasn’t a waste, though. The drive really gave me a taste of what I’m going to encounter soon enough; endless stretches of monotonous solitude broken by fantastic scenery.

One final thing to say: it’s only May and I’m only in Prince George, so I know that I need to make some serious window covering preparations for the 21 hours of daylight that the Yukon gets in June. It felt like high noon at 6PM tonight and things are only going to get worse! Or better, I suppose, if you can sleep when it’s bright daylight out… 🙂

by

Perfect Timing

One of the first emails in my inbox on Tuesday evening was from a couple of readers who have a spread just east of Prince George. The email was an invitation to stay as long as I want on their property, with a 15A connection and internet!

So, that’s where I am today and for at least the next three days. I am so grateful for this respite!

Their place is on a dead end road and surrounded by trees; it is a lovely spot. The sunset last night was spectacular. I cannot believe how lucky I am to be here!

So, I’ll be in Prince George for a bit and doing more sightseeing than I had planned on. I thought to look for a couple of days of work, but am not sure the results would be worth the effort, so I think I’m just going to chill out and enjoy this wonderful gift!