Canada

Walking in a forest which is over 800 years old is mesmerising. The photos will not tell how it feels to see these behemoth trees, none of you can hug alone. The tallest is over 75 meters high and even the fallen trees are breathtaking. They are huge!

After our stop at this beautiful forest we headed on to our Pacific Ocean campsite for the following days.

After our great day in Vancouver we took the ferry at Horseshoe Bay to continue on Vancouver Island. The sailing took about 1 hour 49 minutes abd although there was strong wind it was sunny and the water was surprisingly calm.

Possibly this is the best movie you can watch:

After we left the ferry we had a yellow wrench icon on the dashboard again, but after restarting the car it disappeared and the car worked fine afterwards. We stopped at a narrow street leading to a beachside parking spot but it was so full and tight that we were not able to turn around with the trailer. We started to back up on the narrow street and we passed a church campsite, which was closed for visitors but the host just arrived by car and opened us the gates to turn around with the car. We told him we are looking for an overnight stop and he recommended Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park nearby. It was ten minutes from there and we got a nice spot under the huge trees.

Vancouver deserves much more time than we spent there. It was a beautiful, sunny autumn day, about twice the average temperature this time of the year. We used our day to do a routine maintenance job on our car (oil change, tire rotation at Midas) while we walked and enjoyed the city.

We started our day with a luxury Italian breakfast after dropping off the car. We like the coffee we can make in the trailer but we do not steam milk so enjoying a fluffy cappuccino was special!

Echo was not interested in the huge bird statues, not like the mammoths earlier.

Then we took the Aquabus with a hip-on hop-off ticket to Granville Island where old dock were converted into arts workshops.

We walked to the beach and enjoyed the late summer weather and the views.

We also visited with the larger kids the Maritime Museum which is an interesting display of a large ship from the 40ies and many models and underwater objects including submarines, hard hat diving suits and so on.

After the museum we had fish and chips at "Go Fish", a place mentioned in travel books. There was some queue but it was fairly quick and delicious indeed!

Then we sailed back to pick up our car. We stopped at Stanley Park and had the day view of the same bridge we saw from the campsite at night.

We walked over 12000 steps and the car was also refreshed. Happy to return to this beautiful city some day soon. Now we take the ferry to Vancouver Island for a few days.

We stopped by at the Hells Gate Airtram and descended to the Fraser River to see the bridge and the cable car from the bottom. It was also closed for the season but the view was magnificent.

Then the next morning we continued to Vancouver and stopped only after 10 kms. Not a check engine light but a other bridge: the old Alexandra Bridge. It was definetely worth to see jt, I am not sure how long it will last though. Very rusty and quite worrying condition.

And finally the train! It was almost neverending, we counted over 200 wagons.

Finally we arrived to Vancouver, seeimg the Pacific Ocean exactly 4 months and 14.000 kms after we left the Atlantic in mid June.

After the frightening "Check Engine" light adventures the car was working faultlessly again so we drove easily until our next stop: 108 Miles Historic Site. We spent the night in the parking area and we checked the site in the morning. Unfortunately it was alteady closed for the season, we missed it with a few days only. It was still an interesting walk and a very nice lake to see.

Then we continued South and we had excellent taco for lunch at the Desert Hills Ranch. The kids enjoyed the decoration too, hay bales painted and formed into huge animals!

After the nice and refreshing Burns Lake camping we wanted to progress a bit faster South so we planned to pass Prince George and stop about 100km further on. Well, we passed Prince George but on a quite steep incline the car lost power and started to slow down while a yellow wrench icon lit up on the dash. "See a service!" it said and I pulled over to the side of the road. I stopped completely, stopped the engine and waited 5 seconds. We covered over 14.000 kms with the car and it did not missed a beat so I hoped it is nothing serious - despite the worrying signs. The engine started but it had a strange noise and the "Check Engine" light came on. Too bad. We accelerated a while but then we lost power again so I pulled over again and started to look for a solution to get off the highway. Just like our last adventure in Alaska on the Denali Highway we were lucky. About 100 meters behind us there was a small dirtroad leading to a farm. So I resetted the car again amd when there was no oncoming traffic turned back and pulled to the small road. Phew, at least the car worked for this manouver.

I started to set up the camper for the night and before that I have checked the farm if the owner was around to ask for his permission to stay. We were about 40 kms from Prince George where I have had seen a Ford dealership so my plan was to go back the next morning without the trailer and see if they can check and repair the car. If the car works getting there! While I was doing the leveling the owner of the farm appeared next to us so we explained our situation. He was very kind and helpful, invited us to move much further into a quiet spot on his farm. Also he warned us that it will be around zero at night and asked if we had everything, propane, food, etc. He even came back after we set up and brought us some eggs and Smarties!

After a good night sleep the car started normally and I drove 40 kms back to Prince George without problems. At the Ford dealership they said I need to leave the car there and they will read the computer before the evening. Not good enough so I decided to leave and drove to a nearby independent repair shop. They said they can read it - on Friday, 4 days later. Booo. On to the next repair shop, my last attempt before getting back to Ford. Success! They read it immediately and it was one error message stating the Throttle Body Control stuck closed. It was one of the top finding of my youtube search last night so there is a fix for it: either clean it or replace it. Unfortunately this repair shop was also too busy to fix it immediately but they said it was ok to continue (if the issue is not coming back, because then we are stuck again). So we continued! To be continued.

After the endless wilderness of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway we returned to civilisation at Burns Lake
We found a very nice and free camping spot maintained by Rotary. It is a small gem with about 5-6 places and you can stay three days at a visit.
There is a skating park, a children's playground, machines for doing exercises and a boat launch. Three minutes from there is a sanidump station with potable water and a dogpark.

We loaded up on groceries at a nearby Save On Foods shop and we had our trailer hitch checked as it loosened a bit. Had a relaxing stop for two nights, got some sleep, a run and used the laundry. Small luxuries make our travel life so much fun.
Now we plan to continue towards Vancouver to catch the fall colours and somewhat higher temperatures than in Alaska. Here the nights are still cold around 2-3 C but during the day it was 19-20 C and sunshine. Another small luxury we are grateful for!

Our first stop was at a nice mini-lake and the free campsite had 3 or 4 spots to stay. We were the only ones there and it was perfect, just like a national park despite it was next to Alaska Highway. As it was not visible from the road the noise was also filtered by the trees. The noise is minimal anyway as there is almost zero traffic at night, maybe 1-2 cars or trucks passed by per hour!
We also stopped at Rancheria Falls for a daystop and the falls are about 500 meters from the parking, an accessible wooden ramp leads to them.

The second stop was next to a lake called Blue Lake just after turning right from the Alaska Highway (1) to the Cassiar Highway (37).

This is an even more remote section without cell coverage and fuel stops need to be carefully calculated. Our range is about 350 kms and we bougth a fuel can (25 liters) for safety, that adds another 90-100 km depending on the hills and our speed. So far we managed well and reached the next fuel stop every day.
The third stop was at Eastman Creek and it was the third straight full day without cell signal. The views were really beautiful and the road was fine. No lines in the center and on the sides but as we are driving during daytime it is no issue at all. On the scarse fuel stops you can meet the tin rooster with real moose antlers.

Our fourth day was full of action: we have seen three bears at three different spots. One was running accross the road in the distance, the other two were peacfully loading up for winter eating on the side of the road. Then we stopped for fuel and helicopters were coming in and flying out with loads at Last Frontier Heliski resort.

Then we stopped at a roadside parking spot at New Hazelton. We were the first to stop around 18:00 and later another RV and a large fuel truck decided to stop next to us.

Back to the civilisation with internet and just learned that the BNB chain was paused due to the largest hack so far! Our journey continues tomorrow.

We are still learning about distances in Canada. Our saga with the temp tags is continuing as our trailer purchased in May still did not get the final tags in Delaware. We are relying on the dealer to issue a new temp tag every two months. It can only be issued when the previous expired. He kindly offered to overnigth it to us which is normally max two business days within the USA. However to Canada it takes longer (amd costs more) but I learned that after it arrives to Edmonton by air it goes by trucks to Whitehorse. In four days. So we are waiting for it and used the time to do short hikes in the area.

First we went to Eagle Point where we have seen eagles! Spot on nameing of the trail!

Then we visited Ice Lake and walked around it.

We also spent some time in the public library. Kids enjoyed books and parents enjoyed free (and fast) wifi.

During one of our lunches a squirrel visited too!

Another recommendation from "Élet a Yukonban" (a Hungarian blogger living in Yukon) was the Grey Mountain where they spent a day with another Hungarian travellers, the Overlandsite. There was a quite rough offroad section (about 5 kms) at the last section to the top but we managed it (without the trailer obviously). The view from the top was absolutely worth it.

We also stopped by Schwatka Lake where a dam was built on the Yukon River. There were small airplanes floating on the shore and we also seen the small bridge we walked on together earlier at the Miles Canyon.

We need to spend a few days in Whitehorse which is a lovely town, the capital of Yukon. We are waiting for our temp tag for the trailer which is sent by overnight from Delaware. However due to the large distance it takes more than a week to get it. Anyway we use the time well, visited a museum which was fun. At the Visitors Center our kids were playing for an hour with the large map which had buttons and lights so we learned about the geography of Yukon. The kind lady suggested to visit Lumel Studios which is a glass blowing workshop in downtown Whitehorse open to the public.

First we watched a tourist who was working with the help of one of the glass artists and then we asked if our kids could try working with melted glass too. The owner of the place was very energetic and immediately built rapport with all of us. She was very helpful and let our kids experience and experiment with her help.

First she showed us how a marble is done in three easy steps. This first marble was a gift to our smallest boy. Then our kids did theirs one by one.

They picked three colors and started to melt glass in the furnace which was over 1400 Celsius hot!

Then they chipped and mixed the colorful parts with the transparent glass while rotating the melted glass.

Then they rolled it into a round shape and cut it halfway with a plier.

Finally they shaped the ball with a round metal tool.

After completion the marbles need to rest in about 500C for a night to make them less fragile. So we went back in the morning to pick them up. It was a very nice experience and I really recommend doing a workshop at Lumel Studios if you are in Whitehorse.