Whistler to Glacier

I started to cruise the Sea to the Sky Highway” up into the mountains with Whistler as the first destination, passing through Squamish and a few other towns on the way. I was on my way to see the Icefields Parkway, National Geographic called it “The drive of a lifetime” and I wasn’t going to miss out, especially being the proud owner of a vehicle in Canada now and all.

I stayed around Whistler for the first night, got coffee, visited the library for a couple of hours and went to the tourist information to ask about good hiking and other attractions in the area afterwards. There are so many hiking opportunities and attractions in the Canadian Rockies it’s ridiculous, the friendly lady at the reception couldn’t fail. My first hike of the trip was up to Mt. Wedgemont lake. A moderate hike, manageable, about 10km in and out. I was used to walk a lot after my time spent in Vancouver, connecting the daily chores easily made me walk 10km. It was foggy and rainy once I reached the top, I was barely able to make out the lake or the glacier behind it. There were a few huts, platforms for tents and other amenities catering to a campsite. I took a lap around the wooden buildings and the few bushy trees, but was worried that the weather might turn from bad to worse and I decided to go back. It’s a pity that most single day mountain hikes are a “the same way in and out” operation.

Canadian forests are breathtaking and the hike led mostly through thick, mossy rain forest, crossing a few rivers along the way. My first hike in the Canadian Rockies, I enjoyed the experience, the active part, the photography, the desolation, solitude and silence all in this tremendous natural setting. Once I got back to the car I decided to keep it going and do as many of the popular hikes as I could. I wasn’t sure about hiking when I left Vancouver, but in the end there is no better way to see and experience the Rockies.
In mid September, summer was long gone, especially in the higher ranges above 2000m. I slept somewhere along the road and went to visit Cheakamus lake for sunrise. Nice fog and a beautiful, sunny morning made for great photos, until the sun rose too far over the fog. I took a stroll around the lake and drove towards Joffre lakes provincial park afterwards, as recommended by the friendly lady at the tourist information. It turned out to be a full days hike in the range of 10km for one way, the recommended time frame was 5 hours from the parking lot to the upper lake. It might sound generous, but considering the average North American person it made sense. This was one of the more popular hikes and I did it on the weekend as well, so I met a few people on the hike and around the lakes. The upper lake had a campground besides it, but without camping gear and fearing to leave the car over night I had to walk back. Most of the parking lots close to bigger attractions had signs advising not to leave any valuables in the car due to frequent break-ins. For this reason I took my computer with me on a lot of the hikes, it has been to quite a few places not many computers have been. If I’ll ever get to visit the Canadian Rockies again I’ll make sure to bring a tent and the other necessary gear to do all the multi day hikes I missed out on, it seemed as if they lead to the truly epic places.

Sleeping in a car on public land, hiking through mountains and mostly staying in the outback doesn’t mix very well with a computer based job that requires a desk space, electricity and Wifi.

To make my work-life easier I planned to replace my computers old battery and be able to use it for a couple more hours in the car at night. I was cheap and unable to hand my computer into Apple for another week, so I bought an Ifixit kit on Amazon. It came with video instructions and most of the tools, but my attempt resulted in blue flames out of the battery and a slightly broken mainboard, so instead of having an old battery I ended up with no battery, but thankfully still with a working computer.

The nights started to come early in November making for a lot of free time in the car from 5-10pm, so a computer would’ve been nice. I had practiced working from public spaces in Vancouver for the last 5 months and thankfully my friend Taylor gave me the advice to look into libraries as workspaces and I had used them ever since. A lot of the smaller towns in and around the mountains and even some in the national parks had a library. Google maps gave accurate info about location and opening times. They all came with at least a little desk space, free WiFi and most importantly: silence, nobody is in a rush in a library. The librarians were happy for every person that came, especially in the more rural areas the libraries didn’t have that many visitors.

The first thing to do after waking up was to find a cafe, a gas station or any chain restaurant for morning coffee and bathroom duties. The car (Edward) made it easy to get around and gas in Canada was affordable but still expensive compared to the United States. The car needed about 11-14l for 100km. Once I had read my email I was able to decide what to do that day, either work or explore. Driving 50km or even 100km to get to a library to get to work after already having driven quite a few kilometers to find a cafe in the first place added up. Thankfully coffee was cheap, Dustin and Brandon got me hooked in Vancouver and visiting coffee places to work from didn’t help. On the road it served as the treat, there was always time to stop for a cheap, hot and sweet gas station coffee. Depending on the gas station there was more or less choice of addable flavors, which I really enjoyed. I never payed more than 2$ for a 600ml coffee. I had 2-3 of those a day, adding up to 2l of coffee somedays. Mixed with quite a few cigs, not the most alkaline base for living.

In the right spots, wild camping is ok in Canada. But not in the National Parks. I spent most of my nights on “forest service roads”, unpaved “paths” off of the main roads and random parking lots that didn’t have signs explicitly prohibiting to camp.

Edward didn’t drew much attention either, just a regular car with plates of the same province, as long as I stayed in British Columbia. It could’ve been grandpa on a fishing trip, casually parking his vehicle on the side of the road. The iOverlander app helped a lot to provide the free sleeping spots. Without the app it would’ve taken a lot more effort to find places to sleep, all the driving, the frustration, the lost time and gas for not finding a good, or even worse, any spot at all. Unexpected window knocking wasn’t a thing with the app either, it made life easy, check the app, look for close-by sleeping spots, open the location in google maps and start driving. Other users reviewed the spots in comments and with the help of that it was easy to figure out if the place could work. The app worked offline and I was using the Google maps offline function as well. Depending on time of the year, location and amenities public campsites ran from 10-30 cad. Adding that to the cost of food and gas would have made the trip too expensive, I needed to sleep for free as much as possible to stay on budget of 2000cad/month.

Fixing the breaks

While passing through Vernon the brake fluid light lit up all of a sudden. I had gotten used to the check engine light by now, but this was a new problem. The check engine light made for bad vibes, so I took some black electric tape and covered it. I had checked and filled the brake fluid when I left, it turned out to be nearly empty now, odd that the car would use that much. I had some fluid for back up and quickly refilled the tank, all good again, the light off, fluid tank full and the brakes kept working as mediocre as always.

Half an hour later the warning light lit up for a second time. All the 4×4 action in Kamloops’ muddy hills must’ve broken my improvised brake line cut. After inspecting the car I realized I had an open brake system squeezing fluid out every time I hit the brakes. The brakes still worked but only as long as there was some fluid left in the tank. I had to fix it right on the spot, there was no other way. I ended up in a Canadian Tyre parking lot, rushing in and out of the store, buying tools, rubber o-rings and brake fluid. Under the car, with dirty hands, on the floor, swearing a lot and not looking happy. Some guy named Vincent must’ve sensed my desperation and came walking towards the car. He asked quite amused what the problem was and I hesitantly (I didn’t want to draw too much attention and was in no mood for a chat) explained the chain of problems that had left me stranded in this parking lot. He was the bro-type kind of man, about 10 years older than me, trying to catch a ride home. He knew more about cars than I did and told me that closing the brake line just with a rubber o-ring and a screw wasn’t good enough due to the extremely high pressure and brake fluid dissolving the rubber o-rings too quickly. He suggested using a scissor-like wrench that would lock itself. We flipped the brake line over and fixed it in that position using the wrench and the o-rings, our goal was to permanently put as much pressure as close to the bend as possible. Think of a straw, put both ends on top of each other, then press down as close to the bend as possible. In theory that would close the brake line. Once locked and in position, we used wire to prevent it from dangling. I later installed a more safe and less amateurish looking solution. When we were done with our improvised fix he asked me when I was planning to visit a garage to really get it fixed. He didn’t want to believe me at first but seemed impressed and amused by my answer: “never”. This was as good as it was going to get. The trip could’ve just ended in that parking lot. A complete repair through a certified garage would’ve by far exceeded the value of the car, it required straightening the axle and additionally a few new parts as well as bleeding the brake system. Technically a write-off.
Vince needed a ride home, so we did a little test drive to his house. He announced the last turn too late on porpuse, I had to step on to the brakes and they seemed to work good enough, giving me more confidence and Vince gave his ok as well. From now on I had to check the our fix regularly, see if it leaked any more brake fluid or if any of the screws or some of the wire came loose.
Once we arrived Vince invited me in and besides booze and snacks offered a shower and wanted to cook steaks, he was excited to have a guest. I accepted the shower but refused the steak. We had whiskey out of a 3l plastic bottle instead, played video games, watched YouTube videos and talked about conspiracy theories. He turned out to be a nice guy, a bit boozy mixed with a few anger issues. It seemed as if he got himself into a bit of a sad situation regarding his social life, partly because of drinking too much and the resulting aggression. Living in an apartment block, no car, no steady work or income and therefore no funds to enjoy modern day capitalism had left him stranded. Life without a car in the Canadian country side is tough.
My car was good for the road again and I got to take a shower, they are hard to come by on the road. I refused the couch he offered but gladly accepted to stay in my bed in the parking lot for the night.

I stayed close to the National-park after the hike to Joffre lakes, I had no energy to drive any further or do anything other than to eat, so I just slept on the other side of the road in a parking lot hidden away in a far corner.

Gaining about 1000m in altitude made for a noticeable change in temperatures especially at night. The third night of the trip turned out to be the first one below zero degrees, nothing too crazy but it did make for ice on the roof of the car in the morning. I remember thinking to myself: “What is that white stuff on the roof?” it took me a few seconds to realize it was ice. The cold night hit me unprepared, I hadn’t developed any layering techniques yet and went to bed just as I normally would, expecting temperatures around 5C or more. That night turned out to be -2/-3 C, the car had a built in thermometer, once I started the car I could read the temperature. The coldest point of the night was usually around 5am, depending on the time of sunrise. “Winter is coming” I thought, driving further into the Rockies. This was the first of quite a few icy nights ahead. I wore a lot more clothes from now on and started to look more into altitude when considering sleeping spots, the Ioverlander app provided it in the campsites description, 500m can make the difference between bearable and horrible.

After a weekend in the Rockies it was time to get back to work, I headed down and out of the mountains towards Lillooet, dropping from 1200m to about 200m above sea level in only 7km. A first major test for the brakes after I fixed them in Vancouver a while ago. They lasted but didn’t feel great overall, a bit spongy due to air in the system and once halfway down the mountain they started to squeak pretty loud. I always took this as sign to stop and take a break to prevent them from overheating even more.

The people owning the minivan taken away on the tow-truck in the “homeless” series ruined their brakes on that exact same hill-drop. They kept going until their brake-pads melted, leaving them with no other option than to have the van toed and the pads replaced. They managed to stop in the end, using the e-brake. It’s sad and a bit funny that they had their RV toed two times on their trip.

I learned a lot about Eddies brakes and their performance in different situations throughout the trip. Considering how far I made it in the end with those brakes, a masterpiece of conducting a vehicle I must say. They were a safety risk and got me into a few hairy situations in the future. I always had to keep an eye on the car in front of the car in front of me. Traffic lights that required a sudden stop due to changing lights were always unwelcome as well. Another thing to watch out for were animals, they were pretty big in Canada and they had lots of them. Moose and bears, Canadian sized. Going 90km/h on a road with the same speed limit resulted in angry drivers behind me. 20km/h over the speed limit were expected. Passing a sign announcing a 6% drop for the next 10km always left me with a bad feeling, how bad is it going to be this time? Are the brakes going to last? I was always able to feel “the pull” on bigger drops, Eddie weighted between 1,5 and 2 tons and rolling down a 6% drop without breaking accelerated the car a lot and that very quickly.

Once the breaks had cooled I took the second part of the way down and rolled into Lillooet shortly afterwards, a small town by the Fraser river, craving coffee, cinnamon buns and Wifi. I restocked on underwear and worked in one of the smallest libraries I had visited so far. The Icefields Parkway and the surrounding National Parks had been my destination since I left Vancouver, but with so much work and so many things to see on the way it took me a while to get there.

Work kept on coming in, I still had to visit libraries and stay away from the mountains for a while. Kelowna had a modern university called UBC Okanagan, with a modern library on Campus. Very busy, many eager students, at times it was even hard to find a seat with a power outlet. It was great, with all the students around I felt like one again, walking on campus, using the facilities, visiting the cafeteria and so on. Everything was new, nice and shiny, it should, considering North American tuition fees.

The downside to working at university libraries was the cost of parking, especially at the big, shiny campus universities, with work days from 8-10 hours the costs quickly added up to 20 CAD. I avoided bigger universities and downtown libraries after a while, find a branch in the suburbs. Free parking but no cute students or any glamor. Once work business was handled in Lake County and with a bit of free time ahead I was able to move closer to national parks, I went back up north, headed towards Revelstoke, a ski resort still running on it’s summer capacity, no open slopes, just hiking. Surrounded by mountains once again and for a fee the local hill, Mt. Revelstoke, could be visited by car. My research showed that I had to climb from 500 to 1950m in about 20km. A long and steady but not too steep descent. I was a bit worried and for that reason didn’t enjoy my time up there too much. The light was great that evening, but the view turned out to be urban with Revelstoke in the foreground. On my way down I figured that if I put the transmission in second gear (the car was automatic, 1-2-D-N-P-R) the engine would do quite a bit of the braking and the car wouldn’t go faster than 60kmh, no matter how steep the hill ahead. On big roads with higher speed limits closer to 90km/h it didn’t work as well, going faster than 60km/h resulted in engine RPMs that felt too high over longer periods. Sometimes I wasn’t able to do anything, so it had to be a queue of vehicles behind me. I was very nice and let vehicles pass anytime I could.

I didn’t stay around Revelstoke for too long and skipped touristy attractions close to town. I kept moving towards Glacier National Park. It turned out to be one of my favorite hikes of the Canadian part of the trip. It started off in the forests, winding its way to the glacier-like top, climbing steadily along the side of the mountain, at first through rocky, then snowy landscapes. As winter was coming, the region above 1800m was covered in deep snow and I had to give up at about 2500m due to extreme snowy and icy conditions. The path for the last 1km was invisible and I found myself knee deep in the snow sometimes, but I made it up far enough to experience climbing into the ice, passing different zones of flora and fauna. Bears were another thing to worry about in the mountains and on lonely hikes. Dustin gifted me a can of bearspray for the trip. I never had to use it. When I threw it out, I discovered that it had been out of date for a couple of years, so who knows what would’ve happened in a beary situation. Knowing I had it in my backpack made me feel safer on some of the lonely hikes.

It felt great to get back to the car after a long hike, finding it untouched, enjoy a snack, start the engine, get going and wait for the heat to turn on full blast, I left it on the highest level for most of the trip. I slept like a baby that night considering the exhausting hike. I moved towards the Jasper and Banff National parks the next morning. I never thought that it would take me so long but with so amazing things to see and heavy workloads on weekdays there was nothing I could do.
Once I had left Glacier National Park behind me, I found myself in another valley, created by the Columbia river. My plan for the day was to drive to Radium Hotsprings, and finally get to the Jasper and Banff national parks, entering through Kooteney National Park. Any of the hot springs on the way turned into a must visit, as it was most of the time the only possibility to get cleaned up. Always an awesome feeling to grab some fresh clothes, a bunch of shower materials and take an extremely long and hot shower. I showered every 2-3 days on average, not showering for more than 4-5 days would make me sick, my personal record might be 6 days. Crusty. Unfortunately the admissions were quite high, always a pricey experience bubbling away in pools of different temperatures. After an hour in the hot water the heat stayed trapped in the body for a while, making the low temperatures outside more bearable.