The May-long van trip
Every year in May the Canadians of Vancouver’s metropolitan area venture into the woods for a weekend of wild camping and partying. Camping is a cultural thing in Canada, people here are doing it “properly” which basically means living in something that resembles a house with all the supplies and amenities one would find at home, from gas ovens to satellite TV’s. Very convenient, but I find people forget the original thought of a few simple nights sleeping out in the woods in a tiny tent.
Dustin and Barbara did the best they could to make us feel at home and have the best Canadian experience possible, after an amazing first week of staying in Vancouver they planned a camping trip into the wild close to Vancouver. After spending way too much time buying supplies and getting ready for the short trip we finally hit the road in direction lake Harrison, but still a few coffee and snack stops away from our destination. One of Vancouver’s great benefits, a one to two hour drive and you can find yourself in deep nature surrounded by epic mountains and lakes. Everyone had their own ideas or plans for the trip, Dustin was going to pan for gold, shoot some super 8 (which turned out amazing) and gather more VX/hi8 footage, Brandon and Barbara were up for the nature and relaxing and my aim was to take some good pics, I finally had models now, see some big mountains, lakes, rivers and the rain forest.
We had to pick the May-long weekend because of Barbara’s work. Since It is a major public holiday we were not the only ones in the woods, at times it seemed as if all of Vancouver brought the craziest camping gear, their most ridiculous off-road vehicles, massive barbecues and tons of beers to build the most ridiculous camps I have ever seen. Camping is a cultural thing in Canada, people here are doing it “properly” which means basically living in a house with all the supplies and amenities that they would have at home, from gas oven to satellite TV, sadly forgetting the original thought of a few simple nights sleeping out in the woods. Campers the size of greyhound buses pulling a SUV are nothing extraordinary, as well as 4×4 “trucks” which require a ladder to open the hood and have a look at the engine.
The machine of a dream, May 2018, Harrison Lake, Canada
This is Dustins van. He brought it over from Regina so that Brandon and I could sleep in it, but for the long weekend in may (called may-long) we took it out in the nature and mountains surrounding Vancouver for a camping trip.
It is just a few forest service roads connecting the camp spots deep in the woods, so there are no rules without any authority that would enforce them, which with all the youths hanging out was pretty wild.
A lot of intoxicated drivers conducting ridiculous 4×4 vehicles through the woods, visiting different camps. We had a look at some of them and briefly talked to a few of the other campers but mostly tried to stay away from the party crowds, doing our own thing. Our first day was kind of short, to get out of the city took us some time, so for the first night we just slept beside the road, not looking for fancy camp spots by the river yet. Still next to the lake, but due to our timing all of the good camp spots were taken and the road was dusty and active due to the weekend. We woke the next day, had breakfast right besides the road and went to visit Dustin’s friend Will, who had just bought a house besides the lake. The guy was a wedding photographer and had a deal with “London drugs” advertising his images all over town. A quick meet and greet, a show around the house and a bit of advice later we hit the road again, going deeper into the forest, following the river up north. We thought about going around the lake and thus avoiding driving the same road twice, but we were pushing the limits quite early with the van and the condition of the road. The lake turned out to be quite picturesque, so we hung around there for the day, visiting some of the camps, walking along and over the river and finally finding a sweet camp spot for the night. The roads through the woods were made for 4×4 vehicles, so it was definitely a bit risky to drive the big van with its rather small and skinny tires through all the puddles, potholes and little rivers crossing the street, not to mention all the sharp rocks everywhere. A big shout-out to the guy who stopped for us and basically fixed our flat tire we got right on the spot, bringing in tools, a tire fix kit and an electric compressor. This is the level of Canadian friendliness in combination with the preparedness that goes into a Canadian camping weekend, he could probably fix the engine, oven or install a satellite TV too. After we got over the shock of our broken vehicle (technically it would have been very problematic to fix the van right where we were, we had some tools, but some of the tire screws turned out to be fastened way too tight, It would have involved a very time consuming hitch-hike out and back into the woods) we went down to the river and made a surprisingly great fire, cooked more canned food and enjoyed a few brews until we fell asleep.
Dustin is stressed out, May 2018, Harrison Lake, Canada
Dustin looking a bit stressed out, I am not sure if it is the brakes on the van, his wife Barbara or both. Still a nice shot of him and his vehicle.
Brandon for that Instagram picture, May 2018, Harrison Lake, Canada
The opportunity I have been waiting for that whole day, a river, a log and a friend who is ready and able to do the crossing. Brandon… stop, go back, do it again, thanks bud.
Due to Barbara’s work commitments the next morning was already leading into our last day, we had to pack a whole lot of activities into the day which we had failed to do yet, so we got ready early, drove a bit further north and ended up in the clouds.
We parked the car on the side of the road and decided to go for a hike. Following a very curvy road up the mountain, deeper into the clouds, it was quite foggy up there. We ended up finding an illegally build cabin just by the river, which was very rustic but fun to check out and trying to find evidence or hints of what went down there on earlier gatherings. Dustin did some enthusiastic gold panning, but sadly no gold was found, at least not in mentionable amounts. In the end we tried to find an alternative route out of the woods back towards Vancouver but it turned out to be a no go, the road was just too rocky for the van and after a few kilometers it turned out even impassable and when we realized we had to turn around, we found ourselves in the worst spot possible. Dustin had to turn the van around in one of the steepest and dangerous parts of the road (we couldn’t go any further or back somehow) To not ruin the weekend he hadn’t told us about the broken (or not 100% functioning) brakes on the van and according to him the u-turn at the end of the trip nearly ruined everything. (The falloff was quite steep and nobody of us realized how serious the situation was, we had drones flying around, Barbara most likely bitching and Brandon being a super stoner) After all we made it home safe (even though I have to say anything over 80km/h felt quite unsafe in the van, especially as we were just sitting sideways in the back, no seat-belts, in case of a crash we would probably be flying around like a bunch of ping pong balls. In the end the weekend flew by, we hiked around the woods, went panning for gold, made epic camp fires, cooked quite a few cans of horrible foods, drank beers and smoked loads of spliffs, took the old van up and down some steep gravel roads and definitely got the full Canadian camping experience.
Harrison Lake, May 2018, Harrison Lake, Canada
After all the packing, buying supplies, getting everyone ready, multiple coffee and snack stops and Dustin driving out a bit like a maniac we found a sweet spot by the road to spent the night somewhere close to this this sunset.
