B.C. Central Coast Trek

June, 2016

Great Bear Rain Forest, British Columbia

The British Columbia central coast is the location of the Great Bear Rain Forest, an area known around the world for its old growth coastal forest, and it’s resident population of black and grizzly bear. The most notable of which is the all white version of the black bear known as the Spirit Bear.

The closest town to this marvel of a natural ecosystem is Bella Coola, a small town at the head of a long fjord connecting to the Pacific Ocean. It’s an area of our province that we have never been to. So we thought it would be a good test of our adventure truck since it was quite a long journey on paved and gravel roads.

One of the advantages of having an overland truck with tires that have a maximum speed of 55 mph is that it forces one to go slower and enjoy the journey, instead of rushing headlong to the final destination. In a regular vehicle, the drive from Vancouver to Williams Lake, the point where we would turn west and head out to the central coast, could be done in about six hours. But by the time we got the truck fuelled, and ready to depart, it was almost noon. So by the time it got to be around 4pm we were only a little more than half way to Williams Lake. We decided to call it a day and look for a place to camp.

Travelling as we were through the Fraser Canyon, where the scenery is absolutely stunning, our first camp of the trip was right alongside the Fraser River. It’s the longest river in B.C., and flows from the Rocky Mountains all the way to the Pacific Ocean where it terminates at the large coastal city of Vancouver. The canyon is the path along which Highway 1, and two railway lines travel. One on each side of the river, cut into the canyon walls.

Making the Turn

After spending a night listening to trains roll by on both sets of tracks, seemingly every hour, we crawled out of bed feeling rather shattered, and pointed the truck to the north to head for Williams Lake where we would spend a few days visiting with relatives. After a rest, we made the left turn and started along Highway 20 to the west, and the town of Bella Coola out on the west coast.

Highway 20 is a two lane rural highway that winds its way alongside the Fraser and Chilcotin Rivers, and sees very little traffic as it makes its way to the central coast. For us, this meant a peaceful, leisurely drive where we could stop as often as we wanted without annoying anyone else.

Chilcoten Country

Driving though the Chilcoten area of B.C. is one of the most scenic in the province. As one travels west towards the coast, the scenery changes from the more arid inland region with thin evergreen trees and sage brush to the coastal feel of large, thickly foliaged rainforest trees.

A region of thin population, numerous aboriginal communities are spread out along the length of the highway. Some farming and ranching does take place, but they are wide spread. Forestry logging is still the main employer of the region, although it is declining.

There are a few places to camp, some are provincial park campgrounds, and others are private campgrounds and resorts. Fishing is a big draw for these resorts, many of which use a float plane to take guests to remote lakes.

We came across a Swiss owned camp/ranch and decided to see what it was all about. We managed to get under the entrance gate, and made our way down the winding hill to the camp. There were only a few other campers there, some horses and highland cows. We spent a quiet night and then drove across the field for an easier way out.

The End of The Pavement

Although Highway 20 has pretty good pavement along much of its length, it does come to an end near the town of Anahim Lake. From that point, the road is dirt that has been sealed with calcium.

Once the highway changes from asphalt to dirt, it becomes a bit more interesting. The road was carved out of the hillside as it descends from the elevation of 5000 feet up on the high plateau, down to sea level and the community of Hagensborg and town of Bella Coola. Bella Coola’s harbour sits at the end of a 100km long fjord that comes inland from the Pacific Ocean, and is at the centre of the Great Bear Rain Forest. A protected region of British Columbia, this is the home of the world famous spirit bear. Officially known as the Kermode Bear, it’s a very rare subspecies of the American black bear, but is white in colour.

The “Hill”, as it’s known by local residents, is a twenty kilometre section that has a steep grade of over 11%. Many a truck has burned out its brakes descending this grade, as have many cars. A local native resident told us, when he was a child forty years ago, the 135km drive to Anahim Lake from Bella Coola in the old school bus took them four hours.

With modern vehicles, and constant efforts to upgrade the road in this section, the “Hill” is much less of a problem. Modern trucks, with their better transmissions and engine brakes, makes the descent much less dangerous. For us, we essentially coasted down the hill in a lower gear using only the engine brake to keep our speed under control.

Bella Coola and The Harbour

Bella Coola is a very small town right on the end of a long fjord that stretches inland from the Pacific Ocean. Fishing and logging were the main businesses in the area in the past, but now it’s mostly eco-tourism and logging.

The town has a small assortment of shops, many slanted toward tourism, and then some for the local staples.

We wanted to take advantage of the whale and bear watching boat tours, but the wind and water was just too severe for us to venture out on the long boat ride it took to get to the right locations. So we had to settle for some local snooping around.

After spending the day in the town and surrounding area, we needed to camp for the night. But because of the dense forests and few side roads, there weren’t any convenient places to dry camp, so we hit up a local private campground. The problem there was the availability of space. Most of the spots were occupied, and the ones that were available were too tight for our truck to fit into. Since our rig is self contained, and we didn’t need any services, we asked if we could just park on a grassy area near a group pavilion that wasn’t being used. They said okay if it was good enough for us, so we pulled in and parked for the night. The clouds were low down on the mountain, so not much was visible until the next morning, but the beautiful Bella Coola River ran swiftly along just over the bank from where we were parked.

Climbing the hill, Heading Back To The Chilcoten

Although coming down the “Hill” can be hard on brakes, going up the hill can tax the cooling system on vehicle engines. Especially heavy trucks. Our coolant temperature gauge started climbing as we did, and it went from 170ºF to 215ºF and we got worried something wasn’t working right. So we pulled over to let the engine cool down a bit before going on. This is something we always had problems with in our Land Rover Defender 90. It’s a constant problem for those vehicles. But in a new class 8 truck as well? It didn’t make sense, especially since our truck was only loaded to two thirds of its legal weight rating. We learned later from the Volvo dealer that this is normal. The thermostat on the truck doesn’t fully open until it reaches 215ºF, and then the fan kicks in and holds the engine temperature at 215ºF from that point on. This proved to be right, as many times since this trip we have had similar long, steep climbs and the temperature has never gone above 215ºF.

A Trip Cut Short

Although we were planning to carry on northward once we made it back the 454 kilometres to Williams Lake, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

It came as a shock to us that the main body mounts that held the camper box to the truck frame were insufficient for the task. Unfortunately it’s the sort of thing that happens when a completely incompetent engineer designs the components. (Click here to read all about the mount failure and rebuild.)

The first of the two mounts failed just as we made it to the top of the “Hill”, and were once again on level ground. Although it may have been failing as we were climbing the steep grade. We heard a clanging noise and stopped momentarily to try and figure out what the noise was. It turned out to be the exhaust pipe from the generator banging against the outer closure panel. This was happening because the body was tipping over to the passenger side because the passenger side body mount was sheared off. We just didn’t know it at the time. Only the driver side mount was attached, and it was being flexed because of the extra weight on it.

When we got up onto the plateau, and on level ground, I noticed when looking in the side mirror that the side of box was not vertical. So we pulled over and started searching for the reason. It didn’t take long to find it. The mounting plate for the passenger side body mount had sheared in half, and the mount was no longer attached to the truck frame.

We managed to jack the box up level with the equipment we had on board, and then brace it. We figured that this bracing, plus the one still function mount would hold the box until we got to a town with a welder. But despite our slow and careful driving, we only traveled about fifty kilometres down the road when the second mount broke completely, and the camper box fell over to the drivers side and hit the tires. We squealed to a stop on the side of the narrow road.

This was now a more serious problem to solve. Fortunately, we were somewhat prepared. We had the heavy jack, eight jacking plates (we needed only 6), and some ratchet straps to hold everything together. It was only an hour until sunset, so we had to work quickly. Luckily this highway is infrequently traveled, so even though there was no shoulder on the road to pull off completely onto, it was relatively safe to work. We secured the body well enough to limp to a place where we could camp for the night. We found a parking lot in front of a large organic beef ranch, Rafter 25 Ranch in Redstone, and they let us camp there, and then work on the truck the next morning. We were able to get better bracing completed before the 150 kilometre drive back to Williams Lake where we found a welding shop to try and patch the body mounts back together.