2018/07 Arctic Part 3 - Return to Hope |
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We drove to Kamloops and then took the Coquihalla Highway to Hope. The Coquihalla features in the “Highway thru Hell” reality show, but it was easy driving on this sunny July afternoon.
Our last stop on the trip was for coffee at a very peaceful spot on the Coldwater River, just off the highway.
Hope looked to be very dry. With irrigation our garden had survived but looked a mess, heavily overgrown.
So was the trip a success? We did get to drive the new road to Tuk and I suppose we had the best of both worlds, scenic on our way in and exciting, even scary, on our way out. After a few years of road repairs, i.e., dumping of millions of yards of gravel on it, the road will probably be tamed and capable of withstanding rain storms. But we’re too old to wait that long and I’m glad we went when we did. My only regret was not spending more time to explore Tuk. We only had time for a walk around a few of the closest streets before the storm began.
One scary postscript
Back in June we were just leaving Minnesota to drive home after not using the truck for several days, when the truck refused to start. The engine was cranking but no start. After many attempts it finally fired up and displayed the message “Replace fuel filter”. The problem didn’t recur but we had the filter changed anyway.
When we came back from our Arctic trip I spent a few days washing the mud off and then removed the camper to finish cleaning it. The truck went into the dealership for the engine light problem and an oil change and then it sat on our driveway for a few days while I finished the cleaning. Then I went to back the truck under the camper but despite vigorous cranking it would not start.
I had to have it towed to the dealership where they diagnosed a cracked fuel filter housing. The housing is supposed to be pressurized with fuel but the pressure had leaked away over those few days. The tow had cost $60 for about one kilometer. But we couldn’t help but think about what it might have cost if the problem had occurred in the Yukon or NWT. There would have been a tow of several hundred kilometres to someone who could diagnose and fix the problem and then a wait of a week or two for the replacement housing to arrive. We had been very lucky.
And another not so scary
Our other problem since leaving Tuk had been a clunking noise while mannoevering into and out of campsites. We guessed the noise was there at high speeds too but there was too much other noise to hear it. It didn’t get any worse so we ignored it. It turned out to be mud balls inside the wheel covers, souvenirs from Tuk’s new road.