Today was cook, shower and do laundry day…in that order, oh and hit DQ to keep the boy happy.
We were 10 days out from our last shower (we did do a dip in a mt stream a week or so ago) and a lot longer since we did laundry. There is a small laundromat in town that offers showers for $3 and reasonable laundry machines (no motel or RV Park needed). We smell much better, but not bear food worthy.
We also cooked 4 meals so we can just reheat when we pull into a site.
A work day overall, but well worth it. When I took my hat off to take a shower, my hair stood straight up on its own😅.
We r staying in a nice town campground for $12 a night usd. It has 10 sites, all but 2 are filled right now and it is only 6:30. There is a sweet little river with a cool waterfall that used to be a sawmill. And it is all right within walking distance of town.
The little Rover huffed and puffed her way over Canada’s Glacier Park today. There was snow on the peaks and even down into the valleys. The park still isn’t fully open for the season because they are still clearing avalanches!
The coolest or perhaps the scariest part was the avalanche tunnels. Imagine being in one when an avalanche lets go? Egads….
Yesterday, a young man we met at a visitor’s center (who likes skiing at Jay Peak) told us we could camp free at Fernie Ski Area. During biking season (downhill crazy bikers) the ski area allows people to camp in their parking lot for free. Well, we are mountain bikers so we decided we would join the crowd. We pulled our Rover in amongst vans, RVs and such and assumed the posture of belonging. Before long we met some bikers and ended up keeping an eye on their husky for them while they went up the lift for a few more runs before the sprinkles started.
We had a fairly restful night considering we were sleeping in a huge parking lot. Darrin woke up every time the wind blew and I woke up every time a new rig pulled in, but hey…it was free and it had a great balsam pine smell in the rain…yes, it rained again during the night.
The Fernie Ski Area parking lot. There are rigs to the right and more behind me. Matsa, the husky, is sleeping in the red truck.Our view!
The Peach Can Vapor Lock Reduction Device (PCVLRD) seems to have solved about 90 to 95% of the vapor lock(VL) during normal travel. We only have had to resort to switching the fuel tank valve maybe twice since installing it. (Read the A Day You Remember blog for background.)
The only hint now of a VL can be felt when crawling along in low range looking for a campsite at the end of the day, almost stalling, needing to rev and clear the impending VL. Revision 2 was needed!
A comment left by Erick Filippone got me thinking about rerouting the fuel lines to remove the heat. Unfortunately, the carburetor sits on the intake manifold which shares the Siamese ports with the exhaust header…..so no easy way to get away from the heat
Enter the Land Rover PTO and my epiphany! If I couldn’t bring the fuel line to cool air, I would bring cool air to the fuel line!
The Land Rover was originally designed to be a tractor you could drive to town. The transmission and frame even has provisions for a front or rear PTO (power take off) to drive various farm implements (saw mill, bailer, etc…). The frame has a 4 inch hole on the front and rear for the PTO.
My idea was to use a 4 inch dryer vent hose plumed into the PTO frame hole on the front of the Rover. I would pop a small hole in the vent hose where it passed by the engine mounted fuel pump on its path to the carburetor. I removed the fuel line from between the carb and pump….dropped it into the vent hose…fishing out the end to the pump and reattached to the pump and carburetor.
I now have a Ram Air cooled VL reduction hose that cools the fuel line between the fuel pump and the carburetor bathing it in cool air from outside the engine compartment!
I then thought, well that’s fine while we are moving down the road. What about when we are plodding along a fire road looking for a site. It was time for the internet! Enter the Bilge Blower! A 12 volt, 4 inch diameter, blower whose function is to clear gasoline vapors from a boat’s engine compartment prior to starting the engine. And its was only $20!! I spliced into the dryer vent hose by the PTO opening and viola, with a simple flick of a switch on the dashboard lots of cool air blowing in, I hope!
It’s a little cobbled up as a proof of concept, but the dryer hose is only $8 and if it works I will clean it up for a final version (or not!)
Parts! Very technical equipment.From the top looking down.From the bottom looking up. The round hole is the PTO 4 inch spot.
Part of travelling long term is making your dollars stretch. That means looking for free or cheap camping spots. There is a great app called ioverlander. People populate it with free or cheap camping sites they have used. They include descriptions and what amenities, if any, are available. All you do is open the map and look for spots where you plan to camp. It is amazing!
So, we crossed the border into Alberta Canada and needed a place to stay. We stopped at the tourist information center, which says you can camp in their back lot. We went in and talked to the nice young lady who informed us it was a national holiday weekend in Canada. Our chances of finding a campground, she informed us, was zero.
We opened iOverlander, looked about an hour up the road and found a spot. (We were not interested in staying at the visitor’s center in town, it didn’t have a good vibe). Up the road we went.
The place we had found was the back side of a small dam/hydro plant next to the stream. We found a little place to tuck in, made dinner and hung-out. We thought we were quite stealthy. To our surprise, in drives a white truck and out pops Alex, a Canadian Fish & Wildlife officer. We thought, uh oh, we are going to get tossed. Boy, we were wrong. He was a super nice guy. We chatted for a while and he said no problem, camping was fine. Phew!
Later that night another car pulls in and joins us, a young man there to fish for trout. Another truck pulled in in the morning and the guy set right to fishing. He pulled out a pike that must have been 3ft long. Alex, we can back up your claim that their are pike there!
Another free night on the road means we can travel that much longer!
In the words of some Newfoundlanders we met while travelling up there on our motorcycles a few years ago…”we got a bit of rain up here in Montana”. In Newfie, that means it poured!
We are now in search of higher ground that isn’t flooded!
Montana has had a bit of rain! Every body of water is over flowing!Our first glimpse of the mountains! Higher ground, here we come!
A beautiful dry blue sky day. We dried all of our soggy clothes, and even washed a few smelly ones, recharged the solar, ate breakfast and hiked up to the tower from our campground (Belle Fourche National Campground at the base of Devil’s Tower). We walked the perimeter trail around the tower and admired the rock climbers on the shear columns way above our heads (crazy dudes, and we rock climb!).
Back at camp a large group of Lakota (Sioux) had arrived during their annual Sacred Hoop Run. We were told that various members and children of the tribe cover 500 miles over 8 days via relays visiting traditionally sacred sites along the way to keep the younger tribe members engaged with their history. What a great addition to the campground for the night.
After recovering from our 3 hour hike, we grilled chicken over the fire with a few neighbors at the campground under the looming Devils Tower, as the Lakota drummed a bit into the evening! Magical!
