Road trips this spring/early summer
 

Last year i did a fun little drive from Vancouver to SF along the coast in early may. I had a great time by myself with the SC430 so this year im looking to do something similar again

Destinations suggestions?

I was thinking maybe Banff or Jasper w/ a follow up to Calgary

That or maybe a trip down south again, but going to Montana via Spokane (never been that direction before)

You guys planning any big drives?

Just Jin Jang in East Burnaby, Crystal Mall food court (one at the way back), Admiralty Center in Richmond (2 stops) ... in the convertible.

I did the road trip to New York from Spokane , up to Nova Scotia, then across. Took I-90 across the US of A. Hit all major US cities along the way. Biggest regret, not driving Route 66. Trans Canada back was boring as fuck. 4-1/2 weeks on the road with two kids. I was the only driver. KOA saved me some money.

We went to Kelowna for the May long weekend one year, and on our pay to Merrit or Kamloops, we came across some freak snowy conditions for a good stretch of the drive. It totally took us by surprise, so watch out for those mountain weather conditions if you are heading that way.

Funny how I just did almost exactly that yesterday. Crystal Mall Burnaby -- Admiralty Center Richmond, then Richmond Costco. Was gonna do a XLB comparo myself but Long just closed down for 2 weeks starting yesterday! And then Hao Chi Lai forgot to give me dark vinegar. FailFish

At least Costco had lots of free food samples to try. :alonehappy:

Not really a road trip but the plan is to hit up a track day at The Ridge Motorsport Park in Washington and Area 27 in Osoyoos from Vancouver in the Boxster.

Later this summer, pending timing/scheduling, my wife and I are planning to do a road trip in the Corolla iM to the Maritimes from Toronto, and perhaps a loop into the US East Coast , and back into Toronto via Buffalo, NY.

Ohh thanks for the heads up on the weather. Yes, might have those freak snow storms out of no where in dem mountain passes. I like April/May because there isnt too many mosquitoes just yet. I cant stand those fuckers.

I was going to stop by Mt Robson (the tallest mountain in bc i believe) as they have this gorgeous looking glacier lake (berg lake trail) & waterfall
https://ridgelineguiding.com/wp-cont...4/image1-4.jpg
https://inafarawayland.com/wp-conten...21/11/3062.jpg

I wonder if there's a choppah to get to this lake? i dont feel like hiking for 2 days to reach it.

so how was the XLBS at Hao Chi Lai?

On a weekend (Sat or Sun), that is a road trip ... prob took you >3 hours of driving there and back.

RS Roadtrip to Hao Chi Lai? :suspicious:

https://globalnews.ca/news/5757361/c...wns-mt-robson/

Awww fuck, remind me not to get too close to any water features

https://thebanffblog.com/berg-lake-trail/

What a gorgeous trail
https://thebanffblog.com/wp-content/...0--scaled.jpeg

Vancouver island, hit up Port Hardy, Tofino, Ucluelet and around. Take the Port Hardy Ferry to Prince Rupert.

BicBaws has entered the conversation

Some road trips I've done for ideas, I either drove from Vancouver or flew down and rented a car:

The drive to yellowstone national park, stay at the yellowstone lodge is pretty decent, just hope the bison don't hit your car. Make your way back by going north to glacier national park and cross over to alberta or the kootenays.

California route 1 from San Francisco to LA, one of the best. Or inland California like yosemite, sequoia, lake tahoe or death valley.

Oregon coast is fantastic as well.

Driving around utah, particularly southern utah/northern arizona like moab, bryce canyon, zion national park, antelope canyon, grand canyon is spectacular

Head east from portland up the columbia river gorge is beautiful as well.

Drove from Toronto to Muskoka then Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec city, Moncton, PEI, Halifax is fun, lots of unique things to see and the lobster suppers.

Going to Spokane and then to Montana is fun, I did that pre-covid... there's a great little train museum on the way to Spokane, Cascade mountains is a fun drive and there's a little town called Winthrop that's all done up like an old western town. Even Spokane had some interesting scenery, I remember walking along a river and there's a hydro dam with some pretty spectacular views of the water rushing through it... and weirdly enough there was a DeLorean convention in town at that time hahaha... I saw like 30 DeLoreans in 1 evening in downtown

I like my XLB to be almost piping hot, so the extra trip to HCL (to get the missing dark vinegar) and back to the table meant they had cooled just a bit too much for my likings. FailFish

And then my damn kid ate 3 of them, so my wife only had 1 out of the six.

I think I noticed how the XLB from HCL is different from Long's. The HCL XLB are a little bigger. The meat isn't as paste-y and more loose once I start chewing -- the meat portion just kind of breaks apart into tinier pieces. Whereas the Long's XLB seem more sticky / paste-y, and holds together more. My guess is, the meat paste that HCL uses is more lean, but the Long's stuff doesn't feel fatty / oily either.

The HCL XLBs also have a lighter taste. I think Long's ones have a slightly stronger taste.

100% agree though that HCL has the better vinegar.

Murdoc's route is pretty epic. That ferry from Port Hardy To Prince Ru Ru is like 16h!!!!

thats very neat. I wonder if i can get Spy Balloon to come on this ghetto drive-a-thon

We've never been to Tofino so that would be the first stop, and then that drive up to Port Hardy seems epic. Top it off with a 16h ferry ride, and then driving back from Rupert to Vancouver (thats a boring ass drive im sure)

How direct of a route do you want to take? I don't like the Coq so on the way there I'd maybe add Hope > Spences Bridge > Merritt. The first bit for pulls through the tunnels and the second bit because Hwy 8 is really fun. Then I'd take 5A to Princeton and 3 to Hope on the way back. Half the time I can do that quicker than the Coq would've been because there's less climbing + easier to drive quickly + less likely some dumbass gets the road closed.

If you want to go really out of the way Vernon to Nakusp is a great drive. And if you want to go really really out of the way New Denver to Kaslo is great too.

Pretty sure there is, some relatives hiked it a few years ago and mentioned a guy who helo'd in.

I kinda want to do a Banff Calgary trip too but not sure how many days I should allocate. USD is too $$ for our shitty yuan

aye true. might be better to stay local and support our own economy. Underscore's got some pretty epic routes i need to check out. I love these little off the main road, no where places.

Ideally with some old timey ghost towns / historical places that have mildy racist names like China Bar, or something and ill be in hobz heaven

The drive from Prince Rupert to Prince George is pretty nice. The drive from Prince George to Vancouver is the boring part.

I was going to suggest a road trip to Prince Rupert/Haida Gwaii, the drive into Rupert is absolutely gorgeous IMO.

Haida Gwaii is on the to go list for me.

i drove from PR to PG before, its along the lake and gorgeous

I had to do it when i was up in PR for CN rail's port celebration and they magically closed down the PR airport due to smoke from forest fire. Nothing was flying out so i had to rent a car and drive to PG to catch the next flight. Good times

During COVID we did a road trip Vancouver > Kamloops > Wells Gray Park > Valemount (Mt. Robson) > Jasper > Banff > Nelson > Cranbrook> Osoyoos > Vancouver

Took about 2 weeks, it was pretty epic one of my favorite trips and it was right in our backyard. Helped that it was pretty empty in September 2020 and we had a deal to stay at the Fairmont Lake Louise which had a view over the lake and went canoeing before everyone else arrived.

https://i.imgur.com/4tPPaWM.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/cN6iyWr.jpeg

Now apparently it's a shitshow.

Jasper was pretty awesome as well. Really chill and relaxing. Only crowds were the massive Filipino families with their delcious smelling picnics/BBQs
https://i.imgur.com/p13A0lq.jpeg

Wells Gray had Helmcken Falls, which was pretty cool:
https://i.imgur.com/wYKxFdN.jpeg

Mt Robson we just looked at from the Visitors Centre, there was perpetually a cloud over it.
https://i.imgur.com/IOt4jek.jpg

Nelson was a pretty cool town to spend a few days in. Osoyoos was alright, the 2020 wildfire smoke started coming in and we had to cut our trip short to avoid too much smoke inhalation.

You might like Barkerville if you're ever out near Quesnel for some reason. It's an old gold-rush era ghost town with actors and stuff.

Kaslo also has some interesting history from the Japanese internment there in WWII.

I really want to try to at least get some day trips in this spring if I can get my stupid car to behave for 5 minutes.

Anyone drove to Alaska? I looked at the ferry from Bellingham but it takes almost a week and costs $5K USD one way

During the next COVID year during the heatwave of 2021 we did another BC road trip and hit up Mayne Island > Pender Island > Victoria > up the Malahat > then over to Salt Spring Island and back to Vancouver. Took about 9 days.

Even though it was Hot AF, who knew one of the hottest trips we ever took would be in BC, we saw som epic sunsets.

Kinsol Trestle on Vancouver Island was pretty cool,
https://i.imgur.com/2Q5kzxj.jpeg

Hobz and Roastpuff already know about this... but for everyone else.. I asked ChatGPT to build me a route from Vancouver to SF/LA- round trip 9 Days LOL.

It's not perfect and weirdly enough it doesn't account for days I stay in certain places / commute time (ofc) so it's not entirely realistic.



I did Vancouver - Nelson | Nelson surrounding areas | Nelson - Vancouver last summer. It was great! Only thing is we started the trip at the begining of a forest fire. Was in a forest fire and left Nelson by driving eeriely close to a forest fire LOL.

Day 1: Vancouver to Nelson via Crowsnest. We detoured to Coalmont and Tulameen. One road towns that look like the Wild, Wild West. I guess the gold panning would have been in that area anyway. We continued along Crowsnest
with a stop in Keremeos for some fruit and Greenwood for some coffee. Stopped again in Castlegar for some groceries and other things. Our Airbnb was outside of Nelson so we stopped there before heading to dinner in Nelson at Broken Hill. Best smokehouse I've ever had tbh. The fries in pork belly fat were delicious.

Day 2: We did a loop around the lake / Nelson area. Drove to Belfour Ferry. Took it to Crawford Bay. Went down 3A -> Crowsnest until Salmo. I took a break at a quarry in Wynndel for some "off the beaten path" pics. In Salmo we went to the hotel that burned down and the bar next door had some great pepperoni sticks. Headed back into town (Nelson) to have dinner at an Marzano, a Italian restaurant.

Day 3: Nelson to Rossland via 3A for some coffee. Great European places out there. Detoured via Trail and blasted some country music (because I had no reception). What a fitting genre for straight roads of just farms and fields. Went up 3B to Greenwood for coffee again. And then book it home to get away from the forest fire.