Pick up of Trailer and first Camping experience

Sorry about the late post…we haven’t had consistent enough signal to upload and post.

We arrived in Chilliwack but wouldn’t be able to pick up the trailer until the next day, so… we walked by the manufacturer and had a look. We were the only green Escape 19 on the lot so we actually saw it there but couldn’t get to it. They did have a showroom so we looked at their beautiful models.

We were staying at the Best Western a few doors down from Escape Trailers. This was a fabulous pet friendly hotel, comfortable for Puck. The hotel had a garden, a pool and hot-tub that we took advantage of as we were way too excited to fall asleep that early.

Friday finally came! We arrived at 9:45 for a 10:30 appointment… we were excited but also had to take the bicycle carrier off the hitch receiver so that they could install the fancy anti-sway hitch….it looks massive…now that I’ve towed a little…I like it much more than the chains.

Trailer anti sway bars

We had an informative two hour orientation of the Escape trailer. Even though I recorded most of it…it was still a little overwhelming. I had forgotten to get an extra 12V outlet for the cell phone booster and that had to be installed and we were set. All hooked up…we drove to Canadian Tire in Chilliwack to get a torque wrench so I could check on the tires of the trailer regularly as I had read in the manual. Friday afternoon rush hour with a brand new trailer in tow and an inexperienced tower in the driver’s seat…it was a challenge.

Leaving Escape Trailer

The trailer towed very well behind the 4Runner. I noticed the truck straining a little but not too much on the 6% grades and it braked fine…I could watch the fuel consumption go from an average of 10.8 litres/100km to 19 litres/100km but we didn’t really expect any different and after all we are in the mountains of British Columbia.

We checked into the Sunshine Valley RV resort. We had a corner site near the pool, the road and the washrooms. We wanted to camp at a full service campground for a few days to test out the equipment. Backing the trailer into the site was a first experience as well. That went well and it only took a couple tries before a perfect back in…the remote back up camera came in very handy 🙂

Sunshine Valley Camping

The site we had was very windy and close to the road; however, the views out the windows were spectacular!

Trailer evening out the big window

Trailer evening view the other window

Sleeping in a brand new bed in our own trailer was a lot of fun and we both slept beautifully.

We woke up very early, just after 5:30am and looked around at the morning light in the mountains…too early to get out just yet…the furnace had been working just fine overnight and it was toasty in the trailer.  We made coffee and chatted about how cool it was to have our own trailer, then we had some breakfast and went out to for a walk to a nearby river. First trailer food shopping was on the agenda for the day!

River from camp

On the way to Hope, BC, there was an interesting view of the 1965 Hope Slide. This was the location where the side of a mountain came down and destroyed the road, covered over a lake with 70 meters of debris and killed four people. I remember studying this in the 1970’s in geology.

Hope Slide panorama

The Fraser River at Hope

Hope and the Fraser river

Walking up in the trailer was nice through the big windows.

Morning View Sunshine Valley

We needed something from Hope and started driving, but I took the wrong exit and that lead us to the Othello Tunnels, made for the creation of the Kettle Valley Railway, Coquihalla Subdivision. Now it’s a hiking trail, and we saw five of the thirteen tunnels … amazing work of the workers to blast through and survive.

Othello Tunnles entrance

Othello Tunnles 3

Othello Tunnles 2

Fellow RVers told us about a beautiful lookout at Manning Park called Cascade Lookout…to be posted tomorrow…

Linda between two trees in Skagit

14 thoughts on “Pick up of Trailer and first Camping experience

  1. Beautiful people on a fanasinating new adventure or adventures I should say. I am so happy for you both that you picked this for your retirement….happy motoring & be safe 💕😎🙃😊💕

  2. I think that your Toyota SUV and Escape 19 trailer are the most safe and ideal tractor/trailer combination I have ever seen. I think you will have a great adventure in your road trip.

    All the best,
    Doug

    • Thanks Doug, it’s working well. I’ll let you know how it goes as we go over the mountains and 20 km of uphill

  3. Drove that area last week saw Jasper on way to Prince George and attended grandsons wedding on Mackenzie. Beautiful country.

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