Creating a Cross Canada Overland Route

[deadly99]

Vancouver Island, British Colombia

This is a report from David who is making the TCAT route across Vancouver Island.
Van Isle stuff: Side trip to Cain and Abel..

I was almost ready to cancel because of the weather forecast but decided to tough it out... When I crossed to Mcneill it started to rain but after 10 kliks down the road it quit...

We arrived at the mountain and followed the track to where it ended at some nice meadows.. Up higher things were sopped in between 4000-5000'

The weather was otherwise nice so we decided to head in on foot..

Paul studying things with the binos

If you want to experience an ice cream headache drink this water...

We decided to climb and hope the cloud lifts

A bit of a workout for the L and L {legs and lungs}

We climbed up to about 4400' and hit the cloud and drizzle, not much point in going any further with no view....

 

[deadly99]

Vancouver Island Continued

A snowboard hung in a tree is a good indicator of midwinter snow depths...

Lunch in the meadows for us and flocks of mosquitos

[/INDENT]#5

Lotsa tarns in the meadows

A bit of a rough trail on the way out

We did a few side trips on the way home and were accompanied by a light drizzle until just before Mcneill, then the skies opened up... I hope the person on the blue V Strom found somewhere dry to hide...
Thanks Paul for tagging along...






Had to go back up to complete an incomplete hike, today was the day... Paul was busy moving so once again I went solo...

When I got to the start point {3000'} I found that most of my water had leaked out of my pack through a pinched bite valve... Kinda a bummer because in 25C + temps water is real handy...

About here on the way up I ran out....

Lotsa craggy peaks in the area

Backside valley S.E. of the summit

Double summit the main is on the right

Last push to the top follows a chimney up

Up on top and a fantastic 360 view

Summit cairn and the southern valley

It was a warm one today

 

[deadly99]

Heading down

We traversed the snowfields with caution ....

As there were several areas where you could drop through...

 

[deadly99]

Here is another from last weekend:

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Were still waiting for a bridge to the big Island...

The KTM conspiracy.... We picked up Paul and headed out to meet Lars, this part worked to plan...

Because darkness was closing in we rode about 100 km and decided to camp at Vernon Lake rather than pushing on.... Good thing Ted brought the fire fan to help get wet wood
burning...

Paul busy relaxing in his fancy lounger...

The next morning we had to pack up pronto and go as Eric was waiting for us and we had 150KM of mostly gravel to get to him before our 10:30 window...

We lucked out with the weather again...

The only daytime pix of Lars as he directs camp traffic... Thank you for tagging along...
We blazed out of camp and it looked like we were running late so no time for pics along the way...

Eric had been waiting for us for over an hour and was just ready to leave when we showed up... He had another fellow with him who turned back at Cambell because of the steady rain...

After we worked our way up to elevation we had this weather for the day and not a drop of rain, fantastic...

We parked the bikes and got underway on foot at noon...

The hike up is stellar...

Close to an hour through clear open forest and then you pop out into the alpine..

Reaching the ridge...



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We hiked up to the summit and then stopped for lunch...

Looking over the drop off into never never land..

On the second part of the hike we had to go over the summit and down the other side..

We dropped back down into the timber and when the GPS said the plane was there, it wasn't... After some time wasted zig zagging below the co-ordinates we decided to head out but do a zig zag on the way up to see if we could find the wreck

Eric found a propane bottle and the ground became familiar to me, then, there it was...

Because of the time wasted looking we had a shorter time than wanted to visit the wreck... While on a small rock bluff above the wreck I dislodged a rock and yelled for Paul to watch out... As he got out of the way and watched the rock bounce by something shiny caught his eye...

 

[deadly99]

This...

After much deliberation we decided to try to return this to MR Lunns surviving family and if that wasn't possible we'll return it back to the crash site, Stay tuned...

One last shot as we headed out...

The drop down and the climb back up from the wreck is definitely the most demanding part of the hike...

A couple more vista shots before going over the top on the return leg...

After about 6 hours we made it back to the bikes and headed homeward... Eric south, us north..


It was great having Eric along as he is a wealth of knowledge and was able to identify various bits and pieces of the plane for us... The wheels are now turning on visiting more POIs in the future... Thanks guys for tagging along and please post some of your pics...

David..
More pictures from Eric: He could not get the DSBC photo gallery upload to work {I had the same problem last time I tried} so I'll try something different...

P2V-3 Neptune had a top speed of 545 KPH (338 MPH), 100' wingspan, 70' nose to tail

O2

1 of 2 Rotary Wright R-3350-26W engines, 2,390 kW (3,200 HP)

Ted standing on the tail where 2- 50 cals were mounted

Summit benchmark...
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[deadly99]

After many, many hours of work the web site is now live.

Www.graveltravel.ca

I need to give a HUGE thanks to Fab who has spent countless hours working and teaching me how to build a web site

Also a huge thanks to everyone who has contributed photos and content to the site

It's a work in progress and I hope it's useful for folks. Additional content is being worked on...

Feedback is always welcome, after all the site is for folks like you.




[video=vimeo;31464875]http://vimeo.com/31464875[/video]

 

[SChandler]

:clapsmile The website looks good. Well done and thanks to you and all of the people who have worked/are working on putting this together. I hope to travel across Canada someday, the routes you've put together would certainly be a lot of fun.

 

[ben2go]

After many, many hours of work the web site is now live.

Www.graveltravel.ca

I need to give a HUGE thanks to Fab who has spent countless hours working and teaching me how to build a web site

Also a huge thanks to everyone who has contributed photos and content to the site

It's a work in progress and I hope it's useful for folks. Additional content is being worked on...

Feedback is always welcome, after all the site is for folks like you.




[video=vimeo;31464875]http://vimeo.com/31464875[/video]

Awesome!I added a link, on my facebook page,to the video.I'll add the site link in just a minute. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manic-Motorcycles/269358576434069

 

[Papa]

congratulations on a super effort - another example of our country's volunteers' passion and commitment for building community.

 

[deadly99]

Eastern half of the TCAT is completed!!!

A picture tells a thousand words......

Many thanks to everyone who has helped with this half of the route!

Fab, Skibum, Geoff, Rob, Jimmy, Jenna, Gord and everyone who helped by preriding a section to help verify the gps files.

The western half will be completed next fall. So far so good, schedule is right on pace. It has been a long 3-4 years but the end is in sight :ylsmoke:

 

[Ray Hyland]

This is fantastic, well done!

 

[Rocket Ship]

Good work on the video.

 

[ini88]

Nice work! congrats to all that helped.

 

[crackerjack]

this is exceptional. thank you

 

[deadly99]

Thanks for the replies and the interest, it's much appreciated.

Not much new to report, winter has arrived but we'll pick up where we left off in the spring. I'm planning for a six week ride in the summer to cover the western half of the route. A few small wrinkles to iron out on the eastern half. All in all the project should be completed next fall and the gps files, maps, etc will be available from the GravelTravel.ca site.

Happy holidays to you and your families