Leaving Cranbrook was really un-eventful. We drove about 1/2 hour to Moyie Lake and had to stop for a diaper change. The trailer is really amazing for impromptu stops for just about any reason. We can stop, flip the stairs on the back door out and we have a perfect mobile picnic shelter/ bathroom/ napspot/ dogwaterer/ fridge/ etc etc. Everything we ask of the trailer, the trailer comes through. Including....
... towing incredibly well. The Kootenay pass. More in a minute.
Creston BC - what a nice little town. This is the type of town that makes you want to move here. The long summers, the fresh fruit, the clean streets, the wide valleys, the pleasant mountains, cheaper gas in USA 10 clicks away, big river and even bigger Lake (Kootenay). Really really nice.
As soon as you cross the very wide Kootenay valley on Hwy 3, you make a turn. You don't turn left, you don't turn right. You turn up. Wow. From Creston it is straight up to the the kootenay summit at 1774m. Creston is 611m. In the span of 45km you rise 1163m, It seems like you should be at the top around every corner, but around every corner is another mountain peak higher than the previous. To top off the drive is a REALLY steep final km to the summit. This is at the tree line no less. The SUPERtruck is amazing. It just pulls. easy, smooth, without complaint. It pulls and pulls and pulls. Passing dodge trucks in the passing lanes with ease, cornering is very precise and the ride is great! Again, Andrew slept, well, like a baby through all this, even though my ears popped 10+ times on the way up, it obviously didn't bother him.
Now the most impressive part of the supertruck. Downhill control. Keep in mind the truck is 7500lbs loaded and the trailer is the better part of 6000lbs today, so we have 13500lbs flying down, get this, 1004m in just 12KM!!! That is 300ft of elevation drop in every KM. A 30 story building every 10 football fields. for 12 km. now when we fell off the backside of the pass we were travelling at the posted speed limit of 100km/h. That is crazy with the kind of weight we have. So down to 80kph, now the truck in trailering mode grabs way too many gears when you brake down the hill, so I flip it to manual shifting mode and gear down to 3rd or 4th gear and for the last 11km of the descent I don't touch the brakes once. Come to think of it I never touched the gas either.
On the way up we got 10mpg. On the way down, 26mpg. heh.
Well that was it for major inclines... heh, yeah right. From Trail to Rossland is wild. 7km, 600m. on a municipal road. Then from Rossland to the Bonanza Pass it's another 497m up in a relatively gentle 30km. Then 40km from our destination, Christina Lake, and it's 1089m decline. Yup, we were quite happy to be done with this part. It makes the #1 highway seem like a curvy road in central Saskatchewan by Comparison.
The truck was looking for more, we were looking for a nap. All in all, the most fun I have had behind the wheel in a very long time! I am pretty sure Cypress Hills won't be on our Radar for a very long time, as we have discovered some of the most wonderful places we have seen in a very long time.
Back to Trail.
Traci is from South Western Pennsylvania, there is a town called Wheeling, West Virgina about an hour from her hometown. When we drove into Trail, we both said it looked just like Wheeling.
... towing incredibly well. The Kootenay pass. More in a minute.
Creston BC - what a nice little town. This is the type of town that makes you want to move here. The long summers, the fresh fruit, the clean streets, the wide valleys, the pleasant mountains, cheaper gas in USA 10 clicks away, big river and even bigger Lake (Kootenay). Really really nice.
As soon as you cross the very wide Kootenay valley on Hwy 3, you make a turn. You don't turn left, you don't turn right. You turn up. Wow. From Creston it is straight up to the the kootenay summit at 1774m. Creston is 611m. In the span of 45km you rise 1163m, It seems like you should be at the top around every corner, but around every corner is another mountain peak higher than the previous. To top off the drive is a REALLY steep final km to the summit. This is at the tree line no less. The SUPERtruck is amazing. It just pulls. easy, smooth, without complaint. It pulls and pulls and pulls. Passing dodge trucks in the passing lanes with ease, cornering is very precise and the ride is great! Again, Andrew slept, well, like a baby through all this, even though my ears popped 10+ times on the way up, it obviously didn't bother him.
Now the most impressive part of the supertruck. Downhill control. Keep in mind the truck is 7500lbs loaded and the trailer is the better part of 6000lbs today, so we have 13500lbs flying down, get this, 1004m in just 12KM!!! That is 300ft of elevation drop in every KM. A 30 story building every 10 football fields. for 12 km. now when we fell off the backside of the pass we were travelling at the posted speed limit of 100km/h. That is crazy with the kind of weight we have. So down to 80kph, now the truck in trailering mode grabs way too many gears when you brake down the hill, so I flip it to manual shifting mode and gear down to 3rd or 4th gear and for the last 11km of the descent I don't touch the brakes once. Come to think of it I never touched the gas either.
Get your Duramax diesel Chevrolet, with the 6 speed Allison
Transmission at you local Chevrolet dealer today!
On the way up we got 10mpg. On the way down, 26mpg. heh.
Well that was it for major inclines... heh, yeah right. From Trail to Rossland is wild. 7km, 600m. on a municipal road. Then from Rossland to the Bonanza Pass it's another 497m up in a relatively gentle 30km. Then 40km from our destination, Christina Lake, and it's 1089m decline. Yup, we were quite happy to be done with this part. It makes the #1 highway seem like a curvy road in central Saskatchewan by Comparison.
The truck was looking for more, we were looking for a nap. All in all, the most fun I have had behind the wheel in a very long time! I am pretty sure Cypress Hills won't be on our Radar for a very long time, as we have discovered some of the most wonderful places we have seen in a very long time.
Back to Trail.
Traci is from South Western Pennsylvania, there is a town called Wheeling, West Virgina about an hour from her hometown. When we drove into Trail, we both said it looked just like Wheeling.Trail
Wheeling
Ain't that something?
More to come...
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