Sadly our Canada Trip was cut short

Our Canada trip was cut short by several weeks. We had a good time, but wildfires in Jasper prevented us from making the journey as planned. Jasper is to the north of Banff and at the north end of the Icefields Parkway. After completing our cruise to Alaska this summer, we planned to spend the rest of the summer in Canada. We went to Canada but turned around before getting anywhere near Jasper or the Icefields Parkway.

While I was sad I couldn’t make our trip through Jasper, I am primarily unhappy about the fire. Looking at the photos of the fire, it will never be the same.

Visiting Alaska on our cruise

Besides a rain problem on our cruise to Alaska, we had a great time. It rained during every port visit to Alaska. This was not unexpected. The Alaska coastline is the wettest place in North America. What we saw was typical weather on our cruise. In case you missed the stories about our cruise along the coast of Alaska, here is a link to the playlist. At a minimum, you should look at the first article about Glacier Bay. Alaska Playlist

Our RV electrical problem

I skipped over the part about how our RV electrical system failed the morning we departed on our cruise. Our inverter failed about an hour before we got in the car and drove to the cruise ship terminal.

In hindsight, I am happy that it failed when it did. Had our inverter failed two hours after getting in the car, our RV and, most importantly, our RV refrigerator would not have had electricity for a week. Since it failed before we left, I could plug in the fridge before we left and was comforted that at least we would not be returning to a warm refrigerator full of spoiled food.

I didn’t expect to need outside electricity where I parked the RV, but thankfully, to keep everything going while we were on the cruise ship, I only had to plug in the refrigerator to keep things cold. It was also great that the extension cord was easy to get, and the electricity was on where we parked the RV.

The entire time we were on the cruise, the RV was unoccupied and unattended. Since the inverter failed right before we departed, I also had a new task to research while in Alaska. I got to read some spellbinding inverter manuals. Since we were cruising to Alaska, I could also send some emails to friends during our stops at every port. They also offered me troubleshooting tips for when I could diagnose the problem.

The inverter problem

As an introduction, our RV has a huge battery bank. Our inverter is attached to the battery bank, which converts the electricity into Alternating Current so we can run our residential refrigerator. We have enough solar panels to charge the batteries, as the fridge consumes electricity. In the last four years, we have learned that we have plenty of solar panels to keep our refrigerator running, even if it is cloudy all week. All of this, of course, assumes the inverter works, which it did not.

What I knew before going on cruise

The batteries were working fine. They were about 60% charged when the inverter failed. The battery voltage was still above 14 volts, where it should have been. I also knew that the solar panels would recharge the batteries back to full before noon on our departure day. I also knew the inverter was complaining about the low battery voltage. Since the inverter was complaining, there was hope it wouldn’t need replacing.

Fixing the inverter

Two hours after departing our cruise ship, we returned to the RV; the refrigerator was still cold, and the inverter wasn’t working. I guess the inverter magic fix wasn’t part of our cruise package. The solar also had the batteries at full charge since they didn’t do anything for an entire week.

Before doing anything else, I started troubleshooting the fuse and main battery shutoff switch. I had previous issues with a loose wire here, but it seemed tight. Using a volt meter at the switch ensured me that I had the correct voltage at the switch. Then, I turned my attention to the inverter. Finding a loose wire connection on the inverter took about ten minutes. Once it was tightened, everything was back to normal, and the inverter reported the same battery voltage as my solar controller and battery monitor.

Additional reading:

I have written several articles describing my solar array and battery system. Here is a link to the articles describing my solar and batteries. RV solar series

To launch our Canada trip

To launch our Canada trip to Jasper and the Icefields Parkway, we first relocated the RV to a Washington State Park just south of the border, where we lived for a couple of days waiting for our border crossing. We wanted a morning border crossing with plenty of time to cross into Canada. Unlike our previous crossings in more remote areas, we were in an urban area this time. Before our Canada trip, these last two nights were at Birch Bay State Park. Before that, we stopped for three days at the Bellingham RV park to visit family.

Birch Bay was 15 miles south of the Pacific Highway border crossing into Canada, and it was an easy drive to the border. Along the way, we needed one last stop to pick up fuel so we wouldn’t have to buy as much fuel while we visited Canada. Travelers to and from Canada stop at the truck stop just south of the border. Fuel in Canada would have been at least a dollar more per gallon than in Washington.

Our intended route through Canada

Our first stop in Canada was Vancouver. Unlike last year, when we stopped in a more rural area east of Vancouver, we wanted to see the city this time. We picked The RV Park in West Vancouver, north of downtown Vancouver. The RV park is on the north side of the Vancouver Harbour on the north side of the Lions Gate Bridge.

After a two-night stop in West Vancouver, our route was to the northwest, past Horseshoe Bay and Whistler, spending the next two nights at Nairn Falls. Nairn Falls is about a hundred miles north of Vancouver. After three more stops heading north, we would arrive at Jasper National Park and stay at the Whistlers Campground. From Jasper, we would turn south on the Icefields Parkway and spend the next three weeks in the national parks before arriving at Banff.

The Icefields Parkway follows the continental divide through high alpine meadows next to glacier-covered mountains. Jasper and the Icefields Parkway are the crown jewel of the Canada National Park System.

Our short trip through Canada

Everything started as we expected. We filled our fuel tanks and crossed the border, heading northbound and making our first turn on Canada Highway 1. Other than a bit of confusion just north of downtown Vancouver, we made our first and second stops in Canada and were feeling pretty confident about our plans and excited about our visit.

Change of route

As we made our way north through Canada, a wildfire swept through Jasper, including the campground where we had planned to stay. The fire closed the town, and everyone was evacuated. After a few days, we learned that Jasper would be closed for the rest of the summer. We could have pressed on to Banff, at the south end of the Icefields Parkway. Instead, we chose to stay out of the way and find something to do for the rest of the summer that didn’t involve Jasper, the Icefields Parkway, or Banff.

Lost in Vancouver

I briefly mentioned some confusion in Vancouver. This was a disaster of our own making. It added lots of time to our trip that first day in Canada and involved something that I don’t want to repeat. We were in the wrong lane heading south on Taylor Way, heading to our RV park.

The Friday afternoon traffic was heavy, so we couldn’t force our way out of the left lane and had to turn east on Marine Drive. We could see our RV Park from Marine Drive to the south side of the road, but there weren’t any entrances. Had we known better, we would have stayed in the left lane and headed east well past the RV park. We didn’t know any better.

Lost, we circled the RV park and ended up on the onramp to the Lions Gate Bridge, heading across the bridge toward downtown Vancouver. It wasn’t going to be pretty. Thankfully, we were following some rather large busses, which gave us confidence that if they could do it, so could we.

After a lap through Vancouver

After a lap through downtown Vancouver, we reached our RV park. The location was great, but our site (like every site in the RV Park) was too small to accommodate our RV comfortably. Even though we parked on the pad, with less than one inch on each side remaining, I felt terrible that our slide rooms intruded on the neighbor’s site. I’m glad they seemed not to be home for the weekend.

As I already said, the location of our RV park was very nice, and even with the lap through downtown Vancouver behind us, we enjoyed our stay in our tight RV site.

Nairn Falls

We stayed in Vancouver for only two nights and departed for Nairn Falls Provincial Park on Sunday. At Nairn Falls, we learned that the fire had ripped through Jasper, including our campground, and that we wouldn’t be going through Jasper on this trip. Banff was also getting heavy smoke, so we didn’t want to go there, so we decided that we would have to cut our trip through the provincial parks in Canada for another year.

Next week, I will share some of the things we did on our southbound trip back out of Canada.

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About our links

Our blog income is zero, allowing us to be independent and tell the truth.  We do not get income or commissions. No, we don’t make paid endorsements.  We don’t make recommendations; instead, we will tell you what we like (or dislike). The links are only provided as a quick reference to help our readers.

Links

Jasper National Park

Jasper National Park and the Whistlers Campground Fire

Banff National Park

Icefields Parkway

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