Tuesday, September 10, 2013

September 9th

We left Clinton this morning, and had decided to take the the Sea to Sky Highway to Vancouver, a distance of 200 miles.  It was probably one of the most beautiful roads that we have ever been on, but was not a road to be on when you are pulling a 38 foot 5th wheel.  There was a 40 mile stretch that was so steep with hairpin curves.  The ascent was up to a 15% grade and long.  We had to stop at a pull out and let the transmission cool down, so I was relieved when we finally got to the pass.  But I found that going down a 15 % grade and a LONG one is worse than going up.  We had to stop about half way down and let the brakes cool, they were smoking (again) we had to sit for a hour and a half to let them cool down.  Now i know why Buck needed all those gauges in the truck, but you could smell and see the smoke and thats a lot scary!! He doesn't think that there was any damage done.  By this time I was kinda tense and scared, we still had at least 4 more miles to get down.
Let me tell you, I was praying that we would not lose our brakes going down, and God answered our prayers we made it to the bottom okay.  This  road is one of the steepest in BC's road system.  It was a former logging road in that 40 mile section and was steep and narrow with lots of hairpin curves.
We should have read that part of the info before we drove it.   We think we learned a lesson here.
But we saw the most  spectacular and majestic mountains that I think we have ever seen.  I would love to go back over the road with just the truck.  I did get lots of pics, but was disappointed with them as they they just don't show the ruggedness and how awesome the mountains were. 
We did find a provincial park that we are camped in for tonight and we will stay here tomorrow too, it is a really nice spot.  We need some relaxation time after our exciting trip!
There is a MacDonald's in this little town of Pemberton so we are using their Wi-fi to send post this.



The road we were on.   The road going up and to the right goes into the town of Lilllooet





You can see the road up and to the left.  


Cooling off the transmission 
A log jam in a lake

Here is where we sat for a 1 1/2 hrs cooling down the brakes, the steep road straight ahead is a run away truck ramp  The hwy makes a sharp left.



No comments:

Post a Comment