5 years of planning, waiting, building, rebuilding, testing, repairing and more waiting have gone past and in spite of Covid-19 and everything else we are embarking on our adventure.
Undoubtedly we’re going to see a lot more of our homeland initially than we thought, but that’s not such a bad thing. We will post photos regularly, write-ups occasionally.
cheers, Pamela and David
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<==PANORAMA==> scroll to see full image. Looking down at Hatcher Pass, Alaska. Can you see Fitz? If you zoom pic number 3 he’s hiding behind a Sprinter can.
Some random shots of the northern half of our Alaskan drive. We are fast approaching Anchorage and the Peninsula which is showing obvious signs of much more civilization. Not sure if this is a good thing! Note a certain fixation with snow-cats… there are lots of variations up here.
For those who didn’t see Pamela’s much more informative posts at Tuktoyuktuk here’s a few shots of Fitz at the Arctic Ocean…
Fire on the Dempster south of Eagle Plains at KM 298. No road closure, no fire crews, a little scary but we came through without any issues.
Some random shots from the past few days. Route was from Whitehorse to Dawson City, and then from Dawson City this morning to close to the Arctic Circle tonight.
We again visited the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake today. Theme of this post is mostly Land Rover stickers — although our sticker from 2021 was so well hidden we couldn’t find where we put it! Was cool to see other Land Rovers we know as well as some new ones and some friends! Sergio and Elena you gotta get back up here and refresh your stickers! 😃
<==PANORAMIC ==> scroll through the set. Panoramic view of Salmon Glacier above Hyder, AK and Stewart, BC.
Something has been busy overnight!
After a lovely break at our friends Jim and Carla’s cabin on Stuart Lake, we are back on the road. Tonight’s camp is at Sunset Lake by Topley, BC
Set up camp at Chubb Lake and used the #harborfreight flagpole for the #starlink for the first time. Too many 🌲 to get good signal from the ground. Worked well — until a big thunderstorm rolled through and we figured we were safer with no 🛜
Our first camp spot on our way to the Arctic Ocean. A long road ahead!
Check out the cool Pinzgauer!
It was great fun and a little nostalgic taking Nelson around the technical course at @bcoverlandrally. This Discovery 1 has a long history of off-road and overland travel and we had the privilege of being its keeper the last year. Brian and Suzi, ole number 9, or as we call it, Nelson, made you proud this weekend.
Lots of interesting rigs at the @nwoverlandrally
Nice to be on the road again… on our way to #nwoverlandrally
Young black bear crossing the road at McDonald Creek Provincial Park near Nakusp
Finally got to drive Fitz somewhere that was not a workshop! Along the ghost highway, hwy 31a heading towards Kaslo.
Getting excited about putting the finishing touches on Fitz. Donovan at @wholesalegrafix takes it all in stride in the bright sunshine. I’d be worried sick doing this job myself!
Thanks so much to Mason at @capit_canada truck accessories for the great deal on @alucab_canada #shadowawning for our new build.
We owned a left opening Alu-Cab Shadow Awning with our previous build and used it virtually every day while on the road.
With the new build we decided early on that the Shadow Awning was again going to be part of the build. This time it sits a little higher up so it’s going to take some getting used to opening and closing but it definitely will provide us both shade and shelter and extend our living area to a bigger footprint.
Time for a final alignment and safety check at @rovalution . @rova_don and @rova_piet know what they’re doing on this stuff and it’s nice to get some additional eyes on my work as I’ve recently rebuilt the swivel hubs, cv joints and repacked all the bearings. Looks good except for an adjustment to the freshly installed steering box. Will work on that next week…
Another project finished — I added air helper springs to the rear of Fitz. The heavy duty springs previously installed we’re doing their job but the ride just didn’t feel great when loaded up. These definitely improved the ride and keep it from waddling. The lower spring seats have bolt heads protruding so the kit comes with some nice pucks which I glued into place to keep the bolt heads from damaging the air bags. Similarly this kit from #rovalutionautomotive has inserts to close the hole at the top of the Defender spring turrets.
Been awhile so here’s a few project catch-up pics. I installed the @capit_canada @alucab Shadow Awning this last few days. Due to my unique build I had to fabricate some brackets. Lots of fiddly stuff to do but the most nerve-wracking was drilling and tapping into a steel beam hidden in the composite wall. After drilling and tapping a total of 15 holes and glueing the mounts in place with korapop from @totalcomposites the awning went on without any drama.
#wish I could show you it swung open to its full 270 degrees but that will have to wait for another day as I still have to construct a bracket on the left rear corner to hook to.
The rear box and spare tire holder is coming along. Most of the welding is complete. I still have to add some reinforcement straps to strengthen the box bracket. Then it all comes off again and off to the galvanizers. Hopefully will be able to drop this off as well as a bunch of other brackets and hangers early next week.
Pamela nailed it with this walk through today! It’s getting close to complete.
For those of you in BC, I have this hot trail oven for sale!
A few small steps today. Dismantled the 4-step Little Giant ladder and made a hanger for it below the door. Still need to determine the final stowing position for the steps but dismantling the back of the ladder reduced the steps to about 12 pounds. Also planning the rack for the back that will hold the spare tire, our lock box and the high lift jack.
Finally the day came to pull the camper out of the shop and mate it back onto Fitz. Gentle coaxing with a wheeled dolly and Art’s skid steer and it came out without catching anything on the roof. Just as we finished it started to pour so limited photo opportunities.
After Derek and I glued down the solar panels this afternoon, we went to the BC Sportsman’s Show at Tradex. Thanks to Matt @kakaducamping for getting us in! Lots to see but a highlight was the Defender Icarus setup in the @capit_canada booth. So much like ours I was having a nostalgic moment. Watch for something new for Fitz in the next few weeks from @capit_canada ! Gotta like Derek’s new man-purse which he’s modeling for Pamela — actually the purse is for her too. Great to catch up with Kim and Andrew as well!
Let’s stay in the Fraser Valley over the winter. There won’t be any snow 😆😬🤷♂️
