Are you thinking that is debris from the tsunami? If so Wow!
I absolutely think the drum was from the tsunami. Hundreds of tons of debris have washed up all along the entire coast of the continent. I found my first bit of debris about a year after the tsunami, and that was just the beginning of what washed up on our shores. Japan donated a few million dollars to the US to assist with the clean up, but I imagine the stuff will keep washing up for years. It makes beach combing more interesting.
The following morning we headed back to Pt Alice. The road to the interior of the island crosses a low coastal mountain range. Fortunately for us, there is a lot of logging activity on the island, and the road had been plowed after the last storm. It got colder as we climbed to the mountain pass, and in places the road was one big sheet of ice, with rain on top. This kept us on our toes as we continued climbing, but was great fun to practice drifting in. Once on the other side of the mountains the road follows the fijord around the South end. We didn't see a huge number of logging trucks, but there was activity everywhere. Travel in active logging areas requires a lot of care. All the trucks are in communication with each other, and call out their direction and location on the radio every few kilometers. These are trucks too large to be driven on public roads, and there hauling massive loads of trees. Besides monitoring the radio to keep track of them, your best defense is diving in the ditch as soon as you see one since there is absolutely no room to pass. A quick stop at Chris's house for showers and then another for beer and we were on our way. Next up was an antique steam shovel hidden in the woods, along with even more treasure. Chris spends time searching this stuff out, and he was happy to show us some of his finds. I think the van was crying out for an Agile conversion. After that we headed for another frozen lake side camp.
What kind of van had the pocket doors like that old beast?QUOTE]
Looks like a Morris Commercial J2 There's even a camper version.
Wow, I never seen the Camper version! Here is an original photo I found when I spent way to long trying to figure out what it was.
Here is a little info on these vans I dug up for my story. Boy these things are popular when you share the photos!
"These Morris van's were produced from 1956 until 1967 by Morris Commercial subsidiary of the British Motor Corporation (BMC).
The J2 style van was also known as an Austin J2 or Austin/Omni 152 which when sold under Austin resulted in different badges and front grills. The 1956 to 1961 J2's featured the O.H.V. BMC B-Series gasoline 1489cc engine sporting between 55-72bhp depending on options and was mated to a 4-speed gear box. The 1.5 litre engine was later enlarged to the 1.6 litre Mark II gasoline engine for the model years of 1961 through to 1967 which increased the bore size to 76.2mm. There was also a diesel engine available in 1961."
I left early...well, I consider 9:30am early currently, I headed toward O'Connor lake, our meeting spot. I hadn't heard from arctictraveller since the day before when we confirmed our meet location.
I arrived at 10:30am where I spent 1/3 of my time out of the truck trying to stand up on the ice and make it down to the lake to enjoy it. The other 2/3 were spent staying warm in the truck.
Once we actually met up after the confusion, thank god for cell reception, something I thought we wouldn't have, we talked and put together a plan to move locations to a small site called Pinch Creek. Pinch creek is located on the east side of Alice Lake. It turned out to be a perfect fit for the 2 SMB's that artictraveller and Johny5 brought and my underequipt 98 Tacoma.
We drove the sheet of ice from O'Connor lake to Pinch Creek and setup camp for the night right on the bank of the creek. A fire was lite and we chatted before calling it a night. We had some great Logger Soup, thanks Jeff. Receipt received!
The next morning we discussed our plan of getting out to the west coast. Because the roads brought us close to Port Alice, a re-supply run was in the works. Food & Drinks! Again, it was a sheet of ice from Pinch Creek into town. I figured this was going to make the 1 hill we needed to concur tough on our way to the west coast. We got lucky as it was plowed and not toooo much ice had formed.
Side bay was great, when we rolled up on the access road I must have scared a few eagles and a few hawks all hanging out on the beach. What a site! We had a high spot figured but due to access we opted for the site in Jeff's photos. It really worked out well at 2am, when I got to sleep! I swear the waves were right beside the Tacoma, they were sure loud. Thankfully the weather was pretty good and reasonably warm. I was just sleeping in a bag with blankets in a basic aluminum canopy and I didn't run my Buddy heater.
The next day we stopped up high with a great view of Side Bay to make breakfast. We then discussed Gooding Cove as a site. This was a gamble for a good site as I hadn't been there before but it was a short journey. We made it and wow was it worth it!
The next morning we packed and discussed the days plans. We were to head back through Port Alice for a freshen up on our way to a southerly lake on the north island. A pit stop was made for snacks among other things at Mahatta River Camp Ground. Once we left Port Alice, I took Jeff and John toward the shovel and the abandoned vehicles. Once lunch was had and the shovel was found it was getting a bit late in order to get to Ida Lake in the day light.
We headed toward Telegraph Cove and got onto Kokish Main passing the old logging camp and the new hydro electric project before arriving at Ida Lake. It wasn't to cold here as compared to O'Connor lake but its a lot colder than the west coast was. We setup quick while we had a little light and got a fire going.
For the last day, my plan was to take Jeff and John along the east side of Bonanza Lake to see an old mine and to get them back to the road for their journey south. Weather was the worst on our final day, Id say we had pretty great weather the entire journey.
Definitely looking forward to a journey like this again!
Vanny Devito
Sportsmobile (AKA Money Pit)
VivaLaVida
Linear Mode
