Where Have You Off-Roaded Today? 3rd Gen

Lot of road miles but we found our dirt too!!! 3000 miles 6 National Parks 12 days… even took a ferry.

 

Looks like you knocked out the Washington tri-fecta while you were at it (North Cascades, Mt Rainer, Olympic) and had an Awesome trip. Congrats and thanks for the pics.

 

Ya it was incredible!!! Washington is amazing!

 

I decided to go see firsthand what the 2021 wildfires did to one of my favorite fishing lakes in BC. The lake and surrounding area had been closed for over 1 year for wildfire rehabilitation. Finally opened to public access just a month ago.

Not good. Over 2 million acres burned in BC in 2021. This lake is northwest of Merritt. Thousands of acres burned surrounding this lake. About 80% of the lakeside is burned right up to the shoreline. So the lakeside foliage which would provide the bugs with habitat and the fish with those bugs for food is gone.

I did not see a any wildlife, not even a single bird or bug. Not a single fish jumped. Just nothing at all, total silence.

I have fished this area for 40 years. Sad to see so much destruction. It will be decades before this area recovers.

 

Yikes, and Cypress Mountain has an active fire over here in Vancouver. Should be pouring rain these days. No end in site for this drought here. Do you know if they still use fire retardants or is it just water when they fight these fires. I understand fire retardants can be hard on the environment.

 

They use both still depending on access to water, plus retardant often needed to save homes and towns. We have seen a lot of retardant used for fires near Kelowna like the Whiterock lake fire in 2021 that burned 90 houses in Monte Lake and the northwest corner of Okanagan lake.

The retardants used generally safe but not so great for lake water.

Vancouver in drought?

Yes, it is right now and very unusual for the lower mainland. Really bad for our salmon runs throughout BC right now. Trees dying in Stanley Park. Who would have figured?

Here is Kelowna total precip vs Vancouver total precip since 2017. Okanagan in drought for some time now.

These numbers are from July 1st to June 30th of each year. Bloody dry here and not getting any better.

Vancouver the big numbers and Kelowna the small stuff.

 

I have been working in that region for the past few months, hunters I'm now running into aren't seeing much game and on my near daily heli flights over the area, we aren't seeing any either. Had a wolf by the drill the other day. I've seen a few beasts along roads the past few months, bear, deer, elk, bobcat, but not as frequent as past years.

Take a drive through Lytton if you are feeling to cheering and need to get depressed.

 

retardants when there is an interface fire

 

Olympic National Forest grouse hunting and stretched the Tacomas legs a bit

 

Did some scenic riding today. Pretty nice trail but smooth and easy for anyone to do.

 

Funny us with our fancy 4x4s to get down some forest service roads, and many not even using them at all for off road.

Here is a wee bit of mud, back in the 1930s. No 4 wheel drive here or fancy gear. This is Prince George BC on the “road” to Peace River.

 

They looked cool doing it too

 

Yeah I’ve been through Lytton. Pretty bad situation. I did a good donation to the town after the fire there. How could anyone living in BC not? Been travelling through Lytton yearly starting back in 1962 with my parents. Sitting in the back of our old Ford panel truck on trips fishing to the Cariboo, which we did several times per year. That whole canyon is so nice.

 

Had to be pretty capable to get around remote BC back in the day.

 

Yeah we are very spoiled these days with all the tech and other gadgets we have. Sometimes I wish I was born 100 years ago…then I turn the AC on and I’m happy to have the advantages of tech nowadays.

 

We all like our tech and comforts today, but I get pissed at it too. The number one reason why so many vehicles break down today. So much energy put into adding gadgets to cars, and it takes away from the focus of just building a reliable vehicle and adds unnecessary cost.

I remember in Vancouver going to look at a new 2014 Mazda 3 GT, which I bought.

We go for a test drive. The sales rep starts going on about bluetooth, heads up display, etc. Stopped him in his tracks. I did not care a crap about that stuff. All I wanted to know were details about the engine, transmission, drivetrain, etc. He was shocked. Told me none of his customers ever ask him about that stuff, they are only interested in what technology it has.

That blew me away. It was a good car though, never a single issue. Just drive it and do service. Traded it in for my Taco when we moved to Kelowna. Did not need a truck for several years living in Vancouver as I was not getting any free time to get into the bush. I would never own a truck unless it is it used primarily for bush and off road. The idea of driving a truck daily for city driving boggles my mind.

I would not weep a single bit if all the computer tech went away. Lived 40 years with none of that. Wife and I were 30 years old before we finally had a car with AC.

I’ll repeat it again. I like my Taco, but my best truck was a 1986 Ford F150. Straight 6, 300cyl, 4 speed manual, manual locking hubs. Bench seat, steel floors and steel interior roof. No carpet, no AC, no power windows. Rubber drain plugs behind the seat to hose and drain the interior mud out. Indestructible truck, and physically about 2/3 the size of the new F150s which are way too big, for no good reason.

In 13 years, replaced one clutch, one inner needle bearing, one radiator. After that just service, oil and brakes. About 50K of hard off road miles and just beating on it.

0-60mph in about 1 week. First gear too low for starts. In 4-lo 1st gear it was so low, the truck would not move when you popped the clutch. Much better than the crawl control built into the Taco, which I have used several times. In 4-lo 1st gear, you should never need to use your brakes no matter how steep the downhill grade.

I paid $14,000 brand new for that F150, and sold it 13 years later for $5,000.

Would buy one in a heartbeat if they still sold a bare bones truck like that. No tech, no AC, no power windows, etc, and no freaking computers for any reason in it.

My old man, but practical rant…

 

1986 F150, 4-speed MT was what I learned to drive on! My sister still has that truck and uses it as a plow vehicle (not road worthy anymore). Indestructible is right!!! You can walk faster than it moved in 4-lo and 1st gear.

We have a hunting camp in upstate NY that is about 13 miles back on old logging roads. My old man and I went in to hunt one time when we got ~23 inches of snow. We went up a hill that is the better part of a mile uphill. My first time using 4-lo and 1st. Dump the clutch…no gas…just steer. It just walked up that hill with little effort.

 

I was without a truck when we moved to a new town about ten years ago. My neighbor had inherited his dad’s 1987 F150, 300-six (fuel injected that year though) with 5 speed, no gadgets, and he let me borrow it for a dump run … then told me that he wanted to sell it. I was VERY tempted but it was 2wd, and he ended up selling it to his neighbor on the other side. Who still drives it. If it had been 4wd who knows, I might still own it. I too like my Taco, very much in fact, but I wish it were simpler.

 

Absolutely! My daily driver is a 1988 Subaru GL Wagon 5 speed manual shifter. I still have my first car…1985 4runner 5 speed manual…neither have AC. I really wanted a truck with manual windows to roll up and down. Not a fan of all the power options, they’re nice until they break then you’re scrambling to find the cash to repair them. My oldest is getting ready to start driving in a couple years so I’m trying to find him a manual transmission 4wd single cab pick up. Really hard to text and drive with a manual and he will be one of the few that know how to drive a manual. Im on the same page as you, I love my tacoma but I wish there was an option with vinyl floor all manual options. Could lower the cost of purchase and maintenance…although I think manufactures want to add the tech to make more money.

 

Spent the morning cruising the OBX of NC!!