Leppz Overland Build and Trip Reports

Subbed awesome adventures!

How much did you pick up that cap for? Looking to upgrade

 

Thanks, just got home from another adventure. I'll be sure to share more pictures and a detailed trip report once I have the time to put together a proper write up. But for now, just a teaser shot





And to answer your question. I paid around $3500 CAN taxes in for my ARE MX Series canopy with sliding vented windoors, fold down sliding front window, carpet interior, folding clothes hanger hook, dual T handle locks, Yakima tracks and 58" crossbars. That may seem like a lot for a canopy, and it is, but also keep in mind that these are made in the USA and our Canadian Exchange rate has been terrible the last year or so. I believe the canopy with the same options would come out to around $2500 US. That is still a lot for a canopy, but I'm happy with my purchase as this thing makes my truck what it is today and it wouldn't be the same without it.

 

Part 1
Kingdom Lake /Gold Bridge Area
June 30th to July 3rd ​

This is one of those trips were I wasn't even sure where exactly we were headed until the night before. I really enjoy the type of trips where you don't have a set destination in mind and just see where the map takes you. I took an extra day off work and turned the Canada Day long weekend into an extra long weekend. After studying my BC Backroad Mapbook with a general idea of checking out the town of Gold Bridge I looked at the surrounding area and set my eyes on a lake called "Kingdom Lake".



I did a quick google search of the lake and it looked like a beautiful spot with a promising 14 site rec site. It's a first come first served, user maintained rec site. After finishing loading up the truck Thursday morning we starting making our way from Coquitlam all the way up to Pemberton via Highway 1 Westbound and Highway 99 North (Sea to Sky towards Whistler). We made a quick stop in Pemberton to fill up the truck and also filled up two extra 20L Scepter fuel cans. This would potentially be our last stop for fuel for a while, or until we eventually looped back towards Lillooet. Gold Bridge does have a gas station but it's sometimes closed or out of fuel. Seeing that it was a long weekend I didn't want to take any chances and wanted the extra insurance that I had tons of fuel to explore the area with.

The following information is taken from Wikipedia:

Gold Bridge is an unincorporated community in the Bridge River Community of British Columbia, Canada. Although numbering only around 40 inhabitants, Gold Bridge is the service and supply centre for the upper basin of the Bridge River Valley, which includes recreation-residential areas at the Gun Lake, Tyaughton Lake, Marshall Creek, and Bralorne; and the nearby ghost towns of Brexton, Bradian and Pioneer Mine.

Located at the confluence of the Bridge River with its south fork, the Hurley River, Gold Bridge began as a freewheeling merchandising and services center supplementary to the company-run gold mining towns, and in its heyday had a large commercial roster ranging from insurance and stockbrokers through to bootleggers and "sporting houses".

Gold Bridge can be accessed via Highway 40 from Lillooet, or via an upgraded backroad (during late spring, summer and early fall) from Pemberton and Whistler known as the Hurley Main or "Hurley Pass", which uses a pass at the head of the Hurley River to access the valley of the upper Lillooet River north of Pemberton. We decided to go up the Hurley pass as this is a way shorter route to get to Gold Bridge from the Vancouver area.

After leaving Pemberton for fuel we headed up Pemberton Meadows Rd. When you get to the end of the road you need to turn right over Lillooet River and get onto Upper Lillooet FSR. The turnoff for Hurley Main FSR is shortly after the bridge.

I stopped at the turnoff and snagged a photo of the truck and sign and also tuned my UHF/VHF Radio to RR-19. (Resource Road). Its great that I tuned in as I learned right away that there was a large grader just a few KM's up.


I drove a few kms on the gravel and got past the grader and then found somewhere nice to pull over and air down the tires. I drop my tires to about 25 PSI on Forest Service Roads.

The Hurley pass starts out with a bunch of switchbacks. After making a few of them and gaining tons of altitude I stopped to take another photo of the truck.



Once you get out of the initial climb its starts to level out and its pretty smooth sailings from there to the next major Y junction once you meet up with the Hurley River.

Here's some more photos once things started to flatten out.




Once we got to the Y junction at the bridge we decided to go east along the East Hurley River FSR. Once we started to see some sign of civilization again like the remains of this house/cabin we knew we were getting close to the town of Bralorne.



We crossed the bridge by Bralorne Gold Mine and headed north towards Gold Bridge along Bralorne Rd (paved) till the cutoff for Kingdom Lake FSR.




After turning off the the main road we headed up Kingdom Lake FSR until the actual turn off for Kingdom Lake.


Kingdom lake turnoff.



From here its a short drive into the actual lake. We drove to the end of the 14 rec sites. There were about 4 other trucks in there. We ended up taking the second spot right as you pull in right next to the "boat launch". The boat launch isn't really a boat launch so much as a grassy strip down to the lake with a drop off where the water meets the grass.



Private "Driveway" into our site.


Our site, quick setup and view.


After a quick setup we went for a walk around the rec site. The other side has a completely different mountain view than our site.



After a short walk we headed back to our site to relax by the fire and enjoy the view from our campsite. We relaxed by the fire for a while, looked at some stars and then climbed into the truck to sleep for the night.



Part two to come.

 

Swapped my sport wheels for these 2015 4Runner Trail edition wheels. My buddy got these with his Trail when he bought it but had the dealer put on TRD rims and Duratracs instead. He gave them with the stock rubber to his mom for her 4Runner that they've had since new in 2000. She's selling the 4Runner as its getting old and impractical for her. So rather then
sell it with his nice Trail rims he let me swap my Tacoma rims on it.

Here's some photos after swapping the rims taken in my driveway.



The tires stick out a little more now. I've got a slight bit of rubbing on the front air dams. I've removed them and will see if I have any more rubbing once I have a chance to get the truck offroad and flexing a bit.

 

Dem wheels look great! Nice trip report as usual! Thx!

 

Sorry folks. I know I've been slacking updating this thread. Between a busy work schedule, my sister's wedding and trying to get away camping every weekend I can I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and update this thread. I know some of you may have seen some photos I've posted in the "Truck Camping Photo Thread". I have lots of pictures and a few more trip reports to add.

Starting with Part two of Kingdom Lake

While at Kingdom lake we also took a hike over to Noel Lake. Its a mellow 15 minute-ish hike northwest of Kingdom Lake.







We went past Noel Lake and also started hiking the "Why Not Trail". We quickly decided why not, the trail was covered and blocked by tons of deadfall.

We made our way back to Noel Lake and back to camp and cooked up some food.



The next morning we took the truck out and went for a drive. We were trying to find Pioneer Mine but couldn't find it based on the BRMB (Backroad mapbook) location.



All we found instead was this gated off, filled in old mine shaft.


We made our way through some overgrown backroads down to the old abandoned town of Bradian.




We made our way back to camp after leaving Bradian and driving through the town of Bralorne. Later that evening we went for another drive and decided to check out another close by lake called "Sucker Lake".



I should have known by the name that this place was to be avoided. The truck picked up tons of new pinstripping as the road was severely overgrown. I tried heading out a different way then we came in but the road just got worse and eventually got to narrow to continue without doing serious damage to the truck. There was no where to turn around. I had to back up a few hundred meters to a spot that was just wide enough (after clearing some underbrush) to turn the truck around.



We spent one more night at the campsite before heading back to the main road where we aired back up the tires. From here we drove through the small town of Gold Bridge and made our way to the "Highway" along carpenter lake. I emphasize the word "Highway" as it really isn't a highway because 80% of it is gravel and were there is pavement there aren't even any lines in the road.





A short drive along carpenter lake and we made a stop down Gun Creek at the old flooded ruins of the town of Minto. The town has since been reduced to rubble after BC Hydro built a dam (completed in 1950) at the end of Carpenter Lake. All that remains and can be see during low water levels are foundations of old buildings and lamp standards.





After checking out Minto we made our way towards the end of Carpenter lake and the Dam. We made a quick stop along the road to check out a cool waterfall at the side of the road.


Approaching the dam.


Driving across the dam and through the tunnel that heads towards Seton Portage.

After taking some photos we turned around and went back through the tunnel as we wanted to continue the rest of the drive towards Highway 1.



A few more photos along the drive to Lillooet towards Highway 1.

 

Awesome pictures!! I'd have to drive about 5 hours away from Edmonton to get into anything close to that interesting..

I'm looking at getting a canopy and rack setup the same as yours. How high above the roof line are the racks? I've figured the canopy has about a 6" rise, racks about another 6"? My garage door is only 83" so I'm hoping I can make the clearance. The truck would probably sag a little bit with the canopy weight I'm guessing.

 

amazing trip report as usual @Leppz !! It's funny. you seem to always get to the places we've been eyeing up, just before we actually go! We both took a week off starting this coming weekend to get out of here and go camp. I'm super stoked, and we still haven't totally decided where to go yet! Hurley Pass came up, as did Whipsaw, and Molybdenite. Kind of want to head towards the Nakusp area as I've never been, but my version of the Backroads map book wouldn't be much help over there!

@thisispainful I recently just built my own roof rack on my canopy. I put tracks that i bought from a junkyard for 10 bucks (off an older ford windstar) and then just used 1" flat & 1" square tubing (total around $80 in steel) to build my own rack. I now have my RTT mounted up there and it's been awesome. I built it so that it's super low profile... only 2.5 inches off the canopy at the largest gap. My canopy is flush with the roof though, so Leppz' height would be taller anyway. But it's a cheap alternative to something like Thule or Yakima

By the way @Leppz , you should check out the business my wife and I just started! We have decided to try out renting roof top tents out. I know that you have a dope set up as it is, but if it ever comes up with some of your acquaintances, maybe they would be interested? If you feel like supporting a local (and tacoma world) business, we'd be so so stoked! We're hoping it will start to gain some traction soon. It's overlandoutfitters.ca. or we're on fb/instagram...

sorry about the self plug jamming up your thread. seriously envious of your rig though man. you have it set up exactly with what you need. My wife and I are still trying to figure out how we want to organize our mess in the bed/back seat

 

I took a quick measurement this morning and the top of my canopy crossbars sit roughly 8" above the cab. It's hard to get an accurate measurement because of the curvature of the roof. I'll try and get ya a more accurate measurement later today after work.

 

The Bridge River Valley (up the Hurley pass) is a really unique area. There is tons to explore and the area has lots of history. We are actually planning another trip up that way august 12-14th.

Molybdenite looks awesome as well. I've never been but I have seen photos. That shelf road up to the top isn't for the faint of heart though. I saw a few photos recently of a jeep that slid half off the side. It took 4 trucks to get him back on the road. One small slip of the steering wheel and you'really going for a never ending tumble down the mountain side. You may also want to look into road closures as I saw some reports yesterday of Texas Creek Road (access road to molyb) and the road to Lillooet being blocked by landslides.

The Whipsaw Trail looks awesome as well. That's something I eventually want to tackle once my Tacoma is built up a bit more. I'm not sure I'd try and tackle that alone mid week if you've never done it before though. There's usually a lot of traffic through that area during the weekends though in case you get stuck by yourself and can't self recover.

We did a big tour of the Kootenay Area last August. I'm not sure if I've posted much about that trip other than a few photos. I definitely recommend checking out that area if you've never been up that way.

We started off our trip in Salmo, BC after attending Shambhala Music Festival. We made our way up to Nelson and camped a night at the city campground. From there we made our way up to Ainsworth Hot Springs Resort and spent a night relaxing in the pools. We treked our way up to Kaslo the next morning and stopped there for lunch. We did a tour of the old steam paddle boat dry docked at the shore before making our way west over to the ghost town of Sandon.


If you go to Sandon make your way up to Idaho Peak for an awesome view point. We unfortunately didn't find out about Idaho Peak until after our trip.


From Sandon we continued on to Nakusp and camped the night at the Hot Springs Resort. There is a nice mellow hiking trail from the resort called the Hot Springs Trail which takes you over a cool wooden bridge and to a small waterfall.

Camped at Nakusp Hot Springs, the hiking trail, bridge and falls.




The next morning we headed out north and made a stop at Halfway River Hot Springs. This is a rustic, user maintained site. The springs themselves are hard to find from the campsite. It's best to ask someone in the campsite for directions down the embankment to them. The springs are at the side of the river.


After going for a dip we made our way back to the main road and headed up to the free ferry from Galena Bay to Shelter Bay.


Once across the water we made another quick stop at Blanket Creek Provincial Park which is absolutely beautiful and also checked out the waterfall nearby (I forget the name).


We continued on North up to Revelstoke and then struggled to find a campsite anywhere near the Shuswap Lake Area. The area was thick with forest fire smoke and it made for a crazy sunset. We eventually made our way over to Kamloops (after getting lost a few times due to our Backroads Mapbook).


My parents were camped at Peter Hope Lake between Kamloops and Merritt so we decided to meet up with them for the night before making our way home the next morning.

@WormSquirts if you need the Backroad Mapbook for the Nakusp Area BRMB is based out of Coquitlam off United near the Hard Rock Casino. You can buy any of there books from them there. You can also download the BRMB Navigator app for a Tablet (equipped with GPS) or your phone. The app itself is free but you will need to pay for the map pack. You also need memory on your device to save maps for offline use. This is a our go to thing for backcountry travel and the app works great.

That is awesome about the RTT renting business you started up. I may have to hit you up on that one day to just to see how I like the idea of a tent. I'll definitely share that with friends. I think I remember you saying that you don't have Facebook. There are tons of 4x4 clubs on there that would definitely help your new company gain traction. Try posting on BC Toyota 4x4 page as well as the Four Wheel Drive Association of BC page. You can also try posting on the BC Jeep page, although I'm not sure you can trust those Jeeple with your tents

 

Oh cool! Thanks! Yeah I measured my truck and my roofline sits at about 70-71" high. So I've got about 11" comfortably to work with not accounting for any additional space due to sag from the weight.
Loving all your camping photos. Very jealous! I need to make some trips out to BC and do some camping!! Especially since my truck is a year old and I only have 11,000km... We used to camp a lot out at Nakusp and Radium when I was a kid. Looking at possibly heading out towards Valemount and Kinbasket Lake.

 

That's really good to know about BRMB's location! I drive by there to work every day!

I don't personally have fb, but my wife does, and so does our company. I will certainly join the bc toyota group with hers! I have insurance for anything any jeeple could do to the tents, so I'm not scared! haha.

You should definitely try out a tent. I am thinking of posting up on TW somewhere to give a member discount or something. I do honestly think you might be slightly underwhelmed by a rtt though, just because you already have a good thing going that you are used to. but they are super fun (like a tree house!) and comfortable, and free up the whole bed for gear without having to reorganize every time you want to sleep! I actually worked a 17 hour shift the other day, ending at midnight, with a 5am start the next day. Wasn't worth driving home to sleep, so I popped open the tent in our work parking lot, and slept there the night! quick and easy!



on a completely different note, I just ordered these on Amazon, and they arrived in 2 days (prime)

$170 IRIS USA Store-It-All, 21 Gal. (4 Pack), Black/Black, 4 Count

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00J5DZNIC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They got here today, and i instantly thought you might be interested when i was pulling them out of the box. They are super sturdy, Weather tight, stackable, locking handles, and just the right size. It does seem like a lot of money, but you do get 4! working out to around $45/tote. I'm super stoked on them. Hoping this will help our disorganized mess in the back of the truck! currently categorizing them as "Kitchen", "Dry Food", "Bedding", and "Mountain Biking Gear". We'll see how that evolves!

 

Very nice build. Did you use 26" slides for your fridge?

 

Awesome setup. I am trying to figure out how to build out a platform in the back of my truck and might have to steak your ideas. Thanks for the write up

 

Subb'd similar goals love the trip reporrs

 

subbed for all the adventures/great build! How's the shower holding up that you made? I am considering something like this in the future, looks like it works great!

 

The shower works good, the only complaint I have is that it's a pain to keep the cans pressurized. Right now you can empty out about 5-10L (1/4-1/2) of the can before it needs to be re-pressurized. I use a small hand bike pump right now to pump them up but id like to add some sort of system with a pressure valve with a compressor to keep them at a constant pressure.

We've only used the shower system a handful of times though. And I now have a Frontrunner cabrack so I find myself throwing the water rack on the truck less and less. We have a big 2 week trip in August planned where we will be using the shower though so I might makes some changes to it before then.

On a side note, I apologize for not keeping this thread more updated. We've gone on a few adventures since I last posted a trip report on here. Including a 10 day trip to SoCal from BC, and also a few other weekend warrior trips. I will try and update that content sometime soon.

For now just some photos.




Follow me on Instagram @Leppz for all the latest photos.

 

Great trip reports. I am following your build closely as I just start on my build. I am already in dire need of suspension upgrades on my 2017 DCLB TRD Sport with just a LEER 180 canopy and a few tools in the back. Have you sourced your parts yet. I live in northern BC so I can't pop across the line to pick them like perhaps you can? Keep up the good work, anxiously waiting for your next camping report.

 

Subbed for future reading. Excellent posts.

 

Me too since I always end up looking for his camping posts!