so jealous. Just 8 weeks to a new life.
I was meaning to ask... what happens in 8 weeks?
Anyways, I never did a trip report for my Western Canada jaunt so here it goes...
I initially intended to spend about one week trying to hit the northerly superchargers in BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan heading to Prince George first. When all the superchargers in AB and SK opened before Prince George, I decided to go in a counter clockwise direction instead in the hopes that Prince George might be activated by the time I got back to it. This proved to be a wise decision as when I finally got back to PG, I serendipitously arrived to see the Tesla tech activating the supercharger!
One week is longer than I would normally spend to drive 2800 miles, but with the short days and cold weather, I figured I'd try to take it easy and do most of my driving during daylight hours. Of course, I ended up doing the trip in 4.5 days spending only 3 nights in hotels
Anyways, the rough path for the trip was Seattle-Osoyoos-Salmon Arm-Invermere-Calgary-Swift Current-Saskatoon-Prince George-Seattle.
Day 0-1 started with me getting a late start on a Saturday. Left Seattle around 7pm with my first new superchargers being Vernon and Salmon Arm, BC. Right before I left, someone posted that they thought the Osoyoos supercharger might have been turned on so I added that to my path of travel. This turned out not to be the case, but I didn't mind the detour as it only added about an hour and kept me on safer, lower elevation roads. I had to do a long charge in Entiat, WA to be sure I had enough to make it to West Kelowna, but it wasn't too tough and despite being the middle of the night when I crossed into Canada, the temps were slightly above freezing and the roads were mostly dry the whole way up to Salmon Arm. I briefly considered getting a hotel for ~7 hours in Kelowna, but since the road conditions were decent and I wanted to get on a morning lark driving schedule anyways, I decided to forgo the option of paying for a relatively expensive Saturday night hotel room and drove through the night instead.
Salmon Arm to Revelstoke turned out to be a somewhat tricky stretch as it was just after sunrise and temps were below freezing. Weather had been dry for a while but the road goes along lakes and rivers which had fog and steam coming off them and this moisture made the roadway slick at times. I drove slowly and made it without incident, but I am starting to understand why BC requires winter tires on these highways from October through April (I was a rebel with my all seasons but at least I was watching the weather closely and driving slowly when prudent). Revelstoke to Golden is another high elevation stretch but as I drove east, the climate dried out and even though it was cold, the roads from here on were bare and dry.
The diversion down to the new supercharger in Invermere turned out to be almost no diversion at all as the road between Golden and Banff was closed for some reason (construction?!?) and all the TCH traffic was getting diverted to Radium Hot Springs anyway. After hitting the Invermere supercharger, I drove through a scenic national park to reconnect with the TCH near Banff. I charged in Canmore and ate at the nearby Boston Pizza and realized that I would hit Calgary around sunset so I decided to get a room there. I was tired, but I wanted to be sure to get out of the mountains before I stopped driving for the day and that turned out to be a good decision as there were a few icy spots where the TCH is in the shadow of some large mountains and doesn't get any sun all day. The rest of the highway was bare and dry as it was very sunny and the climate is quite dry on this eastern slope of the Rockies.
On
Day 2 I woke up in Calgary after having slept 7pm-5am. I normally sleep through the FREE hotel breakfast but this time I was the guy waiting for it to open at 6am
I showered and packed up my car between 5 and 6, then I ate, and hit the road before sunrise. This was a very cold morning, around 10F. I think I saw as low as 7F and there were some sub-zero temps in the area. But I was on the Prairies now and the roads were clear and dry. I made a brief charging stop in Bassano, then a longer stop in Medicine Hat. Unlike my Transcanada trip a couple months prior, the Starbucks near the supercharger was open this time so that was a nice place to hang out for a long charge.
The reason for the long charge is that I was diverting southward to hit the Saskatchewan high point before reconnecting with the TCH at Maple Creek. This diversion involved ~50 miles of *very desolate* gravel roads. In the two hours I was out there I saw only one farmer in an F-450 and one semi delivering a load of hay. The roads were no problem for my Model S as they were totally dry with the exception of a couple snowy/icy patches in shaded areas. There were some steeper parts on the Saskatchewan side that might have been a challenge in snowy or muddy conditions. Had that been the case, I probably would have retreated back to Medicine Hat via the Alberta roads which were nice and flat.
The high point itself is in a nearly flat cattle grazing range. Fortunately it was only ~200 yards from the road, so I simply slid under the barbed wire fence and trespassed to the high point which literally had a snow-covered cow patty on top. It was flat enough that I couldn't be sure of where the exact high point was but I used my iPhone compass app and some precise lat/lon coordinates provided online by an actual mountain climber so I felt fairly confident I was in the right spot.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I did a short charge in Maple Creek and a long charge in Swift Current where I spent some time in the lounge chairs in the "mall" just before sunset. Then I drove on the farm roads up to the Yellowhead Highway and Saskatoon where I would spend the night. My arrival in Saskatoon was somewhat inefficient as I had never been there before and didn't figure out where I would stay until I got there. I also ate at the Boston Pizza near the supercharger where the staff was quite friendly and I got to talking when I should have been more focused on just eating and getting to bed. (For those who have not done a Tesla road trip in Canada, seemingly half the superchargers have a Boston Pizza nearby which I find hilarious) I ended up staying at the Hampton Inn which was also right near the supercharger.
Day 3- I slept roughly 11pm-7am, ate the hotel breakfast and hit the road just after sunrise. About a mile down the highway, I realized I had forgotten to grab a coffee for the road. Like I said, I normally skip the hotel breakfast so this is a new luxury for me. But fear not, there was a Tim Horton's near the supercharger in North Battleford where I enjoyed what they call a "mocha" (probably similar to a Dunkin Donuts mocha, but still not a mocha in my opinion). At Lloydminster, I did a long charge and enjoyed another meal at Boston Pizza (I am a platinum rewards member at this point!). The main reason for the long charge was to avoid the somewhat inconveniently located Edmonton supercharger which I had already charged at on a previous trip.
I arrived at the Edson supercharger and lo and behold, it was in the parking lot of a Boston Pizza. I was not hungry but Game 6 of the World Series was in progress so I figured I could grab a drink or dessert while I watched some of the game. Like some kind of bad Canadian joke, all of the 20 TVs were on the Blackhawks/Canadiens hockey game. When I politely asked if they could change one of the TVs to... you know... the WORLD f***ing SERIES, they said they could not as there were customers watching the hockey game (between two of the worst teams in the NHL no less). On principle, I felt the need to appeal to the manager where I learned that there was some glitch with their TV system and all the TVs had to be on the same channel. This was disappointing, but at least made the refusal to change one of the TVs for me make some sense.
I continued on to Jasper unsure of where I would stay for the night. Temps on this Alberta stretch of the trip were actually the warmest of the trip, in the 40s and even 50s. It was cooling down now after sunset and especially as I rose in elevation as I was driving back into the Rockies, but the roads were clear and dry so I decided to continue on towards Prince George.
The other motivation for continuing was that the stretch from Jasper to Quesnel via Prince George was longer than I could do on one charge so I would have to use one of the public chargers along the way at some point. At this point, it was starting to look like Prince George might be active, but I had to plan for the worst. So I called ahead to a couple hotels in McBride and decided that I would try to check into one of them if I could get the Chademo to work. After about 15 minutes of struggling, I was indeed able to get the McBride Chademo to work. The claim that it was Chargepoint compatible proved to be false, but the BCHydro app was relatively easy to set up and after that it worked flawlessly. While charging, I braved a 40mph wind and walked the half mile to the Sandman Motel to check in. It was not nice, but it was good enough. They also had standard outlets in the parking lot for block heaters so I plugged into one of those to get my 90-100% charge so I could be sure I would make Quesnel if the PG supercharger was not yet activated. Here I slept 2am-10am and got back on the road heading to Prince George in the morning.
Day4-4.5: On the way to Prince George, I noticed quite a few cars and a semi spun out and/or off the road. I was not sure if this was all from the morning drive, but it's definitely possible that the roads were icy around sunrise, so I was glad I was able to get that room in the sleepy town of McBride. By the time I approached PG, it was almost noon and temps were around 40F with wet roads so no problem at all. I was very happy to find the supercharger up and running with the Tesla tech still bolting up a few of the bollards. I decided to celebrate by treating myself to a 1-hour break from the driving by driving across town where I actually found a very nice coffee shop. Then I continued south where I picked up new superchargers in Quesnel, Williams Lake, and Cache Creek.
At this point, I was still thinking I would spend another night somewhere in BC, but when I realized I could get to Merritt and then Hope before midnight, I figured I might as well see if I could make it all the way home. From Merritt, and especially Hope, southward, there was a lot of rain in the forecast, but that wasn't going to change the following day so there was no weather advantage either way. To be safe, I took a slightly slower low road from Cache Creek to Merritt going through Spences Bridge. Unfortunately I arrived in Merritt just after 10pm. Every single eating establishment in the entire town had conspired to close at that hour. Even the Boston Pizza near the supercharger inexplicably closes at 9pm. Then I arrived in Hope just after everything closed there. I didn't want to grab food in Abbottsford right before crossing the border, so I actually ended up going hungry all the way until I got to Seattle, which probably isn't the worst thing since it's actually easier for me to stay awake when I'm hungry vs. going into a food coma. I had an uneventful border crossing at Sumas and then stopped for one last charge in Burlington before driving through the blustery, warm weather (as high as 60F in Mount Vernon at 3am!).
I arrived home safely around 4am.
