Winter Camping in B.C.

[abacusblack]

Who says you can`t use your "B" in the winter? You just have to be tricky. Here we are at "Cariboo R.V. Park in Burnaby B.C. It was just before christmas and Santa had brought us a white Christmas and minus 13 degree temps. We hung new insulated moving blankets over the back door area,windshield area and the side doors when we went to bed. We used the furnace and an electric fireplace to keep us warm. All the heat rises to the roof so we were actually too hot in the upper bunk of our Islander. Geronimo, ( our American pitbull terrier) was cozy in the dinette with a down comforter. The park has full cable tv,internet, a huge indoor swimming pool,a whirl pool,gym, game room, recreation lounge ,huge store and beautiful wooded trails, ( The Working Forest) to walk your dog that leads to Burnaby Lake. All this is right in the city. The staff worked from 6:00 am to 10m to keep the lanes clear of snow. You don`t have to suffer when Winter camping and I encourage you to try it.

[Whiskyecho]

my comment is "why in the world would you want to do that ?"

[markopolo]

Great photos! - thanks for posting them.

In the December edition of Highways magazine one of the article was titled "Hot Fun in cold places - Warming up to Winter Camping". Another article was "Yellowstone in Winter"

During the winter, traffic is lighter, campgrounds aren't crowded and the weather is stimulating.

[markopolo]

abacusblack - did you have any problem with water lines or tanks freezing?

[abacusblack]

Hi Marko. Sorry for posting in the wrong section. I had winterized the toilet and water lines and hot water tank with anti freeze and drained the water tank. We used bottled water, paper plates and plastic utensels. The water tank is inside so it probaly would have been ok. The R.V. Park has advised everyone to use heat tape whe the temp dropped below minus 13. They even left instructions where to buy the tape and how to install it. We were so close to the clean washrooms and showers that it was not a problem. You are right Marko there were only a few rv`ers that were doing contract work in the area and the regular monthly tenants. Everyone was friendly and cheerfull and we just returned from a second visit this friday.

[renrut]

The pictures do look nice abacusblack. It looks nice and peacefull.

When we travel long distances, we usually take the RV. It's a lot more comfortable than taking our van (family of 5 and 2 dogs). We've travelled a few times in the winter but usually camped in truck stops, rest areas and Walmart parking lots. Our RV is well insulated and keeps quite warm with the furnace. I put at least a full gallon of antifreeze in the waste tank and have a battle of antifreeze handy to "flush" the toilet if we needed to use it. For water, we just used a water jug filled from home.

Back in 1997, we travelled from Nova Scotia to Southern Ontario for Christmas and New Years. It was quite nice until we hit the big ice storm. I had well over an inch of ice all over the RV. There was so much extra weight, the RV had a hard time going uphill. I have pictures at home I may post. We ended up travelling along the I-90 to keep South of the main icing. When we headed North through Main, the icing was very bad. Beleive me, when the Interstate said Minimum Speed of 45mph, they were not kidding. Any slower and you would slide into curves. A lot of people were in the ditch from that.

The main thing I don't like about winter camping is the salt all over the roads. My RV is a 1977 and it's lasted this long and I wouldn't like to see it rust away from all the road salt. I've had it rust sprayed several times when we've used it in the winter to help with the salt.