Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

I just got back from my B.C. Day trip to visit family in the Cariboo, and to do something different I opted to drive out to Prince Rupert and come back via the Inside Passage, courtesy B.C. Ferries and MV Northern Expedition.

Getting to the Cariboo was an adventure in itself this time. This was during the heat wave, so it was 41 in Lytton. Fortunately, Gumdrop's air conditioning works just fine. There had been a really bad accident on Highway 97 just south of 150 Mile, so a detour was called for. If you have a map of the region handy, we went along Enterprise Road, Chimney Lake FSR, Felker Lake FSR, Chimney Lake Road, Dog Creek Road, then in to Williams Lake on Highway 20. See the Cariboo Chilcotin Backroad Mapbook, maps 15 and 25 in the 2nd edition. Getting from Quesnel to Prince Rupert was the usual exercise in tedium. Highway 16 just isn't that interesting until you get to Smithers and start to see some mountains. En route we saw lots of rocks and trees. Just like the Arrogant Worms said. I was reminded of how enormous British Columbia is, and how small we are. This was half way between Hartley Bay and Klemtu. Arrival! I took a GPS fix every two hours throughout the trip. Gumdrop performed just fine. I made liberal use of air conditioning, and gave her a bit of a caning (110-115 klicks) from Campbell River to Nanaimo. If I could find a missing gas station receipt I could tell you what her fuel consumption was. It seemed the usual, 10 to 11 litres per 100 km. She kept her cool at all times.

...laura

You managed to drive right past my old place on Chimney Lake Road (Large grey shop, small log house, large grey house, and brown double wide with 2 car garage halfway down Chimney Lake all owned by the same family) and not far from the new place in Houston and Josh's in Smithers. I was out fighting fire when you went through otherwise might have seen you. Delica's are rare up here, but a few more are showing up.

I saw two Delicas in the Burns Lake to Smithers leg. One returned my wave. The other didn't. Other Delica sightings in Clinton and Port Hardy.

BC Ferries staff all seem to be Delica fans. I was first on the boat in Prince Rupert (and thus first off in Port Hardy), and the ticket agent in Nanaimo was interested in how they perform in snow. My answer: "Unstoppable!"

...laura