Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

As a new Delica owner and a new member to the forum I wanted to share updated information. I did some research on how to get to Clear Creek H.S. on the east side of Harrison Lake. To my surprise most of the info (on various forums) was several years old. So it was left to my Backroads guide book and my ol' delivery senses to figure it out.

Prologue: It has been many, many years since I was off-road and none of them here in BC. I read about Clear Creek H.S. and all the public info was the same; take this dirt road to that dirt road, that dirt road is 4-wheel drive only and will take you to the hot springs.

So it was yesterday (Nov. 10), a beautiful sunny day, that we decided to go check it out. I was not sure of road conditions being that we've had a lot of rain lately but we went off with the attitude that we will only go as far as we feel comfy with.

I am sad to say that we almost made it. Without accurate mileage, my guess is that we were within 1-2 km of the springs. But being it was getting late in the day and we were a solo vehicle, we figured that not going on was the better part of valour. What stopped us was a slight uphill climb (1.5m) but with 2 badly placed big rocks surrounded with coarse sand. My only excuse - street tires and a desire to not get stuck. Good enough I do believe.

The Roads In: The East Harrison Service Road is an easy drive (hard pack with embedded rock), the Clear Creek Road is 4-wheel drive - as of this post it was not too muddy. The road is mostly hard pack sand and gravel. Uphill bits are sandy with rock (multiple sizes). There are culverts cut into the road for drainage, these are not too deep to navigate. There were at least 3 spots with water (small creeks) flowing over the road - they were never more than a few inches deep w/ rock base. Our street tires managed these surfaces fairly well - knobs would have been much nicer.

I do have to say that I was impressed with Shaun Van Ramen's abilities in the rough stuff. Only had to lock into 4L three times (once uphill and twice down hill). We are now looking forward to more off-road and camping adventures.

Nice !

I'll go there this weekend to see the route all the way.

Looks clean :)

Great! Would love to hear your travels. If you can, make note of the distance on the Clear Creek Rd. to the hot springs. I know I went 11km in.

will do

jesse
http://bb.bc4x4.com/showthread.php?1056 ... ot-springs
http://bb.bc4x4.com/showthread.php?1403 ... rings-open
elevation 2960 ft, may be below the snow but it was down very low Thursday.

What day are you going. I can get away Sunday morning.

Bring a bathing suit
Wayne
TLGF

Hi Wayne

Same. Sunday is open.

Anyone else care to go for a ride ?

Guys n Gals I need a passenger too.
Wayne
TLGF

Jesse
Lets meet for coffee in Mission at 7:30 at Tim Hortons- 33291 1st ave. Anyone else interested??

Google the Timmys location, easier than explaining. It's only a block off the beaten path and 2 hours away from the hot springs. Other meet locations??

Wayne
TLGF

see this thread is one of the million reasons I WANT to move to the coast....

So, what's the good news? Did you guys get out that way on Sunday? I am heading to Harrison on Friday for the night. I might go for a drive Saturday morning up that way if it's passable.

I wasn't able to make it. Hopefully Wayne got my msg.

Guys
We'll have to plan that trip again in the spring. Busy time of the year.
Bassn.. you might see snow on your trip, but have fun. I'm fishing on the Squamish R. Saturday.
Wayne
TLGF

I've been there (not in a Delica) about 10 years ago and at that time it was pretty rough going. I went with the herd of turtles guys and there were a few nearly stock trucks (an F350 I remember in particular) that almost didn't make it. I don't know how an F350 would compare in offroad capability to a Delica as I've never driven one off road before. I also don't know what the road looks like now but from the picture of that fording area I'd say they've smoothed it out? As for the hot springs it was weird. There was a big concrete pool area that hippies had supposedly made back in the early 70's, and then a mish-mash of tubs and old barrels stacked all over the place with PVC pipes running off into the bush. The water wasn't super stinky like some of the other hot springs I've been to, but everything had about 8" of green algae goop growing in the bottom of it (I'm assuming you scoop it out before hopping in?) None of the people I was it scooped out green stuff they just hopped in, I guess I'm just a pussy. Anyway, it was a fun drive but the hotsprings where kinda meh. If you can ever get to the north end of Pitt Lake there is a remote hotspring that is all natural and much nicer to relax in (ie: doesn't look like it was built by Fat Albert and the Cosby kids.) Here is a picture of one of the pools.



Mind you, there's no way you're getting a Delica to THAT hot spring.