Weekend excursion with the Family - Rockies

[Firesong]

Where to start.. Prairies of course.
Left Saskatoon with the 4 of in the Delica hauling our trailer.
Pretty loaded up, ready to get another 2 kids and begin rocking.
After leaving Saskatoon, Delica seemed to be giving off a little more
black (diesel) smoke than normal. Figured it could be the extra
weight and a bit of a head wind. Ah well. Once we got to Lloydminster
I noticed the tires on the trailer were in bad shape.
Hmm not good. We had given the trailer a lift since it was originally
a small 4ft by 4ft or so trailer about 6 inches off the road.

We made the trailer 6ft by 7ft and it was a decent bit off the ground now.
But I believe that we didn't make it equal across the leaf springs giving
us an incorrect toein. It was burning off the tires down the middle of the
tread. I picked up 2 more little trailer tires there and said whatever.

We zoomed up to Athabasca alberta to pick
up the rest of the crew and carry on after camping the night.
The plan was to skip around Edmonton, head down right south to
Rocky Mountain House and then head west near Nordegg.
Beautiful area in there with all the Rivers and Lakes.
We ended up rough camping 4 days around the Cline River off the
Abraham Lake. Beautiful area.

Our family is a bunch of geocaching, outdoorsie, love the hikes and
cold water group. We hiked, and walked and canyoned (in an easy
sense - no rapping or such) and got ourselves into all kinda cool places.
One such was just up the cline river caching, we pulled into a gravel pit
to park and whoa... A Delica L300!!! What a coincidence! I left a Delica.ca
greeting card with my info and we hiked up.
When we got back the van was still there so we headed back to camp for
supper. Funny thing was that an hour or so later.. rumble rumble.. a delica
was driving up to us. We weren't camped where you could see us. An in the
bush path buried in nice.. it was the Delica we left a card with.
Talk about coincidences! I guess we were destined to meet.
And we did, Lisa and Ted from Edmonton. They are on the site here as well.
Driving a 91 L300 5 speed.. wow
Offered a bit of stew and said to come around after they set up camp for
a beer or chat around the fire.
Great couple. They came over later on and it was a nice visit.
Our first encounter with non-saskabush people.. wait not true!! I did meet
Delicat a while back :)

We stayed in the area for a while doing our daily excursions with a base camp.
Then decided it was time to move further west.
Kabloomie.. Blew a trailer tire. lol Good spot for it though, next to a creek.
The kids went bouldering and I replaced the tire with one of my spares.

We continued geocaching through the area past the glacier up to Jasper.
We aren't all that keen on super busy parks but it was nice to have
a meal that we didn't have to cook. We were also lucky to get a camping
spot.. it was busy in the area!

We had a nice shower :) Then the next day headed up pocohontas to the
hot springs and spent a beautiful afternoon alternating from the hot to cold
pools. Great way to relax.

The Delica was running good, excellent fuel mileage pulling a trailer.
Better than normal. It's almost as if the higher altitude was allowing the
motor to run better? <any comments?>

After camping a night in Hinton we were on our way home.
Camped at Poacher's landing (one of our favorites) north of
Boyle along the Athabasca River, dropped the other 2 kids off
(replaced a couple tires) and down through Lloyd and to Saskatoon.

No problems with the vehicle, excellent fuel mileage and great memories!

Firesong

[Firesong]

More pics

[BCDelica]

Yahoo, camping BC pictures with a whole gaggle of kids. Thanks for that, kids grow up and we may live in a different part of the world, but the number one thing we miss is BC summer camping!

Cheers,
Kev

[FalcoColumbarius]

Nice trailer, FS ~ I have one similar to it. Do you have issues with backing it up?

The Rockies are beautiful countryside, especially to meet fellow delioids. I would think that less air pressure would promote black smoke, but then again ~ being a turbo it's under pressure, so .... how was the power and the temperature?

Falco.

[Firesong]

It was an excellent time. I've had lots of experience backing trailers
with a farm background and boating :) Backing it up was easy.

Power was good, mileage was good and the temp was fine.
Always made sure to idle a while before shutting it off.

It may simply be time for a tuneup, make sure timing is on.
I was going to do the valve clearances if thats something that
should be done. Always did that for my VW however these
things may have hydrolic lifters?

Firesong

[madmazda]

Well I know there is great geo caching to be had around here (Calgary) and when/if your around drop a line and lets see if we can get a few delica's out for a visit.....or a micro meet n drive someplace