Gear for a Road Trip around British Columbia
Essential gear for a road trip around British Columbia
Jackery Solar Generator: We pull into our campsite after several days in the remote wilderness around the Burnie Glacier. Excited, I open my computer to begin going over the footage and photos from the last few days. A black screen stares back at me; my computer is dead. Thankfully our Jackery 1500 is fully charged, and I am able to begin charging my Macbook directly into its USB-C port while charging all of my other devices. While they charge I setup the two 100 watt SolarSaga panels to begin re-charging the Jackery and even on an overcast fall day in British Columbia I am pulling 70 watts of power from the sun and into the Jackery.
iKamper Skycamp 2.0: It is 1:45 am and the small stream next to our remote, northwest-Vancouver Island beach campsite has risen by more than a meter. The rainstorm, which has been dropping more than 40mm of water an hour for the last 3 hours, only appears to be getting worse. We are on a rocky, elevated site, so we are not worried for our safety. But perhaps more remarkable is how dry and warm we are in our treehouse-like iKamper Skycamp 2.0 hardshell roof-top-tents.
For 3500 kilometers and 3 weeks the RTTs have been our homes; each night we pull into camp with no stress about setting up our shelter for the night. It is setup in two minutes and even in a British Columbia downpour. Further they are warm, very warm, so even on a night like this one where we cannot have a fire the walls feel nigh-impenetrable. I sleep like a baby, lulled to sleep by the constant sound of the rain hitting the hardshell.
SOUNDBOKS Gen 3: We are in a remote corner of the Nass Valley following our guide Jerry down a muddy, overgrown road to one of his favorite spots for fishing the salmon run. We scramble over hardened volcanic rock to a bend in the river that, and within minutes have caught two enormous chinook. We have no cutting board, but we do have our SOUNDBOKS, which in addition to being an incredible speaker is serves as camp chair (for two), workbench, and now wilderness lunch prep-station. The salmon are cut into fillets, garnished with freshly picked chanterelles from the nearby forest, salt, pepper, and oil. A light rain begins and we open our beers, and turn on the latest Lost Tracks Playlist. This is moment we will not forget.
Ledlenser H7R Signature Series Headlamp: In the midst of an early season downpour on a remote section of Northern Vancouver Island, I am prepping dinner for the night. It is pitch black out, the wind is howling, and the rain is nonstop. Thanks to the insane brightness of the LedLenser H7R headlamp, I have no trouble seeing and concentrating on fueling the entire camp. This headlamp as well as the ML6 Rechargeable Lantern are absolute essentials on our roadtrip. The lantern played companion to many late night board and card games, as well as the perfect reading light when it was time to start winding down for the night.
Jetboil SUMO Cooking System: A tight production schedule leaves little time for breakfast. Breaking camp and making breakfast needs to be quick, and the Jetboil SUMO means I can whip up a meal in time to catch our 6 am jetboat out of Kitimate to photograph bald eagles and grizzly bears, both of whom are fishing the fall salmon run. By the time I have the water poured, igniter started, and the coffee ground, my water is boiled and ready, and minutes later we’re eating and drinking coffee.
Mountain House Meals: I love fresh food, and I adore Mountain House, which I’ve recently discovered work as a fantastic base/started for meals outside of the backcountry.
Right now we are in the middle of the Johnstone Straight in an open-air boat in an area renowned for its biodiversity, and we are searching for whales. By lunch we have seen innumerable humpback whales, sea lions, orcas, false killer whales, bald eagles, loons, and sea otters. We decide it is time for lunch and pull out our Mountain House Fettuccine Alfredo packs, and then sauté some onions and mushroom to add. The combination has our group smiling and soon swapping stories from our morning exploration.
Sēkr: On the road, one of the most frustrating things can be agreeing on a campsite. This is why we are all equipped with the Sēkr app. We easily can pull up upcoming sites prior to taking off for the day, and check on where we will camp next. Being able to check ratings and photos allows us to easily decide on a site and take any unnecessary stress off our minds.
