Rock Creek boondocking
I left Lethbridge with fall in full swing. My plan was to stay in Canada until after Remembrance Day, then scoot into the States, heading as far south as needed to escape the cold. But the cold was slow coming that Fall of 2024, so I ended up being able to explore a bit in the northern US reaches before heading into the desert for the winter. But RV problems balanced out the good weather, as you’ll see.
My reasons for staying in Canada so late in the season were related to the usual problem snowbirds have going to the States for winter: you can only stay 180 days (six months). I wanted to spend some time exploring the Northern States on the way back up, in weather that wasn’t winter anymore. So, a late arrival meant I could stay in the USA until early May, giving me options to explore higher terrain. As I found out my first year boondocking, late April is not a guarantee of no snow in the valleys of BC. That translates into entering the States no earlier than late October. Since then, I’ve found areas I’d be fairly confident of not finding snow in late April, so I have a little more wiggle room in terms of when I can travel.
Kikomun Creek North
I was headed to one of those areas, the Canadian side of Lake Koocanusa. The area is in a bit of a rain shadow, so its drier, and the Rocky Mountain Trench is lower, with the lake at 750m. That meant less precipitation, with snow being last to fall in the lower areas I’d be camping in. My first stop was the informal rec site of Kikomun Creek. It turns out there is camping on both sides of the creek. The south side is the formal site with outhouses and picnic tables. The road is pretty rough getting off the main forestry road, but short at least. The north side is where I stayed, being informal with no facilities beyond the occasional informal firepit. I could see a camper on the opposite bank of the creek – I was fine being on my own with no facilities. The area has a fair number of logging roads to explore both walking and motorcycling. As the weather stayed fairly warm, I went further afield with the bike, exploring some of the other rec sites in the area, including what was to be my next destination, Rock Creek.
Kikomun Provincial Park was closed for the season. Too bad, because it has a dump station that is handy for the area.
Good luck finding this site. The googles does not identify it – referring you to a private church camp to the northeast. There are several logging roads going in too – some are better for RVs than others. Despite all this, I could see the area had gotten a fair bit of use in the summer. I’d say this is a true local spot – you really need to know the area to find your way here. The only way I ever found out about it was seeing it on a map sign posted in the area, your only other clue is the BC rec site map has one of those “unlisted” spots on the map if you zoom in far enough.
Control board in hand
The weather was nice for a Canadian Fall, but eventually started to turn colder. I watched the snowline drop lower on the hills above me as the temperatures dropped – but I only had small amounts of infrequent rain. This was the beginning of my great furnace saga – of which I hope I can say it has finally ended a year later! I had noticed that my heat was becoming intermittent – with bouts of warmish and cool air, accompanied by a clicking on and off of the gas valve. Sometimes things worked fine, but it had gotten to the point that the furnace sometimes cycled on and off rapidly, not putting much heat out. I had been ignoring the problem to some extent, as every repair pretty much requires ripping the whole furnace out; an hour minimum just to start with. I knew my problem was not the sail switch I had fixed previously, as I was getting some heat. The googles suggested circuit board as the likely culprit, so while I was resupplying in Cranbrook, I picked up a new board and installed it at a rest stop just outside of town. I wasn’t going all the way back to camp just to find out my repair had not worked. Things seemed to be fine, so I resumed my boondocking.
It was not to be my only problem – I find out in that trip to resupply that I was only getting intermittent charging of my house batteries while driving. Plus, I was dealing with a slow leak tire – that had started in Baja as an add air every two or three stops to now add air before leaving every stop and check once in a while driving. I was planning on replacing the tires in the States and was just nursing them along until then.
The house battery charging problem was the next thing to look at while sitting at Rock Creek. I was annoyed that I had to bring out the generator, but there was not enough sun now to charge via solar, so I’d be listening to generator noise for an hour each cloudy day we had. The first thing I checked in the charging system was the charge controller switch I had replaced after my first winter out in the RV. I wasn’t expecting issues here, but lo! I find that the positive wire on the house battery side was loose – which would produce exactly the symptoms I had. I fixed this up, noting this was the second time I had a loose connector from Discount Solar‘s install of my panels. They had previously failed to tighten the thermostat wires enough after needing to get in there to fish through my inverter controller cables. Good company, just ended up unlucky with a sloppy installer for my rig.
Rock Snake start
Rock Snake finish
Big Larch Campground
I made it past Remembrance Day, with the weather still not being too bad. At least that was one thing I didn’t have to worry about with all the RV issues I was having. It was time to head down the USA, having done my usual food purge prep. The crossing was no issue this time, just had to give up a bit of fresh fruit/veg I still had left over, no biggie.
Seeley Lake
As the weather was still holding off on the winter snows, I decided to camp a little further north to start with, picking Big Larch Campground on Seeley Lake as my first USA stop. This US forest service campground was open year round (subject to snow) and free past Labour Day, so it suited my needs. It wasn’t the prettiest campground, having had a recent thinning of the tree cover, plus none of the sites had even a lake view. But the roads were paved with easy access to the highway – perfect for a short stay. I explored Seeley Lake, the town as well, although it was a needlessly long walk from the campground as the direct path to town was blocked by a creek and private property. The town was your typical summer resort town, reverting to sleepy logging town vibe in the winter. I never did try any food there – limited hours opening reduced my selection to nothing I wanted to spend money on. At least I spent money at the local grocery store – a pretty good store for its small size.
It was still dry but cold. I had not unloaded the motorcycle as it was too cold to go riding for me. Then my furnace issues returned for round two: same symptoms as before. A bit more googling and I decided my problem was the temperature limit switch. It was off to Butte, MT to get one of those, then down Twin Falls to install it in some warmer weather. See you down there next time!
