Elliot Lake micro islands
I was headed to the Flathead Valley in BC to try out my new Starlink mini. But would I make it there deep into the forestry roads of BC? Would the googles lead me astray? Would Starlink work under a fair bit of tree cover? Would I find any fishing holes? Join me on my adventure to remote southeast BC to find the answers to these questions and more!
I admit that after my first year out, I had curtailed my adventuring somewhat to stay mostly within cell service. It had been a novelty to be out on a bit of remote Vancouver Island coast with no cell service and barely a radio signal at night. That was just a little too disconnected, especially when a winter storm was incoming. My interim solution had been a Zoleo, which at least allowed me to get weather forecasts and communicate with the outside world in an emergency, but really I wanted full internet access to entertain myself in the evenings.
Bear Grass Flowers
Starlink allows you to go as remote as you want and remain connected, but the price has been a bit high. With the Starlink mini on sale for $399 plus $50 for 50GB in a month, it was time to spend a little more and stay connected all the time. I’d even gotten my cell phone plan costs knocked down quite a bit so the extra Starlink costs were pretty much keeping me even with my data costs. There is one big drawback for the remote boondocker using a Starlink dish. You need a clear line of sight to a good portion of the sky. For the desert, this is not an issue. For southeastern BC with thick forests everywhere, this is a challenge and does limit where you can camp and get signal. I was about to test out just how little sky I could get away with immediately.
Hunting cabin not far from a potential boondocking spot
My plan was to head for the Flathead Valley. This one of the closest remote wilderness areas to Calgary you can travel to with an RV, and it’s not north as you’d expect. The Flathead Valley has always been an out of the way corner of BC, being tucked in against the continental divide and the Canada – US border. Logging is about the only real industry that has occured in the area, although there is some coal mining along the northern edge of the area. There are only forestry roads that you have to travel many klicks down to even get to the area.
Signs at the start of Flathead Valley road.
The googles had suggested I head down “Flathead Valley Road”, which starts south of Highway 3 at Corbin (the local coal mining I was referring to). The Flathead Valley road is a BC forestry road that takes you south to the Flathead valley. I was greeted at the road start by a group of signs talking about the area, of which I was most concerned by the sign proclaiming ‘no motor vehicles’. But a pair of Jeeps were preparing to head down the road. Talking to the drivers, they asserted that rule only applied during snow season – the snow playing people don’t want vehicle tires wrecking their snow tracks.
The muddy start to the road
So on I went. I was expecting a reasonably maintained trunk road of the forestry road system. What I got was a muddy mess to start with that improved to a long ago maintained trunk forestry road. I was scouting for boondocking spots as soon as I passed the (former) coal mining area. There were a few potential spots, but I wanted to make it down the Flathead Valley. Seeing the condition of the road worsening, I wasn’t certain I was going to make it. This clearly was no longer a major forestry road taking you south into the remote logging areas.
Coal tailings over the ridge are the only clue you are close to a major open pit mine
I had remembered that the BC recreation trails guide had recommended a longer route that comes in off Highway 3 from the west. I was guessing that was the way most people came in. My ‘guessing’ was soon turned into confirmation. After going over the Flathead pass, I am stopped with a creek in front of me. That normally is not an issue if it is small and potentially fordable. This was a small creek, but in no way fordable, as it had turned and taken over the road for several hundred meters. The only thing that would be driving through here would be stout 4×4 with high clearance. It goes to show you, even with googles and most paper maps showing a basic road going down to the Flathead Valley, sometimes things change and your road is no longer good. I was a bit miffed that with all the signs at the start of the road, they didn’t have one mentioning the road outage here. Then again, they did mention no vehicles were allowed so I guess they decided that ‘no vehicles’ warning was enough to keep you from trying to get through to the Flathead valley.
Junction to turn right at. The Flathead Valley road to the left just gets progressively worse past this point.
One of my scouted spots on the way in would have to do then. After a twenty point turnaround in a tight spot, I returned to a junction that lead to an area with some hiking potential as there are a couple of mountain lakes to visit in the area. This junction would have been a great place to put up a sign warning you of the creek washout ahead. I head down the road, stopping at what from the BC rec maps looks like one of those old former rec sites I’ve talked about before. Indeed, there are the remains of a road going in, and two spots to camp at.
Too much tree cover for Starlink here
I take the smaller tight spot close to Michel Creek. There is about half sky to try out my Starlink here, whereas the other bigger spot was mostly in the trees. I figure I’ll setup and see if I can get Starlink. If I get no Starlink signal, I can move back to the more open spot I saw further back towards Corbin. I was missing the motorcycle a bit now. With it, I could have explored further away from my area to see what other spots might be around, then move over there.
Starlink first time. It looks like a lot of tree cover, but everything behind and to the left is open sky.
I had about 50% visible sky to the north, which is the direction you should be looking according to the Starlink instructions. The dish gets oriented to the north manually, guided by you moving the dish according to the apps alignment instructions. It’s a pretty cool app that maps the obstructions in your way over time as it tries to grab a satellite in a particular part of the sky. I waited somewhat impatiently – would I be moving or not tomorrow? But I knew from seeing other people’s Starlinks that you need to be patient. With partial cover the dish can take a long time to connect to the internet. I did finally connect, and good enough to remain connected most of the time. It was good enough for a bit of web surfing, and some Youtube, if you could tolerate the occasional buffering due to a lost connection. I wouldn’t want to be much below 50% open sky for a fully usable connection though.
Example of camping in the logged area. Not that ugly I guess.
Now that I knew I would be staying for a while, I turned my attention to the area around me. I was camped in the Michel Creek Valley, north of Flathead Pass. The spot I was camped on was where the former bridge crossing the creek had been, with the road continuing up to a pair of lakes on the west side of the valley. The new road was a bit to the north of me, having been built to serve some more recent logging in the area. This logging road is in good shape, with logging starting immediately west of the creek. Going across the bridge and up the road for a little evening walk, I come to a flat area that would have served as a much more open boondocking spot for Starlink. It was a lot uglier, looking at the logging remains from a few years ago, and no creek nearby either. I decided the pluses made living with a minimal Starlink connection worth it at my creek camp.
The informal parking area. Old faint road goes off to the right by the vans
Going on a little further up, I come to an informal parking area with three vehicles at it. The new logging road continues past it, but I’m not sure that is the way to the lakes. With a little exploration down the other faint track, I see it goes down to a creek ford and continues into the lakes. This would be the trailhead for most people. That was my hike the next day, coming back with a day pack to go explore up the valley and see if we could get to Barnes Lake.
The hike up is fairly scenic. The recent logging is only at the valley bottom. As soon as you get to the creek you are back in forests that look to have been logged a good fifty plus years ago. You get occasional views of the surroundings as you climb up. There are some falls you pass on the way up, from the creek that empties out of Barnes Lake. You can get closer to the falls but the old road is pretty much the best view you are going to get owing to all the brush closer to the falls. The road shows some signs of occasional 4×4 use. In fact, I passed one truck that had parked near where the road becomes a lot gnarlier.
Barnes Lake where the trail arrives
You climb out of the valley into alpine meadow country, reaching a junction referred to by the old sign in my camp. You can go right to Elliot Lake from here, or left to Barnes Lake here. There has been effort made to deactivate the road to Barnes Lake, with big berms dug up beside the road to keep you from getting to the creek ford. I did not see any vehicle tracks beyond here – this is where you would park your 4×4 for an easy hike the rest of the way to the lake.
Canoe stash found later
You get a nice walk up a trail with mixed forest and meadows going up the rest of the way to the lake. As there were vehicles at the bottom, I expected I might encounter people. I encountered an old fellow who told me that there was fishing in the lake, with a canoe available to cross the lake. But I saw no canoe there. It was possible it was being used by the group I could see tented in the distance across the lake. I went part way around the lake to either side exploring a bit. The area to the right has a trail that peters out to nothing but a steep scree slope. You want to go left, where good trails exist. With there being campers on the end of the lake going down the left way, I decided to call it a day without heading down there. I had decided I’d be back with my fishing rod, as the lake was only 1.5 hours hiking time – it would be worth a revisit to see if the fish jumping liked my lures.
Fishing rule: The best fishing is always at the far end of the lake
I returned the following day, seeing that the vehicles were now gone at the trailhead. Coming back to the lake, I no longer see tents at the other end of the lake. I’m happy to have the whole lake to myself. I did find the canoe at the end of the day, so I can confirm that exists. The fishing turned out to be pretty good, with Rainbow Trout having moderate interest in my lures. I could have taken a few fish back if I’d wanted to. Dad would have loved this spot – high alpine lakes with good fishing were his happy places. I’m not sure if he’d have come here knowing the roads you need to traverse just to get to the parking spot. The area where I saw the tents has a well established camping spot. You certainly can backpack up here for an overnight and have a spot with an informal picnic table with firepit, with the lake beside you.
You had to walk over this to get to the lake, best to just follow the “road”
I also took a day hike to Elliot Lake, following what becomes a steep rough logging road going up and over the ridge into the next bowl holding the lake. Getting to the ridge top and looking down, I was surprised to find logging going on in the area currently. In fact, I could see a pickup and a worker in the distance doing something. I had been hoping to follow the ridge down to the lake, maintaining as much elevation as possible. But the road continues down into the bowl, forcing me into it and then back up through the logging scar. I tried cutting off some of the drop going through the recent logging area, but it’s a tough slog over the disturbed ground.
Arriving at Elliot Lake
Elliot Lake is pretty, but I did not see any fish rising there. The lake is also mostly shallow, so it is possible it does not support fish. I gave it a good try, fishing my way around the lake. You can get around the lake, but there is some tough going getting through some steep terrain with dense bushes. There is one fire ring showing evidence of camping, but overall this lake gets a lot less traffic. If you only have time to hike to one lake, Barnes is the one to hit.
Main camping spot Barnes Lake
Coming back from Elliot, I was almost back at the junction of the two trails when I hear what sounds like girls chattering in the distance. I was doubting my ears, but it was confirmed at the trail junction, where I arrived at the same time as the first of a large group of girls that had been up to Barnes Lake. They must have wondered who the hell was coming out of nowhere from their perspective to pass them going down the trail as they waited for the rest of their group to catch up. I never did see more than three of them, but I assume it was a good group size judging by two large vans parked at the trailhead when I came back there.
Fish in Barnes
My aborted travel into the Flathead valley had resulted in me discovering a great spot. Without that road outage, I would have never discovered the two lakes and the nice hiking in the area. I still had almost another week before I had to be back in Calgary, so I decided to try to make it to the Flathead Valley again. This time I was coming in the recommended way. I resupplied in Sparwood on the way to Morrissey, where I turned off Highway 3 to come into the Flathead Valley from the west this time. This time the Forestry Trunk road was as expected – well maintained and wider.
Looking back from a potential spot down a partially overgrown road.
I had a longer trip in coming this way: 45km just to get to the Flathead valley, plus whatever distance I’d go exploring down the valley. I wasn’t committed to making it all the way there, as I didn’t even have a full week left before I needed to be back in civilization. That kind of distance down gravel roads would be the one time I’d try to extend my visit longer than a week for all the gravel logging road traveling needed to get there. I was scouting potential spots along the way. There isn’t that much – there are few branch roads going off and most areas are steep slopes or thick tree cover.
Road to the spot
I crossed over Harvey Pass, beginning my decent following Harvey Creek down to the Flathead Valley. The road has been mostly good up to this point, although there are some bits where you need to be on high alert for oncoming traffic. The main trunk roads are not built to highway standards and do have narrow one lane bits with restricted vision. I reach a junction where I see a little road going off into a huge meadow. Right at that point, I encounter a fellow who had just come back from the first campgrounds I was going to check out in the Flathead Valley, where Harvey Creek joins the river. He says there are spaces available but there are some people down there.
Beaver pond by spot
I’m not surprised at this. We are in the main camping season for 2025 around here – people are out for their vacations traveling farther than normal to those special places further out from civilization. I decide to check out the meadow first, as there is no one camped there. It turns out that there is a spot right up against some beaver ponds forming part of the creek. There is a nice fire pit, I have open skies, and am far enough from the road should there turn out to be some traffic. It’s a bit of a tough call, but I decide to stay here. I’ll make it into the Flathead valley proper another day when I have more days to spend there.
Fire scar near Harvey Pass
In the meanwhile, this spot on Harvey Creek is pretty good. It’s big, almost too big, as someone could come in and camp on the other end of the meadow, assuming they are plenty far away. They would be plenty far away from most people, but not me. I hoped if someone came in that they would turn at the beginning of the meadow and head down a little path to camp just above the meadow in a semi-open area. That at least had a partial screen from me, and was as far away as you could get in the area. But the area turned out to be a lot quieter than I expected. The main road only got a few cars a day. I never saw a logging truck, which made me feel better about the drive out knowing that there probably would be no trucks for at least part of the way back.
Ski Cabin near Harvey Pass
While the hiking was not nearly as good as my last spot, I did go exploring up a few logging roads. Just as well, as there was a cool summer weather system that came through and dumped some rain, and even snow at the higher elevations. This is mid-July 2025 I’m talking about. I was definitely high enough that colder weather was possible any time of the year. I decided to turn on the furnace as it was a bit chilly. To my immense frustration, I find that my furnace issues are back, again. I’m back to getting just enough heat to keep me from freezing, with the furnace burner cycling on and off on a cold-warm cycle. After screaming at the wind, I decide that at least there is a silver lining in that it’s not fall; I have time to fix this before I really need my furnace.
Ski cabin even has solar lighting
The weather warmed up again so I didn’t need to listen to the furnace not working right. I’m always wondering if the thing will die completely, leaving me to freeze. During the summer, I would just be a bit uncomfortable, but I’d be OK. I can’t tolerate an unreliable furnace when traveling in the fall awaiting my time to head to the USA. Temperatures can drop a fair bit below freezing and stay there. I’d be in danger of freezing lines if we got an early cold snap in the fall. Note that running my engine for a bit of heat will keep me warm, but it will not warm up the water lines in my RV. It will be time for a major teardown when I get back to Calgary to see if I can fix this furnace once and for all.
No boondocking either!
At least the Starlink was working great with open skies. This dish is a real game changer for my travels. This whole area has no cell connection whatsoever, I can now go exploring anywhere and stay connected as long as I can find a bit of open sky. I was a bit concerned about the power consumption of the dish. The mini takes less power, I estimate it’s drawing about 15-25 watts average in use. That is low enough that I’ll just leave it on during the day as I have plenty of solar right now to charge up. I tried keeping it running at night and did find it was a noticeable drain over a a whole night. I definitely needed a reasonable amount of sun with my 480 watts of solar to charge up again fully the next day. I’d just turn the thing off when I’m not using it, but it does take a couple to five minutes for an internet connection, so I tend to leave it on if I know I’m going to be needing a connection here and there.
Leaving the meadow on Harvey Creek
My return to civilization down the long logging road did have one vehicle encounter, but not with a logging truck. A grader was working a section of the road closer to civilization. I waited a while thinking he was coming my way – I could see him way down a stretch of straight road from where I was waiting at a junction. But the grader turned at a side road and continued grading the main road. I had to go down and follow the grader for a while until he came to a spot where he could pull over and let me pass. That added a good half hour getting back out for me. But at least the road was nice; I appreciate a bit of maintenance on the gravel roads. I returned to Calgary to get my motorcycle and deal with my furnace. Join me next time for a little Calgary adventure and round two of my summer adventures in Canada.
