Hey everyone -- we finally got the 17B home. It was a 12-day 2,800 mile adventure. We had originally planned to do this in July, but ETI moved our date up and it became an option to do some skiing on the way there so we took 2 weeks off so we could ski at 7 ski resorts along the way for our skinorthamerica100.com project.
Day 1: Drove to Government Camp, Oregon from Fremont, 640 miles. We had 3 ski resorts we planned to ski for the project there: Mt Hood Meadows, Timberline, and Mt. Hood Ski Bowl.
Day 2: Skied Mt. Hood Meadows. Windy and warm with almost spring skiing.
Day 3: This was Valentine's day so we skied Timberline and had lunch at the Timberline Lodge which was very cool. Mt Hood Skibowl is only open at night weekdays, so after starting at 9AM and skiing all day at Timberline, we put our boots back on and started skiing again at 5PM at Skibowl until 10PM. (first photo)
Day 4: Drove from Government Camp to Penticton, BC. Rained the WHOLE way. There was never a moment that it wasn't raining. Much of the way it was right at freezing so I had to watch for freezing rain. Penticton is a nice town with a great Sushi place that just opened the day before. We only stayed there one night.
Day 5: Skied Apex Mountain. Wonderful place. Drove to Kelowna after and stayed there 2 nights.
Day 6: Skied at Big White
Day 7: Skied at Silver Star and drove to Kamloops after.
Days 8 and 9: Skied at Sun Peaks 2 days in a row. Drove to Chilliwack after skiing on the 2nd day.
Day 10: This is the big day. We had our orientation at 11AM and were on the road by 1:30. We kind of rushed it because we wanted to get to Seattle by 6PM if possible. We got in the WRONG lane at the border crossing. They were training someone and our lane was taking 3X as long as the other one. Took us about 75 minutes to get through. Sarah from ETI called us asking us where we were because the trailer was waiting for us at Bob's. (second photo) The driver only had to wait about 15 minutes though because he left after we did. Traffic in Seattle was EPIC and it was dark and raining so some stress ensued. We didn't make 6PM but weren't too late. Getting the trailer settled in our friend's driveway which was pretty severely uphill was interesting. Our first night in the trailer we listened to rain on the roof. 33F outside but cozy inside. (third photo)
Day 11: Drove to Valley of the Rogue SP in southern Oregon. The trailer tows effortlessly at 70 MPH. The diesel Touareg we have is great on gas and I was getting 18.2 mpg (display is close to accurate but a little low usually so call it 18.4). I wanted to see how trailering at higher speeds would go and was very pleased. That night was well below freezing and there was ice on the storage box in the morning. I was a bit concerned about Siskyou summit for the following morning because the road condition said "Snowing heavily".
Day 12: Drove back to Fremont. It was snowing lightly over Siskyou summit and 24F, but there wasn't any snow on the road so it was a non-issue. Snow level was down to Medford. I had to slow somewhat (to 65) once we passed into California. Yes, I know the speed limit in California is 55 with a trailer, but tell that to the commercial truckers! CHP doesn't really notice unless you are doing something stupid. I got some B20 diesel in Oregon the day before which isn't as good on MPG but we did get 19.2 on the first leg which is very hilly but with a net elevation loss of about 1,500 ft. The last leg on Diesel #2 on completely flat roads got us 20.5.
Backing the trailer into our very tight storage spot wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My measuring paid off. (last photo)
Love the 17B. It works perfectly for the 2 of us and I'm so impressed with the quality and workmanship.
Our time in BC was fantastic. Literally every single person we had contact with was very friendly and helpful. One retired ex-schoolteacher lady we met at Sun Peaks offered to put us up in her house when she found out we weren't able to find lodging in Sun Peaks and had to commute to/from Kamloops. This was after knowing her for all of 15 minutes. Amazing people and place. We miss it already.
So part 1 (get the trailer) is now done. On to part 2 (use the trailer). Thanks for all the help and discussion on this forum.
Don't know what's going at the border these days. Yesterday the NEXUS lane was backed up further than the non NEXUS lane.
Linear Mode
