Totems and urea.

Around 3 AM it starts to rain in Hyder and doesn’t let up until the afternoon.

It is a drive day but this is a campground with neither sewers nor a dump station.  We hook up our rigs and proceed around 8 AM to the cross-border town of Stewart in British Columbia, where there is a public dump station.  I guess I must be groggy because when the Canadian border official checks our passports I anticipate the usual questions and say we are crossing to use their dump station.  In retrospect I should have said something like "shopping" but he smiles, wishes me a good day, and we go dump and move on.

We drive north past a couple glaciers and a stretch where contractors are removing avalanche debris, and pass a place with  tents where people are collecting mushrooms.  For the next few miles we encounter more tents and permanent buildings, these with temporary signs identifying the occupants as traveling mushroom buyers.  We understand the locals don’t consider mushrooms much of a delicacy but they do grow abundantly here, and can be sold at a very nice price, frequently ending up overseas.

Heading east, we detour slightly to visit a native area known for a collection of historic totem poles.  The totems are very visible from the road.  We pull in to a dirt lot and Larry and I walk through the rain toward what looks like a visitor center or museum.  It is posted “closed” but a sign requests $5 for the privilege of photographing the totems.  We go back to the cars, dodge a wet and bedraggled dog, and continue east, to Smithers BC.  (For you Simpsons fans, Smithers is a few miles from Burns Lake.)

Smithers is, for us, civilization; our campground is actually at a golf course.  The caravan is ending in one more stop.  For some it is most welcome, for the rest, it is simply time.  Gary and Sharon have run into major problems with their 2004 GMC diesel.  Their truck and trailer had to be towed the last 15 miles and is now sitting at the Smithers GMC dealer awaiting evaluation, and it will be expensive.  Loud banging noise followed by total loss of power and no compression in half the cylinders.  [Later we hear he had to have a rebuilt engine installed.  The only consolation is that this happened on the next-to-last stop and in a comparatively urban area.]

Paul and Kathy, also GMC owners, rejoin us at Smithers after a two-day detour to a dealer because their urea sensor wasn’t working.   On modern diesels (fortunately, more modern than our 2005) urea – yes, urea – must be added to the engine periodically for pollution control reasons.  If you don’t do it the engine limits your speed and eventually shuts you down.  In Paul’s case nothing he did could convince the sensor it had enough urea so he had to get to a dealer before it stopped.  Within a few more days he also had an EGR problem.

David and Judy also have a GMC diesel requiring urea and had a check-engine light come on.  They are heading for the Smithers dealer in the morning just to be cautious.  [They, too, had to have work done, and I believe it was pollution and urea related.]