Crossing Canada with FREE camping: Ontario to BC in the FALL

Are you considering driving your RV from Ontario to BC in mid to late fall? Be sure to watch this first. We'll show you how to save money crossing the country quickly and safely. This is how we towed our trailer from Ontario to BC during late fall without stopping at any traditional campgrounds along the way. The total journey was about 4,300 kilometers and took us seven days. Keep in mind that if you travel this way you won't be using normal utilities like electricity and water hookups. We had a small generator to help charge our battery and we were very conservative with water. We didn't refill our 48 gallon fresh tank nor empty our 30 gallon gray and black tanks at any point along the way. And since it was so cold we also went through about two and a half 20 pound propane tanks for heating. We left Waterloo Ontario in mid-October in a race against the approaching winter weather that typically hits the Rocky Mountains around that time of year. The first day we drove from Waterloo to Sault Ste. Marie Ontario which doesn't look very far on a map but this is actually a 760 kilometer journey that took us a full eight and a half hour driving day. We tried to keep most of our driving to daylight hours but we did often arrive at our destinations after sunset. Well I'll tell you this was not an easy Walmart to park at. There's already maybe six or seven RVs parked out here, a big truck, and we just couldn't find a good spot for a big long trailer. Mel helped me back it into a spot that we think's okay. It's important to note that not all Walmarts allow overnight parking. We called ahead at each one and asked one if they allow overnight parking and two the preferred location in the parking lot which is usually at the back or on one of the sides. So this was our campsite turned out to be pretty quiet pretty decent so we had a good sleep and we're getting on the road. Remember if you're staying in a store parking lot not to block any of the customers from parking and try to leave before it gets busy in the morning. Day two brought us from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay a 630 kilometer trip taking about seven and a half hours. It was windy and rainy at first but the weather cleared up just in time for us to arrive at a very unique boondocking location just north of Thunder Bay. If you've never stayed the night outside of a traditional campground before be sure to check out our boondocking 101 video. We are literally right at the water's edge. We've got our big window facing out towards the water. Our battery was running a little bit low so we fired up the generator. It's pretty loud. We're really disturbing the peace and tranquility of this spot. The third day we had pretty minimal driving of 150 kilometers and two hours since we stopped and I hiked up the Even though we were in a hurry this was a hike I really wanted to do and it was well worth the stop. Afterwards we stayed the night at our favorite local retailer. It's a very cold morning in Thunder Bay Ontario and we're at the local Walmart and we have kind of a unique little spot. It looks like it was an old gas station covered so we didn't get any frost on the window. There was quite a number of RVs here. Better stop yapping and get on the road. Day four started very cold and it had snowed overnight. We broke up the 925 kilometer or 10 and a half hour drive from Thunder Bay Ontario to Brandon Manitoba by stopping at a few attractions that weren't too far off the highway. So here is Dryden's big attraction. It's a big moose. Max the moose. There's also a bench with an eagle. It's cold so Mel is running. We're at the center of Canada. We continued in our tradition of wally docking which is of course just boondocking at a Walmart parking lot. It's been a long driving day but we made it to Brandon Manitoba and we are staying again at Chateau Walmart. Day five we drove from Brandon Manitoba to Brooks Alberta, a journey of about 940 kilometers taking roughly 10 hours. We learned that you can use a lot more fuel driving east to west than when you drive west to east. So we've really been wondering about our fuel economy heading back from east to west. It has dropped crazy. We were getting about 26 liters per hundred kilometers or nine miles per gallon west to east and now we're only getting like 35 liters per hundred kilometers or seven miles per gallon. You lose a lot of your fuel economy if you're driving into a headwind. And another tip we've had is that if you drive earlier in the morning there's less wind so try and get a really early start on the road. That can help save some fuel economy. Just remember to budget a little bit more for the trip from east to west. And we stopped at another roadside attraction. We are in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and this is Mack the moose. And he's the world's tallest moose. And it is chilly chilly out here. I think it's about minus five. So this is Mack the moose. All right let's go back in the trailer and have some lunch. It's freezing. On day six we headed from Brooks Alberta to Kamloops BC, an 820 kilometer 10 hour trip. We learned not to underestimate how cold it can get in the prairies in late October. Went down to minus nine or lower last night. So we have ice on the inside of the RV. Burr. So how's the driving going? It's a bit slushy in spots and it's foggy and so visibility is a little bit poor. And we've already seen a student driver spun out. So we're just going slow and keeping lots of distance. We have one other problem is that our water doesn't seem to be flowing. So we think we might have a frozen line. So we just stopped trying to use the water at all. We've got the heat on in there. We're going to try and warm everything up and fingers crossed we don't actually have a cracked line or something like that. Thankfully the weather improved. It's gone from minus eight in Calgary to now plus three degrees celsius. So practically summer. I see a little bit of dark cloud ahead so we might have some snow in our future. And then we experienced a great example of how quickly the weather can change in the mountains. Well we wouldn't be driving through the mountains if we weren't going to experience every season possible. Now we're back to full-on winter. We've seen one accident already. The left lane is starting to get snow covered. So we are going extra slow, extra careful. We've got a tractor trailer kind of halfway in the middle of the road up here. He's chaining up. This guy I think thought he was just gonna speed up on past everyone. Thankfully we made it safely through the two major passes without incident and found a place to stay in We have found ourselves in a parking lot again. This time a Costco. We weren't sure. We couldn't find any information if we could park here but Mel went in and asked one of the people there and they said it was okay. Day seven was a short driving day due to our decision to stop in Kamloops before heading back to Hope. Good morning. So last night we were only two hours by google from home but we had been driving the entire day probably about 12 or 13 hours. We were both pretty tired and we looked at the weather report and they were calling for possible flurries up over the Coquihalla. So we decided you know maybe let's just stop for the night. We can't stress this enough. It's always better to stop and rest rather than push on through bad weather or if you're feeling tired. And because we weren't rushed we were able to take the long way home and enjoy some beautiful scenery along the way. Our final leg was 275 kilometers and took about three hours. So that's how we crossed Canada in seven days from Ontario to BC in late October with our trailer not paying a single cent for campgrounds along the way. If you enjoyed this video we'd really appreciate if you could give us a like, subscribe, hit that notification bell, and share this video with your friends. And in the meantime keep on living the life you've imagined. Today we are in Moose Jaw, Ontario. No we're in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Doesn't she look comfy? Nice fresh air. All right Mel's cold so we're getting back on the road. Now it's going.