October 7 – 9, 2014: About ½ hour outside Oliver, we stopped to take a look at a natural occurring phenomenon called The Spotted Lake.
The lake has this appearance because of various mineral deposits. That was the only fun for the day because about an hour and a half from Hope, BC Michael decided that Camper Dan was too tired to continue.
Camper Dan was losing speed (more than usual) going up the large mountainous hills and starting to stall again. So, we coasted back down the hill to Princeton, BC and stopped at a repair shop. The gentleman in the repair shop suggested that the rattling noise was our alternator about to go and that electric fuel pumps don’t care for the heat. You may recall that Michael replaced our fuel pump back in Calgary, Alberta. He replaced our previous electric fuel pump with a new, stronger electric fuel pump that definitely helped and got us this far. However, the electric fuel pump was added after-market and is located under the hood. Apparently they are typically located near the fuel tank where they wouldn’t get quite so hot and bothered. As it happens, the previous owner of Camper Dan left us with a mechanical fuel pump so the mechanic pulled out the electric pump and installed our mechanical pump. We also had the alternator replaced and the steering box tightened (it will need to be replaced in the future).
Since it was late in the day when we arrived at the mechanic, we ended up leaving Camper Dan and stayed in a hotel for the night. When we departed with smiling Camper Dan the next day we made it to Hope, BC. We thought we’d have a chance of seeing the salmon run (check it out on YouTube) but, the salmon hadn’t yet arrived. So, we continued west to Vancouver.
Accommodation: