Road to Ucluelet

[fishchaser]

I will be towing my 33 foot boat to Ucluelet next weekend which is a wide load as well. Can anyone provide a road condition update?

 

[Pippen]

It was just fine yesterday coming back from Tofino as far as "conditions" go.

Have you driven the road before? There are some pretty tight sections along Kennedy Lake...with a wide load there are some corners I wouldn't want to meet a wide load coming the other way.

How wide are you talking?

 

[Seafever]

Hey Pippen......are those frost-heave fissures and cracks in the road still there up around Kennedy Lake......

They can be super annoying and bumpy and forcing your tires into where you don't want.......

Haven' t been up there since last year.....but every time I go they seem to be worse.....

 

[vetteman]

Hey Pippen......are those frost-heave fissures and cracks in the road still there up around Kennedy Lake......

They can be super annoying and bumpy and forcing your tires into where you don't want.......

Haven' t been up there since last year.....but every time I go they seem to be worse.....

Still there!
Dave

 

[fishchaser]

Thanks for the update, I have towed the boat there a couple times. I know what you mean hoping to not meet another wide load while making those last few turns down the steep hill. I am 10 feet wide but DOL considers that wide load. Last time I towed was the Summer of 2010 when a couple of the bridges were being rebuilt. Thaks again and tight lines for everyone.

 

[Sharphooks]

The way I minimize the white-knuckle stuff when driving to and from UKE-- I do the drive when everyone is either eating dinner or when they're sleeping.

Did it last year at 10 PM---I was all by my lonesome, except for a huge cougar I met on one of the hairpin corners. He was sitting in the road facing the bushes on side of the road. My headlights, illuminating his head from behind, resulted in creating a HUGE shadow of a cougar head in the bushes in front of him, which completely fascinated the dude.

So we sat there for at least five minutes, me closer then I've ever been to a cougar, him trying to make heads or tails of this monstrous beast coming out of the bushes on the side of the road. He kept cocking his head back and forth like a house cat, which of course made the huge shadow in the bushes mimic the same cute kitty cat moves

It was one of those moments of impossible animal closeness that we don't get too many times in life---not sure that would have happened at high-noon on the Uke campaign trail where at some of those corners you just KNOW you're going to hear the sound of metal gnashing on metal

 

[coolmc999]

No way I would tow a wide load up that road - too many crazies coming the other way and crossing centerline.

I would put in at Port Alberni and motor up. That is the big advantage of Ukee over Tofino.

At 10' you don't need a pilot car (I am over 11 and would need one) but I wouldn't do it even at 10'

Cliff

 

[vetteman]

No way I would tow a wide load up that road - too many crazies coming the other way and crossing centerline.

I would put in at Port Alberni and motor up. That is the big advantage of Ukee over Tofino.

At 10' you don't need a pilot car (I am over 11 and would need one) but I wouldn't do it even at 10'

Cliff

I agree. I worked out there for 36 years and drove company trucks in and out as well as towing my 5th wheel or boat there numerous times. There's a few logging truck drivers who really like to use the center of the road on the bends.
Dave

 

[casper5280]

I'm with Sharphooks, I tow in at night and pull up and sleep in the boat and launch in the morning. No one's on the road and it's nice and cool driving in. Then I pull out at supper.