Road To A Million Ep. 3 - Mile Zero, Victoria

Day 7: Whitehorse to Liard River

Okay. I left Dawson City yesterday and camped in Whitehorse last night, so I'm making my way back into BC. I'll probably get there at some point today. But first I wanted to show you what some of these remote chargers look like up here in the Yukon.

The first stop of the day, at Johnson's Crossing on the Alaska Highway: a single charger, a couple of outhouses and not much else.

This is what we're looking at right now. A couple of broken-down vehicles. There's nobody else out here. There are some outhouses, which is really nice. I'll definitely make use of those. But let's go see if this charger works. There's only one out here, and I kind of need this one.

It's another FLO charger, so I'm sure it's not fast. No, it's not fast at all. It's only 24 kilowatts. I still don't really know what that means, but it means something. Let's just make sure it works.

Hey, it's working. 0.53 kilowatts. Oh, we're going up. Whatever, as long as it gets there. I'll wait here a minute. There is nothing else out here.

Looking at a bunch of rusted broken down vehicles.

Are these all vehicles that couldn't charge? Looks comfortable.

I'll do another shameless plug here for the guys at Drive Protected. I put their Defense+ Glass Ceramic Coating on first, then I use their Glass Cleaner, and it takes off all the bugs and all the streaks so nicely. That matters when there are no squeegees at these stops. I've come across exactly one EV charger so far that actually had a squeegee. So this has been amazing. I recommend every EV driver buy these two products.

And I've got about an hour to wait, so I guess I have time to give this car a full detail. I spent about $45 this morning at a car wash in Whitehorse after driving up to Dawson, and it still wasn't a great job. I think I was in there for 30 minutes. I didn't even get a minute per loonie. So in addition to the glass cleaner, the guys also sell a Quick Detailer. I've still got a good hour, so I may as well do the whole job and get Myles looking pretty. Smells like oranges. Smells great. Speaking of, I'm hungry.

Watson Lake, and a breaker

Okay, I've arrived in Watson Lake. I thought this was BC. No, this is still the Yukon, but this highway dips in and out of BC over and over again, so I'm a little lost. Anyway, I got here with about 6 percent charge left, so this was a very necessary stop for me. I stopped here on the way up too, and it's all good. It just takes a long time. I'm only getting about 37 kW right now.

But I'm only charging at all because, when I arrived, the FLO charger was down. The screen wasn't showing up. Nothing happened when I plugged in the vehicle, or anything else. There was nothing I could do.

Thankfully, I got here during business hours, because the charger is beside the visitor centre. I went inside and asked the ladies if they had any idea how to help me. They didn't, but they had a sheet of paper that I guess the people who set up this charger gave them in case this ever happened. So they came outside, unlocked the breaker box and flipped the breaker. It took a couple of minutes, and then it was operational again.

Without this stop, I'd be parked here overnight for sure. The next charger is over 200 km away, and I only had about 30 km left. I could have gone to the RV park, I guess, but they only have wall chargers there, and that's something like 1 percent an hour. I'd have been here for three days just to get to the next stop. So I'm very thankful to these ladies for helping me out.

In the meantime, we've got about an hour and a half to kill. There's a little thing in town called the Sign Post Forest. People bring their old licence plates, street signs, city signs, whatever they can steal, I guess, and they put them up downtown in a little forest. I'm going to take a walk through there and grab some footage for you. Enjoy.

Days 8 to 10: Back to the Superchargers

Back across the border into northern BC, Ron stops at Pink Mountain, the diesel-generator BC Hydro site he charged at on the way north.

Just back in the land of BC Hydro and diesel-generated EV chargers. This is the BC Hydro station I was telling you about. It's diesel-generated, I believe. You start the generator, then you start the charger, hook up to their app, and it starts charging.

This is what it looks like. There are some solar panels on top. I have no idea what those power, but as soon as you press "start generator," you can hear it going. The exhaust comes out the back here. It's really hot over here. This side can do up to 50 kW and the other side does 25. I don't know exactly what that means, but this one's twice as powerful, I guess.

Call it ironic, or whatever you want to call it. I'm very thankful for them. Otherwise there's no way you could make it up here, so I'll keep using them.

Myles flashes a reminder on the screen while Ron waits.

Why are you always blinking at me? Go faster.

Out of the north

A few days later, Ron is back on the Supercharger network and driving the Sea to Sky Highway into Squamish.

Okay. It's been a few days since I last did a talking segment, so I figured I should do one today. It's been a few days since I've talked to anyone, or talked at all. It feels so different not having to stop at gas stations and convenience stores. You go to a charger, charge up, and you're gone. Not talking to anybody. Very different.

I am out of the north, and very happy to be done with that. Up there, my driving times and my charging times felt about the same. So getting back to Tesla territory is awesome. I'm getting something like 250 kW now. That's a lot more than I was getting up north. Some places I was getting about 10. So I think 250 is a lot more than 10. Check my math on that.

Right now I'm driving the Sea to Sky Highway between Vancouver and Squamish. In my opinion it's one of the most beautiful drives in the world. I've done a lot of riding all over the world, and I used to live in Squamish, and every time I do this drive I'm still blown away. You're driving past this fjord right now. Sometimes you see whales in there, and ships all over the place. A pretty beautiful sight. And now you can take in more of it, because you've got FSD. Nope, just kidding. I'm paying full attention.

I'm tired. It was a grind getting back from the north. A lot of the chargers are actually down. I had to get the ladies in Watson Lake to flip the breaker, like I said before. So there are a lot of reasons why EVs aren't the optimal vehicle for a trip up north. But down here, I don't know how many chargers I've seen already. Dozens of Tesla Superchargers, and it's been two days. In Manitoba I think we only have a handful altogether. And when I was in Merritt, BC today, there were three within one block.

Myles, stop yelling at me. I don't know why he always does that.

Weekend traffic on the Sea to Sky can be atrocious. There seems to be at least one accident out here every weekend. According to my iPad, I'm at 9,126 km. Not quite 1 percent of the million we're going for yet, but we'll get there.

I'm going to stay a couple of days here in Squamish. Then I'll hit the ferry to Vancouver Island and head to Tofino, Kilometre Zero, as per Eric's request.

I've been doing some camping, some hotels, anywhere to stay. I stayed at Liard River Hot Springs one night, which was really nice. I soaked for the evening before I went to bed. Otherwise it's just a grind: driving and driving and driving. Even though I've got 99 percent of this trip still to go, I'm pretty excited.

I'm also going to treat Tesla Superchargers like a treasure map and try to hit as many of them as I possibly can. So stay tuned and see how many I can do in two years. I think Canada has fewer than 300 altogether. I'm sure the States has thousands, so if I ever make it down there I can rack up some good numbers. But here in Canada, the most I can do is about 300, and I think I've done 25 so far. Still room for improvement.

Full Self-Driving: I'm absolutely loving it. I didn't think I would at all. I thought I'd be quite mad. The iPad tells you everything, so I can see how much I've used it. Okay: 88 percent of this car's life so far has been on FSD. I'm very much liking this car. I didn't think I would be.

Sleeping in the back hasn't been the greatest yet. It's a bit tight. I'm, like, six foot. Not really, 5'10". But even for me, my feet are touching the end of the trunk and my head is against the front seat. It's still pretty good, though, and I hope to do a lot more camping once it warms up. There are certain places on Vancouver Island where I definitely plan on camping a lot. Big curve coming. Big curve. Got to brake.

Days 11 to 13: Squamish

Ron takes a break in Squamish. Myles still gets out: short Supercharger stops around Metro Vancouver one day, and a run up to Whistler the next.

Day 14: Mile Zero

Good morning. I'm on the ferry over to Vancouver Island right now. Originally, Eric and I both thought Mile Zero, Kilometre Zero, whatever you want to call it, of the Trans-Canada Highway was in Tofino. I recently discovered that it's actually in Victoria. So I'll hit Victoria first, then head over to Tofino for the night. I found a nice camp spot. From there I'll make my way to the Sunshine Coast and back to the mainland. I can't go any further west, so I'm assuming I'll be going east. Let's see what Eric's next challenge is after I get to Mile Zero in about 40 minutes. I'll keep you posted.

All right, I just arrived at Kilometre Zero. Here in Victoria it's called Mile Zero. Victoria, not Tofino. Not to be confused with Tofino. So I guess this is the westernmost point of the Trans-Canada Highway. There's also a Terry Fox statue here. Arguably one of Canada's greatest heroes. Let's go take a look.

So this is the start, or the end, whichever way you want to look at it, of the Trans-Canada Highway. I'll give Eric a call and see what his next plans are for me.

The call with Eric

I told Eric I'd made it to Victoria, and that this is where Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada actually is, not Tofino. He laughed. "That's how much I know about the West Coast." You learn something new every day.

He asked how the drive was. Good. The ferry ride was beautiful, about an hour and a half, and they let you sit in your car the whole way. I also found out Myles has Netflix, which is fantastic, so I pretty much watched Netflix the whole crossing. The Starlink didn't work inside the ferry. I'm guessing it's all the steel overhead. Somehow I still had Netflix, though, so that was great.

Then he asked if I was ready for my next challenge. I said, "Let's do it. What am I doing? I'm at Mile Zero. I can't go any further west."

Two jobs. First, get a good picture of the car right in front of the Mile Zero sign. Second, grab a jug, fill it up with water from the Pacific Ocean, and bring it back to HQ.

I can do that. I asked if he was planning to drink some sea water. "Maybe. Maybe." Okay. I told him I'm heading to Tofino to spend the night on the beach, so I'll collect the water there. That works for him.

So I've got to pick up a jug and fill it with some Pacific water. I've still got to take the picture with the car, too. It's not great for parking around here, but I'll figure something out. Then I'll make my way back to Manitoba. That should take about four days: three days getting off the island, and I'll stay here a couple of nights. We'll find out. Enjoy the rest of the road.

- Ron (the driver) & Myles (the Model 3)

By the numbers

• Distance, Whitehorse to Tofino: 3,991 km over eight days
• Odometer at the end of the leg: 10,131 km, just over 1 percent of the way to a million
• Driven on Full Self-Driving: 82 percent of logged driving (88 percent over the car's life so far, per Myles)
• Energy used: 558 kWh logged, at an average of 149 Wh/km
• Fast-charging sessions: 44 (38 Tesla Supercharger, 6 third-party)
• Average session: 50 minutes at a third-party charger, 7 minutes at a Supercharger (short Supercharger stops are on purpose: Ron is collecting as many sites as he can)
• Time plugged in at fast chargers: 9 hours 20 minutes
• Breakers flipped by visitor-centre staff: 1
• Coldest and warmest: 7°C on the way out of Clearwater, 26°C in Squamish
• Provinces and territories driven: 3 (YT, BC, and back through AB via Grande Prairie and Jasper)

Next time on Road To A Million

Ron heads home to Manitoba, and Eric has a northern assignment waiting: stop at Little Limestone Lake and get some good footage, go up to Thompson and charge to 100 percent, then drive as far north as he can until the battery hits about 53 or 54 percent, and turn around.

Follow along on the live Road To A Million tracker.