A winter of camping in Squamish + tips to avoid humidity issues in your RV
The beautiful foggy Coastal Forest near Brohm Lake.
The big perk of our campsite: this private covered area that increases our living space so much. It’s not fully waterproof, but we use it a lot. We have now closed that open side with a tarp.
The girls use it a lot for stretching and strength training, Zwifting and Zoom spin classes.
Hiking the Four Lakes trail after the first snow in November in Alice Lake Provincial Park.
A rare bonfire outside on a dry night.
Jurassic-park like forest on the White Rabbit trail.
Mara learning to ski at the Whistler Olympic Park
We’ve added a couch, a propane fire ring, a TV and a Christmas tree to our shelter to make it extra cozy.
On the cliff right by our site, a 3 minute climb!
Our campsite in the snow.
Watching the sunset behind the mountains at 3:30 pm near Solstice.
For the last 7 years, we’ve spelled winter A-R-I-Z-O-N-A…This is our first winter in Canada in the bus and we decided to spend it on the «Wet Coast» during a La Nina year (more rain and colder than usual). When at least a few seasoned outdoorsy Westcoasters told us it was quite extreme to attempt to live in the bus in Squamish for the winter, I got a bit worried. I had an idea of what we were getting ourselves into, but I had never experienced a West coast winter, not even in a house. It is not a badge of honour for us to do it. It is simply a means to an end. If we had found a rental that accepted dogs and did not require a year-long lease at a price we could afford - while also paying for storage for the bus in a heated or at least dry place nearby - we would have jumped on it, but Squamish is all but affordable.
Luckily, we found this great campsite with a covered area and storage in town, so the girls are right on the trails and the grocery store is 5 minutes away. It is still ridiculously expensive for a campsite, but it was the only financially sound option for us. Our campsite is gorgeous and very private, but it’s oh so dark between a cliff and mountains, under the tree canopy (no sun comes to our site on the rare occasions that it’s out) and the rain forces us inside much more than usual. It’s tough on all of us. However, there is a covered area with storage on our site where we can sit and enjoy some outdoor time even when it rains (we’ve outfitted it with free couches (thanks FB Marketplace!), a propane fire ring, a Christmas tree and a TV and training area for Zoom spin classes!). It’s not fully waterproof, but we’re super grateful for that extra space (and storage!) it provides.
We try to go outside everyday to stretch our legs but the amount of laundry (and mud, and dirty floors) this creates is insane. One of the most amazing things about living here is that you can ski and bike (not in the snow!) on the same day by driving only 40 minutes. The girls are lucky to have teammates and a coach that are competent skiers and they have been able to try skate skiing (something they had never done given our lifestyle).
We are so thankful for our friends who figured out how to best solve the humidity issue (we thought we had a water infiltration issue, but it turns out it was just an insane amount of condensation despite already having 1 dehumidifier running!) We have found that the key to make it comfortable in the bus (and to avoid mold issues) is to have 2 large dehumidifiers running all the time, as well as a fantastic fan. We always turn on the kitchen fan everytime we cook and the shower fan during and after a shower. We also have put desiccant salt containers in every closed cupboard to avoid moisture build-up. We never have condensation in the windows or anywhere anymore, a priority to keep the mold at bay and everyone healthy and comfortable.
The weather has dipped below zero in the last week and we need to use the heaters a bit more to make the bus comfortable, but so far, it is very manageable. It takes a little more will power to get out of the bus at night and into the shelter to watch a movie by the fire bundled up in our sleeping bags, but unless the wind is howling, it is pretty cozy in there and we never regret doing it.
