By Greg Long….
Citroën Autoclub Canada held a ‘Mini Rendezvous’ at Green Lake in the Cariboo region of central British Columbia August 21-24th.
Green Lake is a long way from most anywhere but we had participants make the drive all the way from Seattle (Alfa), Marysville WA (DS), Vancouver (2CV), Nelson BC (Citroën campervan), and Armstrong BC (DS).
It took a good 7+ hours to drive from Washington State and the weather home through the lower mainland of BC was a stifling 34C/93F in stop and go traffic but the 1969 DS21 Pallas Canadian Export made it with flying colours.
The Mini Rendezvous was held at my family’s old log cabin on the lake. We have almost an acre so plenty of room for cars and trailers. Weather was simply gorgeous so had nice long morning walks on the pastoral Crown Land behind the cabin, pontoon boat trips in the afternoons while looking for underwater treasure, trail bike rides, but the most fun was towing our 1959 Shasta Airflyte “Bubblegum” trailer behind Mark Krahn’s ’68 DS21 Canadian Export model. Mark and I have a plan is to take our “Shastas to Alaska” with my 1966 DS 21 convertible as a ‘pull car’.
Mark also has an identical trailer (but in teal) that needs restoration but hopes to have it completed over the next year or so. But, before we went through all the hassle of restoring and installing a hitch on my DS we wanted to see how it might pull the Shasta (which weights approximately 1,800 lbs empty). Happy to report we got up to 50-55 mph on a short, flat road.
If you look at vintage DS photos you’ll see they pulled lots of travel trailers all over Europe.