Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

PHOTO ESSAY: On the Road to Stave Lake in a 2013 Honda Pilot Touring

Welcome to the fourth volume of "On the Road to..."! The deal is simple: manufacturers loan us vehicles, we drive them to sweet locations, shoot photos along the way and share that experience with you.

Welcome to the fourth volume of "On the Road to..."! The deal is simple: manufacturers loan us vehicles, we drive them to sweet locations, shoot photos along the way and share that experience with you.

Today I'm taking you out to Stave Lake, a hydroelectric reservoir just outside of Mission. It's a partially man-made lake (created in the 1920's) about an hour and a half out of downtown Vancouver and when there's not much melt happening BC Hydro opens up the gates of the dam. The water level of the lake gets so low that the locals use it for 4x4ing and ATVing, and there are actually dirt roads that go into the lakebottom. We essentially drove the 2013 Honda Pilot Touring into the bottom of the lake (very carefully, of course!) so that we could shoot this photo below. The rest are from the trip there, and from different vantage points looking at the lake.

Generally I'm not providing captions for these images but this one needs explanation. It's detail of some chain link fence art on the way to the lake! Stand a few feet back and you'll see the tiger.

Of the five new SUVs I've borrowed in the past few months, this Pilot stands out as the favourite so far. I'm a fan of the somewhat boxy exterior, and before I took it out was shown all of the bells and whistles by the folks at Honda. One of them, a particularly shiny bell which is more than just for show, is the "ECO" indicator that lights up on the dash at times when you're driving. Honda has developed a technology called Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) which turns the Pilot's 6 cylinder engine into a 4 cylinder when you're cruising, and at times it even takes it down to 3 cylinders running. This adds up to some serious fuel economy even though it's a fairly large vehicle. When the "ECO" light comes on, you know that you're saving gas (and money!) at that exact moment. Other technology in the vehicle includes bluetooth connectivity so you can listen to music from your phone as well as make and take calls, rearview camera for parking, a satellite navigation system, a DVD player with screen and controls in the back as well as a detachable remote control (my 4-year-old son loved this), a button on the key that opens that back gate, and more. Driving this vehicle was a pleasure, to say the very least.

Learn more about the 2013 Honda Pilot at honda.ca/pilot.