Blue Mountain, Day Trip, Southwestern BC

This weekend we did the powerline road to Blue Mtn (the mountain formerly known as McNutt...it seems my nomenclature has been in err).

WHO WENT

TRAIL RATING:

REPORT:

As you might guess, Traci had the toughest time since her YJ had the least amount of ground clearance, aggressive tread, and articulation (swaybar was connected). She had problems at each of the three main obstacles near the beginning of the trail. About a quarter of the way through, I disconnected her swaybars (no disconnects so it was a bit difficult) which improved things a bit for her. She showed a lot of spunk but she'll need to make some basic mods to her YJ before it can tackle level 6+ trails. She said she'll start with swaybar disconnects which I think is an excellent idea. The Defender and TJ seemed to perform about the same although the TJ had a rear ls and the Defender had more ground clearance and BFG MTs.

Jonathan needed more help on this trail than the first one he ever went on a few weekends ago but it was expected because the uneven, wet rock surface made it difficult to avoid spinning a tire. Still, he did very well and many of the guys thought the TJ was quite wonderful. They were also impressed that Jonathan always tried to finesse things, first.

There's a very deep puddle about 15 metres long and in some places, over 32" deep. Chad's Ranger (mild lift, 32" tires) ingested some water and died just before his front wheels reached dry land. Needless to say, his feet got wet when he climbed out to dry land. We pulled him out, opened up the air box, and wrung his air filter dry. There didn't appear to be any water in the intake manifold and after some cranking with the coil disconnected, Doug determined that there was no water in the cylinders. The motor started just fine but ran a bit uneven. Chad was very relieved that there was no serious damage. I guess he'll be modifying his air intake real soon so it no longer draws from beneath the headlight. I drove though in my YJ with no problems. Thanks, in part, to the PVC pipe snorkel I copied from the Hansens.

I climbed the big rock steps again (in one try, I might add ) and Yen-Hsen and his dad tried to follow me. Yen-Hsen got his front tires over the rock before the front end slipped sideways and nearly pitched him on to his side. Some careful reverse spotting and he was able to back down and finally made it over after two or three more attempts while using both lockers. His dad, Nick, couldn't even get his YJ past the lower obstacle to the little step which is just before the big rock step. It kept stalling. The father & son Jeeps were nearly identical 'cept that Yen-Hsen's had a Cagle fuel regular where as Nick's did not. It makes a HUGE difference on those carbureted motors (their YJs were prior to '91 and therefore had no fuel injection). Pam Hansen did the same thing as Yen-Hsen but much faster and I thought for sure she was going to go rolling down the hill. After two scary attempts, she made it up. Dave came up next in his CJ7 but opted for the safer side of the rock step and made it up just fine. In retrospect, it was a good decision because there's no way I'd try that rock when it's wet with no locker...although the last time we were here, Rob Bryce made it in his unlocked (#*&$)@(* Comanche.

After seeing Pam's YJ trying to climb the rock steps, I'd have to say that a rear locker is better (in most cases, not all) than a front/rear limited slip. Even with my cheapo suspension, I think my rear locker, 31x10.5 tires YJ had an easier time of things than her f/r TrueTrac'd, 32x11.5 tires YJ with its Old Man Emu suspension. Of course, other considerations such as tire & drivetrain wear and icy road handling can sometimes make the limited slip diffs a better choice, too.

Hmmm...another consideration is that I have an auto tranny which I secretly believe to be a great benefit when climbing up tricky sections. And what about downhill? I replace my brakes every year.

A short while later, after playing around on some other obstacles and bumping along the trail, Chad's Ranger died again. Doug had a look at it and, after a lot of mucking about, it started again. No one, including Doug, knows what they did (if anything) to get it running again.

In total (including lunch), we spent about 5 or 6 hours on the power line trail which was about 15-20 Km long. Most of the time was spent on either Chad's Ranger or pulling the unlocked rigs. Since we had the luxury of having 2 keys to the main entrance gate, some of the group opted to leave for home while the other half continued to explore other trails.

For the second leg, these were the participants:

Larry Soo	YJ	r locker, 31" tires
Pam Hansen	YJ	f/r ls, 32" tires
Doug Butters & daughter, Carrie &her boyfriend, Andy	Samurai	f/r locker, 31" tires
Jonathan Yim	TJ	r ls, 30" tires
Chad	Ford Ranger	f/r ls, 32" tires
Dave Hansen	CJ7	33" tires

I asked Doug if there were any hard trails and he said there was one but it was rather hard. I insisted that he show us. The un-named trail would take us to a scenic viewpoint atop Blue Mtn from where we could see Vancouver. To get there, we had to climb a very rocky, eroded trail. The trail was rough but no one had problems until the first obstacle. It was a steep climb along one side of a gulley. Dave broke a motor mount which caused his clutch linkage to come apart. After putting it back together, he opted to park the CJ7 and ride with Pam. Doug, Chad & I made it up without a problem. Pam required a bit more work and Jonathan needed some rock piling. I expected Chad to have an easy time of it because it was one of those hill climb things where a long wheelbase generally has an advantage. Still, he made it look very easy. Just past that section, where none of the short wheelbase vehicles had any problem, Chad got hung-up and needed a lot of help to get out of the gulley. A gain, it was a wheelbase thing; it giveth and it taketh away.

At a T junction, we stopped for a short break and examined a challenge section. It consisted of a pile of logs, the first of which formed a step which was a "biggie". They were also at a slight angle to the road and WET. Chad decided to try first and managed to get hooked on a stump before even touching the log. After yanking him off with the Samurai, we all turned around to proceed to the top of Blue Mtn. Just before I drove off, Chad radio'd that he needed help. This time, he caught himself on another HUGE stump. He was blocking the road and we couldn't pull him backwards so we had to jack up his front end and pile enough wood under the front tire so the axle could clear the stump. We started calling him "Stumpy" from then on.

After some more rock bouncing and climbing, we came to another uphill obstacle which took a lot of effort from the unlocked rigs. Chad didn't even bother to try this one parked his Ranger and rode with me. Pam & Jonathan needed some road building and coaching but they both made it up.

That was the last obstacle which required spotting. From then on, it was just a rough drive to the end of the trail. By this time, the weather had cleared and we were afforded a nice but somewhat hazy view of Vancouver. Very cool.

On the way down, I managed to get stuck going downhill. I had just driven my front end off a stump when the rear diff got hung up on it. FYI, this stump was WIDER than my Jeep. You should have seen Chad's (aka Stumpy) eyes light up when he discovered that I was stuck on a stump! He had a huge grin on his face and slowly grabbed my microphone to announce what had happened. Doug, who was a ways ahead of me, was going to come back to yank me forward. Oh, the shame of being pulled by a Suzuki! Desperate to avoid this fate, I tried rocking the Jeep back and forth while Dave piled some rocks under my rear tires. After some frantic shifting I was FREE!!! And there's no pictures to prove it ever happened! HAH!

After picking up the Ranger and CJ7, we reached the main trail and decided to do the "Suzuki Trail," so named because Samurais seem to do it very easily. It was a windy trail through extremely dense forest. The trees were very tall (approx 40+ feet) and bare on their lower regions. They did an effective job in cutting out the light and we needed out headlights to see the trail. There's only one really tricky section here. A stump & root system in the middle of an uphill part of the trail. The downhill side is badly eroded and the only route (unless you're driving a monster truck) is to charge along the left side and then cut hard right a few inches before you hit a tree. Doug and his Suzuki made it easily. I just barely made it (the first time ever!!!!). Pam made it only after wildly spinning her tires all over the stump. Chad didn't 'cuz he left his Ranger at the trailhead (a good idea). Jonathan couldn't make it so we winched him through...and in the process, pulled off his passenger-side running board. It looks fixable so we'll try to repair it on Tue or Wed night.

By that time, it was around 7:30p so we went to Boston Pizza for dinner and then headed our separate ways.

However, the other lifted vehicles (approx 2-3") seemed to have just as much articulation as the stock coil-sprung rigs. In other words, if you're considering selling your fuel injected YJ just to get a TJ's suspension, I think you'd be better off installing an OME suspension kit instead...or check out Tomken's coil spring kit when it comes out. As for myself, I'm still impressed at how well my cheapo McCoy springs work.

...lars