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2nd ANNUAL ISLAND ROCK CRAWLERS' TRAIL JAMBOREEMAY 16 - 18VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADAIt's been two days since the Island Rock Crawlers' 2nd Annual Trail Run and I still can't get a handle on everything that happened. Some will attribute that to my alcoholic binge on Saturday evening but to them I say: no comment. It was the club's first major, formal run and everything went right. The weather was spectacular throughout the (Canadian) long weekend, event turn-out was overwhelming (102 people, 54 vehicles), food was great, and no one got lost. The end. Oh, you want details? Well, ok... PROLOGUE In the weeks leading up to IRC's 2nd Annual Trail Run (IRC II), I witnessed the largest case of mass, shameless vehicle upgrading. When two offroaders get together, they go through their own version of what is known in the dog world as "sniffing each others' bums." Knowing this, everyone wanted to make last minute upgrades so they'd have the most unique and fragrant bum around (or at least a niftier bum than the last time someone sniffed their bum). Here's some examples:
It really was quite shameful to see these acts of wanton bum buffing. Rob did his bit to keep us hyped by leaking the results of some of their pre-running. One such story which spread like wildfire among us locals was how he nearly flipped his Comanche while coming down the badly eroded Devil's Drop (DD). This obstacle is bad enough in its "normal" state. Hearing tales of how it seems kind of angry this year was enough to cause me to fret about it in the wee hours of the night. FRIDAY The hugely anticipated day finally arrived. Jonathan, Wilkin & Deena and myself met at the ferry terminal for the 8:00a departure. There we ran into a three-Jeep contingent of Jeepers from Quesnel and Kelowna (I met the Quesnel guy a couple of years ago on the Naches Trail in Washington state). Jonathan and I were all a twitter with excitement and anticipation (not a pretty sight, I assure you). Wil was also excited but it was much harder to tell with him (something along the lines of the battery of tests used to detect a replicant in Blade Runner would be in order). Besides Jonathan and myself, other Jeep, Land Cruiser or Offroad Mailing List members who showed up that weekend included:
We arrived at the Sunny Shores campsite to the sight of dozens of 4x4s and campers in various states of preparation. License plates represented British Columbia, Washington and Alberta (and one from California). We were stoked! As I was unloading, Rob Bryce asked me how soon I could be ready to trail lead. He wanted me to take a group through Mossy Hill. I expected to be a tail gunner since I didn't live on the island and consequently didn't know the trails as well as the IRCs did. Unfortunately, John Barron, the scheduled trail leader, was on a part retrieval mission for another member, Vern O'Connor. With a bit of trepidation and some last minute trail directions from Ian, I led my group up Harbourview Road towards the trailhead.
After a brief stop to lock hubs and shift into 4WD, we were on our way. Marc Bowers, who was taking pictures for an article he was going to write about the trail run, rode with me for the first leg of the trail. Less than a kilometer into the trail, we encountered a group which had left shortly before us. Keith from Quesnel was under his YJ, working on something. Rather than clog the trail with two groups of 4x4s, I wished him luck and continued on. Wayne (an IRC member) was helping him so I knew that as far as mechanical help was concerned, Keith was in good hands. Ian's directions were perfect and I was easily able to locate the turn-off
towards Mossy Hill. Rounding a narrow, high-crowned, right-hand turn, we saw an
extremely deep sink hole. Apparently, during yesterday's night run, Dave Burns
from Alberta had come around the corner and, not seeing the hole, promptly
rolled over into it. Fortunately, the hole was made up of brush and loose dirt
so it was nearly impossible to tell that he had rolled at all. Speaking of Dave
Burns, this guy is one of the most hard-core 'wheelers I've seen. Even after the
roll, he sported a banzai attitude throughout the entire weekend. As for his
choice of head wear...well...I won't get into that. The first minor obstacle was a rock out cropping which required some careful
tire placement. It didn't present much of a problem. The trail gradually became
more difficult but no one had to stop for any length of time until we reached an
uphill U-turn which also required a climb up a diagonal ledge. It was your
typical cross-up obstacle and if you had poor articulation, this obstacle made
it clear to you and everybody else.
Based on the prior times I've seen Ed Mah's CJ5 in action, I expected him to
have problems here. I was wrong. His new Old Man Emu rear springs and Swampers
transformed his CJ into a real performer. Jonathan's Teraflexed TJ chugged right
through. That was the first of many times that I would see onlookers become
impressed with the newest Jeep product. Our group tailgunners were Kevin and his
passenger, Ben, in a full-size Chevy pickup. It was wearing 33" MTs, had a 4"
lift and no lockers. He had a lot of problems getting up this ledge. On our
drive to the trailhead, he was smart enough to admit that he was a novice
'wheeler and I respected him for that. I was also pleased to see that he didn't
use lots of gas pedal as a solution to any problem. Someone in our group (I
think it was Paul W.) suggested that he lower his air pressure some more.
Apparently, Kevin hadn't aired down and hadn't been converted to the Church of
Divine Lack of Air Pressure. Bringing his tires down to 1 5 psi made a very
noticeable difference and he was able to crawl up the ledge.
Cleavage Rock
After a few more minor obstacles, we reached one of the major attractions,
Cleavage Rock (CR). By this time, John Barron had caught up to us so after I
climbed through Cleavage Rock, I relegated myself to tailgunner position. The
trick to negotiating your way through CR is to wedge your tires against both
sides of this V-shaped obstacle so that neither side will slip down and slam
your rocker panels into the rock. The wider your vehicle, the higher up you have
to wedge your vehicle. Once past the cleavage, you have to climb out of a
shallow, rock-lined mud hole. This mud hole seemed to provide the most grief
because it featured diff-catching rock fins which forced a line hard to the left
or right. Taking either line put your side walls at risk. This point was aptly
demonstrated by Tim Taylor whose flatulent whoosh of air was, much to our
relief, caused by a ripped sidewall. Tim winched himself out of the mud hole and
with the help of some others, had a new tire mounted before I was able to take a
nice, embarrassing photograph.
Jonathan also got into a predicament similar to Tim's. His TJ slipped
sideways on its climb out of the hole and edged up with a sharp rock wedged
against the inner sidewall and another rock jutting firmly against the gas tank.
Taking Tim's lesson to heart, Jonathan swallowed his pride and accepted a winch
cable. Kevin really got on my bad side around then because I was so engrossed in
my conversation with him that I forgot to photograph Jonathan being winched.
This omission was pointed out to me by Jonathan's harping taunts as the winch
line was disconnected from his Jeep.
Marc Bower's friend, Brian, spent most of the weekend driving Marc's nicely
equipped Cherokee so that Marc could concentrate on taking pictures. Up to this
point, Brian was doing very well with some coaching and occasional freaking-out
from Marc John Barron capped this obstacle by attempting an absolutely insane line
where he ran his driver's side tires through the bottom of the V. Needless to
say, he put his Cruiser on its side but his big Swampers took most of the
weight. After backing out, he took the standard line without a problem.
Mossy Hill
We continued up Mossy Hill where the trees thinned out and we had to contend
with mostly loose dirt and an undulating series of steps and sharp turns built
formed by stumps and roots. Tim Taylor's CJ stalled when he dropped down an
extremely deep descent into a deep, mucky water hole. While he was drying things
off in the engine compartment, the others were slowing making their way through
a 90-deg left hand turn which involved dropping off a root step and avoiding a
large stump on the right hand side. Once at the top of Mossy Hill, a Brian, Marc
Bower's Cherokee pilot, hiked up to the fire lookout station to enjoy the
impressive view of the ocean while the rest of us had lunch in the shade and
traded lies.
The trip down Mossy Hill was uneventful and quite a bit easier than the
ascent. There were a few off-camber sections but that was about it for
difficulties.
Back at camp, I found out what happened to Keith's YJ. At the very first
obstacle, he stopped to shift into 4WD Low and his transfer case puked. The
chain was bagged, the shift fork inserts had disintegrated, and his shift forks
were damaged. Later on he also found out that his case was cracked. It would be
Sunday before it was cobbled back together in time for a single trail run.
SATURDAY
A word of advice: when camping at a private campground, ALWAYS locate the
bathroom before deciding where to locate your tent. Having camped exclusively in
the bush, I didn't learn this lesson until it was too late. I woke up at 3 am
with a full bladder but was able to fend off the 250 meter hike to the washroom
until around 5:30 am when it was almost time to wake up anyways. Yeah, I am
lazy, aren't I?
At 7:30 am, we were treated to an all-you-can-eat breakfast of sausages,
pancakes, melon and spicy or mild wieners and beans which was put on by the
Sooke Lion's Club. Having learned nothing from my twenty or more years on this
planet (no, I'm not revealing my age, thank you), I loaded my plate up with
spicy beans.
By 9:30 am, we were off with our group towards Can Opener, Tugwell Lake,
Devil's Drop and Deep Space Nine. Vern O'Connor was the trail leader. He had
recently (by that, I mean he was up till 3 am that morning re-assembling his
transfer case) completed a frame-up rebuild of his Chevy V8-powered CJ5 with
rear buggy springs.
The trail towards Can Opener and Tugwell Lake starts off ugly right away. We
had to drive off the graded gravel road and drop down a short but steep bank to
get onto the trail. Once there, it was a slow rock crawl for about 75 meters
before having to climb up a rock ledge and onto the smoother section of trail.
Everyone did this relatively easy except for the three open diff vehicles in our
group. The two pickups, a Ford Ranger (my brother, Bill's) and a Nissan (Andy's)
had the most problems. While guiding him up the ledge, he stalled so I suggested
starting in gear. When that failed to work, he tried to start with the clutch in
but we were rewarded with a clicking sound and nothing else. John Edgar
(mechanic, welder, house renovator, magazine publisher and offroad activist
extraordinaire), quickly jumped in to offer his help and surmised that the
battery was just weak. After string a series of jumper cables in order to reach
the Ford, we were able to get it running. Bill was directly behind Vern, the
trail leader, so everyone was bunched up behind us and getting mildly impatient.
Oh well, these things happen. Once we got Bill out of that spot, I made sure the
rest of the group made it past the ledge before running back to the main road
and bringing my YJ up.
Can Opener
Once past the ledge, I didn't travel very far before running into the back of
the pack again. Once again, Bill's Ranger was the center of attention (and
attention isn't always good Vern's CJ had a lot of problems winching Bill's Ranger. We had to tie the
Jeep to a tree and double-line the winch to a tree before constant progress was
made in pulling him over the Can Opener. Three of us piled into the right rear
corner of the Ford to prevent it from flopping onto its left side. Then more
trouble. Two of Vern's winch solenoids locked up killing themselves and the
battery (he had two). Vern's winch was down for the count so we had to put
another winch-equipped vehicle behind him. We decided that they should head on
to Tugwell Lake which was nearby while we got the rest of the vehicles through
Can Opener. Mike Midnight must've liked the cool angle on Bill's line because he
walked right through it without a spot from anybody. I was both surprised and
impressed. Left or right, the short wheelbase rigs made it through ok. Then we
got to the unlocked Nissan. He had about as much trouble as Bill did. He ended
up winching through the same line, high on the right .
John Lihou tried the same line in his big, diesel-powered Land Cruiser
station wagon. He ended up running too close to the edge and the ledge under his
right front tire started to collapse. I yelled at him to stop just as the
vehicle's weight started to rest on his crumpling rocker panel. We secured his
'Cruiser with a winch cable and John used a bottle jack to lift the right rear
tire. We were going to pile rocks underneath it to lift its rocker panel off the
ledge. John Edgar (Did I mention how useful he was? On top of that, he didn't
even bring a vehicle!) suggested lifting the rear end with a Jackall (Canadian
equivalent of the Hi-Lift) so that it would support the 'Cruiser's rear until
the winch pulled it far enough forward to land the rear tire on the pile of
rocks we made. We planned our work and worked our plan (to borrow a tired
business phrase). Minutes later, John's mighty 'Cruiser was able to churn its
way out of Can Opener.
By the time I finally got through Can Opener, the front of the pack was done
sunning themselves on the rocks surrounding Tugwell Lake and were ready to
continue on. We followed the twisty, shaded trail from the lake to the main
gravel road. A few short, dust-eating minutes later we were at the trail head
for the terrible twosomes: Devil's Drop and Deep Space Nine. Before I continue
with the day's events, let me tell you about Vern O'Connor, our trail leader.
Bill and Carolyn felt pretty bad that Vern's battery and winch solenoids died
while assisting them so they called me aside and asked me what the proper
etiquette was for such an occurrence. I tried to tell them that we accept damage
like that as simple bad luck but they insisted on knowing what they could do to
repay him. I reluctantly told them to buy him a case or two of his favourite
beer. Well, later that night, Carolyn came up to me and told me that Vern
doesn't drink! I managed to corner Vern at the club's motorhome a nd demanded
(in a joking way, of course) to know why he was BS'ing Carolyn. He simply said
that the solenoids were gonna go anyways so if it didn't happen while pulling
Bill's truck, it would've happened when pulling someone else's or even his own.
He didn't think any compensation was necessary so he feigned abstinence as a way
of declining repayment.
Devil's Drop
As we slowly made our way towards Devil's Drop, I was looking forward to
seeing everyone's faces when they saw what kind of obstacle they had to
overcome. Devil's Drop is a downhill obstacle which is a sharp, off-camber and
very ugly descent into a shallow stream. It's short but the last part is an
off-camber drop off a large rock, approximately two feet in height. Any mildly
modified 4x4 can do it so it's not a test of your vehicle's capability. It's a
test of your stomach. This is the kind of obstacle that ends up improving your
abilities as a fourwheeler because you've just expanded your knowledge of your
vehicle's limits. There were a lot of nervous smiles as the driver's parked
above Devil's Drop and walked the section. Vern made things much worse for them
by heading down with no spotter and then, just as his right front tire dropped
off the large rock, his left rear corner reached for the sky and his CJ5 came
perilously close to flipping over. Ed Mah was next and the look on his face was
priceless.
After checking to see if anyone had any objections (no one did, except for
Dave Burns, of course), I made the obstacle a bit easier by putting some rocks
under the drop-off. I spotted Ed as he cautiously made a surprisingly uneventful
descent. Bill's Ranger looked quite tippy so some of the others hopped in the
back of his Ranger to stabilize it and he made it down with only minimum bumper
dragging. Marc make it look really easy in his Cherokee. Tim came down faster
than I was used to and I thought something really bad was about to happen to his
CJ. Surprisingly, his line was perfect so the above normal speed didn't result
in a very rough landing.
Andy in his Nissan came down even faster and I thought something really bad
was about to happen to me! I got out of the way quickly as he landed in the
stream on all four wheels. Well, whatever works The heavy winter overgrowth obscured the turn-off to Deep Space Nine (DS9) so
Vern ended up leading us into a dead end. He tried a small off-shoot while I
backtracked further to find the next possible turn-off. After a kilometer of
driving, Sue and I found the turn-off. In the meantime, we heard Vern report
that he had "driven off the edge of the world." Then he radioed, "don't follow
this trail or you're going to drive right into my front diff. This is a Kodak
moment." While trying to climb back onto the trail, his CJ rocked back on two
wheels bringing his front diff face-to-face with anyone standing on the trail. A
bit of winching and the happy-go-lucky Mr. O'Connor was back in action. Since
the group was now, essentially, backwards, I became the trail leader and Vern
tail gunned.
A few weeks before when the IRC pre-ran the trails, they were unable to break
through the snow pack to reach Deep Space Nine (DS9). They ended up having to
winch up Devil's Drop which is a story for another time. Since the weather had
been unusually warm for the past week or more, we were quite certain that
reaching DS9 would be possible on that warm Saturday. For a while, I thought we
weren't going to encounter snow at all because we had already passed the highest
point on the trail. I was wrong. I rounded a bend and saw a shaded stretch of
snow pack approximately 100 meters long going round a bend. My initial,
non-committal attempt at driving on it brought me about one vehicle length along
its surface before my Jeep broke through and became high-centered. Dave Burns
tugged me out and gave me some snow driving advice (Dave's an Albertan so he
knows snow...or at least he really likes it. When I saw the snow, I radioed, "Uh
oh." When Dave saw the snow, he radioed, "Oh boy!"): b last through it! I backed
up about four or five vehicle lengths and launched into the snow. While going
around the bend, the side slope gradually caused me to slip into the dirt berm
and I lost momentum. A bit of fore and aft rocking got me going again. I picked
up a bit more speed but fell two vehicle lengths short of reaching dry ground.
While I was scouting for a tree to serve as my winch anchor, Tim Taylor
suggested that we save time by putting a tow strap on the front of my Jeep and
getting everyone to pull it by hand. Sure enough, that's all it took to break my
YJ free of the snow.
When I first saw the snow, I was worried that the group would be upset
because we'd have to turn back and miss DS9. Lucky for me, it turned out to be
completely opposite. Everyone was looking forward for their chance to blast
through the snow while the onlookers engaged in a snowball fight. Chevy was next
up in Dave's YJ and he pretty much set the tone by gassing his way through and
almost making a full pull. He fell just a bit short but did enough snow bashing
to make it easier for everyone else. Everyone used considerable go-pedal to get
through but Andy won the prize for testosterone-laden driving technique. I could
hear his motor screaming away while I was waiting for him to appear around the
bend...and then there he was! His white Nissan popped into view doing a
four-wheel drift against a background of flying snow, looking for all the world
like a pro rally car in Finland. Snowballs fell from peoples' hands as they
jumped backwards and away from the crazy Nissan pilot. Ve rn tried to top Andy's
performance in the snow flinging category but ended up getting stuck. I think
part of the reason was because someone (Ed Mah??) convinced him to put it into
2WD for maximum snow throwing efficiency. Before I had a chance to position my
truck to pull him about, Wil was already driving into the snow to get the CJ.
Wil's last words to me were, "lemme get him. This'll be too much fun pulling a
Jeep." So off he went with this mischievous grin on his face. Meanwhile,
unbeknownst to us, Vern was also wearing a mischievous grin of his own. As Wil's
Toyota started pulling on the snatch strap, Vern started to spin his tires...in
the opposite direction. This impromptu truck pull ended in a stale mate but we
had a huge laugh over it. Although there was no more snow once past this area,
the snowball fight continued later that day: Vern managed to save a snowball in
a cooler and nailed Deena with it back at camp.
The snow pack provided a nice change of pace but it was getting late and I
still wasn't sure if DS9 was going to be passable. We piled back into our
vehicles and continued down the trail. We had to stop a couple of times while
some of us cut back the brush but it didn't take long but it didn't take before
we were on our way again. The untouched overgrowth and the prior stretch of snow
pack underscored the fact that we were the first fourwheelers through this trail
this year.
Deep Space Nine
Further evidence that we were the first ones through came when we arrived at
DS9. DS9 is a nearly dry creek bed with steep banks approximately nine feet in
height. Last year, we were able to drive down one bank and up the other. This
year, the side we were on was badly eroded. It was vertical and under cut near
the bottom. Driving down the bank was not possible unless your definition of
"driving" included dropping your 4x4 nose first into a rocky creek bed. The
easiest route was close to the washed out bridge's bank where the drop-off was
less severe and the bottom undercut was shortest. Some rock piling and grooming
of the line to the edge of the bank was needed before I made the first attempt.
It was much easier than Devil's Drop and we all made it down without a problem.
Some of us had difficulty climbing up the opposite bank and one or two open-diff
vehicles were pulled out because we didn't want to chew up the soft dirt bank.
From that point onward, I assumed it was an easy drive back to the main trail
and then to the camp. I was wrong again. What used to be an easy stream bed
crossing turned into a mini DS9. DS4, if you will. We did some more rock piling
and I let Dave Burns be the first one to try our fixed up route. It worked well
but we needed a bit more rock paving in order to get the longer wheelbase
vehicles get through. That was the last obstacle of the day.
Later that night, while watching videos of the day's trail runs, I
accidentally consumed a near lethal amount of Canadian Club whiskey and ended up
entertaining Wil, Rob Bryce, and anyone else who was within a 50 meter radius.
That's all I'm going to say about that night. And if you hear anything from
anyone else about me that night, I swear it's a lie.
SUNDAY
The day broke with a nauseating, head-splitting pain which seemed to trickle
throughout every single nerve in its body. Oh...that was me. The skies were
clear, sunny and whatever else. I didn't care. I was too busy trying to push my
stomach back down my throat to really take notice of anything else. In light of
my, ahem, delicate condition, I elected to ride passenger for a while and let my
brother, Bill, drive.
The day's destinations were Pigpen's Revenge and Gollege Creek.
Pigpen's Revenge
I awoke from my sickly stupor when we reached the base of Pigpen's Revenge
(PR). I had a score to settle with this trail so, despite my morning after
sickness, I assumed driving duties. But I had to wait for everyone else to clear
PR first.
The trucks in our group were pretty well equipped so just about everyone made
it up with a bit of minor rock piling. PR is a steep, uphill rocky grade which
is highlighted by two major obstacles. The first is a jog to the right which
goes up and over a stump root. This ledge is slightly diagonal which causes
cross-up problems for longer vehicles. It's also rather abrupt which makes it
hard even if you can approach it head on. Doug Butters made it look ridiculously
easy in his springover Samurai with a home-made xfer case gear reduction.
Another outstanding performance came from my buddy Jonathan in his Teraflexed
TJ. As much as I hate to admit it, he did incredibly well. He had problems
getting over the ledge but a bit more tire deflation, one or two strategically
placed rocks, and some careful spotting allowed him to crawl through. Everyone
was very impressed. Wil later remarked that Jon's TJ's performance will be
downright scary when he finally adds a locking diff to it. I agree. I also had
trouble at the ledge and needed rocks and spotting to get through. I think
larger tires are going to figure prominently in my future.
The second obstacle was a large rock which was left in the middle of the
trail. There was only room to drive around it on the left which entailed a sharp
turn to climb an off-camber bank. Jon Lihou's 'Cruiser was having problems so
his passenger, Tom, asked him if his front ARB locker was on. It wasn't. You
Land Cruiser owners probably saw this coming: the locked front diff and
all-the-way-to-the-steering-stops wheel position were the classic ingredients
for a baked Birfield joint and that's exactly what happened. With the right
front Birfield effectively demolished, Jon was left with three-wheel drive and
had to be pulled past the rock. I also had problems mainly due to my lack of
ground clearance but was able to get by with more careful rock placement. Best
of all, I had finally conquered Pigpen's Revenge which had killed my transfer
case output shaft (an MIT product) the first and last time I was here. Pigpen's
Revenge also ate a couple of axle shafts that weekend but being typical
rock-luvin' offroaders, the majority of the participants rated PR as one of
their favourite trails of the weekend.
The remainder of PR was relatively easy but still fun. The last part involved
following a twisting, smooth dirt trail which was eroded in many places. We were
shaded by the tree canopy so it was a nice respite from the heat and sun. Once
on the main road, we re-grouped at Leechtown for lunch. This weekend was a
Canadian holiday weekend so there were lots of campers and even more drunk
teenagers. It was funny to see people in 4x4s heavily influenced by each other's
stupidity and TV advertising. Whenever we heard the revving motor of an
approaching vehicle, we knew it would be followed by a huge splash as the unseen
vehicle crashed through the nearby creek crossing and, more often than not, it
was a unmodified 4x4 driven by an offroading newbie. Everyone who appeared to
have a built-for-offroad vehicle idled through the creek in order to avoid water
damage.
These stupid antics directly affected the IRC participants when another trail
group encountered a pinhead in a pickup who came flying around a blind corner.
He was on the wrong side of the road and Albert had to swerve his blue CJ5 into
a ditch to avoid a head-on collision. His Jeep sustained fender, spring and
drivetrain damage. Needless to say, the moron in the pickup didn't stop. This
wasn't the first such incident, either. Wayne, an IRC member, was hit head-on by
a teenager taking his girlfriend's mom's car for a spirited drive along the dirt
roads. Damage to the front bumper of Wayne's Toyota was negligible. The front of
the car sustained heavy damage.
Jon took the lunch break as an opportunity to replace his broken Birfield
with a spare unit which trail leader John Barron carried in his well-equipped
BJ42. Jon, Tom, John Barron, Rob Mullen (the 'Cruiser-obsessed editor of the
Land Cruiser FAQ) and John Edgar had the wheel assembly off in no time. Some of
the others used the time to pack up several bags of trash which were left by
weekend partiers. We even scored some perfectly good lawn chairs and towels
which the 'Cruiser medical team used to clean their hands. When it looked like
the repair would be a success, John Barron decided to speed our progress by
taking part of the group through Gollege Creek. When Jon's 'Cruiser was ready to
roll, I would lead our remaining group members through Gollege as well. Getting
back to camp by 5:30p was critical because that's when the dinner, awards and
prize ceremony was scheduled and then we had to rush to the 9:00p ferry back to
the mainland.
Gollege Creek
Waiting for Jon to heal his 'Cruiser was a good choice for me because it gave
me that much more time to recover from last night's lack of better judgment.
Forty-five minutes after John's group departed, we were ready to hit the trail.
The news of Albert's misfortune fresh in our minds, we made sure our lights were
on and we drove along the main road at a slow, cautious pace. Less than a
kilometer after getting onto the Gollege Creek trail, we reached its namesake,
Gollege Creek. The water was around two feet deep in some places so it was
difficult to judge the height of the underlying boulders. I picked my line on
the assumption that John B's group had already come through here so they must've
setup the rocks already. I was partially right. I was within three feet of the
opposite bank when I got stuck between a rock and a...rock. Some spotting and
rock planting was enough to get me out. Wil suggested a route to the right.
Jonathan tried it and had similar problems but was abl e to get out without
winching. Jon took Jonathan's route and ended up needing some help.
Wil motored through with the fewest problems but needed a bit of spotting.
John Edgar was about ready to throw a large rock into the creek to splash Deena
but she rolled up her window in the nick of time. A minute later, when she
wasn't paying attention and Wil was still picking his way through the creek,
John snuck up on the Toyota's passenger side, opened Deena's door and doused her
with water. A wet Wil and Deena finally finished crossing the creek and we were
ready to continue on our way. By the way, I later learned from John Barron that
his group had, indeed, paved the way through Gollege Creek. The problem was that
they didn't use the traditional line so I was looking in the wrong spot. To his
credit, Wil figured this out while we were there.
We covered a lot of ground before encountering the next obstacle which was
another bypass around a washed out bridge. Some careful spotting was needed to
prevent the BJ60 from smashing its rear on the rocks but again, it didn't take
us long to surmount that obstacle. After this came Gas-It! Hill. This steep,
loose dirt hill is difficult because there is absolutely no room to take a
running start, it is heavily eroded near the bottom, there is a root running
across the hill near the bottom third, and it's slightly off-camber to the
right. Too much gas and a stiff suspension will launch your front end as soon as
you hit the root. Trying to crawl up is useless and once your tires start to
slip, your front end usually starts to swing sideways. Hitting the brakes after
spinning your tires generally means that you slide down backwards rather than
halting your backwards travel. Basically, Gas-It! Hill is named so because
that's the only way to climb it. I had seen some bad incidents d uring last
year's IRC run on this hill so I hooked up my winch control and a tree strap
prior to my attempt. If I didn't make it, I wanted to start winching myself up
the hill as soon as possible. I accelerated hard and hit the root much harder
than I wanted to. The hill was definitely more eroded than last year and I
should've given it just a bit less throttle. My YJ bounced hard, slipped to the
right, but once it was past the root, traction improved dramatically. I made it
to the top! I continued down the other side of the hill, turned around, and
climbed back up, positioning my Jeep to be ready to winch Jonathan if he needed
it. Like most first-timers to Gas-It! Hill, he tried crawling it. He started to
slip after making it up a quarter of the way. Then when he hit his brakes, his
TJ slid all the way down to the launch pad. Having convinced himself that
crawling wouldn't work, he used the throttle but with a bit more finesse than
myself (ok, a lot more). He made it up eas ily, so did Jon and Wil. Some
vehicles in other groups had to be winched so I was pleased that all the
vehicles in our little group made it up without problem.
The rest of the Gollege Creek road is a favourite trail of mine. No spotting
was required from that point on but it was still very interesting. Lots of
twisting, leaning sections made for a very entertaining drive. I knew we would
make it back to camp in time for the steak dinner being put on by the Lions
Club.
Back on pavement, I was unable to shift out of 4WD. I checked the linkage but
it seemed all right. It was around 5:30p so I decided to do the quick solution:
remove the front driveshaft and worry about it later. I figured that I could
look into the problem when I get home but for now, we had an appointment with
BBQ steak. Just as I was busting my knuckles trying to loosen the yoke bolts,
the human Swiss Army knife, John Edgar, came over, stuck his bearded head under
my Jeep and determined that the vacuum motor on my front axle disconnect was
tweaked. "Screwdriver," he said. We slapped a screwdriver into his open palm, he
pried the vacuum motor into place and Jeep harmony was restored. He did all this
within a minute.
EPILOGUE
We rolled into camp with the smell of BBQ steaks and chickens wafting through
the air. John Barron and crew hadn't yet arrived; he took them on a bonus
section after finishing the scheduled trails.
During the DELICIOUS dinner, Vern read the weekend damage report:
Awards were presented to Doug Butters (Tuff Truck Award for driving with
mucho gusto without breaking anything on his nicely built Samurai); to Rodger
from Alberta (Iron Butt Award for the longest distance travelled); and to Keith
Johnson (Piston Broke Award for the bad luck he had with his transfer case).
The IRC was able to collect enough donated prizes that everyone got a prize
of some sort. Some were good (a multi-bit screwdriver) and some
were...um...different (a RAV4-shaped water bottle with the business card of a
Toyota salesman stuck on it). Grand prizes included a set of Baja Laser lights,
an air grease gun, a set of Bosch driving lights, and a $100 gift certificate
from the local Jeep Dealership, Ensign (won by Kevin, the full-size Chevy truck
owner). Jonathan won the Baja Lasers while I got nothing because I was an
honorary IRC member.
Lori thanked everyone for being on their best behaviour. There were 101
offroaders with 55 vehicles and no one created a disturbance at the campsite.
Many non-offroading campers were genuinely surprised at how quiet we were. In
turn, the participants were impressed with the quality of the trails and the
organization, especially when you consider the small size of the IRC club.
The worst part of the entire weekend (besides my losing bout with that bottle
of Canadian Club) happened after the awards. We had to rush to reach the 9:00p
ferry sailing so I didn't have time to stay for that night's celebration party
nor say good-bye to the IRC members and the other 'wheelers who I had met.
My consolation prize was that there were other offroaders who were also
taking the 9:00p ferry so a bunch of us got together for a de-briefing of the
weekend. Their exhausted but smiling faces were clear evidence that the Island
Rock Crawlers had delivered the goods and made everyone a convert to island rock
crawling.
...lars |
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Except where otherwise noted, all contents on this site are Copyright 1999 - 2018 © 599244 BC Ltd. All rights reserved. No content on this site may be reproduced without express permission from 599244 BC Ltd. Disclaimer: Activities and vehicle modifications appearing or described on this website and its pages may be potentially dangerous. We do not endorse any such activity for others or recommend it to any particular person - we simply describe our experiences and opinions. If you choose to engage in these activities, it is by your own free will and at your own volition. Use common sense and remember that none of this material is presented as being recommended by a professional mechanic or driving instructor. This information is presented for your amusement only. Do not take unwise risks, consult a certified professional if you are not sure of something. - 599244 BC Ltd. (bc4x4.com) and the authors of these articles assume no liability for how any particular individual chooses to use the information presented here. |
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