Toy Run Day Trip

December 6, 1998

Larry Soo	Jeep YJ 4.0L, 33" General Grabber MTs, SOA, rear Lockright
Chris Waterman	Jeep YJ 4.2L, 35" General Grabber MTs, SOA, rear Lockright
Gordon Pritchard	Toyota FJ45 Pickup, 33" BFG MTs, SOA

On the way to Stave Lake, we picked up Wil Girindra in his dual xfer case Toyota shortbox. He was waiting for us near 256 St. As we drove along the lake level portion of the west Stave Lake road, there was no snow to be seen. But once we started gaining altitude, we saw more and more snow. It was wet and dense, perfect for building a snowman. This was evidenced by a large snow man on the side of the road, left by an anonymous artist.

When not covered with snow, this road is very tame. It travels north between Stave Lake on the right and Alouette Lake on the left. The roads ends at the 600 meter level where you are rewarded with a panoramic view of both lakes. Any stock 4x4 can reach the end of the road. When covered with snow, things are different. The last two or three kilometers of this road involves some steep grades on the side of a mountain. Throw some snow onto this section and you end up with a very challenging bit of road. Of course, it all depends on the type of snow. If it's "dry" or powder snow, you can usually climb the grades. When it's wet and packs hard, it's not too bad unless it packs too hard in which case it soon becomes icy. As well, it's harder to break through wet snow because of its density.

I was driving in 2WD for most of the way until we got to the last three kilometers. I shifted into 4WD and when we reached the first steep hill (which is loose rock under the snow), I had to shift into 4WD. Halfway up, I started slipping and couldn't maintain forward progress. Wil suggested we take that opportunity to air down the tires. After we finished airing down, Chris couldn't find his keys. Uh-oh. He had put them in his pocket when he got out of his Jeep but somewhere along the line they fell out...into the snow. We spent thirty minutes sifting through the snow. I started pondering which of my screwdrivers we were should hammer into his ignition switch. Luckily for Chris, he found his keys. We continued on our way. Airing down to 15 psi made a big difference in traction.

For most of the drive, we were following tracks left by another vehicle shod with Swamper tires. The tracks ended high above Stave Lake, where they indicated that the driver had turned around at a fork in the road. The right side branch headed slightly downhill and dead-ended after a few

This is about as far as we were able to get up the main road. In the background is Stave Lake. Chris & Wil are airing down my tires for another try...Gord is staring at the camera.

hundred meters. The left branch was a steep grade which was the road we wanted to take. It was covered with virgin snow and I was in the lead. Using a little more throttle, I was able to make my way about 30 meters up the hill before losing traction. Several repeat attempts earned another 20 meters. After that, it became quite scary backing down. The front end started sliding sideways. Any forward or backward movement caused it to slide a little bit more. Not wanting to get sideways on this hill, I parked the Jeep and got to work with the shovel. I dug down to the rock to make some tracks for backing down while Wil and Chris aired down my tires to 9 psi. The tracks worked, allowing me to safely back down. I made a few more attempts to break through the snow but made only a half-meter of progress each time. We decided to turn around and search for other trails to play on.

On the way back, I directed Wil to a neat little diversion trail which looped back onto the main road. We followed him and upon returning to the main road, we met Ryan Gates and friends. We chatted for a bit while Ryan aired down his tires. They wanted to see how far they could get on the main road so we departed in opposite directions. By this time, there was a lot more traffic on the road. Lots of offroaders were out looking to play in the snow. Ten minutes later, we ran into some PORCers. Phil, Andrew, Ian, Jason, Raf and Mel of the Pacific Offroad Club. Phil had just bought a built '87 Wagoneer and they had come out here to try it out. Rather than try their hand at snow busting at the end of the road, they decided to join us as we headed back towards the mountain trail near Sayres Lake, a tiny lake adjacent to Stave.

Wil was in the lead when we reached the trailhead. He was taking quite a bit of time getting setup for the entrance. Most of the guys in my group had parked their vehicles and got out to watch. I had gone through here many times

It felt much worse than it looks. You can see how the passenger side rear corner slipped into a culvert ditch.

before and couldn't remember why he would be approaching it with so much caution. After several minutes, another vehicle started coming down the road behind me. It was a grey Cherokee which we had blocked twice earlier today when we stopped to talk to other offroaders we met. Not wanting to block him yet again, I passed the parked vehicles in our group and decided to drive off into the trailhead. I was paying too much attention to Wil's truck which was now getting over a large dirt/rock pile and I didn't notice the deep culvert ditch to my right. The right rear corner of my Jeep slid sideways into the ditch, causing the driver's side corner to lift into the air. The Jeep was slowly see-sawing with 2 feet of air under my dangling tire. Yikes! Like any experienced offroader, Ian ran to my aid...he grabbed the end of my front bumper and started pushing it higher to give me a scare. Odd, it always seemed funny when *I* did it to other people. After everyone (including strangers who were driving by) got their fill of photographing and videotaping my predicament, my "friends" finally got around to helping me. Wil backed up and pulled my Jeep out of the ditch. As always, the resulting photos demonstrated that it looked much worse from inside the Jeep than from outside.

Mel watches as Raf tries to crest the rock pile.

The others avoided the ridiculous line that got me into the ditch and made it through easily and then onto the dirt/rock pile. Some of them had trouble because they high-centered on the crest. I had to give Andrew a tug. Raf's YJ couldn't get over so he parked and he and Mel rode with Phil. Jason also parked his stock XJ and rode with Phil. Gord knew his long FJ45 wouldn't high center and without any underside armour, he decided not to make the attempt. He had to be home earlier than we did so he decided to leave then.

This trail, for which we don't have a name, winds its way up Mt. Crickmer to an old logging operation. It's a good challenge for stock trucks but too difficult in the snow. Wil was in the lead and doing ok until the grades became steeper. He was aired down to around 9 psi but I think he should have gone to 3 psi. It takes a lot of airing down before those Swampers start flattening their sidewall profile. My General MTs at 9 psi were quite flat and I was

Andrew and his poor man's snow chains.

able to keep up with Wil quite easily, even though he had the benefit of two lockers. Chris Waterman also had very little trouble with his aired down 35" General MTs. I am now convinced that a large contact patch is the best way to deal with snow offroad, even if you're not trying to float on the snow like those extreme Iceland 4x4s. Back to the story. Although Wil was having some trouble, Andrew and Phil were having even more trouble. At one obstacle, Wil was starting to slide towards a precipice as he attempted to drive around a fallen tree. After some very delicate driving, he was safely past the tree. I followed him and we waited for the others. Andrew's black YJ was having trouble getting past the tree. Besides airing down some more, he decided to try a trick he read about. He started tying nylon rope around his wheels to serve and tire chains. While he and Ian were doing that, I went to see what Chris was up to. His big red YJ had Phil's XJ strapped to the back and he was busy trying to pull him up the hill. Phil was only aired down to around 20 psi so we told him to go much lower.

Once Phil aired down some more and Andrew had his "snow chains" installed, they were easily able to get past the tree. Wil continued to chew his way through the snow. Going around a switchback, Wil started having more trouble on a rock-strewn (under the snow) section. His Toyota started digging sideways and was soon inches away from a

Here's a shot of Phil, back when he still thought he could drive his way over the rock pile.

tree. Time for the winch. Because I was behind him, I was going to run the line from my Jeep, through a snatch block, and back to his truck. Wil suggested, instead, that I try to drive past his truck and winch him from the front. I gave it a shot and surprisingly, I was able to drive past him without much difficulty. I turned around at the next switchback and aimed my winch at his Toyota. While I winched, Wil kept the tires turning to help out. While we were doing this, Chris announced over the CB that everyone else wanted to go home because it was getting dark. Once Wil was past my Jeep, he turned around and we all headed back down to the main road. Phil was at the back on the way up so he led on the way down. He was the first one to reach the rock pile by the main road and boy, did he ever do a good job of hanging his Wagoneer on the rocks. He tried a few times to drive himself off but only succeeded in removing the support under his tires, making his predicament worse. Around this time, some other offroaders drove by

The unfortunate reality was that it would take at least an hour before we freed the Wagoneer from the rocks.

including Ben Olsen in his very cool Suzuki LJ, Garry Chretien in his FJ40, and their friends. It was dark by this time our group was blocked by Phil's Jeep. After a lot of unsuccessful attempts to free the Jeep, Ben positioned his LJ so he could winch Phil forwards, over the rocks. His LJ was too light so Garry's friend tried to put his FJ40 in a position to anchor the Suzuki. But then he got stock near the ditch that I had problems with earlier on. So then Jason hopped in his XJ which he left parked on the other side of the road to pull the FJ out. But the XJ didn't have enough weight. While that comedy of errors was taking place, we used a Jackall on the back of the Wagoneer and a scissor jack under the frame rail to lift it high enough to unhang it. Then we started piling rocks and Phil's spare tire under the wheels so he would no longer be stuck. FINALLY, everything was ready and Phil's Jeep was easily extracted. Gee, what a fun way to spend an hour. The rest of us got through with much less drama. Once again, I was thankful for Chris' onboard, engine-driven air compressor. He aired up his Jeep, mine and Wil's Toyota much faster than it would have taken at a service station, thanks to his dual air chuck setup.

...lars

ps: Thanks to Ben Olsen for sharing some of his exhaust manifold-heated snacks with me.