Day 1

About 3 years ago, on a fine summer Sunday morning, a small group of us headed up the Hut Lakes trail. On the last obstacle, called The Trench, Jonathan Yim snapped a rear axle shaft. After several cell phone calls, a big-hearted effort by Wil to pick-up and deliver the parts, and many hours of knuckle-skinning work by Rob Bryce, we were finally able to return to pavement around 1am.

Two days ago, I had the opportunity to re-live the experience but with an added bonus...it was pouring rain.

As befits any good tale, there are elements of irony in this story. For starters, the victim on this trip was also the organizer, Jason Ramsey.

The trip began with the usual meeting at the McDonald's in Squamish. As we were mingling in the parking lot, we saw Shayne and Dave drive by as they headed straight to the trailhead. Their trucks were well-equipped, they had a lot of experience and had to get home by a certain hour. That's why they didn't hook up with our group which had grown to eight trucks. Two YJs and the Unimog had front and rear lockers; one YJ, the Explorer, and the solid axle Sidekick had lifts and tall tires; and the Pathfinder and Cherokee were almost stock.

Airing down.

Once we reached the trailhead, we aired down, locked the hubs, and began the slow crawl to Lower Hut Lake. The signature obstacle, the large rock step on the side of the hill, was our first stop. The locked trucks made it up without difficulty. The real entertainment was provided by the other rigs. Jason's YJ climbed it after picking a better line, as did Dale Tiessen in his Explorer. Ryan Gates' new solid front axle didn't have enough articulation and kept losing power to the unloaded tire. He finally made it up after smoking up his tires on the rock face. Dale MacGregor was also successful, picking the perfect path for his Cherokee. Dean Neumann came very close to beating the rock step but was unable to overcome the Pathfinder's limited front articulation.

Jason made it up the first obstacle fairly easily.	Dale took the same line and came up just as easily.	Ryan's little Zuk had some problems but he managed to beat the step by smoking his tires enough to cook the surface dry...or else he melted his tires.
I thought Dale did a great job of climbing the step, especially considering the near-stock nature of his Jeep.	This obstacle was a non-obstacle for Paul.	Dean gave it the ol' college try but couldn't quite get over the top.

There were a few intermittent stops on the way to Lower Hut as the open-diff vehicles needed extra attempts on some hills. When we reached the lake, we played for a bit on the challenge rock. Once again, the locked trucks had no problems, climbing the steepest approach with ease. The unlocked vehicles had quite a bit more difficulty and, in the end, had to take the bypass.

Not enough articulation in the front and the lack of a locker killed Dale's chances for success.

Much to his surprise, Chris Siebert easily crawled up the challenge rock.

Ryan checks out his rear axle's articulation.

Dean takes the easier route around the Median.

Chris takes the slightly harder route.

Because the trail to Upper Hut Lake would be more difficult, we altered the sequence of vehicles so that the each stock or unlocked vehicle was travelling behind a more capable vehicle that could provide a tug if needed. The first obstacle on the second leg of our journey was the Median. The near-stock vehicles opted for the easier left hand path while the rest of us stayed right. After taking a few photos, we crawled onwards, through the uphill boulder-strewn trail. By this point, the group had spread out a bit because some of us loitered at the median a bit longer than the others. When I reached the beginning of the Trench, I spotted Shayne and Mark's trucks. They had returned from Upper Hut Lake and had already come back through the Trench. Now they were parked off to the side to let us pass. I got out to talk with Shayne and that's when I got the news. He said one of our guys in a black Jeep was trying to climb his way into the Trench when he slipped into the hole and while he was trying to extricate himself, a loud BANG came from the rear end. I immediately suspected that Jason had snapped his axle shaft. The exact same thing at the exact same spot happened to Jonathan Yim's TJ about three years ago. Needless to say, I was feeling a depressing wave of deja vu washing over me.

I was planning on being back in Vancouver by around 5pm to have dinner with friends from 100 Mile House who were staying with me for the weekend. With the axle shaft breakage, I knew there was no way I would get back in time.

Jason slowly backed his YJ off of the Trench. My assumption was confirmed when we saw the passenger side rear wheel start to walk away from the axle housing. The shaft was indeed broken. Jason asked if it could just be a broken c-clip. I told him that if it was, it wouldn't have made such a loud noise when it broke.

The immediate problem was that the YJ was on a rocky uphill slope and we couldn't keep the wheel on the Jeep. How could we back it down to a safe working location without the axle dropping onto the ground? A variety of ideas were suggested but Paul Zydowicz's was the best: he suggested that we jack up the rear of the YJ so that its bumper could be butted against the front bumper of the Unimog. Then, after chaining the two bumpers together, we could lower the YJ until its rear weight was held up by the Unimog. This brilliant idea was easy to execute and best of all, it worked flawlessly. The ultra-low geared Unimog had no problems pulling the YJ back to level ground, even though it had to drag the Jeep's front axle over several large rocks.

While the Jeep was being stabilized and prepared for an autopsy, I called Phil Gough and Greg Wcislo to see if they could locate a spare axle shaft. We were extremely lucky that there was good cell coverage in that area. Once the Jeep was ready for the operation, Jason pulled out the broken shaft and to our amazement, it wasn't broken. Jason started to look hopeful that only the c-clip had broken but I was still skeptical. The Jeep had made some pretty horrible noises as he tried to back it down from the Trench.

Doh! A broken axle shaft, or so we thought.

Putting Paul's ingenious idea into practice.

Wow! Jason's three-wheeled Jeep just pulled Paul's Unimog to Upper Hut! Okay, maybe not. This is actually a shot of the 'Mog suspending the back of the Jeep.

Jason removed the diff cover and we saw the cause of the noise: one of the side gears broke and the resulting chunks destroyed the cross shaft, the spider gears, and the other side gear. I had a sneaking suspicion that no one had brought along a spare set of differential parts. (That was sarcasm) With the side gears and cross shaft destroyed, there was no way to keep the passenger side axle shaft in the axle housing.

By this time, I got some calls from Phil and Greg. Neither were able to locate D35C axle parts, although Greg volunteered to drive them up if we located any in the Vancouver area. Jason called the Squamish Lordco store. They didn't have the parts we needed but they provided the phone numbers of local Squamish residents who might be able to help. While he continued making calls, I extracted the carrier and cleaned out the housing.

Since there was nothing else to do until we located parts, we decided to finish the last obstacle. Paul went up in his 'Mog and slipped into the same hole that caught Jason's Jeep. There was a huge racket as parts of the mighty 'Mog scraped the rocks. It was momentarily trapped. After a bit of work, Paul was able to drive it through without any towing or winching. Ryan Gates went up next in his recently modified Sidekick. Just like the others, he also slipped into th same hole and smashed up the passenger end of his rear bumper. He was very lucky that he didn't take more damage than that. After a lot of pushing, we were able to help him back the Sidekick out of the Trench without further damage.

Looks like Ryan is in a bit of a bind. That passenger side doesn't look too good.

Ryan looks somewhat perturbed.

The great thing's about Zuks is that you don't always need a winch.

I went up next in Project YJ and, not to be too immodest, I easily crawled up the entrance and up and over the exit without spinning a tire. It was dead easy. At least it was on THAT particular day. More on that later. Chris Siebert came up next in his wide-axled YJ. He had a little bit more trouble on the exit but eventually climbed his way out as well. The others wisely chose to avoid the Trench. I think Ryan's flop into the hole convinced them of the dangers to unlocked vehicles.

Chris slipped into the same hole on his first attempt into the Trench. Dale is informing him of the error of his ways.

He took a bit of a wild line on the way out but after some other attempts, he was able to drive out.

Meanwhile, Jason contacted Todd, the president of the Squamish Offroad club. He was a Jeep fanatic and told us that if we brought him the parts, he would be able to find some gears that would work well enough to get him down from the mountain. He would have brought them up himself but his Jeep was in the middle of a modification and wouldn't be able to make the trip.

Now came the uncomfortable part: who would volunteer to drive Jason to and from Squamish? This would be a four hour round-trip. Before we asked anyone, I told Jason I really, really couldn't spare the time but if no one would step forward to help out, I told him I'd do it. I had an obligation to my buddy who was visiting me from out of town but at the same time, I didn't want Jason to have to abandon his vehicle in the mountains.

When Jason mentioned to Chris Siebert that he needed some way to Squamish and back, Chris thought about it for a second and then said that he could drive him. I was both relieved and embarrassed. Relieved because I wouldn't have to spend a long night on the mountain like the last time; but embarrassed because I didn't step up to the plate and unequivocally volunteer to help him out.

Jason's passenger, Larry, told Jason he would stay with the Jeep to make sure it didn't get vandalized. Jason began to protest but then Ryan Gates said he would also stay behind. I told Jason I would also accompany him to Squamish to make sure he obtained the required parts. Since I was the only one who had worked on a diff before, I also gave him a demonstration on how to re-assemble it. With that done, our group began its descent back towards the trailhead near Evans Lake.

Back on the pavement, we left the rest of the group and went to Todd's house. By this time, it was pouring rain. Perfect weather for our mood. Todd was indeed a Jeep nut but he didn't have any Chrysler Jeep parts. I remembered that some Ford Rangers also used a Dana 35 diff in the front end so Todd called up some of his Ford buddies. Fred of Fred Hinchliffe Automotive had just pulled the front axle out of a Bronco II so he agreed to open his shop for us to see if the parts would fit. We followed Todd to the shop and while were waiting for Fred, we admired some of the early Broncos he had in his yard. Once inside, we were disappointed to see that the Bronco IIs did not have the same D35 front end as used in the later Rangers.

At that point, our only option was to look for parts in the Vancouver area. Chris phoned a friend who definitely had the parts but was unable to reach him. With nothing else to do but wait, I suggested that they go for dinner and get out of the rain for a while. They could head back to Upper Hut later on or else phone Ryan and Larry to leave the Jeep and meet them in Squamish. I had to get back to Vancouver to meet my friends for dinner. I told Jason that, if he was able to locate the parts, I could drive them back up to Squamish after dinner (ie: some time after midnight). I gave him my cell number and hopped into my Jeep. The pouring rain had created a large pool on my (Jeep's) bikini top. I pushed it from the bottom to empty it over the side of the Jeep and was rewarded without about two gallons of cold water splashing into my lap. It was a fine way to start the two hour drive back to White Rock...in the rain...with a bikini top.

When I stopped to air up my tires, I phoned Wil to tell him what happened. He then posted a message to the BC4x4 mailing list, asking if anyone could provide parts for a rescue later that night. By the time I had reached White Rock and was having dinner with my friends, Ryan Egger phoned. He had read Wil's message and called to confirm if his parts would work. He didn't have everything we needed but he had at least half of the parts. Half an hour later, he had delivered the parts to my front doorstep. Andrew Walters had also called to see if he could help but unfortunately, his parts were for a non-compatible D35.

Jason had thought better of spending the night with his Jeep, probably because he didn't want his friends to stay up there on his account. He decided to leave the Jeep on the mountain and they all headed back home. The plan was that Jason and I would head back to Squamish at 6am and pick up the needed parts from Chris' friend on the way out. I posted an open invite to the list for anyone to join us, thinking that it would be really bad if my Jeep broke down without a backup vehicle available.

 
 
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