January 9, 2000

By Rob (RyeGuy) Bryce

"Heh heh. Major pucker factor here!"

"I wonder if this can even be driven?"

"How do you expect to get a truck by that?"

"Man, is this ever gonna be tight! Heh heh. I just said 'tight'."

"Heh. You just said 'tight'. But I'm thinking that my truck ain't gonna fit…"

"Okay, you're gonna need a winch here for sure. Definitely, without a doubt. Not even Mad Max could do that!"

"C'mon, there's just no safe way down this!"

"Nobody will make it up that in the rain, nobody!"

These were some of the quotes from the IRC members who hiked a potential trail for the club to open. To avoid a situation where a trail may not fit the club's policies (or other concerns), any potential trail has to be first hiked, voted, and approved by the executive. The end result from this hike & vote: one killer trail, from the sadistic minds of Beaner and Brooksie, named "R.I.P.", or "Rest In Pieces" is now open. And it has declared open season on pretty trucks. Well, any truck, for that matter.

The inaugural run took place on Sunday, January 9th. Our participants are as follows:

• Beaner (Shane Hofer): early 80's Toyota pickup, locked F&R, 33x12.5" Swampers on beadlocks, rear ¾-elliptical suspension, 4.7:1 transfer case low range gears;
• Rob Brooks: early-80's Toyota pickup, locked F&R, 33x12.5" Swampers, rear Jeep SJ springs, beat up body;
• Andy James: 1987 Frankenstein Nissan pickup with coil over solid front axle front suspension, locked F&R, 4.3L, SM465, NP203/205 dual T-case, missing link rear suspension, 36x12.5" TSL/SX's; and
• Dean Bradley: 1997 TJ, locked F&R, rear D44, 33x14" Boggers.

What about my Comanche? It's relegated to street duty until I deal with excessive axle wrap, so I was riding shot-gun with Andy. Other people attending the normal club run hiked up and seemed to gather around like people do at an accident scene. I didn't hear a single person say, "Yeah, I gotta try this too!"

I'm going to try a different format for the rest of this trip report. From here to the conclusions, I'm going to have two columns: a report describing the section and a report itemizing the difficulties and damage. It really is the best way to describe this trail.

Section 1
The Guardian. Many good trails have a guardian obstacle; this one does too. This one really defines who can get into the trail and who cannot. This guardian consists of two very large trees; if you don't fit between these, there is no point in going any further.	Andy James tagged his driver's door; Dean Bradley bent a front fender, tagged the windshield frame and rubbed the driver's side of his tub and rollbar.
Section 2
After the trail's guardian, you hang tight against the side of a rock ledge for a hundred yards or so to the first real intimidating obstacle. This rock ledge is no wider than the Guardian. You have to turn off the ledge into a near-vertical fall, turn some 90 degrees and climb up a similar area. Oh, and there's also a tree at the bottom, meaning you get to back up a bit before climbing back out. Each of our participants took a few tries to climb out.	Major air was caught under the rear tires when dropping/sliding off the ledge. I think a few people tagged the trees cresting the climb, so only minor damage. Great chance for a rollover here or spewed parts climbing out.
Section 3
From here you go about 2 lengths of a pickup to the next obstacle. This neat rock requires good clearance since it's shaped kind of like the peak of a house roof. The trick, it seems, is to slide onto the "peak" with your front diff, then run along the side of the rock using your passenger front tire's inside sidewall for traction. This is important or your front diff will stop you. Then you have to turn off at an uncomfortable angle to miss a few trees. Finally, you have to scramble up a short but steep off-camber climb to a small clearing.	Everybody had a scraped undercarriage. Luckily, no steering components were actually damaged. Andy removed his tail lights 'bout then…far too many close encounters already. We had to pull a tree back to save the body on the driver's side of Dean's TJ.
Section 4
From the clearing you quickly drop back into the trees. The problem is traction is very poor and it's tight between the trees. There are two choices to climb back out of this section. The optional spot to climb out, a 3 foot vertical step, was impossible that day. The other route required you drive up a bit of a trench with the front axle and hope the rear axle follows.	All the pickups rubbed on the trees, meaning new wrinkles and dents in the boxes. The traction was so poor in the trees that Rob Brooks had to pioneer a new path. Andy James needed winching out after poor spotting on my part.
Section 5
Well, it doesn't get any easier. Right away you find yourself on another ridge of sorts only wide enough for a TJ or a mini-truck. Drive off that and you're into even tighter trees, with tighter corners. At the end of the ridge you drop back into the trees. To get around the last corner in the trees means taking a bank really high and risk damaging sheet metal above the doors. Steady spotting through here for everyone.	Beaner showed us what was necessary and showed that every pickup was going to have to pivot on their boxes to get through the trees at least once. This meant fresh damage for Beaner and Andy. We aren't sure about Rob; you just can't tell. Somewhere along here (I think) Dean managed to break the CB antenna mount and the right front fender flare.
Section 6
After the right turn out of these trees you enter a short mud bog. Traction was still really good, but that will steadily degrade. At the end of the bog you hop over a 1.5-ft diameter log and are faced with a climb that nobody beat. Winching and sliding/swinging (on the winch cable) to scary side angles on "Hamburger Hill" were the norm. Most carbs had a lot of trouble coming up here due to the extreme compound angles. At the top, you're treated to a nice open clearing. We stopped for lunch here; it's taken us about two hours to travel this far.	Due to RPM's achieved and bouncing, Beaner lost a vaccuum line off the motor, which made it even more difficult for him to climb the hill. Andy's truck wouldn't stay running on the incline. Rob Brooks was doing okay until he backed up for one more try…and got stuck. Dean broke the rear passenger side flare. Somewhere through here we discovered that Rob Brooks had scraped enough rocks with the front diff to loosen the drain plug.
Section 7
From the clearing, the trail drops quickly back into the trees. Some big, hidden rocks and turns make for some very hairy off-camber spots and not-so-nice noises. Again, tight trees, sharp turns and a general lack of traction keeps you alert.	Beaner hit the front diff, frame, crossmember, rear driveshaft, rear axle and U-bolts completing this section. Andy rubbed the frame and transfer case a once or twice. Rob...well we know he must've hit something but nobody seemed to be too concerned.
Section 8
From the trees you make a sharp, off-camber climb to a clearing. Actually, there are many different routes to climb up this and each driver picked their own line, some proving interesting. This area has lots of potential for great pictures, great damage and great fun.	Andy proceeded to show us that it is in the realm of possibility to roll backwards in a pickup. And sideways. Rob… well, he's got to learn to watch where the edge of the ledges are…he came close to falling off into a deep hole. Dean showed us a new method for pruning trees. It involves a TJ.
Section 9
From the clearing, you go through a few trees and off a few steps. You actually get a break for a while. Go figure. Then you come to a very tight bend. The shape of the rock is just right so that either you are going to feel tippy or you're going to be in a high risk area for rolling.	Beaner had fun negotiating the corner; most of us thought he was going to roll. Rob said he knew the "right" way to drive it and promptly got two tires in the air. Andy and Dean took their time and cleared this obstacle.
Section 10
The next obstacle was truly interesting. You had to run the passenger front high on a rock and the driver's front over a sharp ledge. You have to kind of plan/expect the front end to slide off the rock ledge as you drive forward. As you are doing this you become more off-camber, leaning towards a tree that is already leaning towards you. Once your back tires are ready to drive over the rock, your front bumper tags a second tree, which means you have to cut and fill. But your cab may hit that first tree.	Beaner took some more damage on the truck box. Andy took a lot of damage on the driver's side of the box, and a little on the cab. Rob…well you just can't tell if he took any more damage.
Section 11
From here you drop off a nice, big step and fall down back to the logging road. The entrance onto the logging road twists up your suspension and threatens to damage the driver's side of your truck…unless you stay really high to the right and accept a bad off-camber feeling.	Everyone completed this last leg of the trail clean.

This trail is under two kilometers long. As you can tell, it's certainly action-packed and intense. In many ways, it is like Mt. Garibaldi, where the Morningside Tough Truck Trials are held. The primary difference here is that there are no bypasses. None. Nada. The options are only harder. Some are impossible. The route taken by these drivers was for the most part the easy route, too.

In total, it took our small group 4 hours to complete this trail. Certainly a lot longer than just hiking! Considering the capabilities of these trucks and their drivers, it's safe to say it will be a challenge to anyone. My personal opinion is that R.I.P. is unquestionably the hardest Island 4x4 trail to date.

But are we done? No way! Beaner and Brooksie are already thinking that R.I.P. needs another section. Who knows what fate that will hold for hapless offroaders???

This trail will be featured at the IRC Rock Crawl 2000.