Canada Day Weekend 2008
In Attendance:
Chris - Ford Bronco (blue)
about 19 other trucks
Our journey, showing the round trip from Hope. I cut off most of
Hwy 3, but you get the idea. The round trip was 653km (+/- 5%).
Click here to see all of Hwy 3, which shows how
much time is saved by
going through Tulameen to the Coquihalla.
Back in February, Sassan posted up on BC4x4 that there was going to be a "Whipsaw Run" on the Canada Day Weekend, and everybody
better make plans to be there. Being that I have never done this trail, I was in for sure. I made a web page to keep track of all the people
coming. In the start there were almost 75 trucks and 100 people saying they would go, and in the end we had about 20 trucks and 30 people.
The plan was to go to Wells Lake where Bruce was going to do a pig roast (which we named Wilbur) for a pot-luck style dinner. How could
you say no to that?
This was to be around a 750km round trip, with us seeing pave highway, gravel road, mud and possibly some snow, so I spent two weeks prior
to the trip getting the Bronco in as top notch mechanical shape as I could. After all the work I had to do, I really needed this vacation.
Friday morning I departed the house at 7:00 am to meet up with a bunch of the group out in Chilliwack. I arrived just after 8:00 am, got a coffee,
and we bs'd in the parking lot for about 20 minutes as the rest rolled in. We pulled out around 8:30 am, but I took a side road and hit the local
Petro-Canada station to fuel up. I jumped back on the freeway, and managed to pass most of the group going up the Hope Slide hill. The
Bronco isn't fast, but when a Uni-Mog is leading, it isn't hard to pass them. We stopped at Eastgate for a final fuel top-up, and a few guys
that towed their rigs up were able to leave their trailers and tow-rigs there for the weekend. After 30 minutes or so of fueling up, grabbing
some munchie's and more bs'ing, we hit the road for the 30 minute drive to the trailhead.
Once at the trailhead, we aired down and hit the dusty trail. After a few kilometers, we took the first turn off the main road, which was new:
After another kilometer or so, the group stopped as we were missing a few trucks. Being at the end of the line, I ripped back to try and find
them. They were still at the highway, but just about to leave; they were waiting for Tim's 80+ psi tires to deflate. We zipped back and caught up
to the rest of the group.
We drove a short distance where we stopped at a site where there were a few old abandoned buildings. They were used to store mining core
samples; there were piles and piles of them:
After about 20 minutes we continued on, where the next stop was Dick's Cabin, which is roughly the half way point. Unfortunately, Jakob's 350
powered 4-Runner was overheating, so the back half of the group stopped to get him fixed. We pulled the hood off to get more air-flow. Then
it wouldn't start. I noticed that the cable from the battery to the starter didn't look right. Turns out that the bolts on the battery cable were pulling
through it, and not clamping the cable tight enough. After about 15 minutes of trying to jerry-rig something, Tim waltzed up, asked what was
going on, and said that he had a spare battery terminal. So, after about 40 minutes, the 4-Runner was mobile and we were on our way.
We continued on, and after about 30 minutes, we caught up to the rest of the group at Dick's Cabin (6190'), where they were having lunch and
enjoying the scenery. The cabin is used mostly by snowmobilers in the winter, and there are also two tombstones overlooking the rolling terrain:
Time to move on! We rolled out, and started hitting 6-8" deep patches of snow on the road. Sassan and his big yellow Mog were in the
lead, so he carved the trail while the rest of us followed:
The view's were spectacular:
We started descending into a valley, where we found Matt (with rifle in hand) hiking along the roadway. He, along with Steve and Mike were
familiar with the area, and came up on Thursday to "reserve" the shelter that is at Wells Lake. They hit deep snow a ways down the hill and
decided to set up camp and wait for the Mogs to come through. I gave Matt a ride back to camp, where the three of them packed up and joined
the rest of the group.
A short ways down the trail, we found that deep snow; 12" plus in some spots. Sassan plowed through with Kevin behind him. I let Ryan and his
Mog go ahead to help out wit breaking trail:
Now it was slow going, but we were making progress. After an hour or so, we got all the trucks through and clear of the snow. We continued on
to the next cabin, where we stopped for a few minutes. At this point I mentioned to Sassan that it was 5:00 pm, and he jumped in his Mog and
took off. We all followed, and starting hitting more patches of snow. Our progress got slower and slower, but we were still moving forward. At
around 7:30 pm, we hit a tough spot. I got hi-centered due to not enough speed, so Danny gave me a tug out. Shortly after that, Danny couldn't
get up and over a deep spot, so I tugged him out. The snow seemd to cover parts of the road just ot slow us down.
Now the fun. We went through a nastyt stretch of puddles and snow, then there was a 10"-12" deep water hole, with snow and ice in it. It took
me three tries to get through, as the snow had piled up on the far side. I hammered my way through, and as I got out of the hole, I saw steam.
No biggie, cold water and a hot engine will do that. Then I smelt coolant. Not good. Sassan and Ryan had stopped a couple hundred feet ahead,
so I stopped there to check the steam out. After a quick visual, I concluded that all was fine.
Sassan and Ryan waited for a bit, then continued on. Somebody behind us needed a tug out of the water, so I started backing up the trail to help
out. Half way there, the Bronco stalled. I re-started her, then she stalled again. She never stalls. It was then that I noticed that the temp gauge
was way higher than normal. I radio'd that I was not going to be able to help out at this time, and zipped back to drier land to see what was
going on. Turns out that the build up of snow and ice had pushed my lower rad hose up into the fan blade, and it sliced a huge hole in to.
Danny un-hooked his trailer to go back and help the others, while I tried to do a trail side repair. I carry some handy-dandy rad hose repair tape,
so I figured this would be a quick repair. Not so. After wrapping the hose, I filled her with water, built some pressure, and she leaked. I then
wrapped some duct tape around it, the rest of the rad tape, then some more duct tape. No go.
It was not 8:00 pm and we barely had half the group through the water hole.
I decided that we had all had enough, and I drove a short distance up the trail to find a place that we could set up camp, eat some dinner and
re-group. Due to the recent snow melt, the area was pretty soggy, but I found a spot with some tree coverage that would allow the tents to be in
a dry spot. We made a fire pit and got a fire going, and one by one, the rest of the group trickled in. By 10:00 pm, they had all made it, but a few
decided to go on and catch up to Sassan and the others. Big mistake. At about 11:00 pm, we heard Sassan on the FRS radio telling the others
to turn around. That made for great campfire entertainment. Three trucks were stuck down the hill and they opted to sleep where they were and
et un-stuck in the morning. The carnage at this point was my rad hose, Mike twisted his rear drive shaft trying to pull people, Terry blew a bead,
as did Kevin. What a day!
Turns out we we set up camp on Granite Mountain:
Saturday morning, I got up and grabbed my tools. I removed my lower rad hose to see how I could repair it. There was a 1" chunk missing, so
the only repair that I figured would work would be a sleeve of some sort. I spent the next hour walking around camp asking each person what
extra parts they had. Turns out that Ryan had a universal flexible rad hose, but it was to small. After some more thinking, I found that the ends of
this flexible hose had the same OD as the ID of my hose. I cut the bad part of my hose out, Steve had some dish soap handy to lube up the ends,
and we slid them inside what was left of my hose, then clamped the ends to make a nice tight seal. After re-installing this contraption, I had this:
I filled her up with water, warmed the truck up and let her build pressure; she was holding and keeping cool. I think the whole camp heard my
loud sigh of relief. Here is what was left of my trail fix from the night before:
And here is the damaged section of hose (taken at home):
The rest of the day was spent enjoying Bruce's appetizer after appetizer after appetizer and watching Wilbur go around and around on the spit.
Wilbur took a bit longer than expected, and we didn't eat until around 10:30 pm, but man was it worth it.
Sunday was about the same. I went for a little hike around camp, then came back to find more appetizer's going around. We hung out under the
tents to keep out of the blistering sun. The next thing we knew it was getting dark, so the icicle's and disco ball were plugged in.
Monday morning we decided to pull camp and head out after breakfast:
The snow was almost all gone, so the drive went pretty smoothly. I was surprised that we spent most of the weekend at this altitude.
We rolled into Wells Lake, where there were a few others from the group that left earlier in the morning:
The rest of the group rolled in about 10 minutes later, as Tim was towing Mike's front wheel drive only CJ through the hard stuff:
We took a 5 minute leg stretcher at the lake, then continued on:
Falcon Hill was no problem, but the ledge near the top made for some good pictures:
Danny was leading up to this point, but he sent me in this hole first, just in case it was deeper than it looked. It wasn't:
I led the rest of the way, which was nice as I got break from the diesel fumes from Danny's Toyota. The road was pretty good, with lots of water
holes, but they weren't to deep, so we just cruised right along. We rolled into Lodestone Lake, where we found Bob, James and Nick chilling
out. Nick had torn an axle perch earlier, and was waiting for Hunter to return with an arranged trailer being towed by his dad. I put my sandals
on and went for a walk in the lake and splashed some nice cool water on me. It was so refreshing. Danny whipped out his bbq and cooked up
what as left of the dogs, burgers and steak bites for a quick dinner:
We departed Lodestone, with some of the group heading to Princeton, and the balance heading to Tulameen to cut across to the Coquihalla.
We got about half way there and had a beautiful sunset view:
We got to the Coquihalla around 10:30 pm, where we aired up and hit the pavement. I wanted to take the bypass, but considering the time and
the fact that we had been driving for almost 11 hours, I was glad to pay the $10 at the toll booth. We had about 8 trucks left for the trip home at
this point. A few of us stopped in Hope to re-fuel, then make the run for home.
I got home around 1:15 am, unpacked the perishables, drank the last icy cold beer, took a long hot shower to remove four days of bug screen
and 'squito dope, then went to sleep in my nice comfy bed.
What a weekend!
I'm sure I missed some details, but there was just so much going on. I had a great time; good wheeling, good people and good food.
What more could you ask for? I can't wait to do it again!
I have to give a very special thanks to the following:
BC4x4 - for supplying the pig and the bandwidth for this event to be organized.
Sassan - for putting this run in the public eye.
Bruce - for cooking up a storm.
Ryan - for the hose that saved the day.
Tim - for the hose clamp that saved the day.
Steve - for getting the stickers made up.
Steve, Matt & Mike - for hanging with me while I fixed my rad hose.
Here are pictures that others took and posted on BC4x4. Take some time to check them all out.
(BCGirl):
post 2540
Bob (Daddy Style):
post 2679 / 2682 / 2685 / 2686
Bruce (jeeper):
post 2739
Kevin (99 Silverado):
post 2507
Doug (Damaged):
post 2419
Eric (MR_Bumblebeetuna):
post 2426
Jakob & Monika (japberry & ruffian23):
post 2511
James (ld50):
post 2413 / 2415 / 2416 / 2417 / 2418
Mike (cjmike67):
post 2816 / 2819 / 2821 / 2822
Paul (polvolson):
MSN Groups
Steve (4lo):
post 2423 / 2430 / 2432 / 2434
Sassan (Tmax):
post 2449 / 2748 (his new special sticker)
Sonny (d0ubledown):
post 2665 / 2666 / 2667 / 2674 / 2675 / 2676 / 2678 / 2680 / 2690
or see all his pictures on PhotoBucket
Terry (weiser) (posted by Tmax):
post 2508 / 2737
Tim & Curtis (posted by Tim Thorbjornsen):
post 3049 / 3050 / 3051 / 3053 / 3055 / 3056 / 3057 / 3058 / 3059 / 3060 / 3061 / 3062 / 3063 / 3064 / 3065 / 3066
Mileage (+/- 5%):
Round trip - 653 km
Home to Eastgate - 242 km
Eastgate to the trailhead - 43 km
Trailhead to Dick's Cabin - 39 km
Dick's Cabin to Tulameen - 72 km
Trailhead to Tulameen - 111 km
Tulameen to home - 257 km