Sunday, March 24, 2002

Another trip report written five months after the fact. I'm not actually writing a trip report, I'm reminiscing! :)

Mike wanted to take his ATV out one last time before he sold it, and I was still fired up from last week's excursion to the Chilliwack area, so when he suggested I bring the ATV up to his neck of the woods for some more seat time, I was happy to oblige! We headed out to a trail network in Brackendale, where he showed me how to properly climb and descend steep hills, and basically got me more comfortable with handling the machine. I'd owned the ATV since May 2000, and hadn't even put 100 miles on it. Too many hobbies, not enough time! We swapped rides for a while; his 2wd quad handled totally different than mine; while mine liked to crawl, his was built for speed.

Down one trail, he showed me an abandoned cabin in the forest that he had played at when he was a kid; like most abandoned structures in close proximity to a populated area, not much of it was standing any more. Once we had explored the area, we headed off to the powerline road that we had taken our trucks on back in December. The climb up the rocky section was a lot tougher with the ATV than with the truck; I had the right front tire way in the air on one spot where the left rear tire was in a hole, and Mike thought for sure that I was going to go over. Fortunately, I was able to maintain balance and momentum, and the Cat clawed it's way up to the top. Whoo! Mike had the experience and the better line, and had no trouble making it up with a bit of momentum.

We continued the climb to the top of the hill, a powerline tower, where we took a break and tried to spot bears at the garbage dump (there weren't any this time). We headed down through a recently-logged area, crossed a little bridge, and found ourselves back at our trucks.

We drove into town for lunch, then headed up the Paradise Valley road. We parked our trucks in a pull-out area, and off-loaded our quads. We followed the road north as it paralleled the Cheakamus River, then started up the rock-strewn access to Starvation Lake. This is where my 4wd quad showed its prowess; Mike's 2wd quad was unable to make it up the rocky hill, and the front end bounced and lifted up. Mike thought it was going over, so he bailed; the quad landed back on its tires and rolled backwards down the trail. The two of us were able to get it to the top though, with a combination of pushing, pulling, and throttle. Once at the top, it looked like the railway company had constructed a berm and installed a barricade made from sections of upright railway track to prevent trucks from crossing the train tracks, but somebody had taken a grinder to one of the sections to allow their trucks to pass through; our ATV's would have fit through anyways, although the breakover point was quite severe. There were no signs stating that crossing the track was prohibited, so after ensuring that no train was coming, we lifted our ATV's over the tracks and continued on.

We stayed left at the turnoff to Starvation Lake, which put us on the remains of the old highway. This was a narrow little shelf road that was sloughing away in sections; it was wide enough for the quads but not wide enough for trucks. The trail climbed slowly up the side of the Cheakamus Canyon, and periodically offered spectacular views of the Cheakamus River and the train trestles below. The trail eventually popped out at a lookout next to Hwy 99, a couple kilometres north of Conroy Creek FSR. This particular lookout used to be accessible to passenger cars, but it's location in a curve on the highway caused many accidents when people pulled back onto the highway, so the Highways Department put up cement barricades to prevent vehicular access. We parked our quads and walked over to the edge of the cliff for some photos; it was a sudden drop and a long way down. While we were parked there, a tour bus drove past and all of it's occupants were pressed up against the glass checking out the quads, much to Mike's amusement. Unfortunately, I missed seeing the bus, or there'd be a photo of it here. :)

Once we'd had our fill of the view, we headed back down the canyon, and turned left to check out Starvation Lake. Starvation Lake used to be a popular destination for built 4x4's, as the climb up from the lake to the highway was quite rocky and required finesse or a locker. Apparently, the Highways Dept got a truck stuck down at the bottom, and bulldozed it before they barricaded the highway access. We passed by three hikers who were camping in the middle of the road (literally); we sort of felt bad about driving through their camp, but hey, they're the ones who pitched their tent in the middle of the road. The climb up from the lake wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, although I was slightly nervous about climbing the rocks, after having nearly rolled it on the powerline road. One spot required several attempts before I figured out how to get over it; other than that it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, the photos don't show the steepness of the trail, but you can see that I'm sitting as far forward in the seat as possible for better weight transfer.

As we climbed, we encountered snow. I had no trouble, but Mike was having a bit of a tough go with his 2wd and bald rear tires. He would take a run at it, tires spinning, and hope his momentum carried him through. Eventually, the snow grew too deep for the 2wd, and we called it quits. We did walk to the highway access to check it out before we turned around and headed back to the trucks. We passed a couple of 4x4 trucks heading towards the access by the railway tracks; we told them about the berm and the barricade and wished them luck.

By the time we arrived back at Mike's he was about an hour late for dinner, so he was in the doghouse for a while. :)

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