Sunday, April 14, 2002

I had posted that I wanted to gently break in my new rear springs with a ride out to the Vedder trail system (near Chilliwack), but Mike K (hereafter known as Mike) suggested Hut Lake, Matt said he'd join (with his new-to-him week-old 4Runner, formerly known as Ryan's 4Runner); I figured if Matt was going to take a near-stock IFS 4Runner up there, I'd have to take photos, and besides, I couldn't let him show me up, so we ended up going to Hut. Peer pressure's a bitch! Mike said we were just going to head to Hut Lake, not Upper Hut Lake, as he was selling his truck and didn't want to have to do bodywork before he sold it.

The weather was nice on the trip up. While passing through Britannia Beach we stopped for a quick photo of the fog out over Howe Sound; good thing we did because it lifted about one minute later and it looked totally different. We all met up at the Brackendale Best Western for breakfast at 09:00h (I had the buffet, mmmm!), and we hit the road at 10:00h, right on schedule.

When we got to the Levett Lake / Hut Lakes access road, we pulled over to air down. I discovered that one of my automatic deflators had somehow changed it's setting, and it aired a tire down to 5psi; a few quick shots from the ARB compressor brought it back up to the usual 10psi. Stupid me; I forgot to note which deflator it was. While airing down, Colin stripped the threads from his left rear valve core (lol!) so he had to put his spare tire on right at the start. I think he's in the market for Oasis deflators now. :) We noticed that the mosquitoes were out already, but amazingly enough, I didn't get bitten like I usually do. Of course, Mike W used the fish-eye lens for the jack photo, making me look fatter than I already am. :)

Mike led us to Levett Lake because none of us except him had ever been there, even though it was only a couple hundred feet away from the trailhead to Hut. Apparently there's some good fishing in the lake, although Mike said he'd heard that there were little white worms in the fish. Catch-and-release. On the way in, Mike pointed out the Hut trailhead to Matt via the VHF, and we heard a very uncertain Matt say "R-really?" over the radio. It was priceless; we had a good laugh at his expense. :) To be fair, this was Matt's first 'wheeling trip in this 4Runner, he's only been four-wheeling for a few months, and it was his first time playing in big rocks. It was quite chilly at Levett, and we noticed that tiny little flakes of fresh snow were just starting to fall. Back to the Hut trailhead, where we shifted in 4wd.

Matt very quickly realized that this was a tougher trail than the usual logging roads that we explore. He experienced some traction issues, partly due to his IFS and possibly due to some inexperience, and ended up parking his 4Runner between the trail guardian and the next set of rocks. He and Jim piled into the other trucks and we continued on. We suggested a rear locker as his first upgrade! Attempting a trail such as Hut is very beneficial for new four-wheelers, because it helps to show them the limitations of their vehicles and themselves, and also shows them what certain modifications and some driver experience can do for them. I think that Matt could have made it further if he tried a few different lines out, but unlike what some of us do, he didn't let peer pressure goad him into breaking something, a wise choice any day. Besides, the rocks only got bigger ahead!

The rest of us were all equipped with solid axles, lifts, and lockers, so we had no traction problems for the remainder of the trail, despite the constant flow of water down the trail. We encountered snow at the 2000-foot level, and I got poor Eileen the most off-camber I'd ever had her; 28º on the "do not exceed 30 degrees with your stock-height truck" inclinometer. Snow was piled up on the right side of the trail, and water was running down the left side which had melted the snow. The Mikes were saying that Eileen's right rear tire kept coming up off the ground whenever I turned the steering wheel, and Mike said that he'd never seen a truck so close to rolling. I replied that I had another 2º to go, and it really didn't feel that bad in the cab. :) While Mike W took photos, Mike K and Colin (I think) stood on the right rock slider to weigh that side down until I got past that section, which was about 60 feet long. Their weight actually made a 2-3º difference. Mike tried it next; he slid sideways and snagged his bed-mounted toolbox on a tree, stopping him. We dug that section of snow down to a 20 degree angle so it wouldn't be so bad, then Mike and Colin zipped through it. I should mention that Colin was still just getting used to his new TrailMax 6" suspension, and it still felt "tippy" to him. Actually, 4OffRd had just added another leaf to my rear springs, so I was still getting used to the additional height as well. Too bad the photos don't convey the feeling. Mike commented: "I'm glad MY truck isn't that high!"

This is supposed to be the first obstacle, but when you're lifted and have flex, it's a non-issue. It tends to intimidate new four-wheelers, but once they try it they realize it's quite easy, even without a locker.


I asked Mike W why he didn't get any photos of the really off-camber part when the guys were hanging off the side of the truck, and he said he wanted to have the camera ready for when I rolled it and they bailed!

It was snowing hard at Hut Lake, where we had lunch. The lake was higher than I'd ever seen it, and it was iced over further out from shore. We all drove out via the show-off rock; Colin tried some weird line and it didn't work because he was contacting his tow hooks on the rock face. He splashed back into the puddle at the base of the rock, sending clouds of steam billowed into the air. We spotted him over to the right side, and he had no problem. He did get a bit close to the tree at the top of the rock, but Mike helped him past it by shoving on the driver's side of the truck as he inched by it, so that he only scraped the rear part of his driver's side canopy window frame and a canopy bolt on the bark. Then it was on towards Upper Hut as it was still early. Nobody questioned the fact that we were only supposed to go to Hut, not Upper Hut; they just kind of accepted it as a given. Peer pressure perhaps. Mike said "We'll just see how the road is."

Just past Hut Lake, I broke the driver's windshield wiper when it got snagged in a tree branch; I replaced it with my spare in a few minutes. The heavy snow was starting to stick on the ground, and the coniferous trees looked quite pretty with the fresh dusting of white. At the V, I picked a poor line and ended up backing into a stump which smashed Eileen's right tail light, cracked the light housing, and dented the box behind it, breaking off a chunk of paint down to the bare metal. When I exited the V, I discovered an 6" bow in the formerly-near-straight tie rod (AGAIN, *sigh*). I fixed it on the trail with my recovery chain, prybar, and winch (after lying under the truck in the water pouring down the middle of the trail), with some assistance from Mark and Mike. Hey, I just wanted to go to Vedder, remember? Amazingly, the truck drove nice and straight on the highway; I'm getting good at eyeballing the alignment while straightening the tie rod! Lots of practice I guess. Did somebody mention "high steer arms??" After seeing that, Mike and Colin took the easy line to the left, some going a little faster than others. :)

We drove up to the clearing before the trench where the wrecked crew-cab sits, and stopped there as it's the last turn-around spot before the trench. We walked up to the trench to check it's condition; a ton of water was cascading down the "waterfall" at the trench, all through the trench, and down the last obstacle at the top of the trench. To our amazement, there was no snow present. We walked through the trench so Matt and Jim could see it, but didn't drive it because a) Mike didn't want to damage his truck because he was trying to sell it (remember?), and b) my tie rod was compromised and I didn't want to have to fix it again. We've been through there enough times anyways (I just know I'm going to get some email from this!).

The trip back out was uneventful. We encountered two well-equipped YJ's on the way out; they backed up about a kilometer to a wide spot in a pond where they could pull over; it turned out to be Ann Jackson and another Lionsgater whose name I can't remember. We had a very brief chat and I informed them about the road conditions ahead.

Other minor damage: Mike ripped the bottom of his passenger fender out; easily fixable, and Colin's driver's front tire hit the rear of his fender and moved it enough to stop the door from opening; fixed with the "close the door with a cloth in the crack" trick. I also damaged the rear ARB air line where it attaches to the axle housing, and lost the top left corner of the chrome windshield moulding (dang!).

We all had a good time, although I think Jim got a bit wet and cold (PLUS he had been awake for 34 hours that day!). Mike W and I stopped for dinner at Taco Bell (of course) in Squamish before heading back to North Vancouver. I hope Matt enjoyed this type of four-wheeling, and I bet he's got several mods planned for the future. :)

Note: During the trip, Colin asked when the photos would be posted, and Mike commented that it took me five months to write the last trip report. So, when I got home, I wrote the report, and sorted and colour-balanced the photos from my camera. The next day I retrieved the images from Mike W's camera, and added them to the trip report. One of the quickest trip reports I've ever written. Peer pressure again, what can I say!

Note 2: Mark checked out the video he took when I was in the V; he said the tie rod didn't strike anything; it just bent when it couldn't take the opposing forces from the tires any longer. Apparently the fact that it had been bent and straightened twice before had some influence on this. :)

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