Sunday, May 26, 2002

"I wonder where that road goes??"

I think all of us have thought that, as we've driven past an interesting-looking little road enroute to our intended destination. A couple of weeks ago, Matt and I decided that we'd start checking out these little roads every Sunday, and combine a day of nice, easy exploration-type 'wheeling with a bit of hiking. It would give us the opportunity to finally put to rest the answer to the that question, as well as keep in shape. Basically a Sunday drive, 4x4 style.

The weather was nice as we left in North Vancouver at 10:00h. We met up with Mike and Susie (with baby Maria and dog Suki) in Brackendale, then went north towards Pemberton to check out the boardwalk around One Mile Lake. All of us except Matt had driven past the boardwalk numerous times, but had never had the time to stop and walk it. We made a quick stop in Whistler to visit the South Side Deli, where Matt and I each ordered a BELTCH (mmmm!). If you've never had one, definitely go there and try it. Comes with fries. :)

When we arrived at the lake, we discovered that the first 12-or-so feet had been either broken or deliberately removed, and since there was nothing but water between us and the rest of the boardwalk, we were unable to check it out. Dang! Too bad I didn't make the time to check it out before. We decided to head back down the highway and check out Nairn Falls instead.

Nairn Falls Provincial Park is just a couple km's south of One Mile Lake, and is equipped with pay campsites and facilities. The hike from the parking lot to the falls is a narrow, twisting, 1.5km path along the steep cliff edge above Green River. Along the way, pay special attention to the foliage; a young girl on the path excitedly pointed out a lizard that she had spotted. The park is also the home to the "rubber boa", Canada's only boa constrictor. It's the smallest of the boa constrictor family, and is a shy, nocturnal snake that averages 45cm's in length, and at a quick glance looks like a large brown or grey worm, or a stick.

The trail splits along the way, and joins back a short while later; the upper trail is the easier of the two, but the lower trail allows you to walk right next to the river. Several large trees had toppled across the trail in the last windstorm, we either ducked under or climbed over them. The falls are quite spectacular; a narrow chasm through the rock blasts water out to the lower level, 60m below. From the observation deck, located about halfway up the falls on the oppsite side, one can see bowls and pools in the rock formed by particles trapped in the water, spinning them around in ever-increasing circles. The water flow in the river after the falls is considerably more than the falls can supply, and if you look carefully at the base of the falls next to a stone bridge you can see water boiling up from an underground passage.

It started spitting rain on the way back, but the tree canopy overhead blocked most of the precipitation. Very pleasant, and a nice way to spend an afternoon.

Continuing south, we took Alta Lake Road to bypass the main highway through Whistler, noticing that there were numerous hiking and biking trails that headed off into the bush. A couple km's south of Black Tusk Village, we turned right onto Chance Creek FSR. A short hike from the parking lot allowed access to Lucille Lake, but we headed up the well-maintained gravel road above the lake to see where it went. We took a branch to the right, and found ourselves on a rocky shelf overlooking the green-blue waters of Freeman Lake, a quiet, placid lake between the peaks of two mountains. Mike, who had been to Lucille Lake before, commented "I didn't even know this lake was here!"

We checked out the road some more, and found that many of the branches were active mineral claims; industry was removing large quantities of the tons of football-sized rocks from the cliffs behind the mountains. A short while in Marie got tired of all the bumping around and made that fact known to Mike and Susie, so they left for home. Matt and I continued on, and checked out all of the spurs.

One of the roads, Roe Creek Rd, switchbacked high up the side of a mountain; we turned around when we encountered snow. Another interesting branch ended at a really deep cross-ditch; it was probably driveable, but I didn't want to chance getting stuck since we were the lone vehicle, and all of the nearby trees were logged so there weren't any good winch points. The road actually continued on past the cross-ditch, so maybe we'll come back when we have a second truck for recovery purposes. Roe Creek Rd is also the starting point of the Roe Creek Trail (go figure!), a hiking trail that terminates at Tricouni Peak, with an altitude gain of 2130m. We found a neat little cabin in the trees; a sign said it was free for anyone to use. Notes were written with a black permanent marker on flat rocks all around the site, from poetic anecdotes to humour. Many people had signed and dated the walls of the cabin, which was complete with bunks, lanterns, and a wood-burning stove. If you use this cabin, please take extra care to keep it clean and damage-free for the next person.

When I restarted the motor after checking out the cabin, I saw LOTS of white smoke coming out of the tail-pipe. Anti-freeze smell. Uh-oh, did I just blow a head gasket? Maybe it was from the way I was positioned, pointing down hill... I drove for a bit and the white disappeared. Then I noticed the temperature gauge was quickly heading into the red. Dang! Switched off the motor. I could see steam rising from the grille now that I was stopped. I hopped out, and saw that coolant was pouring out of the overflow bottle. After a quick situation assessment, I phoned Mike (with the 3w cell phone, whoo!) who had arrived home by then; I told him which branch we were on, and he said he could be back in about 30 minutes. I then phoned Doug, who figured that yes, it sounded a lot like the head gasket, and I arranged to have him do the engine teardown and inspection. Mike finally arrived just over an hour later (with lemonades!); he had checked out all the roads trying to find us, and of course found our tracks on every road because we were on the last one. He had actually driven up the correct road right at the beginning, but turned around before he got to us. *doh*

Mike used his truck to bring my truck down to the highway, alternately tugging, pushing, or acting as a brake, depending on what was needed, with Matt acting as strap keeper. We phoned BCAA, and an hour later, a flatdeck arrived, loaded the truck up, and took it out to Doug's shop in Surrey. Mike gave Matt and I ride back to his place is Brackendale, where we consumed some of Susie's excellent homemade soup, then drove us to my place in North Vancouver, where Matt had parked his 4Runner. I arrived home around 11:30pm.

A big THANKS to Mike who spent many hours rescuing us, and a big thanks to Doug for his willingness to work on my truck yet again.

Oh, Matt just phoned; on his way home, he found Alan at the side of the road in Burnaby with an overheating Land Cruiser. Must be something going around!

* * * * * * * *

Tuesday, May 28, 2002

WELL, Doug finished the exploratory surgery on Eileen this evening. Phones me up. Our conversation went something like this:

Doug: "I have some good news and some bad news. Do you want the good news?"
Me: "Sure".

Doug: "You're getting your rear main seal replaced."
Me: "Oh yeah..." (It's been leaking for a year)

Me: "Okay, what's the bad news?"
Doug: "Your block is cracked."

Me: "Damn stock runs!!"
We have a long-standing joke that none of our modified trucks are built for "stock" runs, which is why we keep breaking them during "stock" runs and not during "modified" runs. :)

The crack was between #2 cylinder and an adjacent water passage. This is the same cylinder that the machine shop sleeved when they rebuilt the motor 13 months ago. Fortunately, my spare block was in really nice shape, so on the following Saturday, Ryan and I picked up the spare block from his farm, picked up my broken engine from Doug's, and took it all to the machine shop for another rebuild. Well, nobody said 4x4ing was a cheap hobby!

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