Saturday, August 17, 2002

I was anxious to test out the new tailgate/ramp that Wade welded up for my trailer, so I decided to take the quad out this weekend. The gate is made of square steel tube, with galvanized steel tread panels for traction. It folds in half while stored, and extends out about six feet to make loading the quad a breeze. I think the only thing the trailer needs now is larger tires.

I had a good time today; I was originally going to check out a trail on the Coquihalla that I'd found a couple months ago with Matt, but when I left Hope it was raining, so I decided to head to Chilliwack instead and and enjoyed warm sun for the rest of the day.

I took the road towards Chilliwack Lake, then took the left fork towards Slesse Peak. I soon found myself on the Chilliwack Army FSR, and I parked the truck and trailer in a convenient spot and off-loaded the quad. I found a decent-looking trail, truck-wide, but shortly found it blocked by a couple of recently-fallen pine trees, and I didn't have the chainsaw with me. Darn it, I was GONNA pack it, then decided not to. Chilliwack Army FSR soon met up with Chilliwack Bench Road at the 14km mark, and I turned left to see where it went.

I noticed a hole in the bush as I zipped past it, so I turned around to investigate. It turned out to be a cool little ATV trail that zig-zagged up a hillside, wound between the trees, and got pretty tight. I encountered a low tree that had fallen across the trail, and was just a few inches above my handlebars; I had to dismount and push the quad beneath it. I didn't follow it to the end as I got hung up on deadfall that was lying across the road, and it took a bit of effort to free myself; since I was solo, I turned around rather than have to cross it again on the way back. This trail reminded me of Suzuki Trail on Blue Mtn (the uncut version; you oldtimers will know what that means!), but this one is tighter and twistier.

I went back down to Chilliwack Bench Road; it wound around the mountain, went past a mountainbike trail, and eventually hit pavement and houses. I turned around, and headed back up the road. I continued past the Chilliwack Army Road turnoff, and eventually encountered campers at campsites along the river. The road made several splits; I only checked out some of them. Eventually I found myself back at the paved road, where I turned around.

On the way back, I encountered a couple of lost four-wheelers in a stock Ranger, and gave them directions to the paved road; I didn't tell them that the only reason I knew how to get there was because I had JUST checked out that section of road, to see where it went.

New signs on the mainlines warning that the roads were "wilderness forest service roads - not maintained" were in abundance, a sure sign of things to come with the MOF cutbacks. Another thing I noticed was that people were dumping their garbage all over the place. Not just a couple bags of crap, but truckloads of waste material. As I've mentioned in other trip reports, this is an all-too-common occurence when an easily-driven trail is located close to a residential area. I even found what looked like the burned-out hulk of a fibreglass camping trailer. I don't know who these losers think is going to be cleaning the place up, especially if MOF is no longer maintaining the roads.

Other than the garbage, it was a nice relaxing day of exploring in the fresh air. I enjoyed it so much I'm going riding again tomorrow. :)

Sunday, August 18, 2002

I went to Squamish today, and met Mike at the Highlander for breakfast. He suggested I check out the road that goes above Shannon Falls, but warned me that there were boulders across the trail so I might not make it through. I headed back down the Sea-to-Sky Hwy to the Mamquam FSR, where I off-loaded the quad.

I took the branch to the right off the mainline, through the open gate. This is the road that eventally leads to the north end of Indian Arm, where the Wigwam Inn is located. First opened in 1910, the Inn is only accessible by boat from Burrard Inlet, and is now owned by the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. After crossing the bridge, I took the first right branch; it was a slightly-overgrown trail that climbed up around the back of the Stawamus Chief. After switch-backing up the trail for a while, I arrived at the boulders. There was enough space to get a bike through, and somebody had stacked smaller rocks to allow their truck to get over the boulders. My truck would have made it over with no trouble, but it was parked far below, and I didn't want to attempt to climb over with the quad, with nobody close by to help lift it off of me. I turned around and headed back to the Indian Arm road.

I enountered Jason (full-size Blazer) and Phil (4Runner) of the Lionsgaters heading in the opposite direction, along with three Toyota 4x4's. I checked out some branches, but didn't spend too much time there. On the way out, I encountered two more Toyota 4x4's.

Back at the Mamquam FSR, I headed towards Twin Bridges. I encountered a group of about eight equestrians coming towards me down the road, and I stopped to allow them to pass so as not to spook the horses. However, they all moved to the side of the trail and motioned for me to continue, which I did at a slow crawl. Shortly after that I passed three mountainbikers who were laboriously ascending the grade, I slowed down for them too so I wouldn't dust them out.

When I got to Twin Bridges, so named because there are two river crossings necessitating two bridges, I took a little road up on the left that I'd never been on; this is route for the Test of Mettle, a recent mountainbike race according to the signage they had left behind. When the course made a left into a little hole in the bush that was far too overgrown for my liking, I went right, took a left branch, and ended up at a logged cut. It was now around 16:00h, so I decided to call it a day. Near the bottom of this trail, I spotted the mountainbikers slowly weaving up the incline towards me; I stopped to let them pass and the last one looked at my quad and said "Trade ya!" :)

Great weather, perfect for riding. I think I'll go next weekend as well if the weather holds out; maybe I'll give the Coquihalla area another try.

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