Sunday, August 25, 2002

Matt and I took the quad up to the Coquihalla today. We first checked out the trail just north of Deneau Creek where we saw the cougar and bear a few months ago. The rock slide that had stopped my Toyota 4x4 had been cleared, and we were able to access the valley up behind it. It looked like an older logged area, with plenty of places to explore. It's definitely truckable now though. After we loaded the quad into the trailer, we discovered that the trailer's ramp/gate wouldn't close properly due to a bent/stretched hinge, so after about 45 minutes of pounding with the BFH plus a tweak with my pry bar and Warn recovery chain, we got the hinge ears back behind the hinge pin, got everything lined up again, and were back in business.

We then headed up to the Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area (near the highway toll-booth). I noticed a bit of vibration from the engine around 3000 rpm, and Matt commented that the truck seemed to be lacking a bit of power, which I also noticed. I can usually hold 3rd gear and 90 km/h on the steep grade, but the truck seemed to be really sluggish and I had to shift down to 2nd. I was thinking that maybe the extra weight of the trailer and quad was causing the problem. Barely doing 50 km/h, I slowly passed a loaded semi that was grunting its way up the hill, then I pulled into its lane as other vehicles zipped past us. Soon I couldn't even hold 2nd, and had to shift down into 1st gear. Something was definitely wrong. I crawled up the hill doing about 20 km/h. Come on Eileen! She was really struggling now, and I kept checking the mirror to see if the semi was catching up to us (it wasn't). We finally made it to the rest stop at the top, where I pulled in and promptly stalled the engine. And it wouldn't start back up. Uh-oh! We exited the truck and I popped the hood. Matt donned the gloves and checked the oil; it was down a bit so we added some. Then I noticed the #4 spark plug wire dangling into space. Ah-ha! Must've fallen off on the bumps where I was parked earlier. So that means I had climbed the steep grade on three cylinders (1.8 litres!) while loaded with trailer and quad; no wonder Eileen was complaining! Matt plugged the wire back into place, I wiped up the oil that we had spilled on the valve cover, and the engine fired back up. Eileen lives again! *whew*

Hmm, lots of power now! We took the last exit before the toll-booth, crossed under the highway, and headed up the "no exit" road. We parked in the Falls Lake parking lot, and took the quad up along the toll-booth bypass. Checked out one branch near Falls Lake, but the access was a bit too off-camber for my inexperienced riding skills, so I backed down, getting a tire in the air. We checked out another branch near the old gate but were stopped by deadfall and no chainsaw. We might come back for that one though; lots of little foot-high coniferous saplings were growing up in the middle of the road, and in a couple of years the road will cease to exist. Just past the old gate a section of the road is sloughing away, which might mean the end of the bypass route if we get some heavy rain and it's not repaired. We were travelling a bit too fast on the north side downhill slope; we hit a rut off-camber that I had to steer into to avoid rolling, and headed towards the 300-foot drop as Matt bailed off the back (never seen him move that fast before!). Got it stopped in time in the bushes, and we continued on the way, a bit slower this time. We turned right on the road that leads to Zum, Zoa, and Vicuna Peaks, and zipped down the mainline.

While crossing the bridge, we stopped to watch a couple families on about 10 quads emerge from a trail next to the creek. After a quick chat, we followed them out to the Bailey Bridge near the highway, where we turned off under the highway overpass and watched a couple of black-coloured salmon swim lazily up the creek. We accessed a network of ATV trails, narrow tracks that ran along the Highways fence line and wound through the forest through some dark-coloured mud; the mud was solid enough that we were able to stay on top of it and didn't even spin the tires in 2wd. We eventually popped out on the Tulameen River FSR, which had signs indicating the directions to Coalmont and Brookmere (I think). The other riders zipped down the road to the highway rest stop where they had parked their trucks, while Matt and I checked out a couple of branch roads.

The gas gauge indicated about 50%, so we headed back to the truck the way we came. We used hardly any gas on the return trip, as the indicator barely moved, so I guess we could have stayed out a while longer. I'm going to buy a container to carry extra fuel so that I don't have to worry.

It was a nice, solid day of riding, and we didn't stop to take any photos. The weather was good, we had lots of fun, and we'll definitely be back soon. :)

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