Sunday, October 27, 2002

I had dropped by North Shore Off Road on Saturday to say hello to Chris and Yasu, and pick up some spare ARB locker fittings for my Toyota's spare-parts box. Yasu and I got to talking about riding ATV's. Dave drove up in his Jeep, joined the conversation, then said the inevitable "We should go for a ride tomorrow!". "What time?", I asked, always ready for an adventure. I phoned August, and left this message on his phone: "Yasu, Dave, and I are going quadding tomorrow; phone us if you're coming!". Dave and Yasu were experienced riders, so I figured that my first group ride would be a good one. August had just picked up his brand spankin' new Honda, and hadn't yet gotten around to confessing his sins to his parents. "Uh mom, I'm going to be storing a friend's ATV here for a while..." "Okay." :) Oh yeah, please don't tell her; she still doesn't know. Or at least she's not letting on, because as we all know, mothers aren't stupid. :)

We met up at the Port Mann Weigh Scales, and headed east to the Vedder area. The others had recently explored this area, and had spotted some good trails to check out. After a brief stop for fuel and Subway subs (to pack for lunch), we eventually arrived at the trailhead. We unloaded our quads and hit the gravel road. The clouds were spitting a bit; nothing major though. We checked out a short dead-end road, then hit a little mud pit; it was here that August noticed that one of his tires looked a bit low. We headed back to my truck to air it up with the air compressor; it was at 2 psi instead of 5 psi, not a huge difference to us truck drivers, but definitely noticeable on the quad.

We checked out numerous interesting trails; most looked like a little hole in the bush from the mainline, but they quickly led to a vast network of tight little trails best suited to dirt bikes. In fact, some got so narrow that our quads wouldn't fit between the trees, and we had to turn around. Many of the trails had a deep "V" groove worn into them from the dirt bikes, and we straddled the V when we could, and fell into it in the corners. We followed the trails as they led around the mountain; some were short diversions from the main road, and others went on for quite a ways and met up with other trails. We passed quite a few other branches and offshoots, and August marked the waypoints on his GPS for a future trip.

This kind of trail was new for me; most of my previous exploits had taken me to areas where I'd have no trouble taking the Toyota, but these trails were twisty, steep, off-camber, and TIGHT. One downhill section was composed of a dry, powdery dirt that would have been quite nasty if it had been wet. We ducked under some deadfall that lay across the road; Dave and Yasu had to remove their storage boxes to fit their quads beneath the mossy trunks. We encountered a few dirtbikers on the trails; most gave us a friendly wave as we passed each other. At one trail interesection, we found plastic bags and roots left over from somebody's marijuana grow op, but generally the trails were clean and free of litter. We stopped for lunch on a wide shelf road; Dave told me that the farms I was looking at were actually just across the border in Washington (hmm, they didn't LOOK any different!). Minutes later, a thick fog rolled in and totally obscured our view.

It was actually raining now, but we soon got back under the forest canopy which minimized our exposure. We took turns leading the pack; somehow I managed to be trail leader on what turned out to be the most difficult trail of the day. The daylight was starting to fade as we slowly bumped over the trail. Part shelf road, part forest path, with plenty of logs, stumps, exposed roots, rock steps, mud, overgrowth, undergrowth, and the occasional wood cribbing. This was fun! I learned how to use my body to help "throw" the quad over obstacles that high-centered me, and out of necessity figured out the leaning over to the high-side during the off-camber sections. Lots of three-wheeling sections as the rocks and roots lifted a tire in the air. Up the hill behind us, Yasu tipped his quad over on an off-camber section, but he had it righted by the time we had scrambled up the trail to his position; he was so fast I didn't even get a photo. We were quickly descending, and we hoped that this trail actually went somewhere and didn't get too narrow for our quads, which would force us to turn back and do the entire trail UPHILL, not a welcome prospect as the skies darkened and the rain fell.

I eventually encountered a log across the trail that hung me up a bit; a bit of rocking and body language got the quad over it. Dave suddenly remembered this log from a previous trip; he had come in from the other side and had turned around, not being able to make it over the log. The trail was noticeably easier past this point; I guess the log marked the point where others usually turn around. The trail switchbacked down the mountain and joined a wider road that led to a radio tower; Dave said it was used by Rogers AT&T cellular and a TV station. Having good cellular reception throughout the area was a great safety feature, especially with the difficulty of the trail and the possibility of a mishap; it also allows your significant other to keep track of you while you're adventuring in the woods, which could be a good thing or a bad thing! After negotiating the "tough" trail for the last hour, the ride down to the mainline was a breeze. A solid gate was positioned across the trail just before the mainline, but there was plenty of space for our quads on the well-worn path around it. This gate isn't actually locked, but it's presence serves to keep the vandals off the tower access road; good info if somebody gets injured on that part of the trail and requires rapid evac.

We checked out a couple of other trails, and encountered a couple of girls in a yellow Sidekick slowly driving along the mainline. We found another mud-pit on our way back to the trucks, a large open area at the junction of a couple trails that was probably once cleared to allow logging trucks to turn; we spent about 30 minutes playing around, doing doughnuts, jumps, and sliding around in the muck. The girls in the Sidekick pulled in and watched us, with huge grins on their faces. It must have looked like we were having fun!

We finally zoomed back down the mainline to our trucks, and loaded our quads in the darkness. My hands, arms, shoulders, and upper body were quite sore, and I knew that I'd be aching pretty good at work on Monday. We fueled up at the Sardis Petro-Can, and used the coin wash to clean our quads. We stopped for dinner at the Sardis White Spot, then headed for home. This was the most fun I've had in a long time; with more heart-pounding, handle-bar-gripping trail action than I'd ever experienced in the Toyota, and I'll definitely be back.

Photos by Greg and Yasu.

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