I am located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada , which is situated just north of the City of Vancouver. Some of my pastimes include working on my truck, travelling four-wheel-drive back-roads, camping, hiking, ATVing, mountain biking, roller-blading, and amateur radio.

I have been four-wheeling the back-roads of South-Western British Columbia since 1987. I have previously owned a 1987 Nissan Pathfinder SE-V6 (stock, 31" tires), and a 1988 Nissan Hardbody SE-V6 King Cab Pick-up (factory rear LSD, 3" lift, 31" tires). I have since come to my senses, and my current four-wheel-drive is a 1985 Toyota SR5 Xtra-Cab pickup, my daily driver and weekend warrior.

My ATV is a 2000 Arctic Cat 300 4x4; it allows me to access trails that I'd never consider taking my Toyota on, and it's a blast to ride. I'm still an ATV newbie, so you can have fun reading my "beginner" trip reports and reminisce about your first experiences on a quad. :) I'm finding it difficult to get a lot of good ATV photos, as I'm far too busy riding, and there's not much time to whip the camera out before everyone's over the obstacle. I'm actually having way more fun on my ATV than I've had in my Toyota, with the terrain challenges and physical demands that you just can't experience in a truck.

I am a member of a group of BC Toyota 4x4 owners that currently number around 40. I believe in driving responsibly, and adhere to the principles of "Tread Lightly!". Our ATV group is small right now, but I've been getting email from people since I've started writing ATV trip reports, so hopefully we'll be able to get a good-sized group of riders together.

In addition to four-wheel drives, I also like older vehicles. I have previously owned a stock white 1950 Ford pickup with a flat-head V8; a lowered black 1956 Chevy short-box step-side pickup with a Chevy 350, 4-speed manual tranny, and posi; a stock yellow 1969 GMC long-box fleet-side pickup with a GMC 307 and a 3-speed column-shifted manual tranny; and, most recently, a lowered orange 1970 GMC short-box step-side pickup with a Chevy 355 engine and an automatic tranny (all of these were 2wd's).

Miscellaneous stuff: In addition to everything mentioned above, I enjoy learning BC history, wandering through the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, and playing unsanctioned paint-ball war games (go 'wheeling, pick an area in the middle of nowhere with neat terrain, and go nuts!).

The local climate is moderate, usually ranging from -5°C in the winter to 35°C in the summer. We get a good dosage of annual rainfall, which helps to keep things green. Most of the back-roads I travel are logging roads, powerline-access roads, and mining roads. Dirt, gravel, moderate rocks, and some mud. Occasional creek crossings and sandy hills. Snow at higher elevations until mid-summer. Travelling BC's back-roads provides spectacular views from the mountain peaks, and sometimes leads to stocked lakes, abandoned mines, and ghost towns. Our four-wheel drives allow us to visit places that many people have never seen, or at the very least take the road less travelled to a particular destination.

I believe that I live in one of the nicest areas of the world. I can relax on a sandy beach, go fishing at a quiet lake, jet-ski in the wake of large ships, hike through mountain trails, explore old logging roads, and camp at wilderness sites, and it's all within a few hours from my house. Our vehicle license plates read "Beautiful British Columbia", and I agree wholeheartedly.

Here are some of my favorite BC scenery photos, taken from my trip reports:

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the logging companies and the British Columbia Forest Service for creating and maintaining many of the back-roads and recreation sites in British Columbia. Their efforts allow us to travel to areas not accessible by passenger car, and are greatly appreciated.

Most 4-wheelers in BC monitor CB Ch-4 when on the trail. Most amateur radio operators monitor VHF 146.52 MHz (simplex, no sub-audible tone) when they are out of repeater range, and members of the BC4x4 Mailing List who are amateur radio operators also monitor VHF 146.44 MHz (simplex, no sub-audible tone). Advanced amateurs equipped with HF can try checking in to the BC Public Service Net on 3729KHz LSB, which runs from 18:30h - 19:30h PST every day.

This website is primarily concerned with Toyota 4x4's, and non-Toyota owners may find that I occasionally poke fun at them. However, the truth is that I'll go 'wheeling with anyone, as long as they are responsible and have a good sense of humour.

I've also started to add ATV-related material; as I do more riding (and gain more experience!) I'll try to post more ATV trips and photos, time permitting of course. For now, the only ATV stuff is on the Trips page plus a few links.

Mousing over the pictures will give you a description, comment, or location, depending on what was going on at the time. Clicking on a thumbnail will bring up the full-size picture in a new browser window; close that window when you are done and you will be back were you were before.

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