Saturday, March 20, 1999

We decided to head to Blue Mountain (Maple Ridge) for the purposes of testing my recently-installed lockers and gears, and for checking on the debris situation for a future cleanup run.

It was a warm sunny day in the Spring; we left my house at 9:00 am, and headed towards Blue. Met up with Dave Pocock and some guys from the Sea-To-Sky 4Wheelers at the usual Subway in Maple Ridge, and chatted for a bit while our subs were being made. Passed by Benz Automatic Transmissions in Maple Ridge, and found Jud Barnes there attempting to dismantle his right front hub to get to his wheel bearing and not having the correct tools. After leaving him with a set of Allen keys, a ratchet, and a 12mm deep socket, we continued on our way.

Arrived at the 256 St entrance, and drove into the "cul-de-sac" where Shane and I screwed on the tire deflators and made fun of everyone else who was manually airing their tires down. Once our tires were aired down, I attempted to climb the toughest of the hill-climbs out of the cul-de-sac.

Near the top I struck a rock with my right front tire, pinching it between the rock and the rim, and put a toonie-sized hole in the sidewall. Good thing I bought Big-O's! I'll be getting my free warranty replacement tire when I get a chance to visit a Big-O dealer. We put the spare tire on and aired it down; when we were done the others had finally finished airing down their tires. :)

We took a slightly easier hill climb, and heading east along the easy road towards the first turnoff and it's obstacle. Dave's group was first, and while they negotiated the obstacle, August took a pic of a stripped red 4Runner in a small gulley at the bottom of the turnoff.

A stock full-size Jimmy was having difficulties on the obstacle, so rather than wait for him to get unhung and strapped out, we opted to back down and take the waterfall instead.

Engaged the lockers, and started up the first step. I was doing fine until I reached a V; I was straddling the V and near the end I managed to slide BOTH rear tires INTO the V (DOH!)... tried backing up, and because I was sideways on the obstacle, my rear bumper contacted the dirt embankment and prevented me from backing up. Good and stuck!

With a bit of jockeying around and some spiral scoring of my rear driveshaft, I managed to gain traction to climb out of the V; I had the right front tire spinning in the air for a second, then I did a slide to the right, and it came down suddenly and violently and we all heard a metallic crunching snapping sound... kinda like bones breaking... Stuck, and good!

Hm, well what if I apply power? Binding, accompanied by BANGBANGBANGBANG from the front right somewhere... $#&*!. Spooled out the winch cable, and attached it to a nearby tree via the tree saver. Shane steered the truck through the next V, and when the cable got too short I attached it to the next tree and finished winching myself out.

"Maybe it's just the hub!" I thought, wishfully, since they were lifetime-guaranteed Warns. Out came the Allen keys and the rest of the tools (pretty much what I had loaned Jud just earlier!), and I pulled the hub off. During this time, Dave (yellow Bronco from the "Blue Mtn Bronco Busting" trip) and one of his friends (brown Jeep) drove up, and we chatted for a bit.

Hm, hub looks ok, darn, that means something else let go! Got on the cell phone to Ray Kumar, and said "Hey Ray, hypothetically speaking," and described the situation to him. After putting up with some laughing on the other end of the phone, I heard him say the dreaded "B" word: "Birfield!" Argh! "If you broke a Birfield, you won't be able to steer." Ok, well I can steer fine! I guess I just broke a hub. No problem. We drove up to the powerlines, took a pic of a burnt Pathfinder, then drove up to the top of the hill for lunch.

After lunch, we decided to head west towards the obstacles. I began to turn around in the middle of the trail, and suddenly discovered that I could not turn to the right! Nnooooo!! So there I sat, across the trail, unable to turn the wheels past center. I had to see-saw the truck back and forth with a turn to the left, straight, and repeat... kinda like square dancing... until I was facing back west. Of course, once this skillful maneuver was complete, the steering suddenly started working again. We drove down to a muddy, rutted section, and when I was in the middle of the mud, in a turn to the right, guess what? The steering stopped working again. I was muttering dark curses under my breath as I slid into the brush. Tried reverse, just spun the tires in the mud. Can't go forward because I can't turn to the right! Shane drove past me, turned around, and hooked up the strap. Gave me a couple of tugs to drag my front end to the right so I could drive out. Again started down the trail, and the steering came back (go figure). Decided that the waterfall bypass would be the easiest route back to the pavement, and I had no further problems on the way out. At the cul-de-sac, we found another group of trucks; one Ford had it's hood up. The owner was attempting to Macgyver his broken steering box, but didn't have a socket set with him. I guess parts don't usually break on Fords. :) I loaned him the appropriate tools so he could remove the required bolts, and then we continued out.

Parked across the street in the driveway of the Training Facility and called BCAA on the cell... while we were waiting, August headed back over to the trail with the camera to take a pic of a wrecked Chevy pu.

Meanwhile, I arranged to have my brother Terry pick me up from work that night, arranged to have August pick up my spare Birfields from NSOR on Monday morning (and apparently Todd got a good laugh when he was told the tale of woe), arranged to have Ray and Shane assist with the Birfield repair (also for Monday morning), and arranged to have Shane act as taxi for the next couple of days until the repairs were done. Rick from Maple Ridge Towing arrived with his flatdeck, loaded the truck up, and delivered my Birfield-broken butt to work (how embarassing!).

Once I arrived at work, Brad came down to the yard with KFC! It's sure nice to have friends you can count on! A big THANKS to everyone who helped me out.

I guess we didn't get much 'wheeling done, but we still had fun!

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