Sunday May 28, 2000

Note: These pictures are all from Doug, who managed to take shots only of his truck and my truck. When I get some pics of the other vehicles, I'll post them too. So if you were on this trip, feel free to email your pics to me.

The 4x4 club I belong to (the Lionsgaters) has a monthly breakfast and run, so this time during breakfast I suggested heading up to Eagle Ridge in Coquitlam. I was stopped by snow the last time I was up there, and I wanted to check it out now that most of the snow was gone. We got off to a bit of a late start, as Dave (aka Grumpy) had to stop off and pick up a spare axle for his CJ at Clint's shop (he was driving his wife Pam's YJ). As we approached the trailhead, we could see the entire mountain was shrouded in fog. Too bad, as the view from the top would have been really nice. We eventually arrived at the trailhead in the rain, where we aired down. I left a deflator on too long on one tire, so I had to air it back up a bit with the ARB compressor. Nice to be able to do that.

The Eagle Ridge main is a rocky but well-maintained access, but the trail we wanted splits off to the right shortly after the gate. It's a steep climb on loose rocks, which looks rather intimidating for stock trucks. Morgan had a minor difficulty here, but Grumpy helped him out and they continued on. The first obstacle is a climb over a jagged, rocky section; taking the path to the left will snag you on a large root, and taking the center line required a good line and traction. Of course, I took the center line, and promptly high-centered myself when the front tires slipped sideways and plopped my front diff on a particularly tall rock spike. Good thing I had Breeze diff armour. I couldn't drive forwards as all four tires were against ledges (even with both lockers engaged), and I couldn't reverse because the rock spike was stopping me. I hauled out the Jack-All, jacked the truck up via the ARB front bumper (right to the top click; I gotta get one of those 60" units!), then pushed the truck off the jack to the left. This shifted the truck sideways enough so that I was clear of the offending spike, and allowed me to continue on up and over the obstacle. On the way up, the truck leaned over to the left as the tires dropped into a rut, but I made it up with no additional grief. Hm, seemed easier last time!

Doug was next; he locked the diffs, picked the right line (or maybe it was his 35" tires and Marlin crawler!) and had no hang-ups. Brian tried taking his open-diffed Cherokee through the left line, and got snagged by the root. After a few attempts, Doug hooked up the strap and tugged him up and over it. Morgan's stock Nissan was next; he tried the center line but didn't have enough droop or traction. He tried the left line and got snagged by the root; Brian ended up tugging him over. Did I mention it was raining? I was getting fairly soaked standing around during all this. August had his water-resistant cowboy hat on, which he had just picked up at the Cloverdale Rodeo; it supposedly had a 4-hour non-soak-through guarantee (8 hours if Scotch-Guarded); he didn't Scotch-Guard it as he wanted to test out the 4-hour rating. A few of the smarter guys had brought umbrellas; I'll have to remember to add one to the truck's "essential equipment" box for times like this (hey, when you 'wheel with Toyotas, you don't need an umbrella... heh-heh!). We didn't wait around in the rain for Grumpy's ascent as we knew his experience coupled with his dual-ARB'd YJ would have no problems here.

On to the next obstacle; this rock face looked intimidating, but was actually quite easy as the composition and finish of the rock afforded good traction, even when wet. Only the Nissan had trouble here, but he took the easier line to the right and made it up unassisted. We proceeded up the trail, and I noticed another steep path off to the right, which happened to be where most of the group had turned around the last time I was up here in the snow. I had no idea it was actually a trail, as the snow had masked the ground, and I made a mental note to check it out the next time I came up here.

The next section had many large, loose rocks, and during one escapade I managed to get both passenger tires into holes and came down squarely on my right side with a loud metallic *bang*. Hm; I got out to assess the damage. None! The TrailMax rock slider took the impact without any flexing, and probably saved me about a grand in body work to my rocker panel and door. I made a few more attempts to free myself from the rock, and eventually cleared it. I believe that this is the spot I got stopped at the first time I came up here, but I can't be sure as everything looked different without the three feet of snow.

Doug didn't have any problems here, and Brian made it through after a few rocks were stacked to form a small ramp. The Nissan was having problems down the trail, so Morgan elected to park it. While attempting to turn it around, he got it high-centered on it's transfer case. Grumpy, just behind them and now the nearest vehicle to them, winched them forward via a snatch-block attached to a handy tree (with a tree-saver strap of course). This got the transfer case off the rock, but the rock was now snagging the rear bumper. I walked back up the trail to my truck, and brought the Jack-All down. I jacked his rear bumper up, and pushed the truck off the jack to the right. Free! Once the Nissan was turned around and off to the side of the trail, Grumpy proceeded up the trail. Of course, we unstacked the ramp before he got there. Far be it from us to deny him the pleasure of a moderately-tough trail. :) Did I mention it was still raining? I was soaked right through by this point, and I was quite happy to climb back into my truck to dry off.

The top of the trail meets up with an easier trail; this trail comes from the main and heads up to a microwave tower (so I'm told). Of course, it wasn't raining up here. We took the right fork to head further up the mountain. An overgrown track to the left looked interesting, but we continued on. A little further on, I spotted a difficult-looking rock climb to the left, and started up it. It consisted of some steep, muddy rock faces with "steps" that were dug out between the large boulders. I called Doug on the VHF and asked him to spot me; he took one look at the climb and said "Ooh!" There were two routes up from the road we were on; the route I was on got quite off-camber and I suspected that if I got a tire up on one of the boulders (and I would have to, to get past this section), the angle would be enough to pitch me onto my roof, which would roll me down the second access route. Rather than risk it, I drove up to it, then jockeyed around so that I could back down the other route, and approach the climb from a less-severe side-angle. I suppose I could have just driven around to the other access, but what's life without a challenge? I made several attempts, but kept slipping to the right off the slippery rocks. It didn't help that all tires were against ledges at the same time. I finally found the right line, and the Big-O's clawed their way over the top. Doug commented, "Great, now you've got the rocks all covered in mud!".

Doug attempted the climb; he was having the same problem as me, sliding sideways on the rocks. He tried switching off the front locker, but he still slid, and it appeared that four-wheel traction was needed anyways. After numerous attempts, he found traction, and launched himself up the hill, getting the passenger front tire about four feet in the air. I was busy running out of his way, and only got a pic of the tire on the way up; apparently Brian caught the tire at it's highest point with his rapid-fire camera. I'll post the pic when I get it. I'll have to start carrying the video camera on these little day trips!

We climbed up the next section of trail; it was an exposed rock face which looked difficult but actually offered some good traction. A short turn later and we were at the top of the trail, at the base of a large microwave reflector panel. I can remember seeing this panel from below, when I used to volunteer at the Westwood Race Track (which is now the golf course at the top of Westwood Plateau). We parked our trucks at the base of the tower for some pics, and walked back down the trail to watch Grumpy.

Grumpy made several valiant efforts, but it appeared that the rock and ledge spacing just wouldn't cooperate with his shorter wheelbase. By now the fog had lifted and the sun was happily shining. We decided to have lunch at the top, and took several pics of the surrounding cityscape as dark clouds below us started to obscure the view. The view from up here was AWESOME! We could see most of the Lower Mainland, from Burnaby down to Point Roberts, south into Washington as far as Mount Constitution, and east past Thorne Hill into the Fraser Valley. Somebody commented that looking down on the city from this high up reminded him of looking down from an airplane. As if on cue, we watched a dark-coloured helicopter with white rotors fly by about 100 feet below us. August programmed his ham radio with one of the YVR tower frequencies, and heard them loud and clear. We spent several minutes here, relaxing in the warm sun. It was a welcome change from the wetness below us.

Grumpy headed back down the trail, and we followed him shortly thereafter. The descent from the top wasn't too bad, although both Doug and I took it real slow. I managed to get a rear tire in the air as the truck pitched forward; Doug took a line more to the left and kept all four tires on the ground. We had an audience this time; the driver of a stock blue Sidekick was watching us. I asked him if he was heading up, but he declined. :)

Grumpy wasn't sure of the correct route out, and tried a few different trails. We found his YJ parked at the overgrown trail we spotted earlier; he had taken Tug for a walk and was exploring it on foot. We walked in for a bit, found a broken bridge (still driveable though), and found that the trail met up with another overgrown road a while later. Once some of the deadfall is cleared from this path, it will be a pretty decent trail. August suggested I bring the ATV up for some more exploration.

We were going to head down the same trail we came up on, but we encountered a full-size Chevy pickup who was disabled with a hole in the rear diff. He and his friends had patched the hole with metal putty and were waiting for it to set. They had a full-size Bronco further down the trail who was hung up on something. We decided to take the route back to the main rather than wait for them to move. On the way out, Doug pulled over to allow a Suzuki Sidekick to pass. He managed to slide his truck into a tree, and only his TrailMax rear bumper's box protectors saved him from caving in the side of his box.

We headed down the trail without any more difficulties, and encountered a black Bronco and a white Explorer with a scissor jack under the front end. I stopped to see if they needed assistance, and the owner asked if I happened to have a stock-sized spare tire for the Explorer! Nope, sorry. Apparently he had made arrangements to get the tire to his friend's shop, so we continued on. I made a comment on the VHF about the wisdom of going 'wheeling without a spare tire.

We pulled over where the main met up with the north trail we had taken earlier in the morning, to wait for the Nissan. After a couple of minutes, they drove up the main towards us; I guess they didn't have any problem getting out. We went down to the Esso at the bottom of the hill to air up, and I discovered that my driver's rear tire had a leak between the bead and the rim. I guess some grit had worked itself in while I was aired down and it wasn't sealing properly. Once again I hauled out the Jack-All, and Jason and I changed the tire. A quick trip to Big-O during the week will remedy the problem.

Another satisfying day of 'wheeling. Doug and I are planning to head back up there soon, to explore some of the other trails we found.

If you've been linked to this page, please check out the rest of the site!