Thursday, June 29 - Sunday, July 2, 2000

Note: This trip report was written on March 23-24, 2001, eight months after the fact, so it won't be nearly as detailed as most of the trip reports, and some of the route details may not be exact. It is based on a short email I posted to our mailing list upon our return. My problem is that these trip reports take so long to write, they impact on my 'wheeling time, so during the peak 'wheeling season they just don't get written.

Dave, Jud, and I left town Thursday evening after work. The weather was good, and it looked like it would remain that way for the entire weekend. We stopped in at Merritt for fuel around midnight, then headed up Hwy 5 towards the Bob Lake Recreation Site. The logging mainline into the area was closed with a big, locked, metal gate at Helmer (Exit 315), but fortunately Jud knew of an old track a short distance away that would lead us in via a roundabout route. We drove down the road, passed through a closed gate (remember to leave gates as you find them), and drove along a slightly-muddy trail through the forest which eventually popped out onto the mainline after a few km's. We finally pulled into Bob Lake where we quickly made camp and went to sleep.

The next morning, we whipped up some breakfast, packed our gear, and headed back to the Helmer Exit where we rendez-voused with John and Eva, who were now on the other side of the big gate. They had left the Vancouver area bright and early on Friday morning (way too early for me; that's why I left Thursday night!). We gave John the directions to the other gate, and told him we'd meet them where the little trail met up with the mainline.

Once we were all together, Jud led us through a series of tight power-line access roads; parts of the trail were so narrow that I had to fold in my mirrors or they would get whacked by tree trunks. Definitely not a route for a vehicle with fullsize axles. I think we travelled east-southeast from Helmer, then north following Moore Creek, then northwest following the Surrey Lake FSR. We crossed back and forth along the power-line cut, following the twisty path over the rocks and through the forest. During most of this trip, we tried to find the "interesting" routes to take, rather than the wide, dusty, boring logging mainlines. During one foray on a branch off a power-line access road, Jud suddenly found himself stuck on what looked like wet grass (it was growing all along this part of the road, which obviously hadn't been driven on in a long while). After we watched him struggle for a few minutes, I drove up to where he was and winched him out. I had a bit of a difficult time turning around and driving out; nothing like spinning tires or anything, but it wasn't as easy as it looked. Once he was free, he discovered that he was in 2wd! No wonder he got stuck. We all made fun of him, as he was the veteran expeditionary 'wheeler in our group. Then I discovered that I was in 2wd also! DOH! Seems I forgot to lock the hubs; who knew...

Right after this escapade, Jud tried one "shortcut" along another power-line access road that obviously hadn't been used in years; he drove ahead through the mud to check it out, while we waited behind where the ground was still firm. Shortly after he disappeared around the corner, he called us on the VHF and said that the mud just got worse, and that he was turning around. Then he called us and said he was stuck. :) I drove down the trail after him; I found myself slipping around in the deepening mud so I switched on both lockers, which helped tremendously. I usually like to crawl slowly through most terrain as it's easier on the vehicle, but this mud would have none of that. I ended up powering through it, using the mud tires' self-cleaning abilities for what they were designed to do.

I finally got my truck close enough to Jud's, and made him slog through the mud to pull the winch cable (hey, I wasn't the one who was stuck!). He was buried in mud that was higher than the bottom of his door; it was the type of mud that looked like dirt, as long as you didn't try to step on it or drive on it. After I winched him free and respooled the cable, I backed out along the trail as I didn't want to risk getting stuck in our ruts while turning around. However, Jud still didn't have enough traction for forward mobility, so I winched him out again, until he was almost clear of the muddy section.

It was now late in the afternoon, so we started looking for a place to camp. We were only a couple km's from Frogmoore Lakes, and we ended up finding a nice spot on a flat, pebbled beach between two of the lakes. Frogmoore Lakes are a series of four small lakes, linked via Frogmoore Creek, which feeds Moore Creek and eventually empties into Nicola Lake. There was a constant, strong wind blowing in across the larger lake, which conveniently kept ALL of the insects away (much to my relief!). We relaxed in the sun while Dave crawled under his vehicle; he had damaged a brake line as he exited a snaggly section of the trail, so he replaced it with his spare. We set up our vehicles for the night, then sat around the campfire and ate dinner. The wind was still blowing, never changing direction, and provided lots of oxygen for our fire. The wind continued through the night, and I slept quite well knowing that I wouldn't have to worry about mosquitoes. This is one of the best campsites I have ever experienced.

When we headed out the next morning, we discovered that there was a very large group of people and vehicles partying at the next lake over; fortunately they were downwind from us, so we were unable to hear any sound from them during the night. I'm not quite sure where we headed after this, but I remember plenty of mud along the road, and in some places somebody had placed 3" logs across the road like paving stones to act as a path through the mud. At one point, our road became the drainage creek for the area; water had carved out much of the road, leaving it about 4 feet below the surrounding ground as it descended down the hillside, with lots of exposed rocks and deadfall for us to navigate. John expressed his doubts about us taking the road any further; we scouted ahead on foot as we battled the mosquitoes, and found that the road returned to normal at the bottom of the hill as the "creek" turned off and disappeared into the brush. We made the decision to press on; it ended up being a pretty good crawl and was probably the toughest part of the entire trip. We started off by placing the passenger tire on two slippery logs in a ditch on the right. Large boulders blocked the road to the left. A high mound of dirt hiding another boulder threatened to hang up the lower vehicles, but everyone made it over. Then it was off-camber through the rocks and the logs, with most trucks getting a tire in the air on several occasions. When it was over, everyone said that it was pretty easy, so I suggested we run it from the bottom up. No takers. :)

We found a large fallen tree lying across the road a short while later; Jud was leading and got hung up on his transfer-case cross-member. We stuffed some more logs under his tires in an attempt to free him, to no avail. John hooked a tug strap between his TJ and Jud's bumper, and pulled him off. Jud tried another line, and between that and a few more logs was able to make it over the big log. Unfortunately, he got too close to a thick root that was sticking up from the log, cut his wheel to the left a bit too soon, and put a good-sized crease in his drivers' rear quarter, the first damage to his new-to-him 4Runner on it's maiden voyage. Doh! There was a sharp left turn immediately after the log as the road went around a standing tree, so Jud zigged around it. John made it over after a couple of attempts and a push. I had lots of clearance, and didn't have any trouble. Dave got hung up, and had all four tires spinning in the air. I hooked a tug strap between my truck and his, took a short run at it, and yanked him off the tree. Since he was being pulled by me at fairly good rate of speed, he was unable to make the left turn and slammed right into the standing tree's trunk, which rained leaves down onto his hood. Good thing he had an ARB front bumper! The expression on his face was priceless as he found himself heading for the tree; and Eva got it on video. :)

We arrived at one pleasant lake for lunch; there were a couple of abandoned log cabins here with their roofs falling in, and we could see a wire fence disappearing into the lake towards a small island. I checked out some of the trails in the immediate vicinity; they snaked through the trees and were extremely overgrown, and at times were so narrow that I was rubbing BOTH TrailMax bed rails on the trees at the same time. Then I got to an even narrower off-camber section where I wedged my front ARB bumper between two trees; end of the road for me! I'll have to bring the ATV out here some time. Of course, I couldn't turn around, so I had to reverse back through the entire narrow, twisting path. Doug knows how much I enjoy backing up; it took me a really long time, and once again my overbuilt rear bumper saved the sheetmetal and a tail-light when I backed into a huge 3' diameter tree that jumped out onto the trail.

The rest of the day was a real workout. We worked our way east from Frogmoore Lakes towards Anderson Lake along an old road that was so overgrown we lost the track a couple of times. There was a LOT of deadfall along this trail, necessitating manual removal via bow saws and tug-straps (nobody had brought a chainsaw). There were so many fallen trees that we'd park our trucks, clear trees for a few hundred meters, walk back to the trucks, move the trucks forward, and do it all over again. The trees ranged in size from approximately 3" in diameter to 12" in diameter. Lots of walking, and boy, was I ever tired! During the worst stretch, we moved 5 km's in 9 hours. The mosquitoes had a field day with us. I remember thinking that I needed to go back to work so I could relax. At one point at a fairly high elevation, we encountered a freak hailstorm, and I was chuckling as I watched John and Eva stop and quickly put their Jeep's soft-top back on.

We crossed a rocky, off-camber creek, and were almost through to the Anderson Lake FSR, when we came across a huge, 3' diameter, 40' long section of tree that had fallen across the roadway at least a year ago; it was way too big for our bow saws, and was wedged between standing trees on the thick end. We pondered our options for a few minutes, and we decided that I'd try to winch the tree out of the way. I wrapped my recovery chain around the tree, hung my beachline over the winch cable (a safety in case the winch cable broke), climbed into the cab so that I could apply the brakes, and started winching. I could feel the truck slowly moving towards the tree as the tires slipped on the road surface, but finally the tires found a good spot and dug in. The tree started to move, and I heard the dead wood cracking to my left as I broke it free of the standing trees that held it in place. John remarked that it was amazing that my four tires had more "grip" on the ground than the huge tree did. I guess that's an example of contact pressure in action!

The rest of this road was even less used, as nobody had made it past the huge tree. We followed it for a bit, and we popped out into a cleared area that Jud vaguely remembered from a few years ago. However, we were unable to see where the road continued on past the clearing, so we spent a few minutes walking around looking for it, taking care to not step in the fresh bear scat that littered the area. Finally, Jud found a hole in the bush was he said was the road, so we threaded our way between the trees as we headed down the hillside. This part of the road was actually marked with flagging tape; good thing as I wouldn't have known it was a road otherwise. It didn't look any different than the surrounding area. We eventually joined the mainline Anderson Lake FSR, made some good time, and arrived at Anderson Lake while the sun was still out. The old cabin at the lake was still standing, but we elected to camp at the side of the road on the ridge above the lake, hoping that the exposed ridge would have some wind and we would once again be free of mosquitoes.

As I was unpacking my gear, I noticed that I was missing one of my Hella light covers. I guess a branch snagged it or something. Dave and I built a really nice campfire circle out of the many rocks that covered the area, complete with a two-foot high reflector to shield the fire from the wind and reflect the heat back to us. We even engineered holes in the base to allow the wind to provide the necessary oxygen. :) Suddenly, we heard a loud whirring, screaming, whine right behind us, which sounded like a small object was powering past us through the air at a great speed. We spun around, but saw nothing. Weirdness! The others had heard the sound as well, but nobody had seen anything. We gathered firewood, glancing nervously around.

Suddenly, we heard the sound again, closer this time, but again we saw nothing. It seemed like the sound had come from just above us. Looking up into the sky, we spotted some small birds lazily circling high above. Could they be the source of the noise? I continued gathering wood while Dave kept an eye on the birds. Sure enough, when I again heard the sound, Dave reported that it was the birds. They would spiral up really high, then close their wings and drop straight down towards us, pulling up just before they hit the ground. The sound was the wind whipping through their feathers due to the speed they were travelling. Dave said the bird got to within 6 feet of me before it veered away. By the time I got turned around, it was long gone. Mystery solved! They dive-bombed us a few more times, always from behind, but quit once the sun went down. I suspected that we were too close to their nests for their comfort, and Jud and I spotted two of them quietly nesting on the ground about 15 feet from his truck, blending in so well with their surroundings that Jessie didn't spot them as she happily crunched on her doggy treats at the rear of the 4Runner.

I remember sitting around that campfire for a long time, I remember a huge, gnarly, misshapen piece of root wood that Dave dragged over to feed the fire, but I can't remember what we talked about. And you know what? It really doesn't matter. What matters is that there we were, no worries, no pressures, away from the daily grind. That's what four-wheeling is all about.

I slept pretty good that night; I think it had something to do with all that physical activity during the day. During the pre-trip check in the morning, I discovered a new dent in my passenger door, and noticed that my tie rod had a 3" bow in it. I remembered hearing a branch whack the door pretty hard, but I didn't remember hitting anything with the tie rod or striking a tire hard enough to flex it, but who knows. I used Jud's pry bar to straighten it out, and the truck drove straighter after I was done than it had all week. The birds dive-bombed us a few more times during breakfast and while we packed; they probably figured that they'd scared us off when we pulled out of camp. :)

We wandered around the logging roads for a while, generally heading in a northern direction. I think we might have taken Long Lake Road or a smaller road that paralleled it. We stopped at a fork in the road near Ross Moore Lake for lunch, and we watched several ATV's zip past. From here, I think we took Dropping Water FSR and Ross Moore Lake FSR towards Lac le Jeune and the provincial park that bears it's name, spotting several marked snowmobile trails crossing over the road. There were lots of muddy sections of road, and for some reason I was elected to be the guinea pig for a deep one (which as it turned out wasn't deep at all). We eventually exited Lac le Jeune Provincial Park, and arrived at the pavement of Lac le Jeune Road where we aired up with our compressors. A short drive south-west took us to Hwy 5 (Exit 336), where we headed south to Merritt for fuel and ice cream.

Since it was still early in the day, we decided to take the back roads home instead of playing in the holiday traffic on the highway. Jud led us west out of Merritt along Hwy 8, a scenic, two-lane highway. We took the Sunshine Valley Road south from Hwy 8, which turned right and paralleled the highway heading west through farmland. We turned left, crossed a bridge by a waterfall, and took the Jack Swartz Road south as it followed Spius Creek. We turned right onto the Spius Creek FSR, then did a cool little loop that Jud calls the "Mini-Whipsaw" that led us past Lightning Lake and Cabin Lake. Plenty of mud, a few short but steep climbs and drops, as we slowly twisted around through the dark forest below Stoyoma Mountain. We arrived back at the Spius Creek FSR, and headed south to the power-line access road. We took the steep, twisting power-line access down to the Uztlius Creek FSR (aka Useless Creek); this road was so overgrown in spots that we couldn't see the road surface through all the saplings that were growing up through the middle of the road. We then blasted west along the mainline. We turned right at the Anderson Main Road, took the left branch onto the Anderson River FSR, then turned right onto another power-line access road. This was a steep climb that basically paralleled the Anderson Main Road north, crossed the Anderson Main Road, then continued northwest towards Stoyoma Creek. We followed the power-line road for a while, and encountered several spurs that we didn't check out as it was starting to get late. We found ourselves on a new active logging road, which Jud later realized was built on an older existing road that used to be behind a gate, that he had never been able to explore. As we descended the switchbacks above Boston Bar, we could see the tiny train cars across the highway at the train yard. When we finally arrived at Hwy 1 (the Fraser Canyon), Jud said the road we had driven down was the same road that used to be behind the gate.

We drove into Boston Bar for fuel, then headed to Chilliwack for dinner. Total distance was about 800 km's. Not bad for a stocker run... Dave shot a lot of video, so we didn't take many photos (in fact, I didn't bring a camera, which is why there are no photos for this report).

Damage report:

Dave: broken passenger marker light, ripped off rear brake line (fixed with a spare).

Greg: dent in passenger door, bent tie rod (fixed with pry bar), lost one Hella light cover.

Jud: dent in driver's rear quarter, ripped off passenger-side top-corner windshield moulding, ripped off section of driver's-side drip moulding, ripped off CB antenna mount from driver's fender.

John & Eva: dent in passenger rear quarter, ripped driver's soft-top door (fixed with duct tape).

Great fun! :)

As I proof-read this report, I realized that it was just as detailed as the rest of them. Amazing for me, considering how much time elapsed between the trip and the chronicling of it. Those who know me know that I usually can't even remember what I ate for dinner yesterday, but I found that as I wrote this report, I started remembering more and more, and the words just flowed out. I hope you enjoyed it; I sure enjoyed remembering it.

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