Sunday, June 18, 2000

I am posting this Coles Notes report as Ryan mentioned that he wanted to be able to live vicariously through our exploits... he is keeping busy with his new baby and also has taken his truck off the road for mods and other work.

Went up to the Mamquam area today with Barry Sotham (2000 TJ; lifted 2" as of yesterday) and his son Barry Jr. It was cloudy and slightly raining in North Vancouver, the remnants of the thundershower that occured around 05:00h. Last night, Barry had posted on the BC4x4 mailing list that he was heading to Squamish, and would anyone be interested in doing some of the TORR trails... he wanted to test out his new lift and his new tires. I had been looking for an excuse to head up there anyways, so I posted a quick reply and went to sleep. Got up at 08:00h, and was out the door by 08:50h. Once I left West Vancouver, the weather cleared up and the sun peeked out from behind the fluffy white clouds. Arrived at the Squamish Shell at 09:45h, as I passed the Barry's going in the opposite direction towards our 10:00h RV point at the Stawamus Chief climber's parking lot.

It was a perfect Baby Bear 'wheeling day; not too hot and not too cold. After airing down in the lot, we checked out the first road on the right with the yellow "4x4's Only" sign, where Barry managed to put a 3" long gash in the passenger's rear sidewall of his 1-day-old 32" BFG AT KO on a tree that had fallen across the road... so much for Tri-Guard (tm) construction! He had two comments: "The guys at the tire store are going to laugh at me", and "Don't tell Mom about this!" Hm, I hope she doesn't read this... :) I heard fellow Lionsgater Grumpy (CJ) calling me on the CB; he and his wife Pam (YJ) were down at the Squamish IGA waiting for Morrie (TJ) to arrive; they were heading to Hut Lake, where I had gone a couple of weekends ago. We continued on up the road until we hit the snowpack; it was very slippery and we didn't get too far; we could barely make it through the cross-ditches. Nice view from up here. Back down the trail; a 2" thick branch snagged my CB antenna and tried to claim it as it's own; I kept on going and it bent the L-bracket back towards the A-pillar.

We then went to Forest Lane which is a bit more overgrown now, where my TrailMax bedrails saved my canopy from getting a nasty tree trunk crack (and probably saved the glass too) in an off-camber section that leaned the right side of the truck into the tree. Scuffed about a foot of paint on the bedrail... oh darn! (where'd I put that Tremclad...) Then off to a small campsite on a plateau for lunch; it was now around 14:00h, so we decided to start heading back down the trail to check out a few of the sideroads we had spotted on the way in. We took a right branch approximately 2km west of Forest Lane; it turned out to be a loop that actually met up with Forest Lane, then went north through a severely cross-ditched road until the cross-ditches got so big that Barry's TJ got high-centered on one and I had to tug him over it. Spotted a bluejay landing on a tree branch. Talked to Grumpy again on VHF; they were just getting to the Waterfall on the way to Upper Hut.

Had to stop twice to wait for grouse to cross the road; the first one was a mother and a baby, and the baby just couldn't grasp the concept that the proverbial chicken knew so well. The second grouse incident occured when one stopped still in the center of the road, hoping I wouldn't see it. After waiting for a few seconds, I started to slowly creep forward. It finally scurried away when my driver's front tire got about 2" away from it. These birds are so stupid I'm surprised they're not endangered. Back down to the main road, checked out a road marked "Warning: Severe Flood Hazard, Use Extreme Caution" or some such; after a short jaunt we found many fallen trees blocking the road just before and after a washout, so we decided to wait for another day when more helping hands were around to assist with the tree removal process. Down the main road to the powerline access road; it turned out to be just a short path up to the base of a cliff. Might have made a nice camp spot if it weren't for the burnt-out Chevy van, the rolled-over Celica, and about 600 shotgun shells. Talked to Grumpy again to see if he wanted to meet up for dinner; they were just starting to head down from Upper Hut and would be another 1.5 hrs or so, so I decided to not wait. Aired up the tires with Barry's CO2 bottle at the trailhead, while watching the cliff climbers on the Chief. Leisurely drive back along the Sea-to-Sky Hwy, enjoying the beautiful view of the water and the islands. Home in plenty of time to make dinner at 18:30h. Another nice, relaxing day on the trail in the warm Spring sun.

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