Saturday, October 6 - Monday, October 8, 2001

Okay, so I needed a name for this trip, and since it occured on Thanksgiving Long Weekend and covered a wide area, I figured it was appropriate. :)

SATURDAY

I awoke with a start, and checked the clock. 06:30h, I was supposed to be LEAVING the Port Mann Weigh Scales in Surrey at 06:30h, and here I was, still in North Vancouver, just rolling out of my nice warm bed, and my truck wasn't even packed. Doh! I blamed my sleepiness on the 16-hour shifts I'd been working recently. I got on the phone to Brad (who I was supposed to meet in Chilliwack at 07:30h with Jud) and told him I'd be late, and I phoned Arminder, who I was supposed to meet at the Scales along with Colin and told him not to wait for me.

We eventually left Chilliwack a couple hours later, and headed east on Hwy 1 in the rain. Did I say "rain"? I meant "monsoon". We drove through Hope, then headed north through the Fraser Canyon. The downpour finally let up just before Lytton, and by the time we hit Cache Creek the sun had warmed us up enough for us to remove our jackets. We passed a lone Highways Dept worker shovelling Absorb-all on an oil slick on the road, right next to a huge blood stain; we guessed that a vehicle had struck a large animal, killing it and collapsing from the impact. One more reason to drive a vehicle with a frame and strong bumpers; you'll still incur damage but hopefully your vehicle won't fold up around you. We fueled up in Cache Creek, and Jud made a quick trip to the supermarket because he had left all of his meat in his freezer at home again (at least he's consistent!).

It was now just past noon. We headed east on Hwy 1 as we skirted the southern edge of Arrowstone Provincial Park. We turned right off the highway onto Walhachin Road, and pulled over at the side of the road for lunch by the Walhachin Bridge, a wooden-decked bridge built in 1911. Arminder discovered that he'd forgotten to pack a can opener; one more reason to not go 'wheeling alone. :) After consulting my map, we decided we'd try to take Woods Creek FSR down to Hwy 97C, which looked pretty straight-forward (ha!). The roads in this area are criss-crossed with many old and new roads, with some of the new ones constructed right over top of sections of the old ones; for this first section I've posted lots of mileage signs and times to aid those who are attempting to re-trace our route. After lunch (13:15h), we crossed over the Thompson River and paralleled the railway tracks. We took the first right over the tracks onto Barnes Lake Rd, and eventually started to climb up into the hills. It appeared that despite the deluge we had encountered 20 km's to the west, there had been no rain in this area for a while, as evidenced by the clouds of of fine, powdery, tan dust kicked up by the leading vehicles. Our closed-cab vehicles are great for this type of terrain. We passed a few First Nations people who were busy cutting down large live trees at the side of the road for firewood.

At 14:15h we passed a couple of long-abandoned cabins in a field surrounded by stands of aspen; they weren't as old as some that we'd found as they were constructed with round-head nails, and not the square-head nails used in pre-1900's buildings. One cabin had walls and no roof; the other, larger cabin had collapsed under the weight of its soil-covered roof. There were plenty of bushes sporting bright red berries right here, and there was lots of bear scat in the area, composed largely of red berries with tan-coloured seeds. We also spotted lots of ATV tracks, all over the place. We thought we spotted a third cabin, but closer inspection showed that it was just a pile of deadfall. Sometimes it's difficult to tell!

We turned left onto a mainline (14:23h); Jud said the road to the right went to Ashcroft. We stayed left at 444 Rd (14:25h), a mileage sign by what I think was Nesbitt Lake was marked 44-14, indicating that we were at the 14km mark on the 44 mainline. 444 Rd would have been the fourth major branch off 44 Rd. At 44-19 we passed a wide-open field with a sign nailed to a tree that stated the field was a "designated helipad for emergency evacuation", posted with the latitude and longitude coordinates (14:36h).

At 14:39h we stayed left at a major fork (unmarked). We passed 445 Rd on the left, and 446 Rd on the right, staying on 44 Rd. We passed a new road just past 44-22, and stayed left on 44 Rd (14:45h). At 14:50h we passed through a set of open orange gates; the road looked really new after this point. We stayed right at 44-26, and right at 44-27. We stayed right at 44-28.5 as we passed 447 Rd on the left. We stayed right at a boulder marked 30km. Although we were headed in the general direction of where we were trying to go, the roads didn't seem to correspond to anything on Brad's GPS-powered mapping laptop. We passed several roads that look really interesting, ie. would be a good challenge for a well-equipped truck, but alas, this was a "stock" run and those roads would have to wait for another day. :)

We passed a long, straight powerline road that cut across the mainline, stretching as far as we could see in both directions, with a nice view of Tunkwa Lake in Tunkwa Provincial Park, 15 km's east-south-east (15:04h). I think the mountain visible in the background was Chuwhels Mountain, located 17 kilometers south-west of Kamloops (1896m elevation). We took the left fork (after taking the right fork, which suddenly ended in a stand of timber at 44-35). We took a left at a T-intersection in a newly-logged area (15:17h). Like the last branch, this road also suddenly ended in a stand of timber (15:20h). Jud commented that he thought that the roads looked too new to go anywhere (new roads generally lead to unlogged or freshly-logged areas). We figured that we were one road west of Woods Creek FSR, so we drove back to the powerline road, where we turned right and down (south-east). We turned right on the mainline; a mileage sign stated we were now on 447-31 (447 Rd at the 31km mark). We took the right branch just past a 9km sign, and a left just past a 6km sign (16:16h). At 16:31 we finally hit Hwy 97C; the sign at the start of the road stated we had just emerged from Cinder Hill FSR, 4kms east of Woods Creek FSR. My map showed Cinder Hill FSR going in for only 12km's before ending.

What looked like a large lake in the valley below us was actually a tailing "pond" from the Highland Valley Copper Mine. The pond used to be a lot smaller, and there used to be roads through the valley that would allow you to access the network of roads south of the mine. Now, the "pond" was approximately 14km's long, nearly stretching from Highland Valley (8600 Rd) to Laura Lake Rd. Many people have told me that the mine had been shut down; we could still see lights lit on buildings, and several gigantic earth-mover trucks were trundling around the property.

Jud led us left onto Hwy 97C, so we headed east down the highway in search of a road that would take us south. Every road we found was blocked to vehicular access, until we arrived at Witches Brook Rd (16:56h). According to the map, Witches Brook Rd provided access to Billy Lake Rec Site, where we thought might be a good place to camp for the night. Witches Brook was another extremely dry, dusty road, and when we got to the road we figured was the correct one, we were met with a large, new-looking metal sign bolted to a tree that stated "No hunting, no shooting, no trespassing. It is an offense for any person to enter onto mine property unless authorized by the mine manager in accordance with the mines act." We weren't sure if the sign referred only to the land at the side of the road, or if it specifically meant the road itself. A map posted on the sign indicated that the entire area fell under the "no hunting" rules, including the Indian Reserve at Witches Brook. Rather than tempt fate, we decided to head back west on the highway to the other end of the tailing "pond", where we had in the past been able to access the area we wanted to go to via Laura Lake Rd. Brad and Jud had mentioned that in the past they were able to drive across the road on the dam at the west end of the pond; I was lagging behind because I was taking notes and photos, so I called on the radio and asked if we would taking the dam road. Brad said they were still trying to find the damn road!

At 17:36h we turned left onto Landon Rd, which soon turned into Laura Lake Rd. We stopped to decide where we were heading; the consensus was Island Lake Rec Site (a.k.a. Big Ok Lake Rec Site) as it was close, and it was getting late in the day. The last time I was up here (with Doug), Laura Lake Rd was slippery with a thick coating of mud; now it was very dry and dusty. A network of new roads and detours here were clearly marked with numerous signs showing the way to Island Lake, and we were worried that the rec site would be totally crowded.

After 45 minutes of driving along the roads south of the mine, we finally arrived at Island Lake Rec Site, and drove down the rough access road to the lake to discover that there was only one other vehicle there, a full-size Ford pickup with a camper, whose occupants were out catch-and-release fishing on the lake.

We quickly set up camp before it got dark, and ate dinner around the campfire to music from from Colin's stereo. The firewood was a little damp, and we had a tough time getting decent heat out of the fire. Our neighbors had no such problem however; they had a roaring fire going with 8'-tall flames. Some of us retired early; Colin wandered over to our neighbor's bonfire and partied with them for a while, where he learned the ancient secret of their fire: they had brought their used engine oil and were fueling the fire with it.

SUNDAY

I awoke to the sounds of people packing up their gear. 08:30h; time to get up I guess. The morning was fairly cold; we were camped under trees so the small amount of sunlight peeking through the trees was not enough to warm the place up. While the others went for a drive around the lake on the way out, Colin and I used my chainsaw to cut firewood for our neighbors; apparently they had neglected to bring any kind of saw and he had volunteered my services the night before (alcohol will do that to you!). We were on the road by 10:00h; we took the short way out of the rec site (back out the way we had first entered), and met up with the rest of the group on the other side of the lake.

We took a road south past Calling Lake to Pimainus Lake, and at 10:59h popped out on Skuhun Creek FSR, at a junction with signs pointing the way to Spences Bridge, Merritt, and Calling Lake. Merritt was left; we went right towards Spences Bridge. We were close to the Pimainus Lake campground, and we spotted a mom on an ATV with two young kids on mini-bikes at the 38.5 km sign.

At 11:04h, we turned left onto Skuhun-Spaist West FSR, just past the 40km sign. We found ourselves in a cut area; at the fork we kept to the left and up. At the top of the rise, we took the right fork onto what can best be described as a slightly-overgrown shelf road, cutting across a hillside through the trees. The road soon turned into an old, twisting two-track, the kind of road that I thoroughly enjoy being on, but what the unwashed masses would consider to be no more than an ATV trail.

At 11:32h we crossed a wide mainline at a point 6km's from "somewhere", probably another road. Right at the stroke of noon, we arrived at an old cabin that Jud was looking for, and stopped for lunch. Jud noted that the last time Colin was on this part of the trail, he broke a brake line on his Ranger (since replaced with his Toy). This cabin had walls and no roof, and there were trees growing up from the floor. Again, it was a "newer" cabin, as it was constructed with round-head nails. We were on the road again by 12:42h.

At 12:46h we took the left fork; the right fork would have taken us to Spences Bridge. We were still heading south-south-west on Skuhun-Spaist West FSR, descending down from Spaist Mountain towards Skuhun Creek. Numerous trees in this area were marked and ringed by the Ministry of Forests as part of their bark beetle control program. I spotted one huge pine tree with large portions of its orange-brown bark missing; the wood beneath was flaking off onto the ground, and the fallen bits reminded me of puzzle pieces. At 13:30h we popped out onto Skuhun-Pimainus FSR, turned right for about 750m, the turned left onto Luke's Trail, a winding little path through a beautiful stand of aspen with lemon-lime leaves. I think Autumn is one of the best times to be on the trail; brilliant colour, no bugs, and early enough that the passes are free of snow.

I suddenly recognized the road; we had been here in April 1998 and had turned back near the summit because of snow. As I crossed Skuhun Creek, a slippery creek crossing a short way in, I was suddenly reminded that I was still in 2wd (like most of our "stock" trips, 90% of the trip was 2wd access, for Toyotas anyways). The fact that Brad was parked on the other side of the creek with camera in hand should have clued me in! Naturally, I got momentarily delayed in the middle of the creek, and switching on the rear locker wasn't enough to get me out due to tire placement. I had to carefully exit the truck into the water to lock in the front hubs, as Brad clicked away.

Luke's Trail turned into a tight, twisty, bumpy trail as it started to climb the ridge to the east. We passed through a gate at 14:47h; remember to leave gates in the same state as you found them (opened or closed). We had to remove a few large trees that fallen down across the road; good thing we had a chainsaw. We made a note that a 16" chainsaw bar is not big enough for a 40"-diameter tree! At one stop I found an interesting chunk of rock that resembled lava, and at 14:52h we crested the ridge; my Toyota altimeter said 5000'.

The trip down from the ridge was uneventful; at 15:22h we found ourselves near Farr Lake, and we turned right onto #4 Rd. We crossed a new mainline into a loged area at 15:29h; it was a rough, bumpy path that passed a large meadow on the left, covered with tall yellow grass. We arrived at Abbott Lake Rec Site, a nice little location at a bend in the road. It was only 15:46h, and we still had plenty of light while we set up camp - nice! But that also meant an early start in the morning; Brad said he wanted to be on the road by 08:30h.

A good breeze was blowing across the lake, which was great for feeding our campfire. The Forest Service had set an old deeply-dished semi truck wheel in the ground for use as a fire pit; this was great as it contained the fire, kept the heat in until the coals got hot, then radiated heat out all night. Somebody had left some cut firewood by the pit, which we used to start our fire. There was also plenty of dry deadfall in the immediate area, and we cut up enough wood so that the next occupants would have some. This was a quiet night; no passing vehicles, no neighbors, just the lake and us. Perfect.

MONDAY

The wind had let up during the night, and the lake was glassy smooth at 07:30h the next morning. The layout of the trees allowed the sun to start warming the area up fairly quickly, and we packed our gear under a clear, blue sky. Just before we left, it started to snow; just slight flurries, nothing sticking, but enough to remind us that Winter was on the way. Looking up, it appeared that the snow was being blown in from a dark cloud to the south-east, over the next ridge. We pulled out of camp at 08:30h, right on schedule. The road out was fairly easy going; after wandering through the forest on a two-track for a bit, we popped out onto a decent-looking road.

We encountered a deep drainage ditch south of Abbott Lake; a trench was dug across the road surface, and the dirt was piled up on the other side. Some of the non-lifted vehicles got hung up and had to try out a couple of different lines. Well, okay, it was just Jud, the first vehicle across; I think his undercarriage scraped enough dirt off the crest so that everyone was able to make it. :) A short distance later, we encountered a second drainage ditch, deeper and taller than the first. I drove over it, while everyone walked down the road to see if there was another ditch around the corner. Sure enough, there was another drainage ditch, bigger and deeper yet again, and a short distance beyond that we found numerous hood-height boulders strewn across the road, about 15 feet from where the road we were on met up with another road. Zounds!

We noticed ATV tracks at the right side of the road, leading from our road down approximately 10' to the other road below. It was a tight, off-camber squeeze with a drop on one side and a stump on the other, but everyone figured it was do-able, and I got elected to test that theory out. It was a little tippy, but I managed to negotiate it after a couple of multi-point turns, guessing where the trail was for part of it because I couldn't see the ground beyond the hood or on the passenger side and had to rely on my memory. Good thing I wasn't driving a full-size truck.

The others walked back to their vehicles to negotiate the third ditch, while I scooted off down the road to see what lay ahead. The road looked good for a several kilometers, with no more obstacles, so I returned to the boulders, parked my truck at the side of the lower road, and walked back to the last ditch to see how everyone else was doing. The ditch didn't present much trouble, and it was on to the boulders. Other than Brad, who folded one of his hard rubber rear mudflaps on a rock, everyone passed through unscathed. Arminder did the section in one smooth, flowing move, making it look totally easy, and making the rest of us look bad. :)

It was now 10:06h. The mileage signs told us that we were 23km from somewhere; we drove down the road and turned right onto Skuhun-Gordon Creek FSR, then left at the first turnoff at a clearcut into the trees (after driving past it once). This was an overgrown two-track road, barely Toyota-width, with tree-trunks lining the edges of the road.

At 10:19h we arrived at Stumbles road, and stopped for a break. Jud decided to check his engine oil level, and added half a litre. Arminder found he was down a liter as well. I decided to check mine, and discovered that my near-new engine was down 2 litres. Who knew! I only had a 4-litre jug of oil, which can be difficult to pour at times, so I grabbed an empty oil container from somebody and cut the bottom off it to make a funnel. Once everyone was suitably lubricated, we turned left at the T-intersection and started our descent from the Promontory Hills. While travelling down the switchbacks, we encountered several full-size trucks on their way up into the hills. We soon came to a mainline gravel road and turned right; the mileage markers told us we were 5km from the start of the road. After hitting the pavement of Aberdeen Road at 11:28h, we continued downhill towards Lower Nicola and fuel. We passed by the north side of the Craigmont Copper Mine; we had travelled along a powerline road on its south side back in May.

We gassed up at Johnny's on the Rez, a clean Native gas station and store in Shulus (between Lower Nicola and Merritt) that also had a fresh produce stand and a golf driving range on the property (11:40h). I had a craving for chocolate, so I bought the largest Coffee Crisp I could find. I glanced at the headline of the Province Newspaper; apparently America had bombed Afghanistan while we were out in the bush; who knew! It's amazing what you miss when you are off the beaten path, with no newspaper, radio broadcasts, or television. There can literally be a war going on, and you'd never know it. We decided we'd have lunch here, and ate from our stock on a nearby picnic table.

Arminder and Patti had to return to town as Patti had a paper to write, so I gave them the instructions for skirting the Coquihalla Toll Booth (a scenic, 20-minute alternative to paying $10.00 and passing though it on the highway). We finished lunch, and by 12:40 were heading east on Hwy 8. During lunch we had decided to take the Mini-Whipsaw (so named because it was kind of like a Coles Notes version of the Whipsaw trail; one steep hill, a bit of off-camber twisting, some dips, rocks, a couple of mud holes, all within an unmarked 2km stretch between two logging roads), then take the Spius-Uztlius powerline road and end up in Boston Bar.

We turned left onto Sunshine Valley Rd, crossing our old friend the KVR (12:52h), then right at a fork onto Prospect Creek FSR and left onto Jack Swartz Rd. Jack Swartz Rd splits, and Jack Swart FSR heads off to the left; it appears the Forest Service ran out of "z"'s when they made their signs. Jack Swart FSR starts off as a shelf road that steadily climbs along the east side of the Spius Creek valley as it heads south towards Spius Creek FSR. There is a nice view of the valley at the 6km mark. We stayed straight (left) after a cattleguard (13:12h), and straight (right) at a fork (I couldn't read what my nav note said here; I think it was "fork" but it could have been "face"; I was driving at the time I scrawled it).

We kept right at 11.5kms (13:22h), and took the right branch at the horseshoes (13:27h). By horseshoes, I mean that there were numerous red and blue painted horseshoes nailed to the trees, and mounted to posts. The scenery was absolutely fantastic along this part of the route; views of mountains disappearing into the sun, lots of lime, yellow, orange, and red leaves brightly interspersing the verdant conifers, and wispy white clouds glowing in the bright blue sky.

We emerged onto Spius Creek FSR at around the 12km mark (13:46h), and turned right. We stayed right on Spius Creek FSR at Maka North FSR, and at 14:10h turned right after a bridge onto a road marked as "deactivated", which rapidly climbed up the mountainside. We turned left just after a fence, onto a old two-track road. This road climbs steadily, with some sections steep enough to warrant shifting into low-range to allow you crawl up without stalling your engine, passes through some logged cuts, and offers some pretty good views of the mountains across the Spius Creek valley to the south-east. We eventually joined Petit Creek FSR, and headed generally east in the shadow of Stoyoma Mountain, towering above us 2282m above sea level (15:02h). We could see the snow-covered high-altitude road that led to Cabin Lake, a rec site in Heather Basin which is a nice site in the summer but is damn cold about now.

We turned left onto the start of the Mini-Whipsaw; it was pretty easy 'wheeling for us, although a lone newbie might be slightly concerned with the lay of the terrain. It starts off with a steep downhill grade, with alternating dug-outs from vehicles climbing in the opposite direction. You can tell how good your suspension is here, because if it's not flexy, you'll lift a tire or two on the way down. At the bottom, you'll encounter a couple of mud holes; nothing major but watch for hidden debris in the form of rocks and roots. I went through a bit too fast, and banged my right rear tire against something in the murk. As I continued along the trail, I could hear the tell-tale hiss of escaping air spurting out once per revolution. We popped out on Silver Lake Rd, and I hopped out to inspect the damage. It turned out that I had jammed a piece of wood in between my rim and the tire bead, and I could hear and see air slowly bubbling out from the muddy tire. Doh! I attempted to remove the wood with pliers and a screwdriver, but some of the wood was inaccessible and I was unsuccessful at stopping the leak.

Oh well, that's why I bought a brand new 35" spare tire. I hauled my Jack-All out of the bed, and proceeded to jack the truck up from the rear bumper. I hadn't had to jack the rear of the truck up since 4OffRd had installed my Chevy springs and drop shackles, and when I got to the top click of the 4' jack bar I discovered that lifting my rear bumper 4' up was no longer enough to get a tire off the ground, as the drop shackle just opened up instead. I could have ratchet-strapped the axle to the frame to limit droop, but I didn't really feel like crawling under a truck whose undercarriage was dripping mud. Colin grabbed a 12"-tall wood assembly out of his truck for use as an elevated jack base, and we jacked up the truck again and finally changed the tire.

We finally started rolling again at 16:10h. We turned left onto Silver Lake Rd, and descended down into the valley. We crossed the bridge over Spius Creek, and turned onto Dean Fire Rd. We encountered some cattle, and at 16:49h found ourselves on Uztlius FSR, paralleling the brackish, reddy-brown tinted Uztlius Creek as it meandered through the valley like a slug trail with no particular direction in mind. The rain was coming down pretty good by now, leading me to think that it hadn't stopped since Saturday on this side of the mountains. We took the steep powerline access road as it climbed straight up the mountain, where we encountered blowing mist and snow flurries at the top. Colin commented that it would have been a great location for filming Lord of the Rings.

The descent on the other side of the mountain was interesting as usual. There were several locations where we could not see the road in front of us due to all the brush and saplings growing on the travelled portion of the road. Parts of the road edge had disappeared into the abyss, leaving an extremely narrow section for us to squeak by, and again making us glad we weren't driving full-size rigs. We switchbacked down and at 17:50h found ourselves on Uztlius Creek FSR, where we turned right and headed south-west. We reached the junction of Uztlius Creek FSR, Anderson East-Utztlius FSR, and Anderson Main, and kept straight, taking Anderson Main the 15 kilometers to Hwy 1 where we drove north 3 kilometers to Boston Bar in the darkness.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, something we promised to never do again, then headed south on Hwy 1 towards home. I was pretty tired, so I pulled into the St. Elmo rest stop (near Hunter Creek FSR) for a 30-minute snooze while the others continued on. I fueled up in Chilliwack, then made a bee-line for North Vancouver where a hot shower and a warm bed awaited.

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