Thursday July 22, 1999

This trip was supposed to be an overnighter; a couple of the participants cancelled, so Terry and I went out on our own. The basic idea was to do an easy 'wheeling trip while immersing ourselves in some of British Columbia's rich history; I figured we'd take a meandering drive along the Tulameen River, and visit some of the famous sites from the gold-rush era. Prospectors first began finding gold and platinum in the creeks and tributaries during the 1885 rush, and although most of the area has been extensively worked over the years, there is still some gold to be found for the patient and dedicated amateur prospector.

Terry had stayed at my house the night before, so we were able to get going "bright and early" by 10:00h. We drove to Chilliwack, where we fueled up, and had a leisurely lunch at White Spot. This was obvously not going to be hard-core trip! We started off by taking the Coquihalla Hwy; at 13:35h we exited at Falls Lake (exit 221), and pulled into the hiker's parking lot for a quick field-test of my US Military entrenchment tool. I am happy to report that the tool worked as Larry Soo had promised, and was very comfortable. No more squatting in the bush! Okay, with that over, we continued along the toll-booth bypass route, admired the view of the valley road to Zum Peak, and hit pavement by 14:15h. I spotted an old log cabin between the Dept of Highways yard and the Coquihalla; we stopped and took a few photos for posterity, but they didn't turn out due to a disk error that the digital camera failed to detect. *darn* We then drove through the tunnel under the highway at Coquihalla Lakes (exit 228), and took the Coquihalla Lakes road to the Tulameen River FSR.

The Tulameen River FSR is an easy 2wd road, leading to Britton Creek. Britton, originally known as Eagle Creek when it was discovered in 1885, has yielded a great deal of gold and platinum, most of which was found close to it's mouth. The last big strike was in 1926. After a few km's, the road splits. The left fork (the Lawless-Britton FSR) will take you past Murphy Lakes, and will allow you to access Skwum Creek, Holm Creek, and Lawless Creek; another road from Lawless will take you right to Tulameen. Lawless Creek, originally known as Bear Creek when it was discovered in 1885, was mined almost exclusively by Chinese prospectors. We took the right fork, which was the continuation of the Tulameen River FSR, and continued straight at the road and sign to the left advertising the Coalmont Hotel and Pub.

We were now paralleling the Tulameen River along it's north bank. Gold has been found along the Tulameen since around 1860; the most lucrative area is between Britton Creek and Collins Gulch. The Tulameen River has been worked by white, Chinese, and Native prospectors, although some parts of the river have never been prospected. Collins Gulch, located just east of Tulameen, was discovered in 1885 and was worked by both white and Chinese prospectors; while the early diggings were good, the gold was rapidly exhausted. We spotted an old corral, and some kind of cold storage shed embedded into the dirt. While not from the gold-rush era, we took pictures of these structures anyways because old structures located in easily-accessed areas tend to disappear after a while. We stopped at an old prospector's cabin, and walked down a short path to the bank of the fast-flowing Tulameen where we found a tiny "beach" with white sand. Back on the road, we went straight at the turn-off to the Tulameen-Champion FSR, which sported a newer bridge over the Tulameen. According to the map, Champion Creek should meet up with the Whipsaw FSR in the vicinity of the Hudson's Bay Company Brigade Trail north of Falcon Hill; I don't know if the Tulameen-Champion FSR actually goes that far but it might be worth exploring another day.

We eventually left the Tulameen River, and joined up with Vuich Creek. A little access road to the south led to a number of abandoned-looking buildings on a small ranch; we were unsure if it was private property so we turned around without exploring further. We noticed a promising road marked "Niho Land and Cattle Co." just past the mouth of Vuich Creek, and decided to come back to it after scouting out Treasure Mtn. We drove past the water-carved rocks at Sutter Creek, and soon found ourselves in the shadow of snow-capped Treasure Mtn to the north-west. The map showed that further travel in this direction would lead us to Jacobsen Lake as it headed further south and away from our target. We were unable to find road access to Treasure Mtn, so we turned around and headed back to the Niho road.

The Niho road heads north, forks, and presumably leads to their ranch; we stayed to the right in hopes of accessing a road we spotted switch-backing way at the top of the mountain. We passed numerous left forks, some leading to small clearings, and some disappearing down out of sight. We continued to stay right, negotiated a small slide, and eventually found ourselves skirting the base of the mountain on the north face on a narrow shelf road. As we descended into the valley north of the mountain, we found a small patch of winter snow on the road and made the first tracks across it. We came to an extremely steep downhill grade that disappeared below the hood line; I had to exit the truck to be able to see where it went as it dropped and gently curved to the right. After determining that yes, the road still continued on, we slowly crawled down the hill in 4-low. The road started getting muddy and soft; we traversed a few hub-deep, soft-bottomed puddles and noticed that our tires were making fairly deep tracks in the soft dirt.

At 16:30h we came to what looked like another one of those hub-deep mud puddles; surprise; I got mired and had to engage both ARB lockers and use some throttle and forward-reverse rocking to get myself out. I noticed a fair-sized frog hopping alongside the truck in the mud... hmm, I guess this was more like a swamp. The next obstacle was an old, bleached, fallen tree across the road, approximately 10" in diameter. A very-deep-looking mud puddle immediately followed it; if the last innocent-looking puddle was any indication, this one would probably be bottomless. I couldn't back up, or I'd fall back into the deep ruts I just dug with my tires, which by the way had already filled up with soupy mud. Rather than try to tempt fate at the next "puddle", I decided to call it quits since we only had the one truck.

I attempted to turn around, and soon found my front tires over the fallen tree, all four tires packed up with mud, with the passenger front spring resting on the fallen tree. Dang! A stump prevented us from merely sliding the log towards the rear of the truck. We tried stacking branches and a rock to form a ramp to allow me to get my front tires back over the tree; I just didn't have enough traction in the mud to climb over it (so how come driving forward over it was so easy??). After Terry and I assessed the situation, we decided that the easiest thing to do would be to cut out a section of the fallen tree and remove it, thus allowing the truck to move backwards unimpeded. I should mention that while this was happening, a dense cloud of ravenous mosquitoes descended upon us, much to our dismay. We hauled out both saws, and started working on the log (and swatting mosquitoes). At this time I started thinking that a rear winch would be really useful. The weight of the truck on the log started binding our saws once we neared the bottom of the log, so I grabbed the Hi-Lift jack, and jacked up each side of the log, which cracked each side and allowed us to remove the center section. Of course, this pushed the High-Lift's base deep into the swamp, which required Terry to fight with it for while to extricate it. With the log now removed, I figured it would be a simple task to reverse out, and jockey the truck around to get free. Nope; still no traction. We used the shovel and dug tracks in the dirt for the tires to follow. Since I had to cross over my previously-dug ruts in the mud puddle, we tossed the dirt we shovelled into the ruts so I wouldn't get my two rear tires stuck in them as I backed up. After a few attempts and some more digging, we eventually got the truck out from where it was stuck. Now I was sideways across the trail, between two deep mud puddles, with deep ruts just waiting for me to slide into. I disengaged the front locker, but left the rear locker engaged. I cranked the wheel to the left, and gave it gas. The two rear tires spinning slid the truck out and onto the trail, and the front dragged me square into the ruts so I was facing the proper way out of the trail. Good thing I have switchable lockers for those kinds of manoevers! :)

We fired the shovel, jack, and saws into the back of the truck, reeled in the winch cable and hurriedly headed out, anxious to rid ourselves of the attacking mosquitoes. Slid sideways in one of the mud puddles, but it was no problem. We arrived at the bottom of the Very Steep Hill, and started to climb it. We got about an eighth of the way up, and started started slipping and sliding, tires spinning. This was with front and rear lockers, new 33" mud tires, 5.29 gears, and 4-low! Hmm, not good. Backed down, and tried it again. Didn't even get as far. Water was also running down the hill, which wasn't making things any easier. After a couple more tries, I realized the ground was just too soft and too loose, and I'd have to winch myself up this *&%$! hill. *grumble grumble* I switched the winch to free-spool, and started trudging up the steep hill towards a thick tree near the top. Of course, the mosquitoes set upon us again, cursed creatures that they are. Clunk. End of the cable, which meant the hill was in excess of 125' long, which in turn meant I'd have to perform two winching sessions to get to the top. Note: a winch cable is extremely heavy when you are dragging all 125' of it up a steep hill, and your arms are already tired from digging, sawing, and High-Lift jacking. I respooled 4 wraps onto the drum, and found a decent tree about half-way up the hill, off to the left side about 10' into the bush. I attached the tree-saver, and got Terry to sit in the driver's seat while I controlled the winch. The winch was really struggling to pull the truck up the grade, so Terry gave it a bit of help by gently applying the throttle. Slowly, slowly, the truck crawled/was dragged up the hill. Even with the winch pulling, the tires were still spinning in the soft dirt and loose rocks. Of course, the winch cable was bunching up on the left side as that was the direction of the pull, and after a while it started to rub on the top of the ARB bumper and began to fray on the metal edges of the cable-viewing hole.

Once the truck was up the hill enough to attach the cable to the next tree further up, I disconnected the tree saver and the two of us unspooled the cable from the drum. Yes, it took both of us to pull it back out due to the cable binding on the top of the bumper; good thing I had two pairs of industrial leather gloves for winching as the now-frayed cable would have sliced through bare skin like a hot knife through butter. The truck engine was getting oil-starved due to the severe angle; I could hear it rattling away so I shut it down while we were playing with the cable. Good thing I have an electric winch and not a hydraulic MileMarker. The cable was just long enough to reach the tree at the top; we fired up the engine and repeated the entire procedure with Terry at the throttle, and finally got the truck back to level ground. I should mention that we had to winch the truck RIGHT to the top; we couldn't even make it up the last 10'. Hmm, it didn't seem that steep or that soft when we descended... Of course, we had to fight with the cable to unspool it as it had bunched up on the left side again, so that I could respool it properly. By the time we were done, the poor winch was quite hot to the touch. I also realized that I would have to buy a new winch cable due to all the broken strands and the birdcaging.

It was now 18:45h, and we headed back around and down the mountain to the main road. Time to quench our thirst and shake the mosquitoes out of our shirts. Terry sustained 20 bites, not too bad... I received 207 bites!!! Argh!! As I write this trip report at 05:33, the bites are swelling up and are causing me no end of pain. *unhappy whimpering noises* Most of the bites are across my back (the little buggers went right through my shirt); the rest are on my neck, on my ears, behind my ears, on my face, on my arms, and on my stomach. I even have one inside my left ear. *ow* Yes, I absolutely hate mosquitoes. *&%$!!!

We drove back along the Tulameen River FSR, arrived at the Coalmont Hotel advertisement sign at 19:23h, and turned right onto the winding, narrow shelf road towards Tulameen. Parts of the road had slid into the valley below, and in one particularly narrow section, the road crew had put up a couple of portable warning signs with the flashing lights to mark the road edge. If you are driving this road at night, be very careful as some of the collapsed sections sneak up on you with no warning, and the vertical drop-off is quite severe. We crossed a newer bridge over what I'm guessing was Lawless Creek, and I checked out the old bridge next to it which was still standing. The old bridge's wood deck was quite soft, and I could feel my boots sinking into it ever-so-slightly as I walked across it's surface.

We drove through Coalmont at 20:59h, and arrived at the ghost town of Granite City. In 1885, a prospector named Johnny Chance discovered gold in Granite Creek, and Granite City was born. Granite Creek was the top-producing creek in the area, and at its peak, the city had a population of over of 2000 people. There were two main streets, "Government St." and "Granite St.", and 13 of its 200 buildings were saloons. However, the gold eventually ran out, and by 1915 Granite City was a ghost town. When I was here in 1988, campers were tearing out logs from the old buildings to use as firewood (bloody heathens). Currently, only three of the buildings are still standing, and they're in very rough shape. (Photos of these buildings and of the following buildings in Coalmont have been digitally brightened as there was not enough daylight.) One of the campers at Granite City commented "Nice little rig!" as he eyed my truck. He then asked if we were out picking mushrooms. We told him we were taking pictures of historic buildings, which seemed to satisfy him. Since it was getting late and dark, I decided to skip visiting the ghost town of Blakeburn, located further along Blakeburn Rd where Blakeburn Creek meets Granite Creek. On the way out, we noiced a sign stating "Mushroom Buyer" with an arrow pointing up the road. Ah-ha, the meaning of the sign at Fast Freddies had "magically" become clear. :)

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