Sunday, December 26, 1999

Last night Ryan Gates and I were discussing a snow run, and we decided it would be a short-notice trip to Sylvester Road and Stave Lake for the next day. A quick open-invitation post to the local 4x4 mailing lists and a couple of phone calls later, and we had four vehicles attending. Not bad for only eight hours notice, including sleep time!

August met me at my place, and we headed out to Mission in the fog, which had been blanketing the entire Lower Mainland for the past week. The fog lifted just before Mission, revealing a warm sun and a bright blue sky. Perfect! We met up with Ryan and Wes at the Husky Station at Lougheed Hwy and Sylvester Road, and headed off for the Davis Lake trailhead. After airing down at the trailhead, where I noticed that Wes had a navigator, we drove along the trail towards Davis Lake. I called Wes on the CB and asked him if his friend had ever been out to this area; he sounded confused and said "Friend?" and I said "I though you had a passenger!" He said, "Oh, that's my sister Julie; she's not my friend!" so I said "Oh, okay... I didn't think you had any friends!!" LOL! Alrighty, enough of that... :)

Along the trail, I pointed out the rock where Jon Bruce's brother Mike had dumped Jon's Jeep on it's side last weekend (which is another story, appended below for your entertainment!). I could see that we were the first vehicles down to the lake today since there were no tracks in the frost on the road, and the puddles shaded from the the sunlight still had a thin layer of ice on their surfaces. Davis Lake was perfectly still, the clear water's surface so smooth it looked like a sheet of glass. After marvelling at it for a few minutes, we continued on towards the flooded road.

Since the weather during the past week had consisted mainly of fog, but no actual precipitation, the water level was much lower than it had been during the trip two weeks ago. The section of road that the creek had comandeered was barely up to our hubs, and the muddy, off-camber section was fairly dry. Both Ryan and Wes made it past the section they got stopped at during the Canada Day trip, and we were all able to drive right to the end of the road. August and I drove through the muddy ruts, and Ryan and Wes straddled the ruts on top of the high spots in the middle and left side of the trail, a feat not possible when the rainy weather makes everything slippery. Fog was visible out over the water, and the reflections and diffused lighting made it appear that the dead tree stumps protruding through the water were symmetrical wood poles floating in mid-air. On the way back, we caught a glimpse of the sun slicing through the fog and casting its rays between the trees. We waved at three ATVers who were heading into the trail, and I overheard one of them commenting to another that there was No Way he was going to go through the deep mud "puddle" we had just emerged from.

After a brief sojourn down a short trail to another fogged-in beach, where Wes commented "That puddle was deeper than I thought it was!", we headed for our lunch destination, a deep water crossing at a bridge over Lost Creek. A large log in the road caused a minor delay for Wes until he remembered he was in 2wd. At one fork, where I had stopped to wait for the next vehicle, Wes came around the corner and attempted to apply the brakes; he discovered that his back brakes were wet (funny how that works!), and locked his front brakes up. I'll bet he was slightly surprised! :) We soon found snow on the road; it was older snow with frozen ice crystals on the top. We arrived at the bridge at noon, and made the right turn down through the snow to the creek's edge. We carefully bumped along over the smooth, water-worn rocks, and arrived at the deep water crossing. Due to the relatively-tame recent weather, the creek was lazily flowing along, and wasn't overly deep (although August managed to dip a headlight into the water when he found a slight depression, something he later proved he has a talent for...).

We drove further up the rocks next to the meandering creek, and crossed it once more before pulling up to our lunch spot, a neat waterfall nestled between tree-covered rocks, emptying into a sparkling cold pool. The rocks on the ground were quite slippery; they all had a layer of frost on them so we had to be careful while we were walking around. I spotted an inch of water in Wes' factory fog lights, and pointed it out to him. After lunch, August managed to get stuck in the middle of the second creek crossing when he found another low spot (at least he's consistent!) and got hung up on an underwater rock. He said when he opened his door, the water was about an inch below the door sill. He climbed up onto his roof, grabbed his tug strap out of the back of his 4Runner, then climbed back across his roof and onto his hood so he could lean over and attach the strap to his tow hook. Of course, I had the camera ready in case he fell in! :) I drove past him through a deeper section, had him attach the tug strap to one of my front tow hooks (hey, I wasn't going to risk getting wet!), and tugged him out. Wes commented that the water that August and I splashed onto the rocks had frozen, which made the rocks very slippery for his egress from the creek. Ryan said that Wes kept sliding sideways off the rocks when he tried to drive forward. We drove back down the creek edge, crossed back over the first deep crossing (where everybody, including August, managed to find a shallower line), and arrived back at the main road. August even did the optional creek crossing right at the bridge, which although was easy and safe to do today, is definitely not recommended when the water is higher and faster flowing. Ryan had to head back to town due to a prior engagement, so we said goodbye to him and continued on up the road.

The road climbed steadily, and the snow on the road got deeper. We passed a full-size Ford pickup, whose driver had given up and turned around because he was sinking into the snow. Wes was leading, and he was slowly crawling along, making the first tracks in the snow. He finally reached the point where his front diff was preventing further forward progress. I thought I'd see if I could get further along, so I drove around him, and got a whopping ten inches further before I got stuck. A quick inspection under the truck showed the diffs and axles buried in the snow, so Wes and I grabbed our shovels and cleared the snow away so I could back out. Naturally, I backed into a ditch. I had a brief problem getting out of the ditch and back onto the snow-covered road, and at one point had several branches of a tree sticking through my open driver's window. I sustained a minor dent in my driver's fender, and managed to catch my right rear mudflap (pushed back by the snow) on the tire lugs and twisted the metal mount up and over the tire. Once we were down at a flat spot, I hauled out the High-Lift jack, jacked the right rear corner up, and got the tire to droop far enough so that I could pull the mud flap and mount back into place. While Wes and I were digging in the snow, August had found some mud to play in a little lower down.

We took a branch off the main road marked "Washout" (which more described the sign-maker's driving skills and not the condition of the road) and soon found ourselves negotiating some deep cross-ditches; August and I banged our rear bumpers a couple of times in the deeper ones. The road wound up through a logged area to a small plateau high above Stave Lake, which offered an excellent view of Stave and Salsbury Lakes, and the forested valleys beyond which disappeared into the distance. This is one of the few locations at this end of Stave that provides full cellular coverage, useful information if you are stranded in the area and need to phone for help. I spotted a large deer on the way up, the only sign of wildlife I saw during the entire trip. Wes noticed that his back bumper was slightly bent up (viewable in one of the creek-crossing pics); actually the bumper was fine but the cross-member that it bolted to was slightly tweaked.

We decided to call it a day, and headed back down to the main road. When we arrived at the wide section by the sand pile, we pulled over and straightened Wes' rear crossmember with our High-Lift jacks and a bit of muscle power. After airing up in Mission, Wes and Julie left for Langley via the Mission Bridge, and August and I headed for the Boston Pizza in Maple Ridge. As soon as we left Mission, we were back in the fog again. A nice, relaxing day of easy 'wheeling in the December sun. First trip with my new exhaust system; it seems to have held up okay and it's tucked up high enough so that nothing hit.

(Originally posted to the BC4x4 mailing list on Dec 19/99)

Ed Mah wrote:
>
> C'mon Greg. Out with the details. I just heard a little about it. So
> is the 1/4 elliptical CJ7 slightly scratched now? What did Jon say about
> this? Details, man! The whole story!

Okay, due to unbearable peer pressure from Ed and Larry, here are the details!

(Jon said won't be back at his computer until Monday, so we have a whole day to make fun of him!)

Well, it was 5:30pm Friday Dec 17 and I was building props at work, looking forward to my Christmas holidays (I'm off until Jan 4! Whoo-hoo!). My cell phone rang; it was Jon Bruce. He said "I loaned my Jeep to my brother, and he rolled it out at Sylvester Road! He can't get the winch to work, and he can't open the hood!" LOL! I knew what he was going to ask me, so since I'm not one to miss taking a picture of my Toyota rolling over a Jeep, I said, "When do we leave?" and he said "Now!" Did I mention I've never met Jon before?

Jon said he was able to get a rough idea where his brother Mike was located (near Davis Lake, near the water), before Mike's cell phone died. Having just been out at Sylvester the past two weekends, I tried to figure out where near the water he could have rolled as it was easy terrain there.

Jon said nobody else he had called was available to assist, so on my way home I got on the cell and started going through my 4x4 phone list. Shane Simard (92 4Runner), who had just arrived back in town for his Christmas holidays, said he'd come out, so he headed up towards my place; I briefed him via VHF as we were driving. I got home and tossed my emergency gear into the truck, and when Shane showed up we took off. Jon was across the river, and took the Albion Ferry over from Langley. We loaded his tools and recovery gear into my truck, left his car at the terminal, and headed off to Davis Lake with his friend Randy who had a spring-over Samurai. Jon also talked with Jonathon Yim (TJ), who was going to head out and join us.

We arrived at the Davis Lake access road around 7:30, in the pouring rain. A new red Grand Cherokee was sitting at the side of the road, with a grinning, soaking-wet person standing next to it. Apparently, the Grand had just shown up, and had spotted Mike standing at the side of the road. I had a brief chat with the driver of the Grand; he said they were going to head further up the Lost Creek FSR and find some snow to play in. The Grand was a rental!

Anyways, good news! During the time he was waiting for us (and there was lots of it; he had rolled it at around 3:30pm), Mike had used the High-Lift against the roll cage to partially right the truck, allowing him to access the hood. The winch then started working again, so he ran a cable out to a tree, and was able to plop the truck back onto it's tires. He complained about all the travel the rear suspension had, which he said made it very difficult to right the vehicle as the Jeep kept moving around on him. The Jeep was now sitting a kilometer down the trail, slightly off camber, with a large boulder underneath the driver's side. Unfortunately, we couldn't phone Jonathan Yim to cancel him as he didn't have a cell phone, but we never did see him, so I hope he didn't spend too much time looking for us in the dark!

I asked Mike how he managed to put the Jeep over; he said that since this was the first time the Jeep had been off road since Jon finished the new suspension, he thought he'd surprise Jon with a cool picture of the back tire up on top of this boulder. So, he drove past the boulder, backed up to it, and started crawling the driver's rear tire up it in reverse. Apparently, the suspension flexed extremely well, right up to the point when it started going over. He said the first thought he had was "Oh, sh**!" *Flop* onto it's passenger side. Nice and slow, so not too much damage or injuries. The soft top, true to it's warning label, did not contain the driver who was not wearing his seat belt, and he banged his chest against the top of the front bar of the roll cage (yes, the bar that goes up over the windshield). He also banged his head on the CB bracket that was mounted in between the spreader bars (without the CB) *ouch*. His 10-week old Boston Terrier pup who was sitting on the passenger seat on a blanket was now shivering on the passenger door on the blanket. He never did take a pic of the Jeep upside down *doh*.

Damage was done to the passenger fender (dents), passenger rear of the tub (dents), windshield frame diamonded (glass was okay; it popped out), driver's mirror (gone), passenger soft door (holes), soft top (holes & ripped), soft top frame (bent). It turns out the driver's mirror was missing because Mike's flashlight had quit, and he had dropped a spring into the mud while he was trying to repair it, so he unbolted the mirror so he could use it to reflect a headlight beam under the Jeep to look for the spring! Then he lost the nut for the mirror.

I inspected the battery, the suspension (very cool), the steering, and the diff breathers; everything seemed fine, no leaks, broken parts, or bent linkages.

Jon was very calm throughout the whole affair, although he did comment that it would be a long walk back to town for his brother! :) I think he was expecting it to be worse, and was relatively happy that it wasn't.

Jon pulled the spark plugs and the coil wire, checked the oil level (after I reminded him! LOL), and cranked it over to purge the cylinders of oil. He then cleaned off the spark plugs with WD-40 and rags, reinstalled the plugs and wires, then fired it up. It puffed a bit of blue for a bit ("No more than usual", I was told by his brother), but ran just fine; no misses or roughness. Jon carefully eased it out from around the boulder, and we finally headed out. Of course, the rain let up once we were done. Jon used his on-board air to air up at the Husky at Sylvester and Lougheed, and we drove into Mission to the Tim Hortons for something to eat. We left for home around midnight.

For me, it was a neat way to start off my Christmas vacation! Too bad I didn't get any pics of the Jeep turtled, but oh well, at least damage was minimal and Mike and his puppy were okay.

And now Jon has an excuse to replace his rusty windshield frame with the brand new one sitting in his basement! (So really, Mike did him a favour...)

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