Upper Hut Day Trip

Location: 10 minutes north of Squamish BC, along the BC south coast
Dates: November, 1995

It started this way,

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    Fri Nov 17 14:08:33 1995
    Letter  : 7496581    From: Rob Mullen
    Address : ramullen@wimsey.com
    Subject : Upper Hut on Sunday
    Bytes   : 468

    To: Larry_Soo@mindlink.bc.ca


    Larry, I'm going to Upper Hut on Sunday with Jeff
    and various other Lionsgaters.  We're meeting at
    the Eighties restaurant in North Van at 8:00.

    Interested?



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To be honest, I wasn't exactly keen on accepting this invite. I had done Upper Hut Lake a couple of months ago so the "excitement" wasn't there anymore. Besides, it was only slightly difficult; it was barely do-able in vehicles without lockers. Doing it again in such a short time just didn't appeal to me. Furthermore, the Lionsgaters club has a lot of members. The last club run they had involved 15 vehicles on the tight, rocky Clear Creek trail. The route to Upper Hut is even narrower so I wasn't looking forward to a bottle neck, especially if another vehicle broke down like the last time.

On the other hand, I didn't have anything planned for this weekend and I wanted to go somewhere. So I agreed to meet Rob et al at the Eighties Cafe in North Vancouver at the ungodly hour of 8am.

Arriving at the restaurant, I was pleased to see only a handful of 4x4s (the bush kind, not the yuppy kind) in the parking lot. Even better: after a week of wind and rain, the weather suddenly cleared and blue skies were in abundance.

The group consisted of:

Rob Mullen [offroad list]
Toyota BJ40 Land Cruiser
Diesel, 55mm lift
Front Auburn LS, rear ARB
31" BFG MTs

Jason Witwicki and his father, Dennis
Ford Ranger
308 V8, 4" lift
Rear Lockrite
32x10.5 Dunlop Mud Rovers
8274 Warn

Yen-Hsen
Jeep Wrangler
4.2L, 4" lift
Front & rear ARBs
32" BFG MTs
8000 Warn

Doug Butters (passenger: Harvey Wong [offroad list])
Suzuki Samurai
1600cc Sidekick/Tracker engine, lotsa lift
Front & rear Lockrites
31" Big Os
8000i Warn

Larry Soo (me)
Jeep Wrangler
4.0L, 2.5" lift
Rear Lockrite
31x10.5 BFGs
8274 Warn

One of the benefits of heading up to the Hut lakes is that the highway portion involves the Sea-to-Sky highway which runs north from Vancouver to the Whistler ski resort, along the coastline. As usual, the scenery was fantastic.

Shortly after entering Paradise Valley, a few kilometers north of Squamish, we reached the trail head and aired down. In contrast to my prior summer-time visit, the trail was damp many sections were transformed into shallow streams. The first leg of the trip, which took us to Hut Lake, is generally quite easy with only one slightly difficult portion involving some sharp, rock steps, with a drop-off to its left. We negotiated this section easily and slowly made our way to Hut Lake.

A view of the Tantalus Range during a rare and brief break in the foliage.

Aside from frequent sections of sharp, loose rocks and dense brush, there are three man obstacles on the way to Upper Hut.

Obstacle 1 : The Traffic Median from Hell

From the description I used in a prior trip report:

        Picture an uphill trail, walled-in by trees. Sitting in
        the middle of a gentle right-hand curve is a jagged rock
        outcropping looking for all the world like a
        two-and-a-half-foot tall traffic island approximately
        three-feet wide.  On either side was a narrow, perhaps
        Jeep-wide gutter, littered with loose rock and dry, dusty
        dirt.

The only difference since then was that the dry dusty dirt was no more. Instead, we had to contend with sharp rocks and streams of water. I took the same line as before, attempting to run my left side up the median. It's not the best line, but it's certainly fun. I made it but with a fair bit of difficulty. Doug took the smart route by staying in the left "channel" while Rob Mullen and Yen-Hsen took the right "channel." Jason had a bit of difficulty but I wasn't able to see what was happening because I had proceeded to the next obstacle.

Obstacle 2 : The Rocks of Sharpness

Doug Butter's Samurai negotiating its way through the rocks & water

This consisted of a narrow uphill slog through some very sharp rocks whose average size was that of a football. The addition of running water made it quite challenging...for me, at least. I spent quite a bit of time attempting to get my wheels over a particularly nasty section. After lots of bashing and bouncing and rock moving, I got through. The only damage was some missing paint from the undercarriage and more scars on my BFG M/Ts. Doug and his Suzuki made it look like a cakewalk, as did Jason and his V8 Ranger. Rob Mullen and Yen-Hsen stopped once or twice while getting through, but no one had as much trouble as me. (Sheepish grin)

Obstacle 3 : The Trench

Yen-Hsen's YJ in the trench after successfully clambering through the rocks and water to get there

Immediately following the Rocks of Sharpness [tm], we had to climb up and into the trench. The approach to the trench was a short but fairly steep diagonal climb approximately four feet in height. The leading edge of the diagonal slope consisted of a large rock face on the left side. This formed a wedge-shaped hole on the right side. Jutting out from the center of the wedge was a 10-inch diameter log, aimed right at my grill. To avoid a tip-over, the only line was to try to straddle the wedge. During the summer, it's possible to straddle the wedge all the way into the trench. But beaus of the rain, our tires kept sipping off the steep right-side rock face and into the wedge. So the best line (given the narrow dimensions of the trail, we had few options, if any) was to straddle the wedge half-way up before cranking hard left. Of course, before any attempt could be made, we had to use Doug's chain saw to remove the log.

I made it up and into the trench after high centering a little bit. The trench is walled in by steep, near-vertical banks on both sides and narrows at the far end to the width of a compact truck. At this far end were two shallow waterfalls which followed a pair of wheel ruts. The ruts went up a steep wall which looked like bedrock, approximately five feet tall. The left rut was steep...the right rut was just plain vertical at its base.

My first instinct was to run away...just kidding. Actually, since Doug and his Suzuki seemed to have the least trouble of the trouble, I figured that he would have the best chance of climbing the wall. Once there, we could use him as a winch anchor if we had problems. But since I was in the lead and he was right behind me, I thought I'd try the wall first. Well, I made it...almost. My front tires just made it over the wall before I centered on various parts of my undercarriage and lost traction. Dennis, being the extremely helpful guy that he is, helped me hook up my 8274 to a decent-sized tree. A few clicks of the "IN" switch and I was over the wall.

Here I am high-centered while trying to crest the wall at the end of the trench

Doug, being particularly insensitive, appeared to putter his Samurai up the entrance to the trench and over the far wall in much the same way that I didn't. He didn't even have the decency to spin a single wheel. I was humbled.

After Doug came Rob Mullen in his gravity-challenged BJ40. He made a few unsuccessful attempts, each resulting in some breath-taking "tripods" which he and his BJ40 are famous for. Finally, he high-centered with his front end over the wall so Doug turned his Samurai around and, by way of a pulley, he ran a cable down to Rob and gave him a short pull which was enough for the diesel to crawl its way over.

Yen-Hsen's front locker didn't provide him with any more advantage. He made some valiant attempts but when the final attempt resulted in his right-rear fender flare (the extra-wide ones) up against the dirt and rock bank, with no possibility of backing down without sheet metal damage, we decided it was winch time. (The specter of a Suzuki Samurai winching a Jeep over an obstacle is truly frightening to us Jeepers). A short winching by Doug and he was through. Jason decided to leave his Ranger parked outside of the trench and he and his Dad hitched a ride with myself and Yen-Hsen.

The remainder of the trail to Upper Hut was uneventful. Just more branches and bumps. (At some point, between the start of the trailhead and reaching Upper Hut, the rock guards on Yen-Hsen's newly-installed DKW windshield lights were popped-off by some branches.)

By this time (3pm) it was getting quite cold so we spent only a short time at the lake before heading down.

A sure-fire indicator of a good, tough trail is when it's tough going downhill.

This was a good, tough trail.

Doug lead on the way back down and, as he prepared to descend the steep wall into the trench, he had to back up a bit to setup for his line. I thought to myself, "If a guy in a Samurai is having trouble setting up for a line, I'm in deep doo-doo." Before reaching the drop-off into the trench, I had to negotiate a right-hand curve along a rock formation which was severely off-camber to the left. It was butt-pucker time as I considered asking Dennis to hang out of his door to provide some ballast. Every so slowly, we inched our way towards the crest above the trench; gradually, the lean angle lessened.

At the drop-off into the trench, picking a line to avoid the near-vertical drop on the far left was good manners but meant nothing. Jeep-sized vehicles, trying to hug the right side simply slipped off the wet rock face, slid to the left and over the steep ledge.

Each vehicle that went over made a loud bang as it slid leftwards and into the trench. Both Jeeps dragged their bumperettes as they entered the trench. Rob Mullen made a Herculean effort to avoid the left side and put his BJ40 into an extreme lean-angle as he dropped over the edge. After some hard-to-describe contortions, the left-rear of his aluminum-tubbed BJ dragged against the bank so hard that he scraped the checker plating and his rear-mounted spare tire actually pulled a rock out of the bank. Extreme wheeling at its best.

Rob Mullen and his Land Cruiser dropping into the trench and dragging his spare tire against the wall

Further on down the trail, we noticed that one of Yen-Hsen's bumper-mounted driving lights was broken-off and somehow, somewhere, Rob Mullen mashed his front-right fender. Fortunately, through the miracle of bondo and rust, it was a simple matter to straighten the fender. Neither Jason nor I suffered any damage, although I _think_ I bent my drive-shaft (it seems like it's vibrating but it's so subtle that I can't tell for sure). And Doug's punctured sidewall is no big deal because his Big O tires have a guarantee against _any_ damage (ie: free tire for Doug).

My Lessons Learned [tm] for this trip are:

1. Never under-estimate the capabilities of a built Samurai. (I don't but I do know people who poo-poo them)
2. Try out some of your favourite trails when the weather gets really ugly. Even without snow, this trail went from a 6 to a 7+ (based on our local rating system). For another frame of reference: during the summer, you can get to Upper Hut Lake in some stock 4x4s. In the winter, it's lockers- and ground-clearance-only.

...lars