Walker Valley

July 4, 1999

After many months of cajoling, Wil finally convinced me to head down to Walker Valley to try out the trails. Situated a mere one hour south of the border, this Offroad Recreational Vehicle (ORV) park offers many challenging trails. If you're getting bored of playing at Blue Mtn, you owe it to yourself to head down to Walker Valley. The trip was a club run for the SNORT (Sweaty Nipples Off-Road Team) members. Although they're a Washington club, they have three Canadian members. Two of them, Dan Owens and Wil Girindra, were heading down there and they invited me to come along. So, early Sunday morning, we headed south and met the rest of SNORT alongside Big Lake. The club turn-out was small. Only Caine & Erica, Trevor, and Kevin & Jason showed up. Typical of SNORT members, their trucks were very, very well built.

Threading out way through the trees.	Compared to the rest of the trails, this section is relatively wide.
Kevin lifts a front tire as he climbs over the boulder.	Trev's "Willys" was a fun vehicle to watch. Here he is climbing over the boulder/stump obstacle.

The entrance to the Walker Valley ORV park was right beside Big Lake so we aired down where we were before taking the dirt road to the trailhead. The North Creek trail entrance was blocked by a gate to keep garbage dumpers out of the area. Offroaders had to drive around it via a tricky, off-camber bypass. It seemed to be an effective system because I didn't see much garbage on any of the trails we went on. Trails in ORV parks are marked and named. The first trail we did was the North Creek trail which included part of the Express Way. Within minutes, we were in a thick forest. The weeks of rain had left the ground very wet but traction was still surprisingly good. After a shallow creek crossing and some twisting and turning, we came upon the first big obstacle. In the middle of a steep climb, there was a large, smooth boulder occupying the right half of the trail. The left was flanked by a huge rotten stump. Between them was a rut. Clearly, this would pose some difficulty. The big US SNORT trucks were in the lead and took turns clawing their way over the rock. It was an impressive sight. Trevor was particularly fun to watch as he always went for the big line. With our puny 33" tires, I was certain that the Canadian trucks would need to be winched, particularly my YJ with its relatively tame MT treads (everyone else was running Swampers or Boggers). Dan hopped in his Toyota and made a very smooth pass right over the boulder. No fuss, no muss. Wow. Since I was taking pictures, I let Wil try to drive my YJ up the rock. This was the first time he had ever driven my YJ offroad and he did extremely well. Like Dan, Wil also climbed over the rock without a single tire losing its grip. Very nicely done.

This uphill mud section had a rock jutting up from the middle of the trail, making it difficult for the wider axle'd vehicle to avoid.	Caine takes the big line at the bottom of Boulder Alley. The US SNORT guys had enough lift to take this line without hitting their undercarriage.
As you can see, I had problems even before reaching the really difficult section of Boulder Alley. I was thankful for my re-inforced skidplate. Rocker panel armour has moved up on my todo list, however.	Kevin keeps on eye on his passenger side sheet metal and he squeezes his big Toyota through the Poop Chute.
Caine has to use every inch of the trail to avoid scraping the sides of his Scout.	Dan takes an interesting line at the exit from the Chute.
Trev attempted to climb UP into Boulder Alley but his front axle shaft u-joint lost a cap, forcing him to give up.	Caine gave it a good shot but Boulder Alley won out.

Following that were more twists and turns with generous helpings of mud thrown in. At one particular uphill section, there was a rock sticking out of the mud. The two SNORT trucks in front of us had difficulty going around in due to the slick mud and their wide axles. They both ended up dragging their rear diff over it. Seeing as how they both had 14-bolt diffs, there was no danger of damage, except maybe to the rock. For Dan and I, it was a different story. We did not want to risk damaging our diffs on that rock. Thanks to our narrower track width, we were able to squeak past. There were several occasions when I was thankful that I installed that front locker,this was one of them.

We descended down Boulder Alley. Like its name suggests it was strewn with boulders. At its end where it dropped off onto another trail, there was a ledge formed by three large boulders partially buried in the dirt. The underside of each was undercut so there was no opportunity for a gentle descent. The US SNORT trucks had a huge advantage here with their tall tires and lifts...and pre-dented bodies. Once again, the two Candian trucks had to be extra cautious. Dan and I both landed on various parts as we came down. An extra one or two inches of lift would have been greatly appreciated. My transfer case skidplate now sports some new dents.

A brief detour was made so we could drive our vehicles through part of the Poop Chute. The Chute is a vehicle-width gulley with five-foot tall walls. It wasn't that difficult but it sure was fun. We then headed back to Boulder Alley to climb back out. As soon as I heard that we were going UP the Alley, I knew I would have to winch. It was way too tall for my Jeep. As it turns out, it was difficult for everyone and for the first time ever, no one in the club was able to climb out of the Alley. The difficulty with the undercut rocks was compounded by a pair of 500 lb rocks on either side of the step, blocking the best line.

During one of Trevor's attempts to get his Willys up the ledge, his spotter, Jason, noticed that one of the front u-joints had lost its cap. Not wanting to repair the u-joint on the trail, Trevor elected to take the easy route home in 2WD. Caine and Erica escorted him out since they had to do some work on their house. The rest of us stayed to try our luck at the ledge to no avail. Kevin came very, very close to succeeding but was confounded by the rock on the other side of the ledge.

Dan starts up the Jeep Cross trail. Check out that cool road surface.

A typical mud hole on the Jeep Cross trail. Dan's about to drop into this one.

There were lots of off-camber trails to keep your interest up.

We took the bypass and found our way back to the main road and almost immediately took another trail called Jeep Cross. The entrance was quite interesting. It was a steep, winding climb which followed the contours of a small hillside. The ground was soft dirt so to prevent erosion, lots of small concrete crosses were laid flat into the trail. Kind of like garden bricks. Once we reached the peak the trail turned into a series of mud puddles and squeezes between trees. There were no noteworthy obstacles except near the end with the two mudholes. Each one required you to drive over some roots and drop into the muck, then make a turn in the mudhole and drive out. Up to that point, a Toyota 4Runner not with our group had been following me (I was the last in our group). After the mudholes, I didn't see it anymore. When I reached the main road, Jason asked about it and decided we should have a look. It was only 50 yards back to the mudhole so it wasn't a big deal. It turns out that the 4Runner got stuck driving into the mudhole and his front tire couldn't climb over the root, nor could he back up. He was trying to winch the truck forward using a snatch strap and a small come-along. As you can imagine, it wasn't working very well. We hooked the 4Runner up to my Jeep and snatched him out. The 4Runner owner was a young kid who had just paid $900 for the recently-rolled vehicle. Jason invited him to come with us to the Lower Cavanaugh trail so he and his friends would have some other vehicles around to help them out.

Lower Cavanaugh was more of the same: tight, twisting trails with some off-camber stuff. We went through one very deep mudhole (came half-way up my door) which I didn't like because now I have to re-pack my hubs. Shortly afterwards, we were back on the pavement a little further south along Big Lake. We used Dan's onboard air to do the tires and went home.

I had a great time in Walker Valley. We encountered a few challenging obstacles and there were others that we didn't have time to see. Its close promixity to the BC lower mainland makes it an ideal alternative to those of us suffering from Blue Mtn burn-out. Vehicles with mild lifts and mud tires will find this area quite challenging. The off-camber sections can be a little disconcerting but they're not as bad as the stuff on Vancouver Island...except that you stand a higher chance of sliding into a tree. I'd recommend at least a rear locker if you're going to 'wheel these trails when wet. However, be warned: Walker Valley trails are MUCH, MUCH narrower than those on Blue Mtn. I don't recommend that full-size trucks attempt them unless body damage isn't a concern. Remember, these are recreational trails. As such, there is no justification for cutting down trees. If you don't fit, go play where the trails are wider. The are many more wide trails than narrow so don't start destroying the few that exist just because your truck is too wide. Sorry for the stern words but some SNORT members have run into people who were in the process of cutting down trees because their vehicles were woefully unequipped for the trail.

...lars