The rules really are different here.

Morningside is an area on Garibaldi Mountain, which is located on the Metchosin/East Sooke First Nations reservation. The mountain has a dense network of trails and obstacles, many of which have been pioneered by local resident, Paul Cooper. Every year, Paul puts on the Morningside Tough Truck Trials (MTTC). The event is notorious for its truck-eating obstacles and the carnage-lusting spectators who invade the mountain. Many consider these trails to be the toughest in British Columbia. Every two years, Paul also holds a mud-drag event on the May long weekend. On the alternate years, he makes the area available to Rock Crawl participants. Morningside is private property; if you want to 'wheel on these nasty trails, you have to sign up for MTTC or Rock Crawl (every other year). So it was with great anticipation that we lined-up on Saturday morning to sample the delicacies of Morningside.

The trailhead was quite tight and our group of over a dozen vehicles created an immediate traffic jam. The first obstacle was the same one featured at MTTC '99. It was short, steep climb up a dirt-covered, uneven rock step. It provided enough of a challenge that I knew I would be there for a very long time if I watched everyone try it. Instead, I drove around the line-up and headed towards the upper trails. That was the great thing about Morningside, it was non-linear: traffic jam on one obstacle? No problem, bypass and go on to another. The value of a bypass became particularly important after the green Aqualu monster 'Cruiser experienced some bad wheel hop on the first obstacle. That caused a u-joint strap to tear off of the pinion yoke which in turn broke the driveshaft. While some of the group remained to help with the repair, the rest used the bypass to get to the rest of the trails.

Traffic jam!	Caine's big Scout always draws stares. But then again, so do most of the trucks owned by S.N.O.R.T. members.	Roger Bell tackles the first section on Morningside. His is yet another of those S.N.O.R.T. trucks that have such a...um..."distinctive" look.
Brandon Miller, a member of the infamous Pirates of the Rubicon 4x4 club, drove all the way up from Sacramento to attend Rock Crawl '00. His reward was his first ever broken birfield. (photo by Mike Kash)	Did I mention that the Aqualu 'Cruisers were WIDE? (photo by Mike Kash)	Mike Gillespie's Chevy LUV, "Baby Luv", made it up this very difficult hill-climb without the benefit of locking differentials. Very impressive. (photo by Mike Kash)

Morningside is characterised by two predominant trail types: hillclimbs up extremely steep hills covered in a moist, loamy kind of soil; and climbs on large, exposed rock steps. The hillclimbs are the ones that had the potential for the most damage if you screwed up. On the other hand, the rock climbs were most likely to damage your drivetrain because they often caused bouncing plus some of the rocks were very large. The common characteristic between both trail types was a high frequency of off-camber slopes. During an event like the MTTC, the pressure from the spectators was enough to drive competitors to make grave errors in judgement. The result of this was usually some spectacular video footage. Rock Crawl 2000 provided a much more subdued atmosphere and the damage toll was remarkably low.

Me and Project YJ playing on one of the many challenging obstacles on Garibaldi Mtn.

Mark Bloedel's very cool CJ5. This was probably my favourite 4x4 at RC'00.

Mike "Crash" Kash made this hillclimb look easy. He was one of many Washington offroaders who made the trek north. These guys and gals were great people to 'wheel with.

Very low tire pressure was the key to climbing these rocks without beating on your drivetrain. The Pro Comps worked great at 8 psi.

Mark is running 38" tires but he still retains a low center of gravity. Generous fender trimming helps a lot. His 1/4 elliptical suspension was very stable.

Although huge, Todd was able to fit his 'Cruiser on all the Morningside trails we ran that day.

For the next few hours, we played around on the various sections, taking some of the optional lines and avoiding others. We eventually made our way to the last section that featured a short, rocky climb to the peak of Garibaldi Mountain. Some trucks had already reached the top while others were parked at the bottom. Todd from Aqualu was giving his giant orange Land Cruiser a serious workout on one of the optional lines. This attempt captured everyone's attention due to the steepness of the climb and the fact that there was a definite possibility of the big 'Cruiser sliding sideways down the hill. This would have resulted in a roll probably more dramatic than that of Jon Bruce at R.I.P. the previous day. After giving it the old college try without any success, Todd opted for a winch cable and got pulled up. Dave Lippmann was going to try next in his early Ford Bronco but Al Berikoff waved him off, saying that it was extremely dangerous. Now, if you know Al, you know that any time he suggests that you don't do something, it would be in your best interest to follow his advice. Dave studied the hill for a bit and decided to heed Al's warning by taking the main trail to the top. But it was far from being a cake walk. Like so many other obstacles on the mountain, this climb featured a jagged rock outcropping covered with wet dirt. Dave had to work at it a little bit but he made it up in short order. In fact, a lot of the drivers had problems on this hill. Fortunately, there were a lot of spectators sitting at the top to witness their difficulties.

Al put on the best show by ignoring his own warning and attempting the section that Todd couldn't climb. His first try was cut short as the ToyZuki started crabwalking itself towards a rollover situation. The traction was there but it was marginal, especially near the top. Todd had tried crawling it and failed with his huge 44" Boggers. Al didn't do any better so he switched to Icelandic hillclimber mode. He positioned ToyZuki for a hard launch, brought the revs up and shot up the rock face with all four tires crawling at the ground and air for traction. He received a lot of applause for being the first person to conquer that section. Things settled down after that as people tucked into their lunches and admired the view.

Todd had difficulty on this climb. It looks pretty easy here but it certainly wasn't.

Al is in position and getting the revs up for his launch. The side slope on this climb made the Zuk want to slip to the passenger-side.

All good obstacles can be recognized by the size of the spectating crowd. Here they're watching Ron Gooch in his Jeep YJ.

Todd drove his 'Cruiser down the hill he couldn't climb up. This photo better illustrates the angle of the hill.

After lunch, most of the group headed back down while the rest of us were drawn to the sound of Paul Cooper's big Ford. We could hear it off to the right, getting ready to climb a section that everyone had avoided. It was an extremely steep, mildly off-camber climb up an almost bare rock face. A couple of weeks ago I witnessed Paul make his first effort on this obstacle and he was successful. This time, he wasn't so lucky. The rock had become slippery with dry dirt and his truck kept sliding sideways. Paul is quite tenacious so he made several attempts before acknowledging defeat. After he backed down, Donnie tried next in his huge Mercury. He also made several tries without any success. However, on one attempt, his front end slipped sideways and he came very close to rolling his truck into a tree.

After the two big trucks trundled off in the other direction, we were left with only one source of entertainment: Al and his dancing ToyZuki. He drove down the end of a little gully that emptied out towards the bottom of the mountain. About 75 m in, he began a hard left turn to follow the trail which made a hard climb up the side of the gully and back onto the high ground. As he began that left turn, the Zuk suddenly leaned all the way over and rolled into a tree. Al and Paul (Deakin) were uninjured but very surprised. They had no idea why the vehicle became suddenly unstable. Wil drove into the gully with Wayne Foster's Toyota to winch the ToyZuki back onto its feet. During the winching, Al noticed that his top link mount was broken. Paul then remembered a loud clunk he heard when they entered into the gully. He and Al surmised that that was the sound of the top link breaking. When they began their left turn, there was nothing to keep the rear axle located. This in turn caused the ToyZuki to slip its centre of gravity sideways towards the downhill side and it rolled over.

An all-too-common photo of ToyZuki on its side.

Fortunately, Al and Paul were uninjured. The full roll cage has proved itself time and again.

With the top link broken, the pinion angle was way out of alignment.

Of course, that led to the question of how he was going to fix the top link so he could drive it off the mountain. We tried hooking a couple of batteries together and used some welding equipment carried by Gene Pinion. Unfortunately, that only generated a minor shower of sparks but no welding. Al ended up using a lot of ratchet straps and huge zap straps to hold everything in place. That was enough for him to slowly drive the Zuk out of there. On the way back down the mountain, we ran into James who was heading home in his daily driver, an ex-military 6x6 ambulance. Watching a 6x6 articulate on the trail is a memorable event. When we reached the main road, Al's temporary fix started to unravel and he had to shift into low-low range and idle to Paul Cooper's house where he could use a real welder to repair the top link. Later that afternoon, after the repair was made, their attention turned towards some wrecked cars sitting in Paul's yard. By that, I mean "bad" attention. Someone had decided it would be a "good idea" to drive over a car with James' 6x6. Then Al decided to drive up the side of a car. The last time I saw him do this, he flopped his Zuk onto its side. Well, it was with a strange sense of deja vu that I watched the video of him doing that AGAIN, this time at Paul Cooper's.

Al and Paul crawl to Paul Cooper's house for first aid from his welder.

A "full-floating" rear end. The zip ties, ratchet straps and everything else weren't enough to keep the axle from wandering.

Sure, it always starts out innocently enough, with a 6x6 ambulance trying to drive over a car (and getting high-centered).

But then the other kids get involved...

...and the results become tragic.

Click to Watch the Video 6x6 ambulance video (3.9 MB)

Click to Watch the Video Al doing his thing (2.3 MB)

It was a humorous end to another day of fun 'wheeling at Rock Crawl 2000.

...lars