April 9, 2000

Photos by Steve Tetu, Dave Lippmann and Larry Soo

Since my first visit to Walker Valley last July, it has become a popular destination of local fourwheelers looking for a challenge. Last Sunday, Dave and Armin Lippmann were heading down there and they posted an open invite on the BC4x4 list. And so that's how I found myself stumbling out of bed at 7:00am on a Sunday morning.

We met at the convenience store/gas station at the intersection of 8th Ave and 176 St, a few minutes north of the truck border crossing. In total, we spent an hour waiting for a certain person (Jon Bruce!!) to show up. Once he arrived, our tiny group headed across the border.

We must have made quite an impression, four big-tired 4x4s travelling in a pack down I-5. My YJ, riding on fresh 35x12.50 ProComp tires and a 1" body lift on a spring-over-axle conversion actually looked the shortest of our group. Armin's CJ7 had brand new 35" Baja Claws with a body and suspension lift, Jon's CJ7 had fresh 36" Swampers with a very cool 1/4 elliptical (1/4e) rear suspension with lots of lift, and Dave's Early Bronco was riding on 36" Swampers with lots of lift as well. Dave made a point of noticing how everyone but him had new tires. All of us were running lockers front and back and we all had pretty low gears. I was the only one with an automatic transmission and 4:1 transfer case gears. Aside from that, all our trucks were similarly equipped...if you are willing to accept that Jon's insanely flexible 1/4e suspension was similar to our very plain SOA suspensions.

Our drone down I-5 was interrupted when Armin led us off the freeway and into a rest area. He needed a potty break which suited Dave just fine since he noticed a strong vibration coming from the back of his Bronco. A quick crawl under the Ford confirmed that the rear driveshaft u-joint was loose in its caps. Dave quickly set about replacing the bearings and caps. Meanwhile, Jon and Armin tried to figure out why Jon's Chevy small block was idling high. About 15 minutes later, the Bronco was vibration-free and ready to go while the CJ7 was still idling high. We got back on the freeway and headed straight to Walker Valley.

Arriving at the parking lot, we ran into Brad, Steve and Bruce from the Coastal Cruisers. With them was Craig, a BC4x4 list member whom I've never met, and three Americans who were accompanying them through the trails. We exchanged "hello's" and they headed off for the trails while we began airing down, disconnecting sway bars, and looking at the huge number of dirt bikes and ATVs buzzing back and forth. The Walker Valley ORV was an extremely popular place.

The main entrance into the trail system is an off-camber bypass that goes around a large steel gate. It was also the cause of our first casualty. Jon took a line which forced his rear axle into extreme flex (I noticed he tends to do that a lot since he got his 1/4e suspension). This put a lot of lateral stress on his new Swampers which were deflated down to 6 psi. Result: the bead was lost and the tire went flat. Fortunately, Jon's on-board compressor had it re-inflated in no time.

We proceeded along the main access road until we rounded a switchback and saw the sign marked "Jeep Access." We left the exposed gravel road and snaked our way under the dense canopy of trees that makes up most of the trail system. Since I had been on more trails that the others in our group, I led them to the large rock obstacle on the Expressway trail. This obstacle consisted of a steep uphill section with a huge stump on the left side of the trail and a steep, stepped rock face growing from the center of the trail and climbing up to the right. When we arrived, our view of the obstacle was obscured by the two Coastal Cruiser Land Cruisers. Steve had just opted to take the bypass in his FJ40 while Bruce was beginning his assault in his BJ70. Neither vehicle was locked in the front and it made all the difference in the world. After several game attempts, Bruce called it quits and also took the bypass.

We pulled up to the foot of the obstacle and Dave took the first shot. His first attempt was on the left line, squeezing past the stump and into the pocket between it and the rock face. The wet, mucky ground provided little traction and several times, he came very close to sliding backwards into the stump. His second approach involved staying hard to the right. The wet rock wasn't an improvement for traction. Bypass for Dave. Armin came up next. He decided that climbing the rock was the most favorable line. He came from the left and then cut right to climb onto the rock. Using some momentum, he actually climbed up onto it and then cranked it left to avoid driving into a tree. He was a foot or so too soon in turning. His tires began to slip and the CJ began sliding sideways towards the deep hole beside the stump. He stopped immediately. It took a while to get the winching equipment setup and it must've seemed like an eternity to Armin, whose leg was starting to get twitchy from maintaining pressure on the brake pedal. At one point, he turned the steering wheel a bit which resulted in the front of the Jeep sliding a few inches closer to the edge. To everyone's relief, we were finally able to slowly winch him off the rock.

Armin's experience was a strong disincentive to attempt climbing the rock but apparently Jon Bruce didn't share my opinion. He took pretty much the same line as Armin, trundling up onto the rock. Learning from Armin's mistake, he kept heading to the right until the absolute last second before stopping and then repositioning to drive off the rock. His strategy worked and the winning line was now clearly defined. I came up next and after a weak first attempt on my part, Armin gave me the spotting instructions that got me up and over the rock as well. What a rush!

Dave didn't have very good luck with the left-side line. You can see the stump crowding his driver's side rear quarter.

Taking the right side, Jon was the first to make it up.

Following Jon's lead and with some spotting from Armin, I also managed to drive up.

The Cruisers had stuck around to watch us tackle the stump/rock obstacle so we ended up following them for the next little while. Every now and then we had to stop and wait behind them as they hooked up a snatch strap to help each other out. In contrast, we had no problems, nor did the local CJ7 that was leading them. Like our trucks, it was also locked front and back. No, I'm not trying to slag Steve's and Bruce's Land Cruisers. I'm merely pointing out that these trails were tough enough to result in a clearly observable performance difference between fully locked 4x4s and single locked or LSD-equipped 4x4s. If you're finding your regular trails to be too easy, this is a great place to expand the limits of your comfort zone.

We stayed on the Express Way until we reached the right turn back down to the Jeep Trail which would take us to the bottom of the Poop Chute. About 30 feet before the trail rejoined the Jeep Trail, the 'Cruisers were stopped into front of a 3-foot tall wall of wet dirt. The top of this wall was formed by a slick, knurled root extending from a stump on the right. The other side of the wall dropped off immediately after the stump. This meant that even if you were able to get your front end over the wall, the passenger side wheel would drop off and you would be left high-centred on the root. This was amply illustrated by the lead CJ5 that had just caught its transfer case skidplate on the root. Winching was required and even then, it wasn't a straight forward job. The issue of ground clearance required that all vehicles get dragged over the root. The driver's only option was in deciding which parts of the undercarriage got dragged.

The step onto the root is a tall one. Traction is hampered by the muddy ground.

Once you get your front wheels over, you will catch your undercarriage on the root. Notice how the ground drops away on the stump side.

Bruce's BJ70 gets winched over the root.

While the CJ5 and 'Cruisers were trying to get past the obstacle, we had lunch and eventually decided to head back up the Express Way. From there, we would head down to Boulder Alley and arrive at the top of the Poop Chute. We agreed that it was a good plan and started turning our trucks around. That's when Jon's Swamper lost its bead again. This time it was on a sidehill. The angle, combined with Jon's CJ's very soft 1/4e suspension made his Jeep lean over at a rather precarious angle. Armin quickly positioned his Jeep in front of Jon's and secured it with a snatch strap. Jon was able to slowly creep his Jeep to more level ground before attempting to fix his tire. By this time, the tire was almost completely off the rim. Jon's onboard air didn't have enough volume to properly seat the rim but fortunately, Dave had a CO2 tank which worked perfectly.

Futzing around with Jon's tire ate up so much time that the 'Cruisers were already past the obstacle when the tire was fully seated on the rim. So we skipped our cunning plan to turn around and bypass this obstacle. We had done so well up to this point that I actually entertained the possibility that we might be able to drive over the root under our own power. I took the line on the right which involved placing my tire onto an angled root. The other guys had trouble taking this approach because their front passenger tire kept slipping sideways along the root, causing them to ride onto their axle tube. I'm not sure why I was able to take this line without slipping my tire off. Maybe it was due to my taller tires or maybe it was because I had lower gearing. In any case, I was able to do it and I thought that was the best opportunity to beat this obstacle. It presented the least amount of protrusions under my Jeep which just might allow me to get over this without high centering. As it turns out, that was a pretty optimistic "might." Like the other guys, I got high centered.

Although they had all gotten past the obstacle, the 'Cruiser guys were nice enough to wait for us so we could use the rigging they had setup for winching. So while I sat with my Jeep hanging on the wall, Brad and Bruce spooled out my cable and hooked me up to their tree saver. Winching over the wall brought me extremely close to the stump. A few days later, I noticed some new dents along the passenger rocker panel. I suspect they were courtesy of that stump. Armin's Jeep had it worse than mine. He pretty much destroyed his side step. Of course, he deserved it, as does anyone who runs these trails with running boards. They just don't last long, even if you have lots of lift. Anyways, Armin wasn't particularly concerned. Like everyone I've 'wheeled with, it has become an accepted part of the sport. Jon and Dave also winched over the root and we got back onto the Jeep Trail. A few minutes later we were at the bottom of the Poop Chute.

Jon's CJ lost another bead when he was trying to turn around.

Dave made a strong attempt but was unsuccessful in getting over the root wall.

Even if you're locked front and back, Walker Valley is no cake walk. Armin pretzeled his side step while trying to sneak past the stump.

The Poop Chute is a short, narrow section of trail flanked by vertical walls approximately four feet high on both sides. It is particularly tricky for long wheelbase vehicles because the opportunity for sheet metal damage is very high when negotiating some of its turns. For short wheelbase 4x4s, it's not much of a problem although you still need to pay attention to both sides of your truck. The exit is always the part that elicits the most snapshots. It becomes deeply rutted on the passenger side, pitching your 4x4 into a hairy lean to the right. You can minimize the angle by hugging the right but there's a catch: the bank is still near vertical so the more right you go, the more body damage you earn. On the other hand, staying left to avoid body damage increases the lean angle even more. Jon chose the former option and scraped his fender flares into the dirt and rock.

Stay left and clench your seat covers with your butt...

...or stay right and slide your 4x4 into the dirt.

Hmm...Armin looks high-centred.

Next up was a short stretch of rock crawling that was pretty easy for modified trucks but would be a show stopper for a stock 4x4. I should know, I spent a lot of time pulling a stock TJ around these trails. Since that trip, I have learned not to underestimate the difficulty of the Walker Valley trails. We were now at the bottom of Boulder Alley. Boulder Alley got it's name from this particular section which, as you should have guessed by now, was full of boulders. The bottom of the trail ended in a short drop off guarded by a handful of rock linebackers. The gaps between the rocks weren't wide enough to fit through so you had to put a tire up on at least one of the rocks. Doing this was difficult because they were all about 3 feet tall and vertical or undercut on their approach side. And they were wet. It is possible to successfully driver over these rocks in much the same way that it is possible to win the lottery. On that day, no one had the winning ticket although that didn't stop us from spending a lot of time trying to drive the ticket dispenser over the rocks. Hmm...I think this metaphor is starting to unravel on me.

Playing at Boulder Alley gave the 'Cruisers time to put some distance between us but that got eaten up by the "Fin." The Fin is an insidious bit of rock that looks perfectly easy until you're trying to drive over it. It comes out of the ground like the blade on a table saw, set at a 30 degree angle to your direction of travel. It is set in the exact middle of the trail so you can't drive past it. It will not be ignored. The obvious and correct first step is to drive over it lengthwise with your front tire. For most 4x4s, this is pretty easy. But once your front tire is over the Fin, you need to pull hard to the left to avoid driving into a tree that is crowding you on the right. At this point, your rear passenger tire is now on the right hand side of the Fin. Because it is angled and almost always wet, each turn of your wheel causes it to slide your truck sideways, inching you closer and closer to the tree. If you let this go on for long enough without being able to drive over the Fin, it will trap you so tightly against the tree that your only option will be to winch out. We all made it through without winching although Jon almost had the tree in his passenger seat.

That's the "Fin" beside Jon's driver's side front tire. Notice how it forms a gentle vee with the dirt bank. Notice how it gets quite narrow where the tree is located.

At this point, the Fin is pushing the rear of Jon's Jeep into the bank...

...just when you think you're past the Fin, you're also about to get intimate with the tree. Using lots of speed on this obstacle is a definite no-no.

After that it was an uneventful run down to B1000, one of the main gravel roads. Unwilling to head home right away, we did the short but twisty Jeep Cross trail. From there, we got onto another gravel road that re-joined B1000. We headed toward the B1000 gate and then turned onto the Lower Jeep Trail where we plunged into an extremely deep water hole. A few minutes later we crossed the tank traps that make the "Ho Chi Minh" trail that deposited us onto the Cavanaugh Lake Rd. A word of warning: at this time, it is absolutely forbidden to drive around the B1000 gate. If you must leave from this part of the ORV, take the "Ho Chi Minh" trail. DO NOT GO AROUND THE GATE. We did the air-up and swaybar-on ritual before beginning the trek north to the border. It was another great Walker Valley trip with great offroading companions. A special thanks to Armin Lippmann for keeping me filled with sandwiches!

This is near the exit of the Jeep Cross trail.

Steve Tetu blasts out of the water hole on the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Yup, it gets pretty deep. Bruce is running 33" tires and the water still came up to his hood.

Bypasses

I have to admit to being ignorant on the issue of bypasses in the Walker Valley ORV park. I know that most bypasses are illegal and the authorities do not want people cutting new trails around the obstacles. On the other hand, some of the bypasses look fairly well established so perhaps they're acceptable. To be on the safe side, I would encourage visitors to avoid taking bypasses. This park is known for its difficult trails so if you're not prepared to winch, perhaps you shouldn't be there in the first place. As I've said in other articles, there are lots of easy to moderate trails but few difficult ones. So please leave the hard trails in the same condition you found them.

...lars