Day 1 - Doomicon

Because I am an IRC member, I was assigned to act as a trail guide along with other IRC members: Chet Cowan, the trail leader, and Ron White. The first day was the Doomicon. Our group included a handful of early Broncos from Washington, some Jeeps from Washington, and some people from the BC lower mainland who are participants on the BC4x4 message board or mailing list.

Chet held a brief drivers' meeting and by 9:00am we were on our way. Doomicon is near Sooke so we had to drive on logging roads for about 45 minutes before reaching the trailhead. Fortunately, the previous night's rain had kept the dust down and just as forecasted, the skies had cleared and were quickly warming us up.

Upon reaching the trailhead, we stopped to air down, shifted into low range, and began following the climbing, twisting trail to the first obstacle. Doomicon started out as a dead-end trail whose main feature was a very off-camber sidehill followed by a steep, rocky climb punctuated with very large, loose rocks near the top. We were on our way to the first part, the off-camber sidehill, when Greg Wcislo began having problems with his transfer case. It kept jumping out of rear wheel drive when in low range. He pulled off to the side, as did I, and we let the rest of the group pass by us. The first thing we checked was the clearance between the tub and the shifter lever. This was a common problem with modified vehicles and Greg's fit that bill (Jeep YJ with a J10 transmission, transfer case and axles with a spring-over suspension). Greg saw that there was some contact happening between the shifter and sheet metal so I gave him a chisel and hammer and he began pounding out some clearance between the two. Within ten minutes his rear wheel drive was operable and we quickly caught up to the rest of the group which was bunched up at the sidehill.

Our trail leader, Chet.	The first part of the trail was pretty easy...	but there were some interesting bits as well.

It wasn't so much the sidehill that was causing the problems as the hill climb right after it. By the time I had climbed to the front of the pack, the first vehicles had already gotten through so I guess they didn't have any problems. This included Chet's Toyota, Jon Bruce's CJ7 and Mike Petterson's CJ5. One of the problems with traveling in a large group on a narrow trail is that you don't get to see the whole picture so I don't know exactly how everyone did. However, I do know that those who did not have low gears had more problems than those who did. And as usual, a few of the people in the group resorted to using horsepower rather than their winches. This resulted in lots of bouncing and rock smashing but fortunately, no serious breakage. There was radio chatter about a vehicle near the top having to fix a pinhole leak in the radiator but they managed to resolve that issue fairly quickly. This first part of the Doomicon caused a huge bottleneck which was further compounded by breakage suffered by some of the vehicles. One of the early Broncos that had crawled up the climb was suffering from a flattened leaf spring pack when it reached the top. The driver couldn't see any broken springs so the reason for the spring's flattened profile was curiously unknown. He ended up strapping a piece of log between the spring and frame to the fender would clear the frame. Ron White, an IRC club member, shattered a Birfield and was also working on his 4Runner near the top of the climb. The repair of these two vehicles took quite a while, during which the vehicles ahead of them proceeded along the trail. The rest of us would have to catch up when the repairs were completed.

Some time during that time, I walked back down to get my Jeep and came across Greg who appeared to be high centered and off-camber on a rock. Oh well, that gave me something to do while waiting for the bottleneck to clear. We hooked up a pulley and cable from my Jeep to stabilize the rear of his Jeep while he hooked up his winch to pull himself up the hill.

The "real" Doomicon began with this ditch crossing.	Then this nasty sidehill (on which the full-size trucks were slipping sideways that weekend).	And then every one bunched up around the corner which was where the steep, rocky climb began.
Here's a shot of the rocks. They were all loose, too, which made the climb even more difficult.	This Cherokee, as well as some of the other trucks, had some difficulty.	The Cherokee nailed quite a few rocks but made it up without winching.
Meanwhile, back at the bottom, we had to winch Greg sideways off a rock.	The Bronco guys were doing well until they had a spring failure. Here they are, about to strap a log between the spring pack and frame.	One of the trail guides, Ron, had problems of his own; a broken Birfield.
Hmm...maybe this isn't the best line.

Meanwhile, back near the top, the early Bronco owner with the flattened spring decided to turn around and his early Bronco compadres went with him. Ron finished installing his spare Birfield and volunteered to lead them back to camp. This left me, my passenger, Wil, and Greg and Mac Wcislo to catch up to the rest of the group. Greg did an excellent job of piloting his YJ up the climb. He had trouble only in the worst spot near the top but managed to succeed without winching or beating on his Jeep. Having seen so many people have problems on this hill, I decided to try an unconventional line which had me high-siding up the right-hand rock wall but ended up tilting back on three wheels so I took the regular line and surprised myself by crawling up with absolutely no difficulty at all. This was the first time I had driven to the top of the Doomicon climb. My first time, we had to turn around due to a vehicle breakdown in front of me. The second time, I rode as passenger with Rob Bryce.

After the climb came the new section of the Doomicon which was no longer a dead-end trail. It became an undulating line following the contours of rock outcroppings that made for some very interesting climbs and descents. Greg was in the lead and at one rock, he chosen the straight-up-the-rock route instead of the zig-zag bypass. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough traction and slid backwards onto his rear bumper. I ended up driving around him and giving him a tug. After some more fun twists and turns we reached the summit and began the descent which included some muddy rock faces that caused the Jeeps to fish tail on some very steep downhill slopes. Quite an experience! If you're not comfortable with sidehills, you will really hate Doomicon.

We made pretty good time with just two Jeeps and we were soon caught up to the group. Greg's hammer and chisel fix had done the trick, or so it seemed, and the low 1st gear of his T18 transmission gave him lots of control, especially during the descents.

After that, progress was good with the only major stop being at Gas-It! Hill. It used to require lots of throttle to make it up, and participants were encouraged to use that technique. However, some of us found that the traction was actually not nearly as bad as it used to be and only moderate throttle was required.

Greg in a bit of a pickle.	I was happy with how well the Revolver shackles worked.	One of the full-size-truck-unfriendly sections.
We caught up with the rest of the group in time to watch them go up Gas-It! Hill. That's Mike Petterson's CJ5.

The last bit of the trail included a fun uphill drive through what could be described as a 4x4 water slide and then we were back on the main road. Those of us who had onboard air filled the rest of the group's tires and we made it back to camp in time for dinner.

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