Anyway, the
plan was to head up on Wednesday morning and do a couple days of pre-
running before the actual Jeep Jamboree on Friday and Saturday. Pam and
I were asked to be trail leaders, even though our entry fees couldn't be
refunded.
Place: Osoyoos, B.C., Canada, right on the border between the U.S. and Canada
Dates: June 12-15, 1996
Jeeps: ~60-65
Tuesday night, I caught an evening ferry and stayed at the Hansens'
residence in North Vancouver. I seem to do that a lot. Anyway, the
plan was to head up on Wednesday morning and do a couple days of pre-
running before the actual Jeep Jamboree on Friday and Saturday. Pam and
I were asked to be trail leaders, even though our entry fees couldn't be
refunded.
On the descent into Osoyoos, we stopped momentarily. We managed to pick up Rob Matthews on the C.B. Apparently he was stuck on Mt. Baldy but said we could/should come up once we've set up camp. Well, it took us (me) 2 hours to set up camp (thanx Pam for setting up my tent), switch tires (old 31's have been relegated to highway use only), eat lunch, and gas up. On our way up, we picked up Rob Matthews. He said he had moved about 150 yards from where he was when we last contacted him. Snow!
Well, we eventually caught up to his group. The trail was much the same
as last year. Snow banks here and there, etc. Looks like they did some
trail grooming. Soon after we caught up to them, we were told to start
shovelling. The spot where Rob Matthews was "playing" was starting to
collect some water. Shovels were needed to drain it. So while we were
shovelling, Rob continued to blast into the snow, gain about 6 inches,
get yanked back by Chris Kruse, blast ahead again, etc. After another
hour of that, it was decided another plan of attack was needed.
We shortly found out why Rob was wanting Dave's Grand here. Grands make good plows.
We backtracked to the trailhead and proceeded to the end of the trail
and attacked it from the other direction while Rob Matthews returned
to town to do some business. Chris Kruse led the downhill attack in
his 35-inched, locked F&R YJ. Next was Bruce "Hippie Hunter" Hilliard,
then Dave in his Grand, Pam, then finally me. It took us a few hours
of digging, pushing, dragging, winching and, well, playing, but we
pushed the trail through the other way. In the process of doing so,
we saw one of Jeep's Grand inventions working, where you're in full-time
4wd low range but only one wheel will turn when you're stuck. And you
can't lock it into part-time. Sounds like they have fixed that in the
newer Grands. Good thing. This feature didn't help Dave too much.
Grand snow plows know how to get stuck!
On our descent, we picked up Rob Matthews on the CB. He needed someone
to use their cell to phone into town for a tow truck. His rear axle
seized. The story goes that the rear axle was recently completely
rebuilt, the Jeep was trailered to the show, and this was the first day
for the axle. And someone had forgot to add the oil! The only thing
salvagable was the ARB. Over the next 2 days, they rebuilt the rear
axle again, in the parking lot. This time, they remembered the oil.
We hooked up with some other guys, "Boom Boom", "Muskeg", and I think Kim. Very tricked out vehicles, a CJ, Willies, and a YJ. They had tried and failed to break open the rest of the trail up the mountain. They got further than Houtan and Mark the previous day, but they told stories of airing down to 4 and 2 psi, winching, 5-foot deep snow, etc.
We didn't get much 'wheeling in that day 'cause of the time piling
rocks and fixing the YJ. So later that evening, instead of going to
registration, Houtan, Dave, Darcy, and I preran another trail,
called Black Mtn. I rode with Dave. Good enough trail. Not too
much to report other than Houtan is afraid of cattle.
While people were eating lunch, a few of us went down this long hill.
I said I'd try to back up the hill. Well, that resulted in all of 5
seconds of video tape! No problem! And my truck is open diffed right
now. Wheel travel and new tires are both good things!
Returning to the trailhead, we came across a tempting mud-hole, but we
decided against it since we couldn't raise Rob Matthews on the CB and it
was on private land. But upon reaching the trailhead, many of us still
didn't have our fill of 'wheeling for the day, so we headed back up the
trail to a known "ok" mud-hole. I promptly got stuck. So did the next 4
or 5 guys who tried it (lost count). One guy claimed that *only* reason
why he got stuck was earth got in his way. Uhm hm. So a few of us decided
to attack the mudhole from the other direction. First was a TJ. Yes, I
am proud to report that TJ's, even the 4-cylinder ones, can indeed fly
when asked to! He still got stuck. Next was a nicely done YJ who
made it using the speed approach. Nobody else seemed to want to try it,
so what-the-hell, I will again! 2nd-gear, half-throttle. Caught the
first portion, climbed out, apparently caught a bit of air myself, dived
into the deep section (18 inches of soopy mud) and ... kept going! No
locker! Made it! That felt good. But in the process, I managed to
lose my under-bed spare tire. Ah well, casualties.
After this, we took some group photos and returned to camp, 'cause we
were all starting to get hungry. A second group tried that hole after
us, but only one YJ did, he got seriously stuck, requiring winching,
and they gave up after that. And they call themselves Jeepers!
That evening, a few of us still wanted to play so we returned to the mudhole we had originally passed on and played a bit. Houtan ended up with one very muddy YJ after that. We were all fairly modified so nobody got stuck.
Home-made margaritas ruled the night. Thanks, Hippie Hunter!
6 of us headed up and threw 2-3 truck-loads of rocks into the hole. That took all of 1.5 hours. What were we gonna do for the rest of the day? Well, I wanted to continue up Mt. Baldy. The rest of the road up hadn't been opened up, and I wanted to see what was stopping them. So did Buddy (the ARB rep), Tony who runs the Perry Sound Jamboree (sounds like fun - the Jamboree, not the person!), and Kevin, in a relatively stock YJ.
So up we went. Snow got deep. Then deeper. Then shallow. Hm. That's where the last guys stopped. We kept going...and going...and going. ~2 hours later, we were within a 15 minute hike of the top. Buddy had broken most of the trail for Kevin and I. Tony did a superb job of spotting. I took the lead for a short section and was able to punch through another section of deep snow. Buddy took the lead again, climbed a short waterfall section, and ran into deep snow. It was 5 feet deep from there to the summit. I pulled up next to him, about 10 yards past the waterfall, and parked for pictures.
Pam adds: Boys will be boys. While Rob and his group went up the mountain to play in the snow, the rest of us - Darcy and Colette in a CJ7, Hippie Hunter and Karen in another unique CJ7 and Dave and I - went to find some mud and do some exploring. We were looking for a specific mud hole which Darcy remembered from the year before. We managed to find a good mud hole on the Lamont Trail but another group lead by Ed and Marilyn Wilson were busy having a go at it. It was fun to watch this group in the mud as for many, it was the first such experience. Many of them got stuck, and had to be tugged or winched out, depending on the situation. After they finished, we decided it was time to play. At one point in this mud hole (it's very long), there was a large hole to make things interesting. We all managed to walk through with no problems, keeping the vehicles relatively clean. Dave decided he wanted to drive my Jeep through the mud. He went back through the mud hole with no problems and turned around to come back to where we were waiting. He tackled the mud hole with gusto! No longer was the Jeep relatively clean; there was mud (chunks of it) inside and out. When he hit the large hole, the front end was in the air. We have pictures to prove it! There was no way I was getting in a muddy passenger seat, so Dave had to sit in the mess he made. We then headed back to the campsite and called it an early day. We were able to have showers and get cleaned up before the rest of the groups got back to camp.
Buddy and I hiked ~10 minutes to the top for pics. While driving back
down, we met up with Houtan and about 8 "adventurous" participants. They
continued up to the base of the waterfall, but no further either.
But while they were playing, going uphill from us, a rock slide formed on
the road right behind them. How did that happen? I dunno. I saw nothing.
Really. I had nothing to do with it.
I talked to the participants later that evening. They had fun on the mini (very mini) Rubicon rock slide (which I wasn't involved in creating... really!) Unfortunately, Houtan had a stressful day and didn't enjoy it at all.
Margaritas ruled the night again.
Robert Bryce ([email protected])