| Lower/Upper Hut Lake and Starvation Lake Trails |
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Participants: - Dave and Robin (Samurai) - Larry Soo (YJ) - Andrew Bauer (BJ42 Land Cruiser) After meeting Larry at 9:00 at the Cypress turnoff we arrived at the trail head around 10:30 or so where we met up with Andrew in his Toyota Landcruiser. From here it was upward and onward. The grad rock passed by without any problems and then we came upon a bit of a dif-catcher obstacle. This is where we realized that Larry was trying to show off a bit by trying to do the trail in 3 wheel drive <BSG>. I had thought that he had said he had a locker in the front but couldn't figure why his passenger tire wasn't spinning when all the other tires were. Of course once he realized that he was 3-wheeling he just HAD to lock his hub in to make everything look easier... :-) We met up with some future loggers camping at Lower Hut lake who were trying to burn their freshly chopped down green tree. Not cool at all. Larry politely asked them to try to find some dry wood laying around so hopefully they took it to heart and didn't chop down anymore trees. From the sounds of the small trip report from the list members who went up there on Sunday, they left some of their garbage around. |
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From there it was off to Upper Hut. At this point we found out that Larry has a bit of a fetish for
off-camber situations which is really cool especially when driving a vehicle that's known for it's own
fetish for rolling on its side (our samurai for instance). At the first smaller v-rock obstacle we followed
Larry's line and got the driver side tires looking (and feeling I'm sure for Dave who was driving this
section) quite light. Andrew and I stood on the passenger side to hold the samurai up in case it started
to roll as Dave drove through. Andrew then drove on through in his Toyota with no problems at all.
The wider wheelbases definately have an edge when taking this particular line. |
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After that it was on to the main obstacle on the Upper Hut trail. Larry drove up the big V into the
trench and then up and out the other end making it look easy (of course - showoff <G>). Then we gave
it a shot. After a couple of tries at the V we stacked a couple of rocks (yes we took them back out)
to help get up the one rock step at the back passenger tire and lowered the tire pressure a bit. Then
we drove on up the V and out of the trench without a problem. Then came time for Andrew to provide the
comedy. On his approach to the V he pushed over a dead tree that he had failed to notice on the passenger
side. It was ok though cause he broke most of it's fall with the hood and roof of his Toyota ;-). After
we removed the offending flora he proceeded up the V without any problems. Then, as he was trying to
drive out of the trench, he blew his power steering hose. Apparently he didn't need the power steering
though since he had less trouble getting out of the trench without it than he did on his first attempt
with it. :-) |
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After that we headed to Starvation Lake. This is a really cool trail. It's very short but there are
a couple of really cool obstacles on it as well as a really great lookout at the top. Our narrower samurai
wheelbase was a definite advantage on the first obstacle as we were able to squeeze between the rock
wall on one side and a huge rock on the other. Larry in his YJ had to get a little crazier and drive
his passenger tires right up the side of the rock wall to be able to fit through. After a couple of
tries he made it through without so much as a scratch. This obstacle will most definately keep longer
wheelbase rigs from getting to the lake. After that we went on to the evil obstacle ;-( . This obstacle
is very very deceiving. It looks quite tame until you try to drive up it. After about 10 different
attempts and lines we opted to get strapped over the obstacle. Larry made us feel better by taking a
couple of tries before he drove up it and then hooked the strap to us and pulled us up. At the top of
the trail there is an awesome view of the valley and the lake below. After turning around we headed
back down to the evil obstacle. At the worst possible spot we slipped sideways off one of the rocks
and bashed the passenger side rocker panel (look for the picture in the DOH! section of the www.bc4x4.com
site). Oh well, nothing that a bit of hammering won't fix, besides, it was about time we added some
trail scars to the rig... After getting out of the trail we left for home and got into Burnaby around 8:30 that night. |
