Alberta Land Rover Enthusiasts Club Forum
General => Events => Topic started by: Red90 on June 07, 2019, 08:20 AM
August 10-11 weekend with options into the following week.
Meet Friday, August 9 in the evening for camping in the Dutch Creek area. Saturday, explore some trails on the Alberta side and then cross Racehorse Pass. Camp Saturday night, possibly at our "usual" spot along Alexander Creek. For people that want to make it a weekend trip, head home on Sunday.
This may be the last year to drive over Racehorse pass and we had wanted to make sure we took the opportunity. The area along the divide is under a proposal to become a provincial park and it is highly doubtful travel will be allowed after that point.
See here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alre_club/collections/72157687086388072/ for pictures of some previous club trips to the area.
For people that want to stay on, the trip will continue into the week for exploration of trails to the west. The first order of business will be to try the Koko Claims trail that starts just north of Elkford. From there, we are free to explore the roads and trails in the southern Kootenays. We are leaving the plan open. It may be another three to five days. http://elkfordtrails.com/?q=node/5512
ROFL
Oh I remember this well....ahhahahahha Kirk and me.....and I forgot the poles to the tent ahhahahahhhahah
GREAT Weekend!!!!!
Thanks John ;)
Another extended trail trek; sounds right up our alley! Here's hoping Dave is able to deliver a functional Disco in short order 😉
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Please Dave? Please please?
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This looks like a fun weekend. I checked the location and the pictures from previous trips. Are we camping in the Dutch Creek Recreation area camp grounds? Would a trailer survive the weekend activities?
The start location is 500km south of Edmonton by the way. So factor this in your travel plans.
Emad
We have not set any details. I would prefer a random camp if that is still allowed. There are some nice spots on Dutch Creek.
I would not personally feel comfortable on the BC side of Racehorse with a trailer. It is a steep and rocky hill.
Quote from: binch on June 07, 2019, 10:20 PM
ROFL
Oh I remember this well....ahhahahahha Kirk and me.....and I forgot the poles to the tent ahhahahahhhahah
GREAT Weekend!!!!!
Thanks John ;)
Poles, we don't need any stinking poles...
That looks like my old Range way back when it was almost stock! A great trip.
I think I'm interested in this one again..... And Kirk, I promise to bring the tent poles this time ;D
I'm very interested, I'm just not sure I can make the dates work yet.
I'm hoping to make this work as well.
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I could possibly make this work. Be great to get back there again. Likely only for the weekend though.
I'm in, for those that weren't part of the original planning between John, Andrew and myself.
It looks like I'll be bringing the LR3 rather than the 88" at this point for practical reasons.
Just working on a few details prior to the trip. The winch parts should be here this week and coolant issues sorted this weekend if all goes well.
This will be a bit of a bucket list item for me as my dad has set aside the time to come with us.
Cheers,
Kirk
Who is feeling fairly confident they will attend?
Cheers,
Kirk
It's looking good for me at this point.
I'm a no-go unfortunately. I've got an IPSC shoot in Rocky that weekend, and the following week as the troop continues it way into BC it looks like I'll be heading down to the US.
Okay, from my count we have the following so far:
John (90 or 110)
Andrew (90 or RRC)
Kirk & Daryl (LR3)
Matt (RRC?)
Bill? (110 or RRC)
Does that cover everyone?
Cheers,
Kirk
Probably worth a club email. Half the people are not on here.
Absolutely. An email is a good idea.
Bill, remember this pic?
https://flic.kr/p/GjEbG6 (https://flic.kr/p/GjEbG6)
Someone's 110 kept running out of steam...
LOL That link took me to the ALRE photos site.....oh yes....I remember the little truck that couldn't :( That poor 2.5n/a just couldn't crest the top of that hill..the only one that didn't make it over cause it just didn't have the power in first low. But that was a great trip too!!!! Yoda's fire at the campsite sucking all the oxygen from the surrounding area ahahahhahahhahhah
Great trip!!!!
Quote from: 88Hillman on June 26, 2019, 04:24 PM
Okay, from my count we have the following so far:
John (90 or 110)
Andrew (90 or RRC)
Kirk & Daryl (LR3)
Matt (RRC?)
Bill? (110 or RRC)
Does that cover everyone?
Cheers,
Kirk
I am planning on coming with D2. I am interested in the two day camping trip option.
So, Emad (D2)
2or3 of us Bushrat will probably attend for the full trip in the D1, assuming SCC has it running in time. We're cautiously optimistic
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I'm pretty sure I'll be there for the weekend....but I'm bringing tent poles this time ;D
I'm in, been working on the 90 and RRC for the last few days. Not sure which one I'll take but hope to have them both up snuff by then.
Any ladies or kids attending this one? Trying to talk my wife & 14 year old son into coming along.
Not sure if I will take the Mighty Range Rover or the 110 SW? Depends on the co-pilots I guess.
Matt, if we are able to come, I'll have my 14 yr old son, and possibly my lovely wife with me
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My wife and furry children will be there.
Thanks for the ammo lads.
For some reason the thought of a weekend full of only old men talking about Land Rovers has limited appeal to my better half???
What can I say....Woman is surely a strange phenomenon?????????????
Is this event moving forward? The proposed time approaches, yet it has been strangely quiet on the thread......
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Yes. It is happening.
Just got the 200tdi fired up in the 90 for the first time today. Get the body back together Sunday and take it for a test drive.
I am playing this on day by day basis. Some work related travel is taking place this summer with continuous moving targets. I will hopefully know during that week.
Emad
If you are interested in coming, even if it is a maybe, let us know. We are having a little chat about things tonight and one of us will send out direct emails shortly after to anyone with interest.
Definites:
John (90)
Andrew (90)
Kirk & Daryl (LR3)
Maybes:
Matt (RRC)
Bill and Craig (110 or RRC)
Emad (D2)
Curtis (D1)
Ian (Series 1)
I'm a maybe. S1 is running quite good. Couple tweaks and need to make sure it can handle the long drive there. Would rather tow it that distance.
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I'm in good shape with the LR3.
1) Transmission fill and leak have been sorted finally. 2) Warn 9.5XP is back on, new relay installed in engine bay to replace solenoid pack and works for the first time since we bought the truck.
3) IIDTool connected last night to check codes and look for problems. (Next is to create a different height profile for offroad.)
Cheers,
Kirk
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Definites:
John (90)
Andrew (90)
Kirk & Daryl (LR3)
Bill & Lloyd (110)
Maybes:
Matt (RRC)
Craig Looking for an extra seat if one is available please
Curtis (D1) (I thought Nicole and Curtis were coming along too with one of the kids)
Ian (Series 1)
Bailed out:
Emad (D2)
Definites:
John (90)
Andrew (90)
Kirk & Daryl (LR3)
Bill & Lloyd (110)
Maybes:
Matt (RRC)
Craig Looking for an extra seat if one is available please
Curtis (D1)
Ian (Series 1)
Eric (110) possible starting Sunday.
At this point we're still a maybe. The firing issue we thought Bert had solved, is still bedevilling us. The disco goes back tomorrow for another round. Here's hoping! If it works out, we'll be myself, Nicole and 2 kids
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Definites:
John (90)
Andrew (90)
Kirk & Daryl (LR3)
Bill & Lloyd (110)
David & Craig (if he wants to; pack light!) Fri-Tues (D90)
Maybes:
Matt (RRC)
Craig Looking for an extra seat if one is available please
Curtis (D1)
Ian (Series 1)
Eric (110) possible starting Sunday.
It's still looking good for my son Jason and I. Likely I will take the 110 SW as I want to do a good shakedown run on the new suspension and tyres while loaded with camping gear.
Really looking forward to this. 8)
Work he's decided to send me out of town this week and the one just after this camping trip. Going to stay closer to home instead. Count me out, sorry.
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Disco is fixed ( touch wood) we'll be there tomorrow. Myself Nicole and our son Chris
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Lloyd and I returned home to Edmonton last night after a great weekend! Matt and Jason, Curtis, Nicole and Chris, Craig, Lloyd and I were down for the weekend while John & Jude, Kirk and Darrel, Andrew and David continued on driving the trails for the rest of the week. It was really great to meet up with guys many of the guys from the original trip back in 2012.
Lloyd and I drove down to Claresholm on Thursday to meet up with Craig and headed off Friday to the Dutch Creek Rec area to meet up with John, Andrew, Kirk and Darrel...who were coming down from Calgary. Once we found a suitable campsite along the creek we went about setting up camp. Matt and Jason (coming from Med Hat) arrived about 6pm or so and proceeded to put on dinner for evening (I think Joyce had a lot to do with it too) and provided a wonderful 3 bean chilli supper for us on Friday evening. We left a little bit extra for David who made it down about 930pm.
We had a fire going and enjoyed the light show of a nearby lightening storm to the north. But since we had the tarps all set up we all enjoyed the fire and some good old bantering and laughter. The group stayed up well into the dark but one by one we began to turn in for the night. I kept an eye on the road, watching for Curtis, Nicole and Chris to show up in their disco but I didn't make it much past 10pm. Sounds like they may have gone past the access to our camp about 11pm or so, not seeing us they made camp in an adjacent meadow. But we found them early Saturday.
Kirk and his dad Darrel made fine breakfast of French toast and bacon for us, before we all broke camp and packed up the trucks again. They we head out on a couple of local trails to see where they went. With all the controls they were putting on vehicle access in the area there were many logging access trails that were NOT listed on the map in any way. But not wanting to temp fate we turned back from them. Eventually we made our way to Race Horse Pass, where an access road went over a 7000' pass from Albert into the BC side. The Albertas side is a pretty good trail going up through a large scree field that's been rutted pretty good with erosion. Bu the BC side had had much of the soil washed from the trail, leaving a very rocky down trail to the valley. Kirk had his LR3 and was saying the technology in the vehicle made the very rough trail seem effortless.
While at the top we stopped for a bit of food when a group of two heavily modified yeeps and a relatively stock tocoma came by, all with Saskatchewan plates. They were in the area for a while checking out as many trails as they could. I was wondering how the tocoma made out on the rocks coming down as it didn't appear to have any underbody armour and stock tires.
We had brilliant day on the trails and the dust was kept to a minimum with the rains we had the night before. By 4pm we were making camp on Saturday, but spread out a bit due to the heavy brush in the area. John, Jude and I went down stream a bit where John pointed out a cache of metal frame bunk beds and a few spring sets. There had to be 12 or 15 of them all lined up along the stream. No building remnants to be seen or any reason why they were there.....but they were. Interesting....
Craig, Lloyd and I put on a dinner of smoke beef brisket on a bun with gravy and a side of Kale, sunflower seed and cranberry salad. No left overs that meal!!! The rest of the evening was spent around the campfire again, chatting and laughing some more! I turned in when the rains came again and slept like a log going through the saw mill....or at least that's what they told me later.
After Craig and David's breakfast of blue berry and banana pancakes we broke camp, saying our farewells to the group that would be continuing on for the rest of the week. Matt & Jason, Lloyd, Craig & I were heading home and the Pechanics were off to do a bit of fishing as they made their way north again. We left the club's new SPOT emergency beacon with the group to break it in over the week.
It was a was a great trip and I really enjoyed meeting up with some of the folks from our original trip so many years ago... ;-)
Thanks for again for setting it all up John!!!!
We are all back safe and sound.
After saying our goodbyes Sunday morning, the four trucks headed north to find the dirt route to Elkford. We started up the Soap Creek Trail, which seems to have become rougher since our last visit. The trail ends at the Harmer Creek Road via what is now a very washed out, steep decent. It was about this time, Kirk was finding that the LR3 was randomly turning off all of the the electronic aids and had to make the hairy decent using only brake modulation. Fortunately, traction was good and we all made it down unscathed.
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We put the trucks into rally race mode and headed down the gravel road for Elkford. A short way into the drive we came across a couple with the hood up on their old Ford pickup. We stopped to see if they needed help. They asked if we could drive them to cell reception. The guy and two dogs squeezed into the cab of David's 90 pickup and the girl into Andrew's spare seat. Once reaching the highway just south of town, we dropped them off, aired up and headed into the little smoke. A short stop for lunch and to top up the single tankers and we headed north again.
A short drive out of town brings us to the trailhead for the Koko Claims / Crossing Creek trail. It is well marked with a large sign and map. Strangely the icons on the pole are of ATVs and bikes... Andrew's quadder acquaintances had told him that there was no way a truck could make it through. In a continuing effort to locate this magic type of trail that a quad can drive and a a truck cannot, we felt is necessary to investigate this claim. The trail is 17 km long from highway to the FSR with 2950 feet of accent and a summit at 6800 feet. It starts out with a few kilometers of easy dirt with a gentle climb. It then becomes a series of very rough, rocky climbs towards the summit. By this time, Kirk had determined that a quick ctrl-alt-del of the LR3 got him the magic powers back and it climbed without a complaint. On the second hardest of the hills the LR3 decided it wanted to have a nap on a rock. With a Defender, the normal course of action is to curse, put the lever into R and enjoy the scrape of metal on rock as you backup and try a new approach. Apparently with these fancy new fangled trucks, you need to sit down and gently explain to them you are sorry for taking a bad line and if they would not mind getting off of the rock, you would promise to do better the second time. It seems that Kirk's phone and the LR3 are friends. Kirk had a chat to the phone and after the phone explained it was a little embarrassing having a nap on the hill with all the Defender owners standing around, it agreed to get up off of the rock, so that the silly huuman could be given a second chance. The crux of the Koko Claims trail is the final hill before the summit. 300 meters long with a couple of ledges, the last being just short of the top. After a brief reconnaissance, we headed up and all made it through with only a winching of a few feet for the unlocked 90.
Following a nice stop at the top, where there is a snowmobile club cabin and an outhouse, we headed down the shorter decent, which was mostly dirt hills. If you want the easier option, west to east is the one. This brought us out to the Bull River FSR. There is a government campsite just to the north, but we decided to first look for a random spot. The topography suggested the south would provide the best chance. Around 7 km down the road, we found a nice spot on the river and setup camp as the rain began once again. We had dinner and chatted into the evening and headed to bed to listen to another night of wetness.
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Monday morning we packed up in the rain and headed south on the Bull River FSR and then out the Sulfur Hartley FSR to Fernie for a quick resupply mission. The Sulfur Hartley is a really nice road and is one to have a look at, if you are in the area. We marked a few nice campsites along the way. What we did notice is that it was dry everywhere except our campsites. We seem to be seeing a trend.
After lunch and shopping in Fernie, we headed west on the #3 and then up to Fort Steele. From Fort Steele, we headed north up the Mause Boulder FSR and onto the Wildhorse River FSR. The road became narrower and rougher and eventually turned into a track. Near the end of what is shown as a road on the map, we searched for the Wildhorse River hotsprings. This is shown as a waypoint on the Backroad Maps. We spent a half an hour searching, but could see nothing in the area of the waypoint. More research and a return trip will be in order.
After the failed attempt for locating the hotsprings, we decided it was time to search for a spot to camp and it started to rain once again. A little farther north we found a spot to pitch our tents. We had a nice evening around the fire and after dark we spotted some strange dots of lights in the sky. We are still wondering what they may have been.
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Tuesday we woke up to a clearing sky and the fantastic site of the sun. We packed up and headed north with the goal of seeing if we could get through the section marked as "no through road" on the maps. The hope was to make it through to the Lussier FSR and on to Whiteswan lake.
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The old road was overgrown and within a kilometer turned into what seemed to be a newer track put in by the ATV crowd. This short twisty section lasted around 200 meters and came back up onto the old road bed. There seems to be a newish bypass around a section of road for some reason. We continued down the old road. It is a bit overgrown, but easy enough to follow. The LR3 cut a sidewall a couple of kms later. After swapping in the spare, we continued down the track without any trouble and came out on the Lussier FSR.
We headed north on the very pothole infested FSR to Whiteswan lake and then made the short trip west to Lussier Hotsprings and stopped for lunch and dip in the pools. After bidding goodbye to David, we headed 40 km north and camped at the Kootenay-White Junction Recreation Site. This is lovely user maintained, free provincial campsite at the junction of the Kootenay and White rivers. We camped out on the floodplain beside the river and enjoyed the sun at a wonderful spot for our last night.
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Wednesday was a simple drive home. We headed north on the Settlers Kootenay FSR towards Kootenay National Park. We made a stop into Horseshoe Rapids Recreation Area to check it out for future camping. This was another gem of a spot. It is not accessible to trailers or RVs and would be a great spot to spend a few days. After hitting the pavement, we made a straight shot back to Calgary.
It was a fun trip for myself and I hope everyone had a great time.
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WOW!!!!! Looks like a great couple of days after we left you John!!! Great write up and pics too....thanks for that ;-)
I loved this line of yours too:
"In a continuing effort to locate this magic type of trail that a quad can drive and a a truck cannot, we felt is necessary to investigate this claim.
ROFL
Thanks for a great outing John....Even Jude looks content there :-)
Photos (with a bonus video hidden in there).
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VL1eGNEcyLokQAtR6 (https://photos.app.goo.gl/VL1eGNEcyLokQAtR6)
I was a great trip and I recommend sticking around for the Crossing Creek section in future :)
That river confluence looks like it would be worth going to directly and parking for a week. Great looking spot!
I've uploaded the photos to the club Flickr account. If anyone has more, let me know and I can compile them at the one spot.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmGdMseZ
That was a great trip guys! Luckily my only foible of the trip was leaving my credit card at the pump in Radium...
Now to fix these "only unlocked 90" and "Range Rover coat hanger" issues... ;)
Great trip. I really enjoyed the mountains and the company. Wish I could have stayed on for the week but I had go do that working thing.
Quote from: Red90 on August 17, 2019, 07:34 AM
I've uploaded the photos to the club Flickr account. If anyone has more, let me know and I can compile them at the one spot.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmGdMseZ
Kirk has added his photos and a set of really nice compilation videos to the album. These much better cover the trip than the meager photos I took!!
He also has a bunch of raw trail footage. These really give a good feel for what the trails were like. The larger ones are up on our YouTube channel as Flickr has a limit on video sizes.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpKh181xx_qs4zMO0UT_Dopusxq9y6ZMP
Wow....the LR3 did much better for clearance then I would have expected...very impressive Kirk!!! Can you explain what was happening when you stopped on the slope, shut the engine off for a minute or so and continued please? Some of the videos down do justice to the slope you were on there. But the one from above, showing John's 90 coming up seem to really show the angle well. Great videos and pics guys!!!!!
Quote from: binch on August 28, 2019, 03:50 PM
Can you explain what was happening when you stopped on the slope, shut the engine off for a minute or so and continued please?
My understanding, his "Special Programs" would randomly turn off. This means no traction control, no center or rear diff locks. Turning the truck off and on again would let it work. It seems that it was due to a burnt out tail light (seriously).
LOL...... Maybe the mouse on the front of the bonnet was trying to fix it ;D
This one really gives a good feel for how rough is the east side of Koko Claims.
Is that as steep as I'm thinking it is....? ???
That section was not really steep. There are some good hills after that. None are super steep but all pretty rough.