Southern Rockies Exploration Week/Weekend

[Red90]

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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[Red90]

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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[binch]

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 :-)

[lropchan]

Photos (with a bonus video hidden in there).

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VL1eGNEcyLokQAtR6

[headdamage]

I was a great trip and I recommend sticking around for the Crossing Creek section in future :)

[Trevor]

That river confluence looks like it would be worth going to directly and parking for a week. Great looking spot!

[Red90]

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

[DBrands]

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...  ;)

[Matt H]

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.

[Red90]

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

[binch]

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!!!!!

[Red90]

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).

[binch]

LOL......  Maybe the mouse on the front of the bonnet was trying to fix it  ;D

[Red90]

This one really gives a good feel for how rough is the east side of Koko Claims.

[binch]

Is that as steep as I'm thinking it is....? ???