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The Wild WestHarrison AreaJanuary 27/07 Written by Greg Photos by Highcountry, Paul Mitchell, and TheHouse I posted that the weather was going to cooperate, and that I wanted to go for a ride, didn't really care where. A few people posted that they were heading to Herrling, and Paul Mitchell posted that he was heading to Harrision West. I'd already been to Herrling once this year (the annual January 1st ride), so I didn't really want to go there again. Since there were no other suggestions, Harrison West it was. It promised to be a nice, easy ride in the January sun. Most of you who read these trip reports know that I'm typically tardy, and that Paul Mitchell gets a lot of mileage from that. I'd like to point out that not only was I early this time, I arrived before Paul. Cabin Fever was already there; actually he was the first one there and hadn't unloaded his quad yet because he wasn't sure if he was in the right spot. We headed up the Harrison West FSR, and soon hit a bit of snow. It wasn't deep enough to stop us, so we pressed on. Some of us had brief, unplanned excursions onto the snow as we had our tires turned to get out of the ruts and got launched once our tires found traction. We made one rest stop then then headed to 20 Mile Bay. 
We took the short route into 20 Mile Bay. We played around on the gravel beach for a bit, then stopped for lunch. 
After lunch, the leader headed back down the road (to my surprise; I thought we'd try to go further up the trail). We rode back to Hale Creek, where Badger and Paul Mitchell left for the trucks. Badger had somewhere to go, and Paul had not yet picked up his wife's birthday present, so he was going to do that on the way home. I mentioned that I wanted to check out Sunrise Lake, so we headed back up the trail to Sunrise. At the trailhead, the 4WD Association of BC has placed a "4x4 only" sign, due to an obstacle on the trail called the "V-Rock". We zipped up through the snow to the V-Rock, and I got off to walk it first. There was a layer of ice on the bottom, and the only way up was to straddle the V, or at least have one side of the quad of off the ice. I slowly started to crawl up it. I got a tire in the air, then a little off-camber until I slowly and gently tipped over to the right side. I eventually made it through with some assistance from the guys. 
 
Nobody else wanted to come up, although I could tell Cabin Fever was thinking about it. So I turned around and headed back down. Coming back down is totally different than going up; I had to back up a couple of times as my steering was being turned by the rocks and I had to readjust. At one point, Roughcountry was standing on my rear recovery point to add weight and stop the rear of the quad from lifting into the air. Then he slipped off, hit the ice in the V, and slid right under the quad, hanging from the rack with his hands. Everyone was laughing at Roughcountry as he struggle to get back out from under the quad and off the ice. I leaned forward as much as I could as I couldn't see what was going on and didn't want the quad to come down on top of him. Apparently he didn't fall; he was merely checking the oil. "Yeah, the dipstick is under the quad!" The descent was steep, and I at one point my right hand slid down the handlebar and briefly touched the throttle, putting me in a bad position. They guys lifted up the front of the quad, moved me over a bit, and I was good. 
Back down to Harrison West FSR, then back down to Hale Creek. We took the switchback road down to the beach, where we found some FunInBC members camping. I recognised Tmax's truck, but they said was over by a rock on the other side of the bay. I said I'd be back, and continued along the beach. We played around on the rocks and the driftwood, then headed back. I stopped to chat with Tmax while the rest of group headed up the "tougher" road, which isn't really tough but is more difficult than the switchback road. 
I eventually headed up the road, after the others. I soon encountered Highcountry who was trying to get over a rocky section. She was getting frustrated, and elected to get Roughcountry to take her quad over the obstacle. Further on, I picked a different line that had me descending off-camber into a washed-out section; after doing some outrigger acrobatics on the right side of the quad while trying to reach my shifter on the left side of the quad to get it into reverse, I managed to get out of the situation. Part way up the trail I met up with the others, who were stopped at a large tree that had fallen across trail. TheHouseWife had squeezed her Ozark beneath the tree. I figured that I could make it through if I wasn't sitting on the quad, and we got it though via some throttle, some pushing, and some lifting and shifting the quad sideways. Everyone got their quads through with some finagling, and we headed back up to the Harrison West FSR. Cabin Fever left us at this point, and we headed across the road to the next trail, in search of a trail that I had been on years ago. I was leading, and I was riding along at a pretty good clip up the trail. There were a few shallow cross-ditches along the trail, none worth slowing down for. I slightly drifted around a right-hand corner, and spotted another cross-ditch. By the time I realized that this particular cross-ditch was MUCH deeper, it was too late. I locked up the brakes for a brief second, slammed into the ditch, bounced out of the ditch sideways, flew through the air, came down sideways in a ditch at the side of the road, got pitched off my quad, and came to rest on my back, with my legs pointing at the quad, which had landed on its left side and was now gently rolling on top of me. Remembering what that would have felt like, I kicked out with my legs, pushed it back onto its side, then lay in the ditch. Ouch. Ow. Actually, the ditch was pretty comfortable. I made a half-hearted effort to sit up, but my body wasn't quite ready yet. Bambam came running up, and I asked him to help me up. Somebody else grabbed my other arm, and they lifted me out of the ditch as the others pushed my quad back onto its tires. My right wrist, hand, and thumb really hurt, but after some pressing and prodding we determined that nothing was broken. I had other soreness as well, like neck, shoulders and knees. I had a couple of marks on the back of my new chest protector, so it's a good thing I was wearing it. Bambam said he rounded the corner, and thought "That looks like the underside of a quad!". A common sight for my quad apparently. We decided that that was enough riding for the day, and headed back to the trucks. I took it easy as every time I hit a pothole it aggravated my wrist and thumb. Back at the trucks, Highcountry provided us with lemon meringue tarts! Too bad for those who left early! Another great day of riding. |
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