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Chipmunk Creek RideChilliwack AreaJune 24/07 Written by Rigster Seven Quads.ca members ride the trails at Chipmunk Creek FSR, June 24th, 2007 The riders were (in alphabetical order): 8Ball (Rod), Baldeagle (Aaron), CanadianChaos (Gerry), Initialization Gained (Mark), The Mallet (Ken), Rigster (Darren), Torrys (Torry) I picked up my brother 8Ball in Chilliwack on the way to Chipmunk and we met The Mallet at the unloading area around 8:30am. Unbeknownst to us, we passed Torry at the Tamahi FSR just past the bridge. But then, to this point we had not met Torry before and did not recognize his tow vehicle as we passed by heading to Chipmunk. We unloaded and waited for the others, knowing we needed to be at the gravel pit by 9 and thought maybe the others were coming from the Slesse side, so we headed to the gravel pit around 5 minutes to 9. Well, shoot, there were some folks working on the Chipmunk Bench FSR from the unloading area to the gravel pit with no way to get through. At this point we thought that maybe we would link up with the others later on, and decided to ride up the Chilliwack Foley FSR for now. As we headed east, we took a couple of side trails exploring them to their inevitable end up the mountain sides, until we came to a nice long FSR side trail that continues east along Foley Creek on the south side. This was a FUN trail! Lots of washouts to negotiate and some good technical riding skills were needed. Along one of the washouts it appeared that there was no way through, but when you dropped down into the creek, you could follow the creek bed around the washout. After I got through, I took these pics of 8ball and Mallet while I was standing on top of the washout looking down (about 12 feet) at them working their way through. Pictures do not do it justice of course as there is some depth-perception lost. However, you can see from Mallet's body positioning, it was STEEP and DEEP: 
Here is 8ball negotiating around the tight corner of the washout; there were large boulders to deal with in the way: 
8ball coming out of the washout: 
Mallet negotiating the tight turn: 
We continued along for a while on the trail negotiating other washouts of less magnitude until we came to a real nice waterfall and rapids crossing the trail. I noticed that in low-water levels, the trail actually passed directly in front of the waterfall with a nice sandy bottom. There was a direct (albeit ROUGH) way directly across the rapids immediately after the pool. Now, I had two weeks before just snorkeled my Can-Am (how-to Tech Article to follow) and had yet to test it out. The pool looked to be at least 2 ft deep, but of course it is always hard to tell. I elected to give it a whirl anyhoo; I mean, why let fear and common sense stop me right? :) I quickly realized that yup, it is definitely deeper than it looks! 
At this point, I am thinking, I could still back out of this, but then I thought I would not be able to test the snorkeling that I did. So I decided to "give 'er!" 
I found myself actually "floating", bouncing off the bottom of the pool as I negotiated my way out, as you can see from the pic, the back of the quad is completely submerged except for what is on the rack (whew! My lunch stayed dry!). At this point I remember thinking that my quad sounded just like a "SeaDoo". :) Thanks to Mallet for taking the pics for me on my maiden voyage... (forgot the champagne for the christening) I managed to float my way out of the pool to the other side with a much cleaner quad: 
8Ball and Mallet then came across over the "Rocky Rapids" with a little skid-plate action. Just after they got across is when we finally met up with the other half of the crew! After 8Ball, Mallet and myself are across the waterfall/creek we were discussing the "maiden voyage" and the beautiful/serene waterfall, lo and behold! The other members of today's ride show up! BaldEagle, Torrys, CanadianChaos and Initialization Gained are on the other side of the creek. We converse a little (more like SHOUTING due to the waterfall) and they say they are going to turn around and head to Slesse as they do not like the looks of the crossing. I heckle them a little at this point (I mean with friends like me who wants enemies, right?) :) I realize they are serious about turning around as one or two of them do not have skid plates (and no one has snorkeled their quad) so I stop my heckling and say I hope they have a great day and maybe we will catch up with them later. We start gearing up again and then they shout out to "hold up", they are going to join us. Woohoo! Like I said earlier, "why let fear and common sense stop you?" :) I grabbed my camera again and proceeded to take some pictures of the boys on their way over. TheBaldEagle, "proud, fierce, and true" leads the pack, daring the rocks and water (with Mallet offering encouraging words): 
Next comes CanadianChaos, chaotically crossing the river with ease: 
Next comes Torrys, his vast experience telling as he negotiates this crossing and making it look like a novice trail: 
And last but not least by any means, an up and coming Quads.ca expert, Initialization Gained, though I think after this ride we should name him "Experienced Gained" as he seemingly cruises over the obstacles on his Can-Am with efficiency: 
We continued up the trail for a whole 2.3 minutes to come across a major washout with many trees and logs. We could have used a chain-saw here! :) Then we probably could have kept running along this trail. Sorry for the lack of pictures as I noticed heading to this next washout that my belt was slipping!! Uh-oh! Now how did water get in there when I snorkeled my quad?!? I initially thought it was when the whole front end went under, there may have been some splashing up into the console (where I hid my intake, PVT intake and exhaust tubes). Whilst the others contemplated the pile of debris, I quickly drained my PVT case in about 10-15 minutes and we were on our way again. I think only a half of a cup of water was in the case, but it was enough to make the belt slip a little. Of course we all had to cross the nefarious rapids once again! Due to the need to drain my PVT case, I crossed the rocky rapids with the others to avoid another delay until I figured out how water got into the PVT. Upon getting home I noticed that I had a 1 ½" 90 elbow that had a clamp come loose on the PVT exhaust! I have since zip tied it and re-clamped it. I think my love for doing wheelies and the constant pounding up and down caused it to come loose. :) As we were all crossing, TheBaldEagle got this strange and fearful look in his fierce eye that said we ought not be crossing again so soon! The river gods will want a sacrifice! "Oh no!", we thought to ourselves, "Initialization Gained is just starting to cross!" 
It seemed his thoughts were prophetic as Initialization Gained got hung up on one of the larger rocks making the crossing back to where the rest of us waited. To our horror, it almost seemed like the deep pool started to "suck" his quad into it, like something from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: 
It was all a haze and almost appeared to happen in slow motion and as though through a long tunnel I heard someone shout out "Save yourself!!" Initialization Gained gamely jumped off of the quad, but his heart could not bear to give up his quad as a sacrifice to the River Gods to appease them because of our crossings: 
The Mallet, not fearing for his life, recognized that Initialization Gained was about to be drawn into the abyss with his quad, started to run to his aid. Finally coming out of the fog and shock of what I was seeing, I swallowed my fear with the roaring of the River Gods all about us (or was it the roaring of the waterfall? Can't be sure now that I think back about it). I thought that there is no way that we will be able to overcome the angry River Gods with our weak human frames alone, and quickly glanced around. I noticed Mallet's quad was the closest quad to the river and it had a winch. I shouted this to Mallet and he turned around to get his quad. 8Ball, the only one with hip waders, volunteered to descend into the abyss to hook up the life line to the front of the quad: 
With unbearable slowness, we begin to winch the quad out of the clutches of the abyss to the great disappointment of the River Gods: 
A very much relieved Initialization Gained, still in shock and disbelief that he and his quad are both safe... 
We continued back to the main Chilliwack Foley FSR to continue our sojourn. We followed the FSR until we crossed Foley Creek to the north side and checked out a little side trail that was bushed-in quite a bit; it petered out to nothing and was more effort than it was worth to explore. So we gamely went back to the main trail and continued up the mountain to the end of the FSR at a nice open bowl for lunch: From left to right, TheBaldEagle, CanadianChaos and The Mallet: 
From left to right, Torrys, 8Ball: 
From left to right: The Mallet, Rigster, Initialization Gained: 
After we finished lunch we headed back up the Foley FSR to the bridge where it meets up with the Bench FSR and goes over to the gravel pit. The workers were finished there and we headed up the Chipmunk FSR like we originally intended. We headed up to do the Mt Thurston loop and this is where we ran into rain for the first time that day. In fact it poured, hailed, and the temperature dropped quite a bit. This is also the reason there are no further pictures! Due to the inclement weather conditions, we elected to head back, splashing through the large puddles created by the downpour. A quick check at the next junction point to make sure everyone was still there, we start to head off again, but notice that TheBaldEagle seems to be having some trouble. It appears that a sensor for the shifting in the transmission is not functioning properly and he cannot get out of 1st gear. Apparently this is a weakness in the Honda's that he tells me happens if the switch gets too wet. TheBaldEagle urges us to go ahead without him and that he will just putter back slowly, but I said we would not leave him behind. I mean who would leave an injured bird to the wolves? We offer to tow him (and take a picture) but this horrified him so much I thought he really would go bald (Bald Eagles are known for their pride are they not?). :) It came down to Torrys deciding to limp along home with him, and the rest of us headed back to the trucks and loaded up. I noticed that I picked up a small piece of shale that was sharp enough to put a small hole in my right rear tire and it was leaking. I had a repair kit, but the quad was already loaded in the truck and I decided to wait until I got home and I would fix it there. Courtesy of TheBaldEagle, here are some GPS routes of our treks of the day: 
While the rest of us were around talking and solving the world's problems, Torrys shows up with TheBaldEagle in tow! I guess driving in 1st gear all that way was too much to bear. It's ok Baldy, at least it was another Honda that was towing you. It could have been worse, you could have had one of the Can-Am's towing you! :) |
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