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The Liumchen LoopChilliwack AreaOctober 13/07 Written by Greg Photos by Greg and WhiteRockRick It was WhiteRockRick and I. Perfect quadding weather; sunny, not too hot, not too cold, no dust. I was leading at first. A few minutes into the ride, I hit that damn cross-ditch that most of you know about, got air but not enough, slammed into the other side of the cross ditch, bounced, and did the two-front-tire walk... oops. Rick slowed down once he saw that little manoever.  We took the trail down to the river and played on the rocks for a bit. No water in this area. There was so much exposed rock that we were able to ride for quite a ways. The green truck in the photo is on the Chilliwack Lake Road. Then it was time to hit the loop.We checked out the first lookout, where the trail was blocked with large rocks and there was a sign stating that the area past the rocks was closed to all recreation INCLUDING HIKING due to the spotted owl making its habitat there. Good thing the owl knows to stay on THAT side of the rocks. I suddenly remembered being at that spot about 10 years ago with my Toyota 4x4. Rick pointed out frost on the ground in the shade, although it didn't feel that cold. We then headed to the second lookout, where there was a nicer view with more sun, and ate our lunch. We checked out a few side trails, including one that took us into a box canyon along a pucker trail... and by that I mean we were riding the outside edge of the trail for most of the way in, and it was a big drop to the floor if we weren't paying attention. We had to go really slow; the weeds were obscuring the edge in places so we couldn't see it, and much of the trail was so overgrown we had to stop and move the branches aside so we could see if there was ground or air in front of us. After one particularly nasty section I noticed about a thousand ants, miniature flies, weevils, and green worms covering my quad. Wait, they're on ME TOO!! Dang. We actually spent an hour in the worst spots with the Fiskars PowerGear bypass loppers taking down the saplings that were taking over the already-narrow trail. Hard to believe that logging trucks actually used this "road" at one time, as much of it was EXACTLY quad-wide. We even had to traverse a few little rock slides on this narrow trail; looking up we could see lots more rock ready to come down. Near the end of the canyon trail was a switchback up to a higher logged area; we started up that and found a narrow sloughed-away section that wasn't too bad on the way up, but on the way down put the right rear tire in the air, and you were looking at space... I think I had to pull my underwear out of my butt crack because my sphincter was tightening up something fierce. Elevation was 4885 feet or so. We didn't stop for photos in the bad sections because we just wanted to be clear of them. 
We could see another trail snaking along the cliff on the opposite side of the valley, looking like a mirror-image of the trail we were on. We were within a few hundred feet of it, but what we thought might have been a connecting road was an extremely overgrown slope. We thought we could make out the road grade from our vantage point above, but after it turned towards the other trail it disappeared. Not enough daylight remaining, so we might have to head back to hike it, to see if it does connect. So close, and yet so far. Back out along the same shelf trail; nice of somebody to cut down all those saplings. On the way out, I was approaching a slight cross-ditch. I noticed that Rick was stopped on the other side, and was just turning around on his quad. Unbeknownst to me, a 1.5"-thick branch had attacked Rick by smacking him on the right hand, so he shifted his body and ducked and it flew over his shoulder. Then the front end of my quad contacted it, pushed it forward, and then it suddenly sprang back and *WHAM* hit me in the square in the face right in the helmet opening. I never saw it coming, but I sure felt it when it smashed into the top of my nose. I wasn't travelling all that fast due to the overgrowth, which was a good thing. Wow, did it ever hurt!! Ow! I assesed things; my nose was throbbing and was very tender to the touch, but no blood was pouring out so hopefully I just bruised something. Rick said "I was just going to get off my quad and remove that branch!" Which he then did, so it wouldn't get the next person. I did note that for the next couple of hours, whenever I blew my nose I'd see blood, but that eventually stopped by the time I arrived home. We were almost out; we had some more shelf trail to travel, then an old wood bridge to cross, then some deep cross-ditches and we'd be back to the main trail. Rick was leading, and around a corner he suddenly hit the brakes and came to an abrupt stop. I pulled up behind him, to see that the bridge was severely damaged. One of the two support logs that spanned the creek had broken in the middle. This left the bridge deck off-camber and had broken the 10x10 railing on the down side into 3 pieces. The deck surface was VERY slippery from the accumlated dirt and leaves, making it difficult to walk across it without sliding. But... we had run the loop in reverse, so we had arrived at it after spending 7 hours on the trail. After some discussion we knew what we had to do. We were not going back! We figured that the "good" side of the bridge should still support our quads, but the broken side was questionable. So if we used our winch cables to string the quads along the high side, we should be able to get across without sliding to the down side and possibly ending up in the drink. As Rick was in front, he went first. He attached his winch cable to the far end of the bridge, and I attached my winch cable to rear of his quad via a strap. Then he winched his quad across the deck, while I maintained tension and gradually let my cable out to match his. It worked great! His new Swamp Lites tracked nicely along the intended path. Sorry about the blurry photos; I wasn't used to his camera. Then Rick turned around, and I turned around. Rick attached his winch cable to the back of my quad; I attached my winch cable to a tree on my side of the bridge via a strap. Then I backed across the deck, letting Rick winch me as my quad tried to slide down the slope, but was held by the winch cables. I think my XTRs slid sideways due to their paddle-style tread pattern, while the individual tread blocks of his Swamp Lites just dug in. Fun times! 
Back at the trucks, I noticed that my previously-damaged main skidplate was now toast... after dragging myself over rocks and debris all day, it was torn in half at a cross-member, and was bent down at a 90-degree angle. So, after spending all that time riding, I used a whole $7.42 of gas (at 98.9 cents/litre). Pretty darn good for the entertainment value. Speaking of gas, the Sardis Esso has about a dozen flavours of slushy drinks, including Root Beer and Cherry Coke, my two favourites. So after fueling the truck and the quad, I happily left with a Cherry Coke slushy for the drive home. This may be the last Liumchen Loop ride, because I think that as soon as Forestry sees the condition of that bridge, they are going to pull it out, and I doubt that there are funds available for its reconstruction considering that the trail is really only suitable for quads and not street vehicles. Another great day of quadding in the October sun. |
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