Well, the Whipsaw Run has come and gone for another year. It was a good time for everybody with a minimum of mechanical difficulties. Coastal Cruiser members and guests present were: Steve T with daughters and Father Wayne, guest Ken ?, Glenn B & friend Tim, Phil S and daughters, Aaron K & Carolyn, Jeff S & Becky & daughters, Gary T & friend John, Gary T's sister Nancy and husband Bill, Marcin C, Mat R & Erika, Sopel, Rob Cz, Pawel Z, Layne with son, Rob Millson, Jason with 3 kids, Paul K, Traci & lovely dog, Drew E & energetic dog, Martin S & Jenni, Shane & Sue with daughter, Barry P, Chris H with 2 sons, and Bill W. I hope I haven't forgotten anybody.
Phil went into Lodestone Lake on Tuesday and faced cold temperatures, snow showers, and plenty of rain. It was unseasonably cold at night and they had to dig out lots of layers to keep warm. By the time most of us arrived on Friday and Saturday, it had warmed up somewhat but was still pretty chilly at night at 6000 feet of altitude. There were lots of wildflowers this late in the summer. Some nights were clear skys with the starry Milky Way spread across the heavens. There were shooting stars too. Guest Tim jumped into the lake Saturday morning and said the water temp was better than the air temp. The Good ol' Boys from Princeton were fewer and quieter this year. Funny how you miss those noisey Rednecks!
Our Saturday run went in two directions: the Polish Team decamped and went over the mountains to Champion Creek and on to the Tulameen River area and beyond. Most of the rest of us went down the Hope-Brigade Trail to Wells Lake to meet Aaron. Later we returned back to Lodestone L and road conditions were pretty good. Trail traffic was light although we did see four FunInBC vehicles (one a Toyota!). That night Gary T set off lots of fireworks over the lake to entertain the group. We had great campfires every night and people ran for their sleeping bags to keep warm.
Sunday was warmer and we decided to take the old Badger Creek trail down to the Arrastra Creek and around the loop back to Loadstone. That Badger Creek trail was a challenge with narrow steep descents and deep mud holes. We met a few trailbikes coming the other way, and they couldn't believe that trucks could come down that trail! We lunched at the bottom and Aaron decided to return back up that trail but the rest of us carried on to explore an old cabin and also to try to reactivate an old road leading from Arrastra Road up to the Watcom Trail, but it was beyond our efforts and we finally abandoned that idea.
Monday people began to decamp and slowly head home. We did encounter Heinz 57 guys when heading down to Coalmont. Gary T and I went to visit the old Coalmont Cemetery and on to Tulameen and a dip in Otter Lake. We took the Lawless FSR over to the Coquihalla Highway, around the bypass, and down to Hope. That Lawless road is high-speed gravel and had virtually no traffic. As usual the Freeway from Hope to Abbotsford was slow and overloaded, so we took the Mission Bridge and found Highway 7 quiet and easy.
Although most of us have done Whipsaw several times now, we always enjoy it and hope to do it again next year.
I guess I should do a write up from the Polish team. We all met up on Friday morning in Maple Ridge, then were joined by Marcin at Lickman and finally Pawel in Hope. The drive up was nice and we headed for the South (front) entrance to Whipsaw. After a quick pit stop in Princeton for lunch and fuel we hit gravel and took a nice drive up. Since we did not actually hit the trail until after 12:30 we were expecting to not get into camp until late. 1/2 way up on the trail I was able to get Aaron on the CB, who was ahead of us and we met up with him (sort of) at Wells. Since it was still early we kept going and to our surprise, even with the occasional pic and scenery stops, we got to camp by 5:30 - 6pm. Camp this year was large and we managed to take over almost 1/2 the lake. In the morning we were joined by Glenn on our scouting trip towards Tulameen FSR which started off great with a tight and muddy trail but soon turned into a bigger gravel FSR. A couple of dead ends and we were unable to get to where we wanted so we had lunch at Vuich Falls camp site where I fixed an air leak in my tire. Glenn followed us until Jacobson Lake then headed back. We explored a lot of trails in the area hoping to connect to Sowaqua Creek but were unable to do it. There is one trail that I found that leads into Manning that looks way too cool but we were short on time. We manage to find an excellent camp by Cunningham creek that was secluded and pretty much perfect. On Sunday we all headed back up the Tulameen FSR and said goodbye to Sopel and Marcin while Robert C., Pawel and I continued to Tulameen town, Princeton, Hedley and took Ashnola FSR South. We found a secluded camp spot with no one around and set up camp early. At night we were visited by what we assumed were coyotes (could only see their reflective eyes) and tons of stars. We enjoyed some more of Robert's excellent cooking and movie night of our trip so far thanks to Pawel. In the morning we took the trail leading to Placer Mountain and were rewarded by amazing views, steep 700m drop offs and a tight and windy trail up the mountain. We connected with the Simikameen River and had a late lunch. With a group sigh of disappointment we hit the highway and headed home via Hwy 7. I always feel like I'm giving up when I head back into town.
Since I am in Ft. St. John right now I will not be able to attend the meeting and the only thing I can say about the drive here is don't do it without AC!