Mike Allen & Brad Paulin, lifted, Chev p/u, lockers, 35" Stan Hembrough, Ford p/u, lifted, 35"  Dave & Elisabeth Pocock, 4"lift, locked Cherokee Andrew, Roxene, Ryan Walters

Here's a bit of history for this run, since it's planning had been in the works for 2 yrs.. I had first noticed this trail about 10 yrs ago while touring the Anahim/ Bella Coola region and had bookmarked it in my head has a definate 'to do' one day.. About two years ago, I noticed that a Club from Prince George (the NCOAS) was frequenting a lake, along the Blackwater River, called Kluskoil Lake. Click!!! I e-mailed their then Pres. Mike Allen.. Mike had also had the bug a long time ago to take a crack at this trail. From that point there were 2 years of communications, contacting and speaking to various resorts, horse wagon associations, people who knew people, viewing and re-viewing a large variety of maps. Add to boot, one recon run last year into the Eastern section of the trail to see if we could cross the river at it's deepest point (Mac.). Mike and some of the NCOAS also completed 2 other recon runs into the Western section of the trail to connect up to Gatcho Lake and also 1 run into the center section... Finally the time had come to throw this all together and go for it..

As what usually happens in this game, as the date got closer, the participants started dropping out.. Unfortunately, some PORCER's were also casualties of this, leaving Rox and I as the sole reps.This was ok though. A run like this required absolute perfect running conditions due to the distances involved. We were looking at a minimum of 300 kms between re-fuelings and over 200 kms of 4-lo. Although, most of the trail I wouldn't consider to be hard-core rock crawlin'.. I think most would appreciate the prep work involved in an undertaking of this sort. Even with all the work Mike and everyone did there were a lot of questions as to whether it was possible or not.. So there ya go, there's the ra-ra of organizing so all can appreciate the effort put into this one <g>..

If you're not into the trip report that follows - we basically wheeled from Anahim Lake to Quesnel through a slight maze of VERY rarely travelled trails. The jist of the 300kms of trails that we ran was briefly made up of about 100kms of 'fast' logging road. The remaining 200kms or so was made up of heavy bush wacking, windfall clearing, marsh/meadow crossings, loads of muck, several creek crossings, some moderate rock crawlin' and some decent orienteering.... You know, your general deep back country trek... <G>

The following trip report is a brief summarization of this run,, to be honest I didn't keep a log running so this was thrown together from memory..

There........some more pics must have loaded by now ;)

Dave on the way to Gatcho Lake

Mike climbing a small clay/moss covered rock garden

Stan tries her a little bit more to the right

Rox and I left the Lower Mainland at 9:30PM on Sat., Aug 19th. We travelled all night to Williams Lake and headed West, on hwy.20, to meet up with the rest of the group who camped out overnight on the banks of the Fraser River. We arrived at around 4:30AM. Dave and Elisabeth joined us later that morning at 11 AM. We then all headed to Anahim Lake for our last touch-ups and fuelings, some of us awake, two of us in a daze! <g> Mike treated us all to some fresh cinnamon rolls on the start of our journey at a 'way cool' cabin/lodge. I mention this because firstly, they were excellent and secondly, they were free :) From Anahim Lake, we headed North on the Dean River main. After about 50 kms of good logging road, we locked our hubs and shifted into 4-lo; we wouldn't shift out of it for 6 days.. We travelled about 15kms North thru 'very' dense brush, rutted mud tracks and climbed a clay covered rock garden. My first and only 'oops' happened about 1/2 hour into the drive.. Missed and drove over a log and sent it into my fuel tank.. Fuel started leaking all over the place, so thinking the worst (that I had punctured the tank) I started to freak,,, SHIT a 200 lbs repair.. Luckily, it turned out to be a knocked-off fuel line and a 2" dent in my cargo space.... Arriving at Gatcho Lake at 7:30pm, we found an abandoned fishing/hunting resort right on the lake. We stoked the wood stoves, had a quick dinner and crashed in the cabins for the night.

Andrew tries his hand at it

Dave tries an alternate route to the left

Dave's 31" had their work cut out for them a couple of times

The next morning, we were up and ready to roll by 11AM. In behind the cabins, there is an old, abandoned Indian settlement called Ulkatcho. We looked thru all the old cabins, burial sites and checked out the old foundation of their chapel.. Pretty cool, we would continue to run into all kinds of old ruins like this on this trail.

Trooper's driveway

Dave and Elisabeth chose the Cherokee for sleeping quarters

Sauna or cabin guys???

From the settlement, we headed East, took the horse trail than ran North East towards Eliguk Lake (hopefully it would connect, some of the maps showed no connection).. The Mac Trail runs South East at this intersection.. Now it was time for the topo. map. None had travelled this trail in a long time.. We had tons of windfall (biggest one about 2.5' in diameter and mildly rotted into the marsh) to clear and again muddy, dense brush sections to pick our way thru. We pushed along the trail for 10 kms when we came onto a marshy meadow about 1 km. across. These are tender areas to drive on nowadays, not to mention who wants to get the whole group buried rockers deep (that happens later <g>). We followed the harder outer edge of the meadow while the group hung back to see how soft she was. We turned North at the base of the meadow and again followed the outer edge until we saw a quad's single track going into the bush. Rox parked the Trooper and I went for a run (with Chimo, we're in Grizzly country :). I located a defined trail tucked away at the Northern most tip of the meadow, the group had re-joined Rox by now and I waved them over my way.. Actually I had waved them over as they were driving around the meadow, and got a wave back from Brad....... who thought I was just playing with the dog in the middle of marsh and moose shit!!! <g>

None had used this route in awhile

Cause it was there!! <g>

We came out on the far right and circled on the drier sections

We now had a heading of South East towards Eliguk lake.. The horse trail re-joined the Mac trail at the Western side of Eliguk Lake, 17 kms later.. At this intersection, you crawl down a fairly steep embankment, and at it's base there are two ways to go. One way is a mucky, grassy trail,, the other tightly wraps around some trees. I chose the mucky way since we had been driving in this stuff on and off for approx. 40kms. I cautiously drove in the first few feet to test the ground out, it seemed fine.. OK let's go, proceeded another 5-6' and bingo buried rocker panel deep!!! and not moving an inch either way.. Mike (having the winch in the group) tried to get around me and proceeded to find a deeper spot.. He winched himself out and managed to turn around.. Everyone of us had to get yanked and winched out of there,, it was ugly,,, but a blast of course! Turns out whoever was last thru there had thrown all kinds of logs in the 'hole' for traction.. Someone else's traction, is someone elses hang up!! This is sort of the same annoyance as stacking rocks !!! East, we continued on..

We arrived at the East side of Eliguk Lake at around 10:00pm,, ~25kms after getting on the horse trail. We set-up camp for night #2 at the East end of Eliguk Lake.. The full size boys were beat from negotiating the tightness of this last section of trail.. It takes it's toll on you when you're concentrating continuously for 10hrs. The only break they had from it was the meadow crossing. Dave, Elisabeth, Rox and I had a few around the fire, shared a couple of chuckles over the day and the ZZZZZ coming from our friends' tents... We were all in bed and sound asleep by 11PM.. <g>

Dave following some previous ruts

Stan takes a run thru a muckier section of the trail

Even with the Trooper's width it was very overgrown

 

 Day 3,,,, Up we go and rolling by 9am.. This was going to be an exciting and big day for us.. If anyone thinks of tackling this trail or sections of it, you have to read "Grass Beyond the Mountains" by Rich Hobson. Briefly, the book is about a couple of Americans ( Pan Phillips & Rich Hobson) that opened some of this area to ranching just after the turn of the century (last century that is<g>)... Anyways ,we were going to try and find their Home Ranch today. We made good time following an obvious wagon trail for 25kms when we came to another abandoned indian reservation (IR7). There were still shotguns hangin' on the walls, family pictures all over, even the beds were ready to go. It looked like they were going to be back anytime,,, except for the stench of 'dead something' in the cabin. Even the horse drawn farm tools were lying out and around.

We drove the South side of a field and then headed South East across the Blackwater River (there was a fairly new bridge).. We came upon a fenced ranch.. We waved to the owners, they waved back and we proceeded to open and drive thru the gate.. We chatted for awhile with this couple.. They seemed mildly amused by our presence, they hadn't seen anyone drive thru this area in a long time,, like years.. Ryan (2 yrs old) ran around their yard for awhile checking out all the equipment and 4x4's.. It was a chance for me to check them out too!!! Landrover, Willy's p/u and Jeep,, all kinds of old farm stuff.. Again were over 200km's from the nearest town North of us (Vanderhoof), some of the ranchers and homesteaders around here still live without power and don't get many outsiders coming thru.. Utmost respect and courtesy has to be shown to them and their properties.. Anyways, great couple... they gave us directions (which we screwed up for a few kms, but repaired <g>) and we were on our way to the Home Ranch...

Between Lambert's ranch and the Home Ranch		The only inhabitants,, greeted us at the Home Ranch

Think it was safe to say the excitment was building as we were counting down the kms to the ranch. After a long crawl (12kms) we finally made it to the edge of, what we figured to be, the ranch's Northern range. Rox and I drove out into it to try to locate the Ranch buildings.. We heard over the radio at this point that Dave now had his first problem,, a pierced upper rad hose. Luckily it was long enough,, we later cut off the damaged end and re-attached it. As Rox and I drove out into the feild we saw in the distance a herd of horses running around, some marked, some not.. Picture a range a couple of kms wide and as far deep as you can see with a herd of 25+ 'ponies' running toward you,, pretty cool! Spotted the buildings to the West of us and turned back to the group to see how the repair was going. Found a small trail that headed towards the ranch and,, voila,, we're there!!! This ranch has been abdandoned for several years, but again tons of old buildings to explore thru and check out.. Not having to mention the nostalgia of finding and walking thru Pan Phillips' ranch..

We set-up camp at around 5pm, kicked back to another great night around the fire. Oh ya we all needed a sauna at this point, so that was also a must.. Dave got his under-hood hot shower going too!!! 

Day #4.... We got an early start today. Realized last night that we had only completed about a third of the trail or ~75 kms, so we had to make some good headway today.. Heading out of the Home Ranch, we visited Pan and his wife Betty's shrine, signed the guest book and headed for the trail out of the meadow that Mike and Stan had found the previous night. The trail taking us North East out towards Tsacha Lake was fairly well worn but still required 4-lo, more for speed control than anything else. We arrived at Tsetzi Lake at 10:00am. There is a fishing lodge there owned by Rob & Linda Phillips (Pan's Phillip's son). We left a note on their door, as no-one was home.. We spotted a trail across their dirt runway and decided that this could be the trail to take us to Tsacha Lake.. This wound up being the wrong trailhead and instead we ended up at Diane Phillip's ranch.. This was a blessing in disguise for we got to meet Diane, as well as Rob and Linda who happened to be fueling up at his sister's ranch. Again, this was another pretty cool situation, especially for those who had read the book. Rob & Linda offered to show us the right trail.. Mike's exhaust came apart as he was leaving the ranch, so we took Rob up on his offer of using his gen-set welder. A quick repair, coffee and they led us out in the right direction on their quads. The trail to Tsacha Lake was once again slow going and overgrown. We took the Messue Wagon Trail across the Blackwater River and camped at Kuyakuz Lake Forestry site, which is about 170 kms slightly SouthWest of Vanderhoof. Mike, Brad and Stan would make a fuel run early the next morning.  

A little rock outcrop we all had turns at...

Day #5.... Dave and I re-fueled our tanks with the gerry cans as we had travelled over 155 kms since topping up at Anahim. Since we hadn't smelled fuel in so many days,, I figured I might as well swallow 1/2 a cup while syphoning.. Stupid!!! But MAN!! does that stuff ever pack a punch!!!<g>. Mike and the guys returned from Vanderhoof at 1:00pm wacked out on caffee mochas, I don't think I'd heard Brad speak so much or as quickly as we heard him that early afternoon ;)..

We headed South back onto the Messue Wagon Road, crossed the Blackwater again, did a bit of trail work, trail locating and headed East along side the MacKenzie trail.. The trail we were now on required more windfall clearing, bush wacking, deep rutted muck to crawl thru. It lead us to the Kluskus Lakes. We passed thru the Kluskus inhabited native village (IR1) at 4:00 pm or ~20kms from the Messue intersection. We were welcomed by the village's dogs, we saw some curtains moving, but no welcoming party. We figured we'd just drive thru as the general consensus was that we weren't really all that welcomed there.. Too bad as there was a pretty cool turn of the century chapel still standing that would have been neat to check out..

The trail out of the Kluskus village, although somewhat well travelled, became very muddy with several off-camber sections that had to be well negotiated. We hit 30 degs a couple of times, add the trees and mud for a slip and it got your attention pretty good.. We arrived at IR 3 at around 6:00pm or 10kms from the Kluskus village. Another pretty cool uninhabited village, looked like the animals had torn thru the buildings. There was all kinds of 'stuff' strewn all over the place. The village was made up of about 15 various sized log buildings, including an old school house and barn. We pressed onward East towards Pan's Crossing, a deep forge across the Blackwater River named after the rancher. This is where we made our one costly mistake in finding the right trail off of the trail we were on.. Although we had stopped at an axed marked trail heading North and had hiked a section of it,, for some reason we didn't clue in and stayed on the 'better' trail. Unfortunately, this kept directing us in an overall Eastern direction,, not a slight NorthEastern one.. We camped for a night, basically on the trail, just before dark. During the course of the night we named this spot "A Frickin' Campsite", basically because of it's location and someone's language..

Could never get speed up, due to the underlying rocks

Hub deep and better was ongoing for hours on the way to Nazko

The hidden rocks were mainly the concern

The next day, I think everyone somewhat had a gut feeling we may be going in the wrong direction and trail. I had tried to get our bearings from a hi point before heading out, but looking at the map now I can see where and how I misjudged our location :( Blame the map a little for lack of some smaller elevation contours, also a bit of 'holiday fever' and there ya go.. Easy to see and say now, but when you're in the middle of nowhere,, that's how it goes.. By the time we had a definate bearing of our location we had travelled a nasty (but fun,<g>) 15kms of VERY rough, muddy, swampy (with hidden rocks) terrain. That 15kms had taken us about 4hrs to do. Turning back was no longer really an option. The bigger rigs had swallowed their fuel for the day. Returning to the correct trail would be a 17.5km run and a 6hour trek just to get back to the right spot. From the correct spot on would also be another approx. 46kms of 4-lo and then the 50km logging road,, there was no turning back.. We followed the trail we were on for another 10km of muck and then proceeded for a 30km ride on a logging road to Nazko village. The 'wrong' trail we were on was actually one of our exit routes for one of those 'uh-oh' situations. Although it wasn't the route we had wanted it was still a blast to negotiate. There was tons of hidden diff-killers in the muck. The route was basically cut through a huge marshland. It was also my first experience driving along 'chord trails',, which are basically floating pine bridges that stretched for up to a 1 km at a time. Obviously not a challenge 4-wheel wise (except for getting on some of them), but just a really cool experience.

We re-grouped at the Nazko village and it was decided that trying to return now would cost us a couple of extra days, which some didn't have. Stan also mentioned that he was getting some clunking noises from the front end somewhere. He had the 'stuff' to tear it apart but that would also be a 4 hour repair. So, inadvertantly, we had taken one of our "plan B" exits, which was still excellent wheelin'.

A GPS would have definately helped in this area, although we had done great with compass up to this point. The type of terrain and lack of landmarks as well as similarity between the "wanted trail and the chosen one" sent us for a loop. Sometimes relying on the 'gut' feeling should be taken more seriously I suppose.. Ah!!! to go back now... Oh well, over 200kms of connecting rarely travelled trails was pretty good,, but incomplete by 11kms <g>....

Also, have to say that it was more than a pleasure to travel a trail like this with this group of people. At no time were there any problems, considering the distance and many hours of 'tired' driving, as well as the questionable routes and directions we were wheelin' on.. All were great to be around. Rox and I thank Mike, Brad, Stan, Dave and Elisabeth for one of our more memorable 'vacations' considering the sometimes demanding conditions..

 

 

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