- Thread starter
- #201
Great write up Glenn, didn't realize how much drama I brought to the trip till now
Its all good.
Alexander Mackenzie Trail - 2013 (4 Viewers)
- Thread starter Glenn-BJ74
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Its all good.
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2007
- Threads
- 487
- Messages
- 4,532
- Location
- Fraser Valley, British Columbia
- Website
- www.ajae.ca
Another fascinating adventure! 
Awesome. Thanks for the excellent writeup for us web wheelers
I'm sorry I missed this one, and recalling our previous trek, how would you say the trail has altered since then? Does it look like it has seen more use or pretty much the same?
I'm sorry I missed this one, and recalling our previous trek, how would you say the trail has altered since then? Does it look like it has seen more use or pretty much the same?
- Thread starter
- #205
Much worse - no trucks through a huge burn zone between Robbie's Phillips place and the Mackenzie lodge since 2010 - just quads - 4' trail width - very off camber and super tight turns.
Was brutal to get through - cutting till 1:30 am.
From Mackenzie lodge east is as it was in 2010 - easy.
more to come...
Was brutal to get through - cutting till 1:30 am.
From Mackenzie lodge east is as it was in 2010 - easy.
more to come...
- Thread starter
- #206
The Coopers are better on pavement and gravel than than the MTR/Kevlars - little softer ride. In the deep swamp mud nothing but a tractor tire would have helped --all the high void MTs were slicks in the Mackenzie mud, including the Swampers - not that good.
Good to hear that report on the Coopers. My Geolander MTs will likely need replacing next year. They are very noisy and give a pretty harsh ride at highway pressures, which is confusing because being a directional tread they were suppose to be quieter and ride better.
Which Coopers are you running Glenn?
Which Coopers are you running Glenn?
I'd think airing down the swampers some more would have helped, cause any of the mud that I have ever been in, a set of swampers would out chew MT's anyday of the week. Also assuming those were narrow radial swampers which arn't as knoby out the sides and arn't as voided as the TSL between lugs. can't beat tractor tires in the mud though
GTSSportCoupe
2LTE abuser
Excellent write up and pictures so far Glenn! Thanks a lot for taking the time to do that.
That was a great write up. And some excellent pics of the trip as well. We are planning a trip From Gatcho Lake to Pan Crossing next year. Just wondering why you guys took the Krestinuck wagon route for the first stretch to Eliguk Lake and not the Alexander Mackenzie trail to the South? Is this off limits to motor Vehicles, or just a better route?
McKenzie route at that point is not drivable.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2006
- Threads
- 164
- Messages
- 1,226
- Location
- Ladner, BC, Canada
- Website
- www.lentelconstruction.com
That's what scares me about being in the bush too long with a bunch of guys! Don't think I would feel clean after that
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2006
- Threads
- 164
- Messages
- 1,226
- Location
- Ladner, BC, Canada
- Website
- www.lentelconstruction.com
Very good write up Glenn. One day I hope I can go on one of these extended type of trips.
- Thread starter
- #214
Part Two
We broke camp at the Home Ranch about 10:00 am. We crossed the creek and backtracked across the field and stopped by the Phillips memorial, where Pan and Betty Phillips are buried. The memorial is located at a beautiful site overlooking the Home Ranch pasture with the Itcha IIgachuz mountains in the background.
Back on the Mackenzie Trail we past Tsetzi lake and approached a fence line and Robbie Phillip' landing strip. We continued along the southern edge of the landing strip and crossed his field to connect to the trail.
The trail was usually easy going and we were unaware of the next obstacle our confident little convoy was about face.
![P1050935 [Desktop Resolution].jpg](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='600' height='800' viewBox%3D'0 0 600 800'%2F%3E "P1050935 [Desktop Resolution].jpg")
We broke camp at the Home Ranch about 10:00 am. We crossed the creek and backtracked across the field and stopped by the Phillips memorial, where Pan and Betty Phillips are buried. The memorial is located at a beautiful site overlooking the Home Ranch pasture with the Itcha IIgachuz mountains in the background.
Back on the Mackenzie Trail we past Tsetzi lake and approached a fence line and Robbie Phillip' landing strip. We continued along the southern edge of the landing strip and crossed his field to connect to the trail.
The trail was usually easy going and we were unaware of the next obstacle our confident little convoy was about face.
- Thread starter
- #215
Mud Pit near Robbie's
We continued on and things looked OK untill -- the mud pit -- well with a high speed run we figured we could get 3/4's of the way through before we buried our axles in the swamp muck. Since Rob had a good strong winch he volunteered to go first. Rob got in position - wound his mighty 3B diesel to the redline - popped the clutch and launched his wagon across the bog, bouncing and veering until he was firmly lodged in the black gumbo.
Rob’s winch line came out - tree strap deployed - and the brown BJ60 was slowly extricated with the front end plowing through the mud. Once out -- Rob turned his truck around so his mighty 8274 could haul the rest of us through.
My turn came next and after a good launch I got about 3/4 of the way through. We hooked up Rob's winch cable and made a few disappointing inches. We then hooked up the snatch block and the winch was still having a tough time. I then tried to remove a log that was buried above my rear axle, which I thought was the problem. But the mud was intertwined was roots sticks and logs, left by behind by previous recoveries, which was impossible to shovel. Next came the double snatch blocks, which according to some basic physics should have reduced te 8274 'swork load to a 1/4 ,but latter Rob found the 8274 motor was as burnt to a crisp.
This is the best situation for tireless PTO winch, but mine was not working. By this time Robbie Phillips and a few other local yokels had come out to watch the grand activities.
With the 8274’s motor cooked the – I retrieved my narrow nylon kinetic strap. We hooked it up and Rob took a wild 20' run and the strap was tensioned - stretched and out snapped my truck, complete with a stick through sidewall on my new Cooper tire.
I did not see much of the rest of the recovery action, as I was attending my flat, but I think Gary used his PTO and the others were pulled out with kinetic straps. The narrow nylon recovery strap was the ticket – as it stretched it multiplies the momentum of the pulling vehicle.
Mike got his 4Runner through by hitting warp speed off a nicely constructed log launch pad and taking a less chewed up line through the mud hole. Eventually everyone through this mud holes and off we plodded licking our wounds and hoping the trail ahead would be a little kinder.
![MacAttack2013 061 [Desktop Resolution].jpg](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='800' height='600' viewBox%3D'0 0 800 600'%2F%3E "MacAttack2013 061 [Desktop Resolution].jpg")
We continued on and things looked OK untill -- the mud pit -- well with a high speed run we figured we could get 3/4's of the way through before we buried our axles in the swamp muck. Since Rob had a good strong winch he volunteered to go first. Rob got in position - wound his mighty 3B diesel to the redline - popped the clutch and launched his wagon across the bog, bouncing and veering until he was firmly lodged in the black gumbo.
Rob’s winch line came out - tree strap deployed - and the brown BJ60 was slowly extricated with the front end plowing through the mud. Once out -- Rob turned his truck around so his mighty 8274 could haul the rest of us through.
My turn came next and after a good launch I got about 3/4 of the way through. We hooked up Rob's winch cable and made a few disappointing inches. We then hooked up the snatch block and the winch was still having a tough time. I then tried to remove a log that was buried above my rear axle, which I thought was the problem. But the mud was intertwined was roots sticks and logs, left by behind by previous recoveries, which was impossible to shovel. Next came the double snatch blocks, which according to some basic physics should have reduced te 8274 'swork load to a 1/4 ,but latter Rob found the 8274 motor was as burnt to a crisp.
This is the best situation for tireless PTO winch, but mine was not working. By this time Robbie Phillips and a few other local yokels had come out to watch the grand activities.
With the 8274’s motor cooked the – I retrieved my narrow nylon kinetic strap. We hooked it up and Rob took a wild 20' run and the strap was tensioned - stretched and out snapped my truck, complete with a stick through sidewall on my new Cooper tire.
I did not see much of the rest of the recovery action, as I was attending my flat, but I think Gary used his PTO and the others were pulled out with kinetic straps. The narrow nylon recovery strap was the ticket – as it stretched it multiplies the momentum of the pulling vehicle.
Mike got his 4Runner through by hitting warp speed off a nicely constructed log launch pad and taking a less chewed up line through the mud hole. Eventually everyone through this mud holes and off we plodded licking our wounds and hoping the trail ahead would be a little kinder.
- Thread starter
- #216
Trail clearing untill 1:30 am
The two things that obliterate bush trails the worst are clearcuts and forest fires - and we were entering the burn that followed us through in 2010 between the Mackenzie Lodge on Tsasha Lake and Robbie Phillips place. Although a rough quad trail had been pushed through by the natives just after the 2010 fire – the narrow trail had picked its way through the thousands of downed trees wherever there was less biomass to remove rather following the original trail.
The trail was very narrow, steep, off camber with tight radius turns and tons of wood to remove even to get a skinny 70 series through.
We were into it – cutting, sawing and hacking and then darkness descended and headlights were turned on - while we continued on forward hopeful we could find a clearing to camp for the night. I do not like cutting trail at night as the risk of vehicle damage and injury is higher, but the group was intent on getting to the Mackenzie Lodge that night.
After Rob and I broke off our left side mirrors I decided to it quits about 10:30 pm. I cut out a patch by the trails' edge and parked my truck - had dinner and went to bed - tired from the long day. Lying in my sleeping bag - it was nice to hear the chainsaw noise gradually fade down the trail. [FONT="]
The group continued into the wee hours of the next morning and conceded defeat about 1:30 am. [/FONT][FONT="][FONT="]The group was forced to camp in single line formation along the trail.
[/FONT][/FONT]
I don't have many pictures from this point forward - we were busy and it was dark
The two things that obliterate bush trails the worst are clearcuts and forest fires - and we were entering the burn that followed us through in 2010 between the Mackenzie Lodge on Tsasha Lake and Robbie Phillips place. Although a rough quad trail had been pushed through by the natives just after the 2010 fire – the narrow trail had picked its way through the thousands of downed trees wherever there was less biomass to remove rather following the original trail.
The trail was very narrow, steep, off camber with tight radius turns and tons of wood to remove even to get a skinny 70 series through.
We were into it – cutting, sawing and hacking and then darkness descended and headlights were turned on - while we continued on forward hopeful we could find a clearing to camp for the night. I do not like cutting trail at night as the risk of vehicle damage and injury is higher, but the group was intent on getting to the Mackenzie Lodge that night.
After Rob and I broke off our left side mirrors I decided to it quits about 10:30 pm. I cut out a patch by the trails' edge and parked my truck - had dinner and went to bed - tired from the long day. Lying in my sleeping bag - it was nice to hear the chainsaw noise gradually fade down the trail. [FONT="]
The group continued into the wee hours of the next morning and conceded defeat about 1:30 am. [/FONT][FONT="][FONT="]The group was forced to camp in single line formation along the trail.
[/FONT][/FONT]
I don't have many pictures from this point forward - we were busy and it was dark
- Thread starter
- #217
[FONT="]Within a few hours we eventually cut through the burn and got to the Mackenzie Lodges’ airstrip and the wide road down to the Mackenzie Lodge site.
We were shocked to see the Mackenzie Lodge was gone.
Here are some pictures as it was in 2010.
[/FONT]
We were shocked to see the Mackenzie Lodge was gone.
Here are some pictures as it was in 2010.
[/FONT]
- Thread starter
- #218
More from 2010...
- Thread starter
- #219
To celebrate, Gary decided to take Rob for a dryland boat ride round the site in his BJ74.
We camped early that day - to reorganize do some trail repairs (fix my winch) and dry out our sleeping bags.
Although we got rain that night - it didn't dampen the spirits of the group who partied around the campfire to the wee hours of the morning.
Well the next morning was predictably slow. Mike packed up early and said he was concerned about his IFS and was heading home.
Here are some 2013 pictures.
We camped early that day - to reorganize do some trail repairs (fix my winch) and dry out our sleeping bags.
Although we got rain that night - it didn't dampen the spirits of the group who partied around the campfire to the wee hours of the morning.
Well the next morning was predictably slow. Mike packed up early and said he was concerned about his IFS and was heading home.
Here are some 2013 pictures.
So had the camp burn in the fire that followed you in 2010?
It looked to be in amazing shape in 2010.
It looked to be in amazing shape in 2010.
