Barney the Purple Dragon - or, my FJ62

[TLC Norway]

Oh, nice!! Looks exiting! lets see the rest!

 

[olija]

Here is a little background info on the Whipsaw trail, for the history buffs amongst us. It's not just any old trail, it's a step back in time to the time of the HBC fur trade and the Cariboo gold rush, and even before that, to the natives who must have used it as a trade or travel route.

Copied and pasted from expeditionportal.com :

The present route of Highway 3 — the Hope-Princeton Highway — was wilderness in 1860 when Sgt. W. McColl and Cpl. C. Sinnett of the Royal Engineers explored and mapped a more northerly route through the wild Cascade Mountains, bent on connecting Hope with the rich gold gravel at Rock Creek. In later years, much of this route became known as the Dewdney Trail, but a portion of it lasted barely a year before Capt. J. Grant, RE, was given the task of building a more direct route from the Skagit River to the Similkameen. Capt. Grant’s route followed the Skaist River upstream to Hope (Grant’s) Pass and then down Whipsaw Creek to the benches above the Similkameen River, south of present-day Princeton.

Many of the names of the tributaries of the upper reaches of Whipsaw Creek reflect the distance to Hope while numbers on the lower tributaries mark the original trail mileage from Princeton, or more correctly, Allison’s (an establishment at that time in Princeton), east of Princeton.

Gold and platinum placer deposits have been found on Whipsaw Creek, but attempts to mine them have not met with appreciable success. Rock hounds may be interested to know that fossil insects as well as plants have come from the banks of Lamont and Whipsaw creeks. Be prepared to slog through the water to get upstream as the banks of these creeks are often too steep to climb.

The Whipsaw Trail as it is known today didn't actually exist by this name up until recently. Instead, it was part of a network of trails used by the Hudson's Bay Company's fur brigade. It is now called The Whipsaw Trail, primarily because a portion of it follows close to the Whipsaw Creek, and the name, being catchy, has stuck.

Blackeyes was a local Indian Chief when Alexander Caulfield Anderson first explored the region in 1846 in search of an all- Canadian route for the Hudson’s Bay Company fur brigades. Blackeyes’ trail led from his camp north of Otter Lake, across the Tulameen Plateau to his hunting grounds in Paradise Valley. A.C. Anderson’s HBC Brigade Trail was the main route of commerce to the BC Interior from 1848 to 1860.

The original brigade trail in British Columbia ran from Fort St. James, Fort Alexandria (just north of Williams Lake), Kamloops, then on the west side of the Okanagan lakes and down to Okanogan, WA, where it eventually joined the Columbia River for a final destination of Fort Vancouver, WA. This was the primary method to transit furs up until the mid 19th century, and it also became a northward re-supply route for the fur traders, when it was determined that it was quicker to send supplies by sea than to haul supplies east-west across the entire continent. The use of this route stopped in 1846 with the signing of the Oregon Boundary Treaty, establishing the 49th Parallel as the Canada/US Border. Fear of taxation, combined with indian warfare, caused the government to look for alternate routes to the sea.

The trail we call the Whipsaw is part of this alternate route which went from Kamloops southward along the south shore of Nicola Lake, then southward again through the Tulameen Valley. It then connected with the Hope Bridge Trail and meandered towards Fort Hope. The Hope Trail, which joins up with this interior trail along what we now know as the Whipsaw, was used for the first time in 1848, and while barely passable, was the only available route to the coast at the time.

The Dewdney, Whatcom and Hope Pass trails were built in 1860s by men trying to find a passable route to the rich gold creeks of the Cariboo and the Kootenays through the inhospitable Cascade Mountains. These trails also served as the major route to the Okanagan and Boundary districts until the early 1900s and the construction of the Kettle Valley Railway.

At the same time as this route was being used for the fur trade, Royal Engineers started construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road through the Fraser Canyon. In 1863, the Fraser Canyon route was completed and the Hope Bridge Trail/Whipsaw Trail route into interior of British Columbia was abandoned as a primary fur route.

However, in 1885, a major gold strike at Granite Creek (near Coalmont) swelled the settlement to over 2000 people. By the turn of the century, this bonanza was long gone, but in the early 1900s the boom moved over to coal. Coalmont, Blakeburn and the surrounding hills were again mined for coal. Most of this coal production ended in 1957; but, a new coal operation has started up again close to Lodestone Lake, at the northern end of the Whipsaw.

From the mid 1900s, the trail fell into total neglect and was not used recreationally until the 1970s, other than the occasional hunter or trapper. With the advent of 4x4s and off-roading enthusiasts, it has been cut through again and is now a regular destination for recreational use. Approximately 10 years ago, the Tread Lightly campaigns began to impact the way people used the trail and much of the damage that the higher meadows received from early 4x4ers is now healing.

An interesting point along the trail is the infamous Falcon Hill, which got its name from Skip Marsh, who in 1979 drove his 1966 Ford Falcon (a 2-wheel-drive vehicle) up the hill. Many 4x4 enthusiasts have raised their eyebrows at the thought of a 2-wheel-drive Falcon driving up this hill, as it has stumped many 4x4s and required hours of winching for some to get up the hill depending on weather. Generally, any truck with good articulation can make it up.

Selection of this trail by BF Goodrich for their Outstanding Trails Program has put more attention to this area.

The resting place of Richard Holding aka Dick Holden

If you look closely, you can see his name carved into the piece of wood on the stones at the bottom of the cross. That's about a hundred year old piece of wood!

A friend who owns a BJ40 but couldn't get his turbo figured out in time for the trip, took this bone stock 2nd gen open-diff Taco on the trip. It did really good considering it's not exactly an easy trail for a stock long-wheelbase rig. On some of the harder, flexier sections of trail the truck could be seen spinning its tires faster and faster until the trees echoed with the sound of the 1GR-FE bouncing off the rev limiter!

Finally, a Cruiser shot, with the Cascade? Mountains in the background

My brother's JK he just picked up in Alberta a few weeks ago, also bone stock other than the Grabber tires and front swaybar removed. Winch is broken. Did pretty good other than dragging the gas tank skid plate over just about every single obstacle on the trail.

Slipped off this hard line and backed into this rock by accident, bye-bye clean bumper!

 

[olija]

This obstacle is Memorial Rock, which is so named because someone died attempting it in a Samurai which flipped over backwards. It's about 40 degrees steep. I didn't try it. Wish I did.

This obstacle is known as the Tank Trap. It's a good test for the suspension, whether you cross it twice or straddle it down the hill.

Wells Lake, where we camped.

 

[olija]

This Jeep hooked his fender on one of the trees along the side.

Taking the bypass to IFS Ledge.

Poser shot

My bro in law stuck good

Taco took a tug.

 

[olija]

Found another good one on my friend's facebook.

All in all, it was a really great trip. I split the drive there and back into 2 days each just because I didn't want to push the Cruiser too hard, not knowing how it would behave. It drove flawlessly there and back again, and did extremely well on the trail. The cargo area was stacked to the roof, plus the roof itself had a fair load on it, which means a good percentage of the weight was over the rear wheels. I'm more used to my Tacoma where the weight is mostly over the front, so there were a few times where I'd be climbing a hill at a good clop and suddenly the front wheel would be WAY in the air, but it didn't seem to matter because there is so much weight over the rear that it just pushes ahead anyway. We had a group of 10 4x4's and 1 side-by-side. I damaged my left-rear corner backing into the large rock in one of the above pics. My bro-in-law ripped his factory front skidplate off his 4Runner trying a huge mudhole. Other than that our group suffered no damage or breakage, which is pretty good for 12 hours on the trail.