MCR11 & Fordyce September 11-24 2012 (1 Viewer)

[Winch]

I can't wait to see the completed version on the trail. Hope you get it done in time.

Thanks! Despite one setback after another I'm still plugging along. I broke a piston ring, so had to order another complete set from Australia, because I couldn't find anyone locally who carries them. Hopefully the rings would come in next week, otherwise I won't make it. At least I got the front part of the engine completely assembled again except for the belts, got the three pistons in and dissassembled the head, so will start putting the valves back tomorrow. I've got a few other things I need to finish up anyways, incl. cutting new C-clip grooves in my longfields so they don't slide in and out of the hubs and keep ruining my axle seals.

I see that as of today there are 39 spots open, so I think I'm going to hang on a bit longer before I register.

So, John I see in the introduction that you said VHF is pretty much mandatory. Does that mean you got your radio yet, or are you just going to buy one there? Might be a bit cheaper?

 

[canadian bum]

Probably pick it up in the states. Kind of low on the list at the moment. Been pretty busy.

 

[Winch]

So it looks as if Marlin won't be having the world famous tri-tip BBQ on Saturday. Just burgers, which are fine. Just wondering if you guys registered for the burgers or if we are planning to cook up our own thing?

 

[canadian bum]

We are registered for the whole thing meals and all.

 

[Bambino840]

I assume John is working nights, does anybody have Jeremy's number. I need to talk to him ASAP. He can call me at 780-777-7165 - Dean

 

[Winch]

Hey guys, just thought I'd post up some good news and bad news:
Good news: the flow rates at Fordyce is only 150 cfs, so should be easy to cross the river, unless it goes above 250.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=692095

Bad news: Looks like no campfires will be allowed on the Fordyce trail:
"Fire Restrictions in the TNF Starting July 1
Date(s): Jun 28, 2012

Due to dry conditions, fire restrictions will be in effect starting July 1, 2012. Under these restrictions campfires are only permitted in developed campgrounds and other designated sites. In the backcountry, portable stoves including those that use gas, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel are permitted with a valid campfire permit. Propane-type Bar-B-Q's can be used outside designated sites where camping is permitted, but charcoal Bar-B-Q's can only be used in designated sites.

Smoking is only permitted in an enclosed vehicle or developed recreation site.

Internal combustion engines including off highway vehicles can continue to operate on roads or motorized trails and within the Prosser Pits OHV area.

For more information, contact the Tahoe National Forest or see 2012 Fire Restrictions below.

2012_Fire_Restrictions"
http://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/tahoe/alerts-notices?aid=12599

 

[canadian bum]

Well that's a bummer but we will still have fun. For once I'm not having a big before trip build/maintenance rush. Jeremy has a crawl box and birfs to install still. It should be in his hands tomorrow. Gherra is well... Probably has the most work to do. You can do it Gherra... You can do it all night long!!!

 

[Bambino840]

Jeremy has tires in hand, finally.

 

[canadian bum]

Jeremy sent me a picture of the tires on his truck. Looks killer. In new developments David in the FJ Cruiser has decided to come this year as well.

 

[potlatch4805]

Jeremy sent me a picture of the tires on his truck. Looks killer. In new developments David in the FJ Cruiser has decided to come this year as well.

I thought he wasn't a fan of the 'con??

...tried cutting my thumb off today with a zip disc, bit of a leaker....

 

[canadian bum]

He called me yesterday and asked if the trip was still on. I'm surprised as well but he must like how we do things cause he was excited when I said we are still going.

You shouldn't be trying to cut off your thumb with a zip disk. Funny last year Gherra mangled himself a bit with a grinder. Hope this isn't a yearly thing for our members to be trying to cut off body parts ha ha.

 

[canadian bum]

Part 1

Well it all started with me driving home from work early Sunday morning. I didn't even stop at home drove right by and headed for the shop where Jeremy had half of his engine ripped apart in order to replace a blown head gasket. I dove right in and we started getting it apart. Took the head off cleaned everything up and reassembled. We finished at about 9pm that night and I had left Fort Mac at 4am. Truck still had no drive shafts but I told him not to worry because I had a few places in Red Deer that could get them done. I picked up parts for his shafts on Monday and dropped them off at Extreme Driveline and said we would need them by tomorrow.

Tuesday came and it was time to get ready for the big trip. Paul wasn't going to wait around to leave so he hit the road in the morning. Gherra was scrambling to get his truck running right so he could come. David had issues with his steering in the front and it wasn't looking good. I got the call to come get the shafts for Jeremy. So I headed over picked them up and gave them to Jeremy. A little bit of parking lot wrenching both on the Hilux and replaced a worn tie rod end on the Tacoma. We loaded up and decided to meet in Airdrie. I stopped in to check on Gherra and he seemed hopeful only a couple minor issues plagued him.

Jeremy showed up and we headed to the grocery store for ketchup chips and a bunch of Canadian beer. Loaded up we headed for the border. Paul was wondering how far we would make it and was planning an earlier stop for some cold brews in the states. I told him to push on to Helena because that will be where we would meet up and stop for the night. Everything was going smoothly and working well. Jeremy was getting pretty tired by the time we got to Helena so a bed was a welcome thought. We made it there by about 2am Wednesday morning more than ready for bed. We woke up and all grouped up for a big breakfast for a long drive ahead.

We hopped on the highway and made our way down the highway south. Our GPS crapped out the night before so I bought a sweet big screen road atlas version for $13 at the next fuel stop. It worked quite well and allowed us to carry on with our adventure. We stopped in a huge Army Surplus store in Idaho to see what goodies we would like to pick up. Jeremy was being plagued by strange overheating issues so he was driving with the windows rolled down and the heater blowing full blast. Paul was bragging about having A/C before the trip so of course that had to crap out on him in his cool black 80 series.

We made are way down to Pocatello, Idaho for our supper stop and to clean out the Kokanee that was there. Sat on the patio of one of the little local places we came across. We ended up not stopping at any chain restaurant the whole trip. Instead we decided that it would be better to see what kind of cool places we can find along the way to eat. We decided to push on and due to lack of places to stay, we had to go later than we planned and ended up in Winnemucca, Nevada. Crashed into our hotel beds and called it a night. We went for a good breakfast and headed for the car wash so Jeremy could attempt to wash out his radiator. We were told to leave the property though cause they didn't like us trying to clean out the rad fins. So we hit the road for the last of the long hauls. We made it to Carson City, Nevada and loaded up on food for the trip.

We headed for South Lake Tahoe for some supper and final gas stop before we headed to Loon Lake. Everyone was pretty excited to get to the destination. We stopped at a outdoor sports pub and had some great food. We headed out for Loon Lake and enjoyed the scenic drive through the high Sierras. Got to the camp ground and set up for the evening. Jeremy pulled his radiator right out to find it plugged. He gave it a good cleaning and reinstalled it in his truck. Had a few beers met and talked to some people that were also camped and hit the sack.

We woke up ready to hit the trails. Grease guns out, tire aired down, and final checks complete we were ready to hit the trail. The guys were pretty excited to see what was in store for them since both Paul and Jeremy were pretty surprised by what they encountered and what there vehicles were capable of driving over. James had a lot of work cut out for him spotting the big 80 through the tight sections.

We made great time and had no real issues what so ever except for Paul having his tcase always kicking out of low range. So he pulled his linkage off to keep that from becoming a serious pain throughout the day.

We stopped and checked out a few of the other rigs doing the optional obstacles like "Soup Bowl" and "Little Sluice". Some of us scheming for ideas for better rigs for next year so we can have some fun on these obstacles.

Unfortunately for Paul his rear bumper snagged his tire and got bent up so version 2.0 should be better for rock collisions. We ended up stopping for lunch at Buck Lake and to just take a break from all the fun.

 

[canadian bum]

Part 2

After lunch we hit a good obstacle as we left the lunch location and a managed to get the long Tacoma wedged between a rock and a hard place that required a bit of throttle to get out of it. Luckily the Tacoma decided not to yard sale and hold together. Jeremy decided as in most cases on this trip to make things look easy with his newly installed Marlin Crawl Box, and Paul just somehow appeared on the other side waiting for us to make our way up.

We were making great time, but my truck decided to blow a bead out of the blue pretty close to where the Rubicon Springs is and our camp for the weekend. Only took us about ten minutes and we were rolling again.

We all came across the bridge and I knew it was just a cake walk to the springs. This year though the usual route for the fat trucks was barricaded so it was time to get skinny, stack rocks, and stand on the side of trucks to keep the bodies from getting damaged.

It was Friday evening when we rolled into camp and we finally made it. Relieved and glad to crack open a nice cold beer in celebration and relief.

Friday night we decided to go on a tour of the area and make introductions and meet old friends and new. It seemed Friday night everyone had a bit of a different adventure since we all disbursed throughout the area. One thing was for sure though Saturday morning was a tough one in "Camp Canada" as some called it. But we got over the hangovers and went on with our day. The helicopter ride was a blast even though my stomach was on the verge of thinking otherwise due to the previous nights endeavours.

 

[phoenix60]

Wow, Looks like an amazing trip! Tons of great pics guys. Tough beans on all the last minute wrenching before getting going! When will parts 3 and 4 be posted? And hey, wasn't Dave going to go?

 

[canadian bum]

Part 3

Jeremy was pretty excited to have pictures of his truck taken for the 4wd Toyota Owner magazine. Saturday night was fun, great food and an awesome raffle. Paul won the coveted "Leatherbutt" award for farthest distance traveled in the rig you wheeled... roughly 2600 km to Loon Lake from his home. Jeremy was stoked to win the chainsaw at the big raffle and had an even bigger smile than he had the rest of the time. We set out in the night after the raffle and gave out Canadian beer and ketchup chips to those who wanted some. Due to the previous night we ended up not going crazy and having a relaxed early night.

We woke up Sunday morning and packed up, said our goodbyes and headed for Cadillac Hill. Some pretty tight sections with some wheel stands and some grinding of armour. Paul suffered some damage on a pretty "hairy" section of trail right before the end to the LH rear door.

But despite all that and our adventures we conquered the Rubicon and the trip down to it. We were glad and already getting excited for the next trip down. Paul won the "Who can get a gouge the closest to the top of the slider" contest. We aren't sure what he won yet but I'll think of something.

We aired up and made our rigs legal again. Some bent steering on Jeremy's Hilux and Paul's 80 required some attention but other than that smooth sailing back to South Lake Tahoe. It was the last night for Paul and James so we had a bit of a going away celebration. We woke up Monday morning and headed for breakfast at the must stop "Little Red Hut Cafe". Everyone had a good breakfast and said our goodbyes to Paul and James as they set off for home as we set off for the coast and highway 101.

My fancy state of the art GPS road atlas lead the way across California were we ended up in a Volcanic National Park and a lot of construction zones. But we made the best of it. We decided we might as well go for a hike in the National Park and check out the sites. We ended up driving at well over 8000ft altitude which was pretty cool.

We came back down and were on our way into Redding, California when we ran into some construction that held us up for about 15 minutes so a stretch and a quick check of where the GPS was taking us. You can never trust these things they might tell you to turn left and drive off a cliff at any second.

But the route was good so we carried on and came across the hottest temperatures of the whole trip around 38 degrees Celsius, which I enjoyed. We stopped for the night and headed out in the morning for the Coast. And finally success. We had a good swim in the colder than expected Pacific Ocean.

We made our way up the coast and seen the Red Wood trees. There wasn't as many as we were expecting but it was still worth the stop and look around. Lots of history in the area and beautiful coast.

 

[canadian bum]

Part 4

We stopped for supper at the Whales Head Restaurant which was pretty awesome, excellent food and drinks. We walked on the beach in low tide and found some pretty interesting new sites.

We ended up camping in a RV sort of campground for the night because good camp spots are pretty tough to find any good out of campground camp locations. But we woke up in the morning and pushed north and found the Oregon Sand Dunes. We went to the local quad shop and picked up ATV permits and flags for the trucks and we were off. We picked up a small sandwich and some grub for camping.

We ended up camping on the beach and it was awesome. We came across a seal that had seen some better days. But it was a great place to camp and just amazing to fall asleep on the edge of the ocean.

After our night on the beach we headed north and checked in at the sea lion caves. Biggest sea cave in the world apparently. So we had to do the tourist thing and check it out. We had to stop for crab before we left the ocean so we hit up a fresh seafood place where the fishermen come in and drop off their catch. It was pretty neat and very filling.

We ended up spending the night in Washington i can't quite remember where off the top of my head. But after that we headed north crossed the border. Drove to Crowsnest Pass and spent the night in the woods staring at the stars. We woke up and headed home. The trip was complete and we got home later Saturday night. Beat and fulfilled from the adventure and events of this years trip. I would like to send a huge thank you to Andrea for taking pictures for us. She really enjoyed the trip and getting to bomb around the sand dunes in the Tacoma. This is the best picture I have of her.

So cheers everyone and enjoy. Hope to see more come with us next year.

Thank you to our American friends for the hospitality and good fun that we get to enjoy every year. Until next time.

Here is the full set of pictures from the trip. MCR11 and Coast Trip 2012

 

[canadian bum]

Wow, Looks like an amazing trip! Tons of great pics guys. Tough beans on all the last minute wrenching before getting going! When will parts 3 and 4 be posted? And hey, wasn't Dave going to go?

Gherra had a front diff blown in his truck so he never made it. And David has ongoing steering issues so he never made it either.

 

[potlatch4805]

Good write up John! We had a blast, wish we could have joined you guys in the dunes!

....I have to stop wearing that red shirt, it makes me look fat!

 

[canadian bum]

You should write up your drive home. They are going to do a lot more work to the Rubicon so it will probably be a different trail all together.