Cross Canada-Alaska 4x4 Trip
By The Irish Rover
What does it take to plan a trip of this magnitude? Allot of thinking, equipment, supplies and luck, of which it seems I am lacking. Oh, I forgot one very important item a slight mental defect and a sense of adventure!
Well, wouldn’t you know it, my old pal Murphy, from the law firm of the same name, has paid a visit to the Irish Rover. Just days before the beginning of this great adventure, and not two days after grappling with an intermittent over heating problem, my Alternator starts going out on me! Well my modo is if you are going to replace something then it is time to upgrade. So here I sit, not five days before embarking, awaiting for parts to arrive. Not just an alternator. Oh no! I have to upgrade the wiring and add an external regulator as well. Just another day in the life of Brian. Well, the wiring and regulator came first, so I installed those items while waiting for the alternator to arrive on Monday, March 15th. When the alternator arrives on Monday I rush down to the rig to get started. It shouldn’t be too bad, all I have to do is install the alternator, attach the new mounting bracket, and connect the wires. This job shouldn’t take long at all, I think to myself. Yeah right! Well as it turns out the manufacturer of the new mounting bracket to allow the 160 amp Ford alternator to fit my D90 is wrong. Some one had given them some bad information about making the bracket and now I am stuck two days before leaving with 500.00 worth of junk. Well I pack it all up, inform the manufacturer, reinstall my fading alternator and call UPS for a pick up. Another day shot, and as it turns out I end up eating $100.00 on the deal. Why? I have no idea. The manufacturer did not refund the full amount for the alternator, the extra wiring cost, or the shipping. Oh well, I make a note not to use that manufacturer ever again unless absolutely necessary.
On March 16th my replacement spark plug wires from Jacob’s Electronics does not show up. It turns out the shipper sent them to the wrong address! Murphy is really getting on my nerves. Oh well, Back down stairs with some silicone to repair the torn spark plug wires.
Let us sum this up: I am leaving on a three month trip with a cracked crown on my molar, with no chance to fix the crown till the end of the trip, torn wires, the alternator bearings are making its tell tale noise, and the rig is running hot. All in all a good start for such a journey.
March 17th and we are off! our first stop is Niagara Falls. The falls are massive pounding curtains of water that thunder into the awaiting liquid below creating a huge cloud of mists filling the giant horseshoe shaped falls. Marvelous! unfortunately all this majesty is destroyed by the fact that the entire area around the falls is developed and over commercialized. I mean the road goes right up to and along the falls. So unless you like dirty, crammed cities built right up to the edge of a natural wonder, you may consider seeing the Great Lakes instead. Why do people think this place is romantic? It was a big let down for me as I would of preferred a more natural setting for this wonder. We stayed two days and then we are back on the road.
After leaving Niagara on March 19th we made our way to Highway
69. We thoroughly enjoyed this part of Ontario which wound its
way through the mountains skirting the shore of Lake Superior.
You cannot appreciate the Great Lakes until you have seen them.
This was the second time in one year we visited the Great Lakes
and they are always a pleasure to view. Lake Superior looks more
like the Atlantic Ocean then a Lake complete with waves Crashing
on the shore. The other Lakes are part of another story so I will
not waste space on them here. The highway is completely
surrounded by wilderness. You start to realize why you brought
those extra cans of gas along on this highway, especially this
time of year. We saw only three vehicles the whole length of the
highway and only found a couple of gas stations open for
business.
It seems that most of this area belongs to the Indian Nations.
Along the side of the highway were signs telling which Indian
Nation’s land we were entering. The Temperature today is
approximately zero degrees Farrenheight, but it seems that will
not be a problem, since the snow plows had piled 6 foot mounds of
snow in front of every access road into the woods so we will not
be able to camp. We pushed on in hopes of finding some place to
camp. Finally exhausted we ended up staying in a motel room in
Saute Saint Marie for only 25.00 Canadian.
March 22nd. We crossed into the great plain provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. We are talking wide open and flat, nothing as far as the eye can see. If you like big sky you would love these provinces. The Temperature remains the same and there is still no place to camp. I took the opportunity to weigh my vehicle on a automatic truck scale and was shocked! my 3500lb D90 is weighing in at 6070 lbs! I am carrying over 2,000lbs of gear! I have been wheeling with this gear for a year now and never realized how much it actually weighed. I was very impressed. I was more impressed when I read the owners manual and discovered this was just inside the safe gross weight of my rig. I don’t know if they meant the kind of offroading I have been doing but since I never broke anything carrying this weight constantly for the past year I was not going to worry about it now.
March 23rd, we literally blew into Alberta and was amazed at the warm temperatures. It is 60 Degrees here! The wind however was Howling, with wind gusts exceeding 50 MPH that at times blew my D90 into the oncoming lane! We were heading for Shawn and Grace Johnson’s place. They are a wonderfully friendly couple who opened their doors to us. We stayed with them in their guest house, a camper, for two days till we could get everyone together for the Four Wheel Drive trip Shawn had planned for us. Funny thing is Shawn had just sold his 4x4, but he would be riding along with one of the other members..
We leave Friday Evening March 26th to meet up with the rest of the crew and penetrate deep into the Waiporous Valley where we will make a base camp for the two days of wheeling that will follow.
The Crew had a nice place in mind to camp and we set up quite a comfortable little camp. These guys now how to camp in style. They had a propane BBQ, Lantern, and a blow torch for starting fires quick! They even brought a propane heater for their 6 man tent! I of course had my usual back packing tent, and stove, but I was comfortable. We all sat around the camp fire that night cooking steaks, drinking beer, and telling war stories Till the wee hours in anticipation of what was to come.
The next morning, March 27th, Randy showed up with his super
clean vintage Bronco, it was modified and squeaky clean. I told
him not to worry we would make sure to get it muddy for him.
So the posse consisted of Rotten Ronnie’s ‘80 K5
Blazer, as the leader with Shawn Johnson, the man who made it all
happen, riding shot gun, followed by Greg Wolf’s 70’
Blazer,
Randy Perusse’s 77 vintage Bronco half cab, Darron
Lyon’s STOCK 74 Bronco, and bringing up the rear was yours
truly in his ‘94 Land Rover Defender 90.
It was a very interesting trip that started with allot of very steep and long hill climbs, of which a few were covered with ice. This part of Canada sits on a huge gas field and the companies cut trails through the wilderness to perform seismic testing. The locals call these cut lines. Cut lines cut straight through the woods and go over what ever is in their path changing course for no obstacles or peaks. The province is lousy with them and it makes for unlimited access to the wilderness if you can get over the hills and obstacles. While approaching the top of one such 200 yard hill my vehicle stalled, without the forward momentum the rig started slipping backwards careening out of control on a toboggan ride to disaster! With only mirrors for a view and no idea when I was going to stop I attempted not to panic. I threw the shifter into reverse and slowly let out the clutch but there was no traction, all I could do now was try and control the direction of my ever accelerating trip to the bottom while stating all the while: “out of control, out of control!” Seeing the bottom approaching at an alarming rate I noticed the switch back turn that brought me to this hill of amusement and realized I was heading straight for the edge of a 10 foot drop! Not wishing to experience that particular ride, I attempted to gain some steering control, just enough to angle my truck towards some saplings in the hope that this would slow my descent of doom. It worked! The rig stopped with the rear tires just at the edge of the drop off. I could now take my first breath since the ride began. Whew. Believe it or not this happened to me once more on a smaller hill which luckily had a by-pass, after that I had enough of icy hill toboggan rides!
On the next big icy hill Ron powered his Blazer near to the
top hopping and spinning, clanging and banging in a valiant
effort to reach the top but to no avail, momentum had run out on
him and he began to sled towards the bottom when he turned to
back his Blazer into a tree and winched his way the rest of the
distance. Not encouraged by Ron’s mighty attempt Greg and I
chained up for the climb. Greg had chains with ice claws and
towed Randy’s Vintage Bronco up the hill with no problems.
Randy took the strap because he did not wish to experience what
happened to me earlier and decided discretion was the better part
of valor. I on the other hand was standing around airing up my 33
inch tires with a painfully slow electric air compressor feeling
rather stupid when a couple of Big Monster pick up trucks arrived
at the bottom of the hill. They were from a local club called Big
wheels. These monsters with 44 inch swampers, and ground shaking
horsepower, bounced, hopped and rumbled their way towards the top
of the hill. Notice I did not say to the top because it took a
few runs at this hill to reach the top. In fact after three
attempts to reach the top of the icy slide, the second Big boy
gave up. The driver ended up standing around talking to me while
I was airing up. Meanwhile Darron took a running start at the icy
menace and powered his stock Bronco all the way to the top in one
attempt. With no chains or assistance! He made everyone look
pretty bad and this gave the gentleman in the second monster
truck some new resolve to succeed. The big truck backed down the
trail in preparation for launching himself to what seemed might
be outer space. His engine roared as he sped past me throwing his
truck against the ice covered slope. Up and down, side to side
his truck scrambled up the hill. Narrowly missing a couple of
trees and catching some air he finally crested the hill. Hey, he
couldn’t let that little Bronco make him look bad now could
he?
After finally airing up my tires I slowly crawled my way to the
top. What can I say chains work. After Three more hill climbs we
broke for lunch at lake Margaret and removed our chains.
After lunch we mounted up and rolled down the trail to play around in the mud and iced over rivers. We came upon a couple of nice tank traps with steep escape routes. Who made them you ask? I don’t know. To succeed in extricating yourself from the trap you needed the right combination of approach angle, clearance, momentum, and throttle finesse to handle these babies. What fun! Around the outside of the tank traps were mud flats as well. Needless to say it was play time! Are you ready to rummmmble! We all played in the first trap and everyone made it through unscathed. Some made it look too easy and others made it look real fun with tires spinning and catching air! When we were done everyone had a smile on their faces and mud on their trucks except Randy’s squeaky clean Bronco which seemed to repel dirt some how. Ron got stuck in the mud flat, having open diffs, but one quick tug and he was on his way.
Then some muddy high break over climbs, small steep banks and a couple of old cabins were on the menu. After looking over the ancient cabins, or what was left of them, we found a second tank trap were only three of us were brave enough to attempt. This one was deeper and had a long very steep exit. Ron was first. He slowly waded through the water till he reached the steep escape route, then he nailed the throttle spinning his tires wildly launching his truck into the air, finally landing hard on his front axle with a resounding Snap! We all heard the tell tale noise and after Ron and Shawn checked the rig out they determined that Ron had fragged his front diff. This was a first for me, I had never seen a diff. frag before. This incident caused all but Darron and my self to decide just to watch.
Darron entered the trap very cautiously in his stock SWB Bronco. Slowly he entered the deep water which rose to his grill and stopped at the steep escape. After some discussion with his lovely copilot he backed out of the Trap. Now, my wife had made it clear she did not want me to attempt this obstacle earlier, so I told her I would just watch. Rather than argue with her I slyly discussed the obstacle with Randy. I explained how I believed the obstacle was not as hard as it looked and it could easily be handled with momentum and throttle finesse just like the previous trap. The trick was not to go so fast as to flood the engine compartment and stall. Randy stated he was not interested in trying it in his Super Bronco, which I found confusing, when my wife interrupts us and tells me to go ahead and do it. Yes! Darron seeing me line up for my attempt parked his Bronco along side the trap to watch, all eyes were turned towards me wondering if my Defender 90 would suffer the fate of Ron’s Blazer. I pick my gear and speed and entered the truck munching hole. With water coming off the wheel wells in rooster tails and pushing a nice wake off my front grill I hit the steep escape and immediately my view changed to sky, and only sky. As the nose of the mighty D90 came down I started to throttle back and timed my gas petal so as to slow to crawl speed just after the rear tires cleared the edge. Yes! I love it when a plan comes together.
There were numerous opportunities to get stuck in the muck, and Ron and Darron both found places to get their stuck pictures. Darron fell through three inches of thick ice and just could not get up and over all the wet ice that ramped in front of his truck. Greg did the honors of winching him out because strapping would have risked his truck getting stuck as well.
After a long day and darkness descending upon our adventurous group, we headed home on the easy route. But of course when it is late and you are tired nothing goes according to plan. The trail home required crossing a couple of not so frozen rivers. A couple of rigs got winched over the first river and Ron’s blazer, now limping on one wheel, broke through the melting ice right in the middle of the river. It was Darrons turn to strap Ron with his little Bronco. With a nice running start he snatched Ron’s Blazer into motion with a bang and the rear of the little Bronco jumping sideways three feet. Good job snatching that heavy rig, we all thought. The only catch was Darron had pulled off his rear bumper! Well you really needed a better bumper anyway Darron and it just so happens Randy has one for you at home. These trail modifications do happen from time to time, you just have to look at it as if the trails are trying to fix what is wrong with your truck.
We arrived at camp tired, hungry and ready to party! We began to eat, drink, and be merry! But we lost Randy and Darron who had to go home due to obligations on the morrow.
March 28th. We awoke to a fresh crisp morning excited at the prospect of exploring these mountains further. Since the trail was to be easy and scenic for the day, Ron decided to come along limping on one wheel. Greg had picked up a copilot named Rob last evening who seemed very excited to be coming along on the trip. So off we rumbled. Three trucks, six people and a dog named Sorsha.
The day was beautiful with blue skies and mild temperatures. Our trail today led us directly towards the Rockies and the border of Banff National Park. . But the fun started when Shawn wanted me to show off my modified D90 suspension by getting it twisted up in a stream bed of boulders. I entered the water searching for a good boulder to climb upon that would test the limits of my suspension. But to no avail. However, since I did not want to hold up the group today airing down my tires I was able to slip off of wet rocks and fall into holes I could not see through the dark water with resounding bangs. It is a good thing I put all those rock protectors on the rig! While I stumbled around the stream Greg found a nice dry boulder further down the trail to twist his Blazer on and waited for me to catch up. While coming out of the under water rock garden I found another hole and banged my front bumper on a big rock. Thud! Doe! Not to worry, I was able to back up and take a different approach. Gee a spotter would have been a good idea Brian. Once out of the creek, I mounted the mighty boulder with a look of amazement on the faces of my watching cohorts. Soon a rather large crowd gathered to gawk and take pictures of my rig. I took this opportunity to take a rest and some pictures of my own and after twenty minutes or so of answering questions about my rig we headed back up the trail.
There were of course more steep hill climbs but they were neither muddy or icy, only Ron needed the strap on one such hill. I took this opportunity to air down to 15 psi and crawled up the hill rather than hopping and bopping . Then it was lots of traction and beautiful mountain vistas consisting of jagged peaks capped with white icing. At the end of our trail we came down into a valley with a frozen river back dropped by the rocky wall of a mountainous peak. I followed my compadres onto the frozen highway and followed it till we came upon a huge boulder that looked to me like natures ramp test. So test we did! Of course it was allot more difficult since we were on solid ice. I was the instigator this time pointing out the rock to Greg and challenging him to climb it. It didn’t take much convincing to get Greg to give it a shot. After banging his rather massive bumper a few times he was able to find the right angle to clear it. His Blazer struggled up the huge rock with his front and rear Limited slips struggling mightily to find traction on the ice. You could see the tires losing traction one then the other and finally coming to a stop at a respectable level with his Blazers front tire in the air! Well after talking Greg into risking his rig on the rock I am now obliged to mount the boulder as well, or so I told my wife. So off I went hoping my Detroit Lockers in the rear and the suspension would get me up on the rock without damage. Having the advantage of a well designed Rock Crawling bumper made it easier for me to clear the boulder climbing at a steeper angle. I placed my left front tire on the rock and slowly began to climb the beast, as my left tire got higher and higher the right front sank lower and lower till I was forced to hold myself up with my right arm. I began to get real uncomfortable with the angle and decided to stop while I was ahead. All right I admit it I chickened out! I felt a little silly when I climbed down out of the rig and noticed the rig was quite stable with all three tires on the ground and the left tire high on the rock. For once the rig was able to go farther than the driver! I paid for my cowardice by having to find a way to climb back inside the truck! The rock slider was a good four feet in the air! Everyone was impressed with the Detroit lockers performance, and I was very happy with the traction they and my aired down Super Swamper radials provided. I do believe the 2,000 lbs of gear in the back was helping with traction.
Well, it is getting late and they all have to break camp and
go home so off we rode towards camp. Along the way Greg wanted to
take the frozen highway, since it is so smooth, so Greg and I
took off up the river while Ron stuck to the trail due to his
fragged diff. There I was, traveling along as nice as you please,
when I decided to remark on the CB how the ride was silky smooth,
well Murphy must have heard me because suddenly the front left
side of the rig fell deeply into the ice and we came to an abrupt
halt. I stuck my head out the window to see my left front tire
had disappeared into the icy river. I tried to go backward
nothing, I tried to go forward nothing. I was stuck. Hey Shawn! I
thought you said the water was only six inches deep?? He replied
with a chuckle then said: “I guess I was wrong!” O.K.,
so everyone took lots of stuck pictures, of which I am sure to
see floating around on the Internet for some time, and Greg tried
winching me out forward. No good, we stalled out a 12,000lb
winch. Hmm, Well, after some brain storming which included such
ideas as taking a chain saw to the ice, Ron comes over and says
“let’s just try and winch him backwards”. Gee that
is a simple idea. Isn’t it funny how when a bunch of people
get thinking on a problem they forget to try the obvious
solution? With a bit of wheel spinning and crumbling ice the D90
rose from the depths. all right I am out and decided to take this
as a warning to get off the ice before something really bad
happens. So we climbed out to find a way back to the trail. Well,
this provided quite the challenge for our two rigs. With high
break over steps covered in over two feet of snow we struggled
through a maze of brush and trees to find the only access out
without causing damaged to the environment. It took allot of
driving, wheel spinning and guts to get back on the trail. After
finally emerging victorious we went back to camp to say our good
byes. They were a good bunch of guys and I will miss them. Susan
and I were staying another day and began building our fire for
the long cold night.
March 29th. While packing and checking the truck over for the trip to Alaska, I discovered that when I fell through the ice I had bent my tie rod! Crud! I am 100 miles from civilization and alone with a bent tie rod with thousands of miles before me. Let us not forget you cannot get a D90 tie rod in the local auto parts store. The funny thing is I had discussed the weakness of the tie rod earlier with the group. I told the guys that I planned on upgrading the tie rod with something far superior after I bent it. They had pointed out, rightly, that it might have been a good idea to replace it before it got bent, and I had to agree with them even at that time. Now I had to kick myself for not changing the dang thing earlier! Hind sight is 20/20. O.K., well, complaining will get me nowhere; so I go about the chore of figuring out a way to straighten the tie rod with what I had with me. Finally I came up with a combination of a high lift jack shoved into my receiver hitch in the rear as a come-along. This sort of worked but the tie rod would roll. Hmm, I got it! I run the winch cable out to a snatch block and back to the tie rod. This got me half way to my goal. Using my pick ax head as a lever, with a bottle jack to apply pressure to the end of the pick ax while at the same time holding the tie rod in place with the winch, it finally did the trick. Now that was a mouth full! I did have to finally accept the slight bend left in the tie rod, as that was as good as it was going to get and I had better leave well enough alone.
We packed up and left the next morning, continuing our journey through the frozen north with a damaged tie rod. We traveled on highway 40, camping where ever we were able to pull off the highway far enough for some privacy. Highway 40 is a dirt/gravel road through the bush. There was no one and nothing for days at a time. It was peaceful and we knew we were far from civilization. I felt transported back to a wilder time when man was few and the wilderness would swallow you up in its vast expanse.
It was days till we came upon a town called Hinton, where we could gas up. We gassed up as quickly as possible, grabbed some Mickey D’s, Hey we couldn’t resist the luxury of a quarter pounder, and off into the wilderness we returned
We did stop at Ram Falls provincial campground, which of course was closed, for a quick jaunt on foot to see the Falls. We had the great pleasure of getting to see three bighorn sheep across the canyon to the falls. Other wildlife along hwy. 40 included mule deer, white tailed deer, and coyotes.
March 31st found us rolling into Grande Cache. Grande Cache is a small mining town tucked right into the Rocky Mountains surrounded by snow covered peaks smothered with small town charm. Susan asked if we could stay a couple of days as her Birthday present, and of course I could not refuse such a simple request, besides we really needed a shower after a week in the bush!. We found a hotel that charged only $40 a day Canadian for a one bedroom suite complete with kitchenette, two TV’s, and a VCR. What a deal! Two days later we very reluctantly headed off to continue our journey of exploration..
We found no decent places to camp, off the highway in B.C. so we stopped at the Sportsman’s Inn. There we met up with some really fun people partying in the lobby. It turned out to be the owner, staff, and a few friends. They invited us to stay the night even though they were closed and we soon ended up partying with Mark, Eileen, Yvonne and Loyd till early morning. During the night Mark had said he would take us out tomorrow to get stuck! I of course accepted this fine challenge.
The next morning, after Eggs Benedict Mark took us out to do some snow covered trails. But the land owner who’s property lay in front of the valley he wished to show us was charging people to get across his land. To get to the public lands beyond would cost us $150.00 per person! Well so much for that idea.
Plan B led us to an ATV/Horse trail that would end in the same valley. But Marks truck is too big for this kind of stuff so Mark said that he would wait at the bottom. Mark went on to explain that the trail would take us up to the top of the peak and was very tuff even with out the snow cover. He said if I could get passed the side hill and then up the steep hill climb I was home free. He also said if w did not return in an hour they would walk up and see what happened us. I did not see how that would help, but O.K., I aired down my tires and up we went. The trail was not to difficult but it was very tight. The Detroit Lockers made steering very difficult in the two feet of snow cover. When we arrived to the side hill they caused the rear to slide down hill and made the rig extremely difficult to steer. In fact the rig ended up with it rear facing directly down hill! With allot of throttle work I was finally able to get past the side hill without damaging the rig. In comparison to the off camber hill the rest of the trail seemed extraordinarily easy. I made a note not to take the rig on any slippery side hills that led to a cliff in the near future. I did eventually make it to the top and enjoyed a view of the valley below that was inspiring. Huge grass lands surrounded by mountain peaks covered in dark green evergreens and snow. We could see a herd of Buffalo grazing in the distance and stopped to watch the peaceful giants.
After our peaceful rest we descended the mountain to discover Mark had managed to get himself stuck in his attempt to view our vehicle cresting the ridge. His dually pick-em up truck was stuck in a snow covered dirt/muddy road with the snow covering its front diff. Of course it was no problem for my D90 to pull his huge truck out of it’s predicament after which we called it a day. We had so much fun they kept us another night free! They also fed us our first Buffalo that night. I tell you what, that was some good eating. Mark suggested I come back and do the whole trail which would take about three days. I think I will.
In the morning of April 5th we headed down the road and stayed over in White Horse, Yukon Territory. This place is expensive and seedy so we got out fast.
I decide to postpone our exploration of the Yukon as our planned route would be closed till June. The wheeling/camping opportunities were too limited, and the D90 needed some repairs. We would push through to Alaska instead of exploring the Yukon to fix our damaged vehicle and re-supply our dwindling bank account, before doing more exploring in Alaska then returning to the Yukon.
A word of warning to anyone who contemplates traveling in Canada; anything that gases you up is expensive! High test gas averaged seventy cents a liter. That comes to $2.80 a US gallon. Liquor is also prohibitively expensive coming in at 50.00 Canadian per 1.75 liter.
We peaked out our tent the morning of April 8th, our first day in Alaska, to -20 Degrees Farrenheight! Welcome to Alaska!
More to come,
The Irish Rover