Alberta South Exploratory Run

[brianwidahl]

if my parts hurry up and get hear i might be making this one

chances are 50/50

i find out asap

[karlairey]

Brian it would be so cool to have you riding with us on this!!



Guys.. please answer me this: If I had to change it to Sunday, would you both be able to make that? I may have a funeral to attend. Either way is fine...just checking.



Alos I just got word from Eclipse1 he can't make it. He sends this:



"I will have to catch you guys at the October Run unless you find something a lot better during your exploratory trip. When I went last week it was very cold and kind of snowy and alot of mud. The guys that I was with were doing the quad trails so my V wouldn't fit down them. FYI. There are some real neat group camping sites at the dutch creek area that the group should look at next summer."



So I will be getting some trail maps from an outfit here in town, and will post more info hopefully tonight.



Dave buddy (and Brian!) ... We Southerners will be heading in from Coleman, north on 40 from Hwy 3. You are welcome to do that too if you like. Or, you could try the route I posted about above. Problem is, I have no idea if it is open this late in the year! If you did try and found it closed, it would only cost you about 40 mins extra including running in and running back out to Hwy 22. Another route which will is an incredible drive, is head west from Longview until your reach the Trunk Road (40). It is about 1.5 hours from Longview to Racehorse Creek (and about 2.5 hours from Longview to Coleman to Racehorse).



All of the times mentioned above are guesses and I would allow 30 minutes grace.



I'm Excited!!!

[karlairey]

[quote name='HoleHog' date='27 September 2010 - 01:42 PM' timestamp='1285616528' post='21428']

Coming so far... we have



cbrandson (maybe)

HoleHog

Khamul

Brian (maybe)

JL (maybe)

1 Land Rovers also from Lethbridge

Anyone else wanna come with?



[/quote]





I see my last post was deleted..so here's what I wrote in a nutshell:



We should ALL meet in Coleman. We can gas up there. I've found some great trails that all head North from there. We will be in the Daisy Creek, Racehorse Creek,and Dutch Creek areas, and if time and passability allow we'll head up to Oldman River headwater area. That will bring us out in the vicinity of the 532 road I mentioned above.. Or we can head south a bit to the 517 road. Both take us out to Hwy 22.



Besides the usual supplies (food, drink, clothes, blankets, radios, tools, etc), we should also bring extra gas.



Saturday is the day. 8 AM in Coleman if preferrable but you can let me know if 8:30 or even 9 is best for you.



This will be interesting for sure! I will bring trail maps for all. Please lets confirm on Friday if you will come, and invite others if you can too.



Karl

[Khamul]

So...Coleman's small, and I know we'll stand out.... but where in Coleman?.... It will definitely be around 9ish by the time I get all the way down there....

[Khamul]

Why don't I just meet you at Racehorse Creek as it saves me back tracking?



Looks like it's just you and mee for Hummers...... Someone's gotta come to pull you out....

[JL]

Hey guys have a good time!! Still got a gremlin or two to chase away before I hit the trails again..

[Sugarphreak]

So... how did it go?

[Khamul]

Well... we had a blast - but easily some of the toughest trails we have ever done to date!!!



Like these were actual quad trails with no doubt about it. We spent about the entire day going along the trails and when we thought we were coming to the end and coming out around the Old Man River exit..... we were brought to a dead halt by a bog. Impassible!!! This was at around 5 and it was already getting dark!



We tried to go around on what we thought was fairly dry ground but Karl bascally sunk into it and got thoroughly stuck.... So I tried to come into where we thought it would be safe and hook straps together and I got stuck... entire front end ended up digging a hole down to the body. Tried winching out with Chris's winch but not strong enough... after digging out and adding in rocks and wood to climb on... finally got me out.



Then attached all the straps together and used Chris's winch to pull Karl out of his hole. But I should say at this point 2 hikers came along and helped push and I think that's what gave the extra little bit we needed.



Sad part is.. about 20 minutes prior to this point we encountered some quads on the trail and they said to basically turn around as they bearly got through..... did we listen?? Of course not!!!!



I'll let Karl fill his part in so I won't say anymore about that, but I didn't get home until 4 in the morning...... I was alittle tired....



There was no room to maneuver on most of the trails so at one point when I was trying to turn around, I hit a tree and bent my bumper. LOL - so yesterday I rolled her down my driveway to the street off the curb, put by floor jack on the curb for some extra height and jacked it up under the bumber and then bounced on the side steps and i did manage to get it back up to almost what it was before. Made a mess of the passenger side of the Hummer though so I think I will go to that spa place and get a quote for getting my paint repaired.. I'll wait until after the 23rd though...



I can't wait until I have the money and I'm getting the Detroit TruTrak upgrade for the front...



I also realized the importance of a winch!

[s0ulst3al3r]

hey Dave I was told you couldnt use a Detroit Trutrak with big tires ...Im not sure tho , I could have been misinformed but i did find this one one of there sites ...



"Distribute the load evenly side-to-side; do not

exceed the vehicle's rated payload capacity;

keep the diameter of the tires equal (max

diameter 32 inches). Failure to observe these

measures can create a difference in side-toside

wheel speed which can cause the vehicle

to pull to one side



http://www.eaton.com/ecm/groups/public/ ... 128482.pdf

[karlairey]

Well I made it home a few hours before Dave... CUZ HE DROVE ME TO LETHBRIDGE!!! Thanks to you my friend! You are one of a kind.

We had to leave my Hummer on the trail... I went back for it and she's home now, but it was a hell of an adventure!



Short version...

• The trails were awesome! Getting stuckso bad in the peat bog was not.
• Our Hummers were amazing! Except when my lower left differential casing bolt broke and the diff jumped up and sheered off the oil cooling lines housing from the side of the engine block.
• The day was warm and sunny. Except when the sun went down and my Hummer was stuck in the middle of a skinny muddy trail about 2 hours from gravel road and I was covered from head to toe in mud and oil.
• The drive home was...
• 36 hours later I began a day of tool and parts gathering.
• 16 hours after that I was camped at top of trail head with a few buddies.
• Next day was spent a) Trying to get an air compressor to work (never did) <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... >/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /> Trying to drill with an electric drill the 6mm Housing bolts so we could reTap the holes (didn't work) c) Tapping the oil outlet holes themselves to allow screwing in two bolts to block them off and hope some oil pressure would build. We had about 30 minutes of light left after the taps were done.
• Out of 3 vehicles down there we didn't have 2 bolts of the right size to fit in the oil outlet holes...SOOO, I borrowed one from a rear shock and we cut it in half and used those! (It leaked like crazy but worked).
• Replaced the bolt in shock with an oversized bolt and (no kidding) 12 washers!
• Tied down the Diff with a new bolt and plenty of washers and nuts. Now it was getting dark and we had to get heading back up a steep muddy trail.
• 7 Gallons of oil later and a $265 tow I was home with my baby at 2 AM.

So it was an expensive ( I have to pay the 3 guys who helped me $500 for time and gas and a few small parts they broke out there too) and very frustrating end to a wicked fun Exploratory Day in Southern Alberta!



...can't wait until I get out there again!!



Karl