Whipsaw Trail - British Columbia

[XPEDBC]

Cross posted from Overland Canada... I love sharing pictures of BC and it's diverse areas.


A buddy invited me along to do the Whipsaw trail with a group of his friends, all driving Toyotas. None of us had ever been on the trail before and had varying experience with 4x4'ing etc. We ended up having pretty good weather over the three days in mid-August and had a good time! We went from Princeton to Coalmont and 4 out of 5 trucks that started, completed the trail. Unfortunately one truck busted a trunnion bearing and had to limp back to the Hwy for a flat bed home. My wife and I are used to being out there on our own so it was exciting to travel with a group of like-minded adventurers! We brought our 6 month old baby along as well just to make it more interesting and gain experience being in the back country with a baby.

Airing down at the beginning of Whipsaw Creek FSR:

Still all clean and shiny:

A shot through the windshield while heading up:

Classic tire shot. I'm running metric 33's, the smallest of the group:

 

[XPEDBC]

We had hoped for a relaxed pace during the three days, and to allow time to laze about camp. The first night we camped at the Trapper's Cabin and had the place to ourselves.

The line up:

A cool looking 22RE powered buggy that went through (we would find him broken down the following day):

Baby Jack, world adventurer, wearing his "cape" to stay warm by the fire (went down to 5 degrees overnight):

The group dynamic worked out really well, despite some of us being complete strangers at the beginning of the trip. The girls, and even some of the guys, were taking turns wanting to hold baby Jack. Here Connor is trying to show Josh's kids how to get a close look at the whisky jacks flying about. The kids were really good at entertaining Jack while we were setting up camp etc:

The first night I slept in my Hennessey Hammock and my wife and kiddo stayed warmer in the truck:

We woke up to sunshine and continued along the trail after a leisurely breakfast:

 

[XPEDBC]

Looking back into our pack job... Cooler fridge chord just reaches the front to be plugged in, baby snug away in the middle, sleeping platform folded back on itself behind the middle row of seats (the Sequoia seats 8, but we have removed the third row for room). BBQ under the platform, along with a full 20lb propane tank, coleman stove, tools, jack etc, food and camp lighting. Clothing, bedding for three, baby stuff etc is bungied down on top of the platform. The roof pod holds the tent, chain saw, tarps, chairs, recovery kit, shovel, axe, saw, hiking poles - oh, and dirty diapers! We've been running the cooler/fridge off a secondary battery at night, and charge it while driving during the day - this way we don't have to rely on ice all the time.

We quickly found out who the most "playful" driver was!

That LC was driven hard all weekend, tackling all the hard routes on the obstacles, and didn't let up or have any issues.

I found myself typically taking the easy and medium routes when there was an option. Not only having the smallest tires of the group, we had the least ground clearance and no lockers. Plus, after completing the Whipsaw we were continuing for a 10 day camping/hiking trip in the Kootenays and needed to keep the Sequoia reliable as usual.

 

[java]

Very Cool! A group from Northwest Overland are headed up there tomorrow morning!

 

[XPEDBC]

Barney managed to stay with us the entire trip too. This was a last minute thing I threw on the back to try and get a smile from passing travelers:

The girls of the trip, wives, girlfriends and daughters - brave souls!:

I found the trail demanded a few things from a vehicle to be reasonably successful:

1) Moderate amount of ground clearance for boulders and ribs of rock:

Many sections where you're crawling over soccer ball sized boulders and sharp ribs of rock jutting up and you don't have many options for tire placement.

2) Flex, flex and more flex:

I don't think there's anywhere flat or smooth on this trail, especially the steep sections and ledges. The more you can keep your rubber on the ground the easier time you'll have. With full coil suspension, sway bars and only a 3" lift, I found the Sequoia was up on two or three tires dozens of times. Combine that with a centre locking diff and no actual locker, there were times where we had traction issues. There were some times where we had to use speed to make up for traction, and that's hard on the truck which I don't like. Despite all this, we completed the trail unaided and didn't even dust off the newly installed winch.

-Proper tire pressure:

Many sections require driving over sharp talus and daggar-like rocks. All of us were properly aired down which made for a smoother ride and not one puncture or flat. I can't talk enough about airing down.

 

[XPEDBC]

Checking out this cabin structure..... seen it in many pictures so it was interesting to see it in person finally:

Despite all the bad stuff I've heard of the yahoo's damaging the whipsaw area etc, I didn't find it that bad. There wasn't a lot of garbage and the meadow-bashing was no worse than many other areas I've been through. The meadows were scenic for sure:

There was evidence of BIG trucks going through:

Up next, the MUD pit. Many more photos to come, will have to wait a few days however...

 

[XPEDBC]

Finally found some time to keep this going....

So we came to one of the mud pits and some of the trucks had some fun.

 

[XPEDBC]

Here's where you can see the trail has options.... easy stuff on the left and more difficult on the right:

We took the easy way up after seeing Matt's more capable Taco have to take a few runs at the hard side until he found the right line:

After continuing along, some sounds could be heard. Sounds that you don't want to hear coming from your truck in the middle of nowhere... The dreaded break down.

While we were stopped on the trail, which until then had been fairly quiet, we heard some more sounds. Toyotas! Turns out, a Toyota facebook club was doing the Whip the same weekend. I've never seen so many modified Toyota trucks in one place at the same time:

More and more kept coming... must have been 15 or so in their group.

"Hey, whats the hold up??"

They stopped and offered to help, however there's not much we could do with a busted trunnion bearing. Unfortunately the Taco would have to limp out to the highway, in this case back the same way we came. We were approximately half way with the latter half more difficult. One of the LC's accompanied the Taco back to the highway, then would later rejoin us at camp that night. The Taco ended up camping at the trail head and being picked up by a flat deck the following day.

 

[XPEDBC]

Previously planning to camp at Wells Lake, we sought out this smaller sub-alpine tarn/pond to avoid the crowds at Wells. This turned out to be a wickedly beautiful camp spot. A few of the group walked 5 minutes through the trees to capture the sunset on top of a ridge. Some of the guys braved the cold water to float around in the lake etc.

Chillin on the sleeping platform and patiently awaiting dinner:

Continuing the next morning, came across "the ditch"? or whatever it's called:

Crossing Wells Lake. Would be a cool spot to camp but it was a tad bit windy this day.

 

[XPEDBC]

Some more obstacles and mud bogs:

Loadstone Mtn: The lighting was really cool and it began storming as we were up there.

After we managed to turn around on the peak, we made our way down and back onto the main road system, returning to Princeton for dinner at Billy's Family restaurant (a little ghetto). It was sad to say bye to our new found friends, but we all agreed to do another trip the next year, or perhaps a winter trip!

So first time on the Whipsaw and it was a good one. We continued on in the Sequoia for another week or so, traveling around the Kootenays and doing some hiking etc. That's a story for another time... I'm still a little sour that someone in that facebook toyota club thought the Sequoia was a Rav4 and made a comment about it being unibody (it's not). Perhaps it was the first Sequoia to do the whipsaw!... and unaided at that. Good times!

 

[Cascade Wanderer]

Looks like your group had a great time! Enjoyed the photos. Thanks for posting this. I might just have to head up there from Wenatchee, WA someday and take a look myself!

Regards, Guy

 

[T.Low]

Thanks for posting! Looks great.

Gotta luv BC. Went to Whistler and then areas around Lillooet ( that shall remain nameless because it reeeeally sucks meeting someone coming the opposite way-:yikes: ) both in the same month.

 

[96Delica]

Awesome! Some guys from the Delica group out there have done it in their vans on 31's, no lockers or winch either. Slow and steady I assume. When I get back I would love to run that trail!

 

[DV8ED]

What an awesome trip! I'm from BC and grew up on Vancouver island. I now live in Texas and this makes me extremely home sick! My dream is to overland my 12 Taco back up that way for a few months of exploring. Thanks for sharing!

 

[XPEDBC]

What an awesome trip! I'm from BC and grew up on Vancouver island. I now live in Texas and this makes me extremely home sick! My dream is to overland my 12 Taco back up that way for a few months of exploring. Thanks for sharing!

Texas to BC would be a wicked trip. Take at least a month!