Not sure if this is the place for trip reports, but here goes:
Background:
Bought my first T4R a few months ago. It was in need of body work but mechanically excellent. A '98 SR5 with 217,000 km, manual trans, no sunroof. Spent about a month straightening up the body, putting new parts on, etc. And finally last weekend was it's maiden voyage!
I put some 265/75R16 BFG All-Terrain TAs on, but otherwise the truck is bone stock.
Location:
The Waiparous creek route of the Ghost Public Land Use area about 1 hr West of Calgary, AB. I had started to do this route in June in my company Ford Escape only to be embarrassed by about 6" of mud. :yield: This trip was my revenge!!!
Trip:
My buddy has an '04 TRD Tundra, so we loaded up his truck with some tow straps, come alongs, and tools. My truck brought the shotguns, high lifts, and fishing rods (in case we found a place to fish).
We headed out, filling up in Airdrie, and got to the area by about 10:00 last Saturday morning.
Driving down the road into the area, there were a lot more people around than in June! Lots of trailers, tenters, people playing on bikes and quads, etc. I thought the trail/road in would have been pretty busy after seeing the entrance!
We proceeded past where the Ford got stuck. And it was easy. We then continued on into the bush, went over a few hills with rocks, deep ruts, and then 1-2' deep ponds after them. Finally the people started to really thin out and we came to the first water crossing. There were a few people on ATVs there who told us it wasn't bad, so we went for it. The approaches seemed steep at first but in hindsight were quite tame.
We crossed the river and kept going. After a few more river crossings (with some semi-difficult banks to get back up) we came upon the ATVers again. They told us about the waterfall at the end of the road, and said it was worth heading all the way in to it. They did mention the road got a little more "rough".
The road did get more techincal, and at one point I thought seriously about turning back. There was a hill about 100' long, with a roughly 25 degree slope, with boulders all over that I figured would either take out my diff, pop the tank, or screw up something. My buddy decided to take the lead and the Tundra made it up fine, so I took the 'ole 4Runner up no problem!
Finally we got to a point where it looked like the road ended, except for a steep hill with a near vertical 4' section at the bottom. The original trail had been washed out by the June floods, so this must have been what ATVs had been using to make it to the end. We met up with the ATVers and they said the end was about half a km up, but they didn't think we'd be able to make it up.
Sure enough, I took the 4Runner up no problem (except I dragged my hitch a bit on the approach), and my buddy followed behind in the Tundra! When we made it to the end of the road there was a couple on an ATV that looked at us like we had 3 heads!!! :bounce: We didn't see another truck/SUV for the last 8 km or so of road!
Great times! I'll upload pics when I get home...
Background:
Bought my first T4R a few months ago. It was in need of body work but mechanically excellent. A '98 SR5 with 217,000 km, manual trans, no sunroof. Spent about a month straightening up the body, putting new parts on, etc. And finally last weekend was it's maiden voyage!
I put some 265/75R16 BFG All-Terrain TAs on, but otherwise the truck is bone stock.
Location:
The Waiparous creek route of the Ghost Public Land Use area about 1 hr West of Calgary, AB. I had started to do this route in June in my company Ford Escape only to be embarrassed by about 6" of mud. :yield: This trip was my revenge!!!
Trip:
My buddy has an '04 TRD Tundra, so we loaded up his truck with some tow straps, come alongs, and tools. My truck brought the shotguns, high lifts, and fishing rods (in case we found a place to fish).
We headed out, filling up in Airdrie, and got to the area by about 10:00 last Saturday morning.
Driving down the road into the area, there were a lot more people around than in June! Lots of trailers, tenters, people playing on bikes and quads, etc. I thought the trail/road in would have been pretty busy after seeing the entrance!
We proceeded past where the Ford got stuck. And it was easy. We then continued on into the bush, went over a few hills with rocks, deep ruts, and then 1-2' deep ponds after them. Finally the people started to really thin out and we came to the first water crossing. There were a few people on ATVs there who told us it wasn't bad, so we went for it. The approaches seemed steep at first but in hindsight were quite tame.
We crossed the river and kept going. After a few more river crossings (with some semi-difficult banks to get back up) we came upon the ATVers again. They told us about the waterfall at the end of the road, and said it was worth heading all the way in to it. They did mention the road got a little more "rough".
The road did get more techincal, and at one point I thought seriously about turning back. There was a hill about 100' long, with a roughly 25 degree slope, with boulders all over that I figured would either take out my diff, pop the tank, or screw up something. My buddy decided to take the lead and the Tundra made it up fine, so I took the 'ole 4Runner up no problem!
Finally we got to a point where it looked like the road ended, except for a steep hill with a near vertical 4' section at the bottom. The original trail had been washed out by the June floods, so this must have been what ATVs had been using to make it to the end. We met up with the ATVers and they said the end was about half a km up, but they didn't think we'd be able to make it up.
Sure enough, I took the 4Runner up no problem (except I dragged my hitch a bit on the approach), and my buddy followed behind in the Tundra! When we made it to the end of the road there was a couple on an ATV that looked at us like we had 3 heads!!! :bounce: We didn't see another truck/SUV for the last 8 km or so of road!
Great times! I'll upload pics when I get home...
