Good trials to try between Alberta and the whipsaw?

[HeadDamage]

A few of us are looking at coming out from Alberta to do the whipsaw the last week of July. Are there any good trails between Alberta and the whipsaw that we should look into running on the same trip? Thanks.

[DaveB]

Yes, the Jeep Trail on Hunters Range. This is only about 50 km south of Sicamous and highway 1. We're taking the OORA group through on July 21st. It is like a mini-Whipsaw, with a great lookout at the top of the climb.

Here's the triplog: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1237600

There are lots of other trails, however some of them are a little distant from your main route westward. If you go back via highway 3 (crowsnest) I'd take a side trip in to the tunnel and Bulldog lookout. I don't have an exact set of waypoints at this time, but it's just east of Christina Lake.

Let us know when your plans firm up, and I'll be happy to guide you if needed.

cheers, Dave

[red90]

The group includes people from around the province, so we are not necessarily travelling via the #1. Really any location in southern BC might be of interest.

It will be the last week of July, July 28 to Aug 6 or a portion of time in there...

We would love to have you along.

[ANDYD]

We have the Poison Mountain - Mud Lakes - Big Bar Ferry club trip on the calendar that weekend, maybe we could join your group on your way out or on the way back....if its doable on your route.

Cheers, Andy

[red90]

Dave: Any further thoughts on options? We have 6 days available total. I figure we can burn 3 playing in the Whipsaw area, so looking for something to eat up 2 or 3 more. Are you interesting in joining us? I post up the trip here once we figure out what we are doing.

Andy: Can you provide some more details of the trip? Is it the long weekend?

[DaveB]

I think 3 days for the Whipsaw is a bit long, as we often do the entire trail in 1 day. My quickest time through was 5 hours, but this was during a very dry August.

So what to do...?

well I'd start by planning your overall route to go one direction via highway 1 and the other by highway 3.

So, if you start west on Highway 1, here's some possibilities... start with the Jeep Trail, then you could head towards Princeton via back roads (Douglas Lake ranch possibly or up behind Peachland/Summerland) and do the Whipsaw, followed by the Placer Ashnola traverse, (across the range from the Whipsaw, basically) which comes out at Keremeos on Hwy 3, followed by some mine exploration (Nickelplate Rd. & French Mine, which we did last weekend, see coming events on this site), and perhaps the Mascot Mine tour at Hedley, also on Hwy 3, then head east through Osoyoos and the Anarchist and stops in Midway (KVR Railway) and Greenwood (abandoned smelter), and Grand Forks (Rock Candy Mine). We find Grand Forks to be a good spot to top up the provisions as it has all the services. Then east again to Christina Lk, Bulldog Mtn, the train tunnel and perhaps down to Renata. East of this, theres lots of ways to get back home and lots of sights to see, but I may have used up your 6 days by now. :D

I might be able to join you for the Jeep Trail which is local to me here, but otherwise I have to work that week.

cheers, Dave

[red90]

Thanks Dave. That is great!! I'll have to find the time to look through all of that and figure out what makes sense and then see what everyone else wants to do.

Would you have waypoints or tracks that you could share?? Maybe I should talk via email, LOL...

[red90]

So having a look at the locations...here are my thoughts. Comments appreciated. Thanks for all the advice!!

Day 1: Jeep trail
Day 2: Drive to Princeton via back roads through Douglas lake.
Days 3 and 4: Whipsaw and area
Day 5: Placer/Ashnola traverse (is this all roads or are there 4WD opportunities?) and Nickelplate Rd / French Mine.
Day 6: Head east catching whatever other things we can manage.

[DaveB]

Due to work scheduling, I don't know if I can join in. However here's a link to my track logs:

http://www.everytrail.com/my_trips.php?user_id=163625

specifically...

Jeep Trail http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1237600

Whipsaw http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1115045 (use the Whipsaw Creek FSR instead though as your starting point 49.368980° -120.576586° unless you want a challenge. The Friday Creek starting point is likely quite blown over at this time of year)

Nickel Plate http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1167062

Placer Ashnola Traverse (in the recommended reverse direction) http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1655899

have fun!

Dave

[red90]

Thanks Dave. It should be July 30 for the Jeep trail. We'll show up on the 29th and will try to catch up and say hi if you are around.

Thoughts on where to camp around Armstrong and Princeton?

[DaveB]

July 29th & 30th... just thinking out loud --- you are aware we've had to cancel the OORA event because the snow line is so low. I didn't think about your dates but thats only a week after when OORA was planned. The chances of getting through these trails is going to still be pretty low. If you could push it off till mid August you'd be a lot better off. The snow pack is just very high this year.

Dave

[HeadDamage]

Is the whipsaw itself likely to be passable by the start of Aug?

[DaveB]

Most likely, but snow level in the Okanagan July 1st was 5500 feet. We did get through 6000 feet around Keremeos a few weeks back, but its comparably dry in that area with low snow coverage. The Whipsaw, being closer to the coast gets more snow, but you should be OK by then. There were years where we got all the way through in the May long weekend, but that was a decade or so ago!

cheers, Dave

[red90]

We will have to manage with what we can. That is part of the adventure. There is no way to just change everyone's vacation times. In my mind the end of August is never any safer as you can get fresh snow by then. Certainly 95% of every trip I've run at the end of August results in fresh snow....

We have a super hot and sunny extended forecast at the moment so that is encouraging.

[red90]

Is there any problem taking the forestry roads from Three Valley to Cooke Creek?

[red90]

I'm back to civilization. A big thanks to Dave for suggestions and information on the trails. We ran the Jeep Trail, Whipsaw, the Placer/Ashnola Traverse and visited the French Mine.

The trails were all great and everyone enjoyed them. I'll post a link to photos when I get them up.

[HeadDamage]

Sounds like that worked out well. Too bad I couldn't make it.

[red90]

I've started uploading photos here: http://www.red90.ca/photos/land-rover-t ... RE_BC_2012 I'll add comments and put more up over the next little while.

The one thing I do know, is I would not be able to keep up with Dave... 5 hours for the Jeep Trail and 5 hours for Whipsaw!!! I don't know how he does it.

[DaveB]

The one thing I do know, is I would not be able to keep up with Dave... 5 hours for the Jeep Trail and 5 hours for Whipsaw!!! I don't know how he does it.

Ha! Shawn and I made it through the Whipsaw once only in 5 hours. Usually it's a day or more. The Jeep trail, on the othe hand, regularly 4-6 hours. Good to hear you had a good trip. Nice photos. Where was the blasting drill? Looked like they were doing a pretty good job of destroying the old trails there...

Cheers Dave

[red90]

Coming out of Whipsaw, they are constructing a serious road, which seems to be for the mine. It was all heavy mine equipment being used. Large off road dump trucks, serious road base.

We were 8 hours on the Jeep Trail with 3:45 moving time. I see your track as 4 hours moving and 1 hour stopped. I guess we stop a lot.... ;)