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Date: Dec. 7th 2002

Place: Somewhere in the Sooke Hills, Vancouver Island, B.C.

Attendance:

John Barron (Dragonfly) - Toyota LC Locked Fr/Rr
Passenger - Cassie (Dog)

Bruce Milton (Moose) - Suzuki Samurai Locked Rr
Passenger - Don (Dad)

Jonathan Poole (jo-jo) - CJ5 Locked Rr
Passenger - Connie
(Cute Girl)

Witnesses:

Dave & Cam (Cam) - YJ
Dan & James - Grand Cherokee

Moose's Hideout

Several weeks ago I got the itch to do some exploring, and I invited a couple people I wanted to do trail exploring with. The first day we went out, we had Ibby & Cody, Moose, and myself. I had a pretty good idea where I wanted to look, and Moose had a couple ideas as well.

Ibby & Cody and I headed out to Sooke to meet up with Moose on Saturday morning I believe it was. We headed out into the local trail systems towards our intended goals. The first road we wanted to explore was an old logging road off of a commonly used 4wd trail in Sooke. We drove up the old logging road pretty much as far as we could, then decided to start walking the rest of the way to see if the trail was worth opening.

The road was pretty much 2wd, and very overgrown. We decided to turn around after a while and head on to another potential trail, and leave this one for another day of some serious hiking. Walking on the way back down the road, I noticed what looked like a footpath down and across a gulch and back up again on the other side. I pointed it out to Moose who stopped to take a closer look. He said somewhat excitedly that it was marked with flagging tape, and he quickly ran down the bank to the other side.

Once on the other side Moose was heard belching out an excited utterance…as far as I can remember it was something like "OH YA!" I ran down after him to check it out. "Oh ya", I concurred, and Ibby and Cody came down and up to check it out too. Looks like we found a little pot of gold we now call Moose's Hideout.

Over the next few weeks, we cleared the trail of those nasty little dead branches that can take an eye out if you're not careful. Moose and I started it off, spending the better part of a day working on the trail, and in the rain I might add. The next time, Dave, Cam, Cody, and I got a little farther. Then the following week Moose and I finished it off and ran the whole trail the easy way (easy is a relative term).

Running Moose's Hideout the easy way is not terribly challenging, although it is a fun little trail to run this way never the less. The entrance in this direction is somewhat hidden. It climbs up a fairly steep hill for at least a few hundred yards of loose rocks and dirt. A truck that has open differentials can make this climb at a crawl with decent tread on the tires. This hill climb has a nice view of the Sooke Hills, and I'm sure once more people start driving it, it will become more difficult.

Once the hill has been ascended, the trail becomes very tight in spots and requires a lot of concentration to manoeuvre without damaging your vehicle. Along the way are a couple more roads that we will explore some day, and some nice rock outcroppings to pause and eat lunch on or for just spending some quiet time in the woods. One of those little hills is now called Dave's Hill after Cam's dad.

Just after Dave's Hill is the downward cycle through some twisty sections to the Monkey Trench. This is the main obstacle on the trail, and although easier descending it is still not for the faint of heart or for those that wish not bang their truck around. The Monkey Trench might just throw a monkey wrench at ya, and you could either get yourself badly stuck or suffer some carnage to your truck. At the bottom of this rocky trench that gets narrower and narrower until it is about narrow track CJ width, is the gulch that we originally discovered a few weeks prior.

Moose and I had a lot of fun trying to get through this section on our way out. The trench had steep walls on either side; our trucks just barely fit into the trench in this section. We had to somehow manoeuvre our trucks 90 degrees in order to descend into the gulch. That was a feat unto itself, but then we had to point the trucks down a steep bank, and S-turn around a tree without smacking our trucks into it. It took a lot, and I mean a lot of back and fill, and repositioning to get lined up for the descent. Then once in the bottom of the gulch more wriggling around was in order to get lined up for the next slope.

This time we had to drive up the bank, and make a sharp turn onto the exit trail. Moose gave it a good try, but eventually was wise enough to pull out the winch cable before digging up the trail too much or breaking something on his truck. I figured I'd have a problem here, but thought I'd give it one good old-fashioned pedal to the metal try. I got lined up, crept up on the bank a little bit and then floored it. With a little throttle manipulation and some quick reaction steering I managed to clean the technical and landed quite nicely pointing down the exit trail.

So there is a little history for you. Now onto the main event, Moose's Hideout the Hard Arse Way!

We met up at Moose's place in Sooke around 10am Saturday. Moose and his dad Don were just getting the Samurai ready for the trail (Moose's Spares Kit is to be envied). Too bad he doesn't include a spare ignition key in his extensive, yet practical Spares Kit. Well, that's not a problem for a guy who works on auto/marine electrical systems for a living; he just hotwired it and we were on our way.

First stop is jo-jo's pre-trail ritual; get a nasty submarine sandwich, a couple chocolate bars, and some juice. Next stop air down at Butler Mainline. I've tried, but I just can't drive logging roads in my CJ5 at 30psi, I feel like I've been through a paint shaker afterwards.

We headed to the main trail, and didn't have any problems getting to our destination. Once at the trailhead for Moose's Hideout we all stopped to survey the situation. I think some of the crew who hadn't seen the trail yet thought we were a little nuts. I think Dan said something like, "you guys are going to go through THAT?"

If you ever wanted to see fear in my face, this was the time to see it. I'm usually pretty cool with most obstacles on the trails I run because I'm familiar with my truck and the terrain. On some rare occasions though, I come across something new, and if it's a little hairy and I don't know quite what to expect, the butterflies get a little stirred up. Entering the first obstacle I was holding the stick a little tight (steering wheel…hockey on the brain).

The entrance now known as Part Duh! (That's an abbreviation to the full name which I am withholding until a later date) starts off with a very steep but short downhill section. It guides your truck into a small gulch and then you have to claw your way up the other side. The first test is getting lined up for the descent. This isn't easy because the road that Part Duh! stems off of is narrow, and on the opposite side of the entrance is a steep bank. The trick is to drive past the entrance, then back your truck up the bank to get a straight or somewhat straight shot at Part Duh! The number of angles in the equation is a little staggering. First you are driving uphill along the spur road, then backing downhill on the spur, cranking the wheels to turn uphill 90 degrees to the spur, but one rear tire hits the bank first, which puts you off-camber to the downhill side of the spur as well as the steep drop of Part Duh!, then getting yer arse end up the bank so you are facing down, then levelling front to back on the spur again, but off-camber to the spur, and then finally taking the plunge down into Part Duh! Phew…that's a mouthful, and a handful if you don't have power steering and you're fighting a welded rear.

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