The Rover-Landers of BC

Clubs 30th Anniversary "Best of the Best" off-road adventure
Thursday 4th September to Sunday 7th September 2014
Hello Rover-Landers,
We wanted to mark the clubs 30th Anniversary with an awesome off road adventure. What we have decided to do is a big loop that's
hits a bunch of our favourite spots up in the Lilloett area.
The four day loop that starts near Lilloett and ends near Lilloett will include multiple locations including Blowdown Pass, Ochi Basin, Mud Lakes, Poison Mountain, China Head, Big Bar Valley, Big Bar Ferry, Edge Hills wilderness. If you haven't done this loop before make sure you don't miss it, if you have done it before you probably can't wait to do it again ...mark the dates on your calendar today, bribe the wife, throw a "sicky" at work, sell the cat .... do what-ever needs to be done!
The road conditions will be genally "medium" off-road with some some big hill climbs, some narrow high roads, some typical bush pin striping (although a this area is mostly above tree level and more open than the typical Fraser Valley runs). All Land Rovers (even totally stock) are more than capable on this terrain. You can check the Gallery for photos in the same areas to gauge the terrain.
It will be wilderness camping with very few amenities along the way. You will need to bring along everything you need for 4 days.

....OK, as promised some more details on upcoming "best of the best " 4 day off-road loop.

Thursday 4th - meeting at Squamish Tim Hortons at 9am (note- there is more than one Tim Hortons in Squamish, we will be meeting at this one - 38930 Progress Way;
http://goo.gl/maps/bVGdO
Be ready to depart at 9.30am. There will be a brief stop at Pemberton at 11:00-11:15 Meeting at the Petro Canada Gas station in Pemberton (Hway 99 and Portage Rd). Then onto Duffey Lake where we turn off to Blowdown Pass. Lunch will be atop the Blowdown Ridge looking over the beautiful Stein Valley and Blowdown lake at 6500ft. Back to the highway #99 and onto Lilloett for 4pm. Anyone planning on meeting us here make sure to let us know. Next we travel down deep river gorge to the east end of Carpenter lake where we will camp under the Terzaghi Dam at the rec site approx 5pm.
http://goo.gl/maps/NEfz5 +50° 47' 7.83", -122° 13' 23.39"

Friday 5th - we will depart at 10am (if you are coming up to meet us here on Friday morning allow 4.5 hrs from Vancouver and let us know to look out for you) we will follow Carpenter Lake until Marshall Lake FSR and then head NW deep into the wonderful wilderness! We skirt along the chain of Mud Lakes until we arrive at Poison Mountain. With a name like that it's the perfect spot for lunch looking down over half of BC from 7000ft! After lunch we cross Davey Jones Creek and rumble our way over China Head ridge up to China Head Mountain. Arriving at French Bar Rec site approx 6pm.

Saturday 6th we will depart at 10am heading for the mighty Fraser River, dropping down into the massive Chisholm Canyon to the free Big Bar Cable Ferry. Once we cross the River (2 at a time!) we will head south following the canyon until reaching the Edge Hills Wilderness Park where we climb out and head for Kelly Lake. Once past Kelly Lake we head up to the peak of Pavillion Mountain top at 6500ft for lunch. After lunch we drop down into the small town of Pavillion and a short run on the highway to Lilloett where we head off road again along Texas Creek and into Ochi Basin. We will set up camp in the Ochi Basin meadows, arriving approx 6pm.

Sunday 7th we will depart the base camp around 10am and head up the switch backs of Molybenite Mountain, climbing to approx 8000ft along narrow cliff side roads. Lunch will be (hopefully) in the sunshine looking over several mountain ranges on what is one of the most spectacular roads in BC. (Note - it has been known to snow up here in September!). Once we have had our fill, back down to base camp and back to the highway at approx 4pm and head for home .....

A couple of notes; for the people who can't do all 4 days you can see from the agenda that it's possible to join us on Friday morning at Carpenter lake. It's also possible to leave us at Lilloett on Saturday afternoon. This will cut it down to three days but will make for a lot of driving on your first or last day.
Weather although on the past trips it has been generally quite hot in this area, you should be prepared to encounter anything from Freezing at night to plus 40 degs in the mid-day.
Vehicle -it needs to be in good mechanical shape! In the case of a breakdown we will never leave anyone behind and will always get your vehicle moving or pull you out to the nearest highway with cell service. (Always a good idea to have your BCAA membership in pocket - just in case!). Bringing along a few spares is always a good idea and between us all we should have a good collection. A good spare tire is a must have. ( ...only 3 wheels on my wagon...)
Food and drink - bring along enough food and drink for at least 4 days! don't leave it until Lilloett and make the whole convoy wait for you to go shopping! Hopefully we will be able to have a camp fire each night (depending on the local fire bans on the dates).
Fuel - the longest off road section without gas stations is approx 260 kms, the last place to fill up will be Lilloett (note the gas stations close at 9pm if you are joining us on Thursday night).
Communications- Our primary communication will be with VHF channel 146.460 and secondary will be CB channel 4, if you don't have either in your vehicle, if you can get your hands on a hand-held VHF just to monitor the convoy information it would be beneficial (lots of interesting and useful information gets passed along the line when on the move).

Any questions, let me know .... Post up if your coming along, let us know if you will be joining us somewhere along the way.
Cheers,
Andy

To assist with the logistics of a large group I have started a "confirmed" list and a "almost confirmed" list. Let me know if you have moved up to the confirmed list .....
Confirmed
Andy & Bailey
Pete & Alex
Bill E
Stuart L
Shawn D
Chris M
David B & Larry
Dave V & Bike
Dave F & Scott
Matt & Henry
Justin & Jullian
Craig S
George & Katrina
Bernie & April
Dave T
Phil
Eric & Sue
Bert plus 2
Ken 2a
Greg & Son

As discussed, I will try VERY hard to make it.

It sounds like a great adventure. :D

X2

Having a very thirsty v8.., what are the gas stop situation like?

Hi Andy

This sounds really interesting. When you say typical pinstriping would that be about the same amount of pinstriping as the Van Isle Rover trip we took you guys on this June?


Victor 1962 Dormobile

This sounds incredibly great! I'm about 80% confirmed. Just need to convince the wife a bit more. :lol:

If the public school strike continues into September, I know where I'm taking my kids instead! Sounds awesome.

Matt

Hi Guys,
Great to see some early interest. To answer a couple of the questions above;

- For the thirsty V8's the maximum distance between gas stations is approx 280km. If my calculations are correct one full tank should cover this. If in doubt best to bring a spare gas container along.

- The pin striping is much less than was on the Van Isle run, but there are a few sections that are over grown. Nothing that can't be buffed out with a little elbow grease.

- there are a few steep hill climbs and some thin mountain cliff edge roads up to lookout points. Some drivers may not be comfortable with these roads. Nearly all these locations will have a base camp at the bottom where drivers (or nervous passengers) will have the option to opt out if they so choose. We will join up with them again on the way down. On past runs all vehicles that have taken a look a decided to proceed to the top but there will be no pressure to do these sections if you choose not to.

Cheers, Andy

Hey guys, for those who have not done this trip it is a spectacular. In the old Jeep days this was an annual trip for us with stunning scenery. We took extra fuel but never needed it driving 4.0 liter straight six trucks.The wife and I will have just come back from a 2 week trip touring the backroads of Vancouver Island so I hope I have enough in us to go on this trip. Boss already pulling his hair out that I took August off, hehe...

I'm in :bounce:

Man, I just can't win. I booked the third weekend in Sept off specifically for the Roverlander trip and I've already made plans for the weekend of the 6th. Dammit all, damm damm (kicking a can around the driveway)
I vote moving forward all trips happen on the third weekend of the month so us people who have to plan months in advance can book the dates in. All in favour? I'm going to sulk in a corner now.

On a side note: trip looks amazing, have fun crew. Wish I could make it. :roll:

Ha, Mike ... we are not trying to avoid you ... honest (well maybe a little!) That's too bad! Maybe we will have another run on the 3rd weekend in September just for you? (mind you, we booked Placer mountain on the 3rd weekend in July as per your request and you were a No Show :roll: ).tsk tsk ...

If school is out...and these dates remain as is...we are 75% in.

I may still try to organize a little Ochi Basin run on the 20th overnight if anyone can't make this trip. I'll update with a new "Event" thread if it happens.

I am gonna try damn hard to do this one ..

Unfortunately I have school starting on the 2nd so I'm not going to be able to make it :( I was really looking forward to it :(

I very much want to make this run ... But my cousin had the foresight to plan to get married on the Saturday Is it possible to go for Thursday Friday and then hit the road to go to a wedding ?

Hi Ben,
Yes, I would think its possible to just do Thursday and Friday until noon, then peel off and head for home before we get too deep into our loop. I will post more details on the route and the times in the next few days,
Cheers,
Andy

I'm going to do my best to make it. Still have final engine assembly to go...

Subject to the resolution or not of the Teacher Strike, Rufus and I are in.

Andy,

Looks like Pete and I are coming in my Mog.

Do you have an exact starting location, (GPS way point) I'm trying to figure out the shortest route to the start of the trails, my truck is in Princeton now, but I can bring it to the coast if thats a shorter drive.


Thanks

I'm in.

I'm in too. School doesn't really "start" the first week does it? 8)

DBrands wrote:I'm in too. School doesn't really "start" the first week does it? 8)

I've got an exam on the 9th for my graduate stats class... No passee no coursee.

Sooooo. When are we getting the details? RV point and time? Eh? Eh?

Hi guys,
I will post all the details on the weekend with meeting points, times, dates.
One of the early meeting points will be in Lilloett so you can chose to come up the Sea to Sky or highway #1 or across from kamloops.
Looking forward to some fun and adventure .....
Cheers,
Andy

I'm in also!!!


The girls are off to Fashion Week in New York so I am good to go!!!!

Should be the bestest trip of the year me tinks!

For those of us only able to make Friday-Sunday work for this trip, will we be able to link up before the group starts the loop?

Hi All,

I have updated my first post with the "planned" agenda and more details ....

Cheers,
Andy

Trips booked! I will be arriving with the LR3 in Squamish Thursday morning to meet the crew. My 5 year old son, Henry, will be riding shotgun. Time to start planning and packing! The drinks cabinet will be restocked for those of you who helped drain it at Greg's this summer.

Matt

My son Scott and I will be attending.

The following week he is off to start his career in the Canadian Forces, so this is a great opportunity for us to hang out one last time before he heads off and do some Rovering together. :D

May meet you in Whistler on Thursday morning. Will confirm.

O'Doul and I will be coming, we will see you at Tim's.

Wont be able to make this one but feeling the need to get out into the wilderness soon!

Saw this on the forums, does it affect anything?
http://bb.bc4x4.com/showthread.php?2067 ... rvice-road

Hey Scott,

That's too bad. Hopefully you can make the next club run to get your wilderness quota! (what's with you and Mike this year!)

Thanks for the link, doesnt affect our loop, we are way higher up,

cheers,
Andy

See you all Thursday am.

We'll sadly it looks like I will have to pass on this trip. ( boo) have fun

If anyone has a spare hand held vhf I could borrow I would appreciate it. I don't want to miss out in all the witty banter during the trip.

Matt

I'm 100% coming. And my dad (Julian) will by tagging along on this one again too... looking forward to it!

So, my wife wanted to know exactly where we were going on this trip so I made her a map. Thought I'd share it here incase anyone else was interested in seeing the route.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit? ... 6Js85OFmEE

The point locations are colour coated for the day's were at each location.

Two days remaining, hopefully everyone is preparing their Land Rovers and equipment for what is looking like a great adventure.
The weather forecast is very positive :sunny: , the Lillooet area showing full sunshine for all four days. There are not any camp fire bans in our campsite areas so that is also good news.

Matt, Im sure we can find a VHF hand held for you to monitor, I know Chris M has a couple ....
Jason, good to hear your confirmed, will you be meeting us Thursday morning?

All, I'm presuming everyone is meeting the group on Thursday morning as I havent been contacted with any other meeting points along the way. Let me know if you are planning on meeting us at another location?

justin_carlson wrote:So, my wife wanted to know exactly where we were going on this trip so I made her a map. Thought I'd share it here incase anyone else was interested in seeing the route.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit? ... 6Js85OFmEE

The point locations are colour coated for the day's were at each location.

Thanks Justin, my wife is very happy to see this as well! Apparently this is a common female thing?!

Matt

Hello all!
Would like to join on Friday morning, vehicle is stock LR3 - hopefully it will survive.

GeorgeS wrote:Hello all!
Would like to join on Friday morning, vehicle is stock LR3 - hopefully it will survive.

I will be in my (stock) LR3. I have take. It off road enough to be fairly confident in its ability in stock condition. What tires are you running?
At the very least, I would recommend removing the spare tire and storing it inside or on the roof if you have the space. It can bottom out on the trail or if you do get a flat on the trail you won't have to empty your truck to lower the tire down.

Matt

Hi George,

Your more than welcome to come along, your LR3 will be fine on these roads.
We will need you to complete the club waiver form, the easiest way to do this is to complete a Rover-Landers Membership form (the waiver is on the back of the form). If you go to the home page and click on the membership tab and just follow the prompts.
As a new member joining this late in the year your membership is also good for all of 2015.

When you say you'll be meeting us on Friday morning, I presume you mean at the Carpenter lake rec site?

Cheers,
Andy

Woot woot :D I shall also be partaking in this adventure, as of right now it looks like I might be meeting up with the convoy in lillooet at 4pm.

mepham55 wrote:

GeorgeS wrote:Hello all!
Would like to join on Friday morning, vehicle is stock LR3 - hopefully it will survive.

I will be in my (stock) LR3. I have take. It off road enough to be fairly confident in its ability in stock condition. What tires are you running?
At the very least, I would recommend removing the spare tire and storing it inside or on the roof if you have the space. It can bottom out on the trail or if you do get a flat on the trail you won't have to empty your truck to lower the tire down.

Matt

I am running 255-55-18 firestone destintiosn STs. good idea about the spare, will sure do that.

ANDYD wrote:Hi George,

Your more than welcome to come along, your LR3 will be fine on these roads.
We will need you to complete the club waiver form, the easiest way to do this is to complete a Rover-Landers Membership form (the waiver is on the back of the form). If you go to the home page and click on the membership tab and just follow the prompts.
As a new member joining this late in the year your membership is also good for all of 2015.

When you say you'll be meeting us on Friday morning, I presume you mean at the Carpenter lake rec site?

Cheers,
Andy

Hi Andy,

Yep, I will be joining at Carpenter lake. Will do the membership form as well. Thanks for welcome!

I'll be there at 9am on Thursday morning in Squamish.

GeorgeS ... I did the run last year with 255 55 18's with no problem. We're not going over anything crazy.

Andy
Phil Armstrong and I will be meeting you at Carpenter Lake!! We plan on driving up the canyon on Thursday.
Been a while so looking forward to it!!

:bounce: :blackeye: :bounce: :wav: :wav: :D

Dreamcatcher is on the road and up for a good trip :110caravan: see ya-all at Timmy's 9:00 am

A&B

Hey Andy and company

I am currently making my way down from Nunavut. I am going to try and make this run but I don't imagine I will be joining the group until lilooet at 4pm and if I miss that I will likely find you at the end of carpenter lake.

Cheers
Ryan

Sue and I and BuckBlue90 will be at Squamish at 09:00. Looking forward to meeting many of you for the first time.
Regards, Eric

Andy,

Myself + 2 boys and the new family dog are confirmed. We' see you at Tims in Squamish.

Justin: thanks for the map.

Cheers

Bert

Excellent, good to have you all along. Ryan, no worries, we will meet you along the way (from Nunavut, are you crazy!).

Just a reminder for everyone, you may have to leave extra time to get across town to Squamish in the Thursday morning rush hour, better to get there early and relax. We need to leave at 9.30am sharp to make the other meet times along the way.

If you arrive late for some reason and we have already left Squamish, just go straight to Pemberton and catch us up.

cheers,
Andy
PS - the most forgotten item on a trip like this apparently is Toilet Paper! :shock: Dont forget yours :pottytrain5: .... (there is a "rustic" out house at each of our overnight camp sites)

:D :D :D :D Haha looks like the Dumas family will be meeting up in squamish, 9:30 Timmys. :bounce:

Hey Andy.


Unfortunately I will not make the run this weekend as I am just to tired to make it. Safe travels and hopefully see you on the next run.

Ok, had a overheating problem, All sorted now. Looks like I will be able to still catch up with you all at camp Tonight.

We are home,safe and sound. made it as far as boston bar. :D

Ok who was in the dark colour DII that passed me Westbound at 1315 hrs today with the roof tent just East of Bridal Falls? You had a big blue cloud of oil smoke spewing out....

What a fantastic trip!!!

I haven't done a write up yet, but here are some of my pictures of the drive that I took. Thanks Andy for organizing it!

http://overlandrover.ca/rover-landers-b ... sary-trip/

Beautiful areas, great company. Henry and I had a great time. I've just about got all that dust from big bar out of my nose! Henry gave his brother and mom a full trip report within the first 15 minutes of being home (the unimog featured heavily). After stopping to watch a UBC group tagging spawning salmon just outside lilloet, lunch in Squamish and a few "delays" on the highway we managed to get home by 8. Will definitely return to this area for more exploring. Thanks to all involved on this trip.

Matt

sailor wrote:Ok who was in the dark colour DII that passed me Westbound at 1315 hrs today with the roof tent just East of Bridal Falls? You had a big blue cloud of oil smoke spewing out....

That was me, and yes, I was spewing out oil..desperately trying to get home before it was all gone. Leaky Valve gasket/cover or worse I suspect....

We made it home safely! It was one of the most awesome 4x4 trips I took part in. Thank you guys for organizing it! It was good to meet all of you, sure we would like to join more trips in the future.
Our pics are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/10678386 ... banner=pwa

scottmb23 wrote:

sailor wrote:Ok who was in the dark colour DII that passed me Westbound at 1315 hrs today with the roof tent just East of Bridal Falls? You had a big blue cloud of oil smoke spewing out....

That was me, and yes, I was spewing out oil..desperately trying to get home before it was all gone. Leaky Valve gasket/cover or worse I suspect....

Ahh it appeared to be from under rather than tail pipe. Glad you made it!

Well that was certainly an great adventure! Awesome group, (although 21 trucks made for some interesting logistics) we completed the 4 day wilderness loop a little battered but still smiling. The weather was awesome, 4 days of glorious sunshine (we had a high of 38 degs and a low of -2 degs one night). We had some breakdowns, some challenges with the terrain, some frustrating moments for sure .... But when you look back on it, that's what makes it all more satisfying when the challenge is completed.
Tons of high-lights including, mind blowing scenery, challenging terrain, great laughs around the camp fire, many happy moments to look back on.
Thanks to all those who participated on our clubs 30th anniversary off road adventure.
Justin & Julian and George & Katrina, amazing photos, thanks for sharing. Let's get all the other photos sent in so we can all relive the journey....

Now, I had better start planning the 40th club anniversary run .... Ummmm
Cheers,
Andy

PS- Scott, sorry you didn't make it to the meeting point, (not for lack of trying eh!)
PPS- Matt, glad you made the Ferry, it was great having little Henry along.

Great run. Thanks to all who attended, Andy for organizing, April and Bernie thank you for your hospitality. Looking forward to our next adventure!

http://roverlanders.bc.ca/gallery-photo ... _00195.jpg

There are now some photos posted in the gallery. As everyone has already said it was a great trip. Thanks Andy and all the participants.

Bill

Wow, that was a fantastic trip! I loved it. :D Thanks to all who made it so enjoyable. :alien: Special thanks to Andy for organizing everything and to Chris with his endless patience as our reliable tail gunner.

Lots of great photos posted in the RL gallery here;

http://roverlanders.bc.ca/gallery/view_ ... e=album528

If you have some more, send them in to Bill...

The Disco has been undergoing a bunch of repairs for the past couple of months. I am sad to have missed this event. Looks like everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly from the looks of the pics. My Disco is up and running and I am looking forward to joining some of the events in the future months.

Sue and I were sorry to have missed the last day as I had to catch a flight. But the trip was stunning, with great company.
Many thanks to all who made this a very memorable trip, and a big woof to O'Doul for keeping the bears at bay at night.
Eric.

A big thank you to Andy and Chris for all their effort in making this an awesome run. The scenery was stunning and the weather was perfect. In my opinion, the ability to get to the places we did is one of the best reasons for owning a Land Rover... or a Mog...

Thanks again Andy and Chris

Doc Tari wrote:A big thank you to Andy and Chris for all their effort in making this an awesome run. The scenery was stunning and the weather was perfect. In my opinion, the ability to get to the places we did is one of the best reasons for owning a Land Rover... or a Mog...

Thanks again Andy and Chris

I second this, Andy you did a great job at keeping all of us in check, thanks for all the work you put into this. And to Chris, I think we all owe you a beer for sucking dust for 4 days straight.

Thanks to all for having a Mog in your mix, hope I did not annoy all of you with my mog speed.

Mog envy :lol:
Always glad to be of service....looking forward to our next outing!