Completed: Bear Creek = blowout

[BC backroader]

My daughter and I met up with friends Bill and Thomas to do a little trail maintainence, clearing some of the overgrown alder branches from a route that Bill uses in his adventure tour business, then to continue our exploration of the Bear Creek logging road, now disused, but still in pretty good shape. We followed Bill's Polaris Crew ATV into the tour route, with them trimming the right side of the trail, and us whacking away at the left side. In a matter of 2.5 hours, we had the work done all the way to the lookout at the turnaround point of the tour trail, and stopped to chat and have some cold drinks in the heat that had already hit 85 at 10 AM, while washing off all the bugs we had accumulated fron the tree whacking. They headed back to Harrison, while Andi and I took a short cut back to the main FSR, then went another 5 km to the Bear Creek turnoff.

We had only gone about a km up the steep climb to the Bear Creek valley, when there was a loud "pop" from the right rear of the TB, followed by a lean to that corner, and the horrible sound of a completely flat tire. Since I was on a steep, rough section of the road, I had to carry on another 150 meters to a flatter, wider spot to do the change. I knew my spare was good, as well as the drop winch, and thought I had put the good scissor jack from my old GMC K2500 in the truck almost a year ago, but it was no where to be found. I must have taken it out when moving one of my sons a few months ago, and forgotten to put it back. No problem, I still have the OEM jack in the truck. What a joke that thing is! After getting it under the axle tube, I had to lie under the truck to be able to turn the too short crank/tire iron, even with the extension on it. I'm glad the truck is lifted, as it would have been really miserable under there at stock height. Lying under the truck, I could see what had blown the tire, there was a big ding on the inside lip of the alloy rim, probably caused by hitting a rock that was just a bit taller than the tire sidewall, right on the lip of the rim. Of course, driving up the hill to a flat spot to work on it had cut the sidewalls of the tire to shreds, so I am probably going to need a new rim, as well as a new tire. This would be a good time to get the MB Chaos 6 wheels and General Grabber AT2 tires that I want, but that just ain't in the budget right now, so 1 OEM wheel and Hankook Dynapro AS it is.

I finally got the spare wheel on, and the blown one thrown in the back, wound the winch cable up so it wouldn't flail around under there, and carried on up the trail, praying that would be the only flat today. We got to the end of the usable trail when we encountered several huge logs placed across the end of an old log bridge. We walked across the rotting old timbers, plenty strong enough for 2 people, but certainly not safe for a vehicle. On the other side, we found a trail down to the creek side, in a shady spot, so I went back to the truck and brought the cooler down so that we could have lunch in the cool air, near the running water. The home made potato salad and cold cuts, with fresh apricots for desert were delicious, and fuelled us up for the drive back out to pavement, and home to a good scrub down, after battling the alder branches and flat tire. It was a great little mini-adventure, and as soon as I have the tire/wheel replaced, we'll be ready for some more outdoor fun.

[bartonmd]

Uh... I'm pretty sure you can use all 3 pieces (ETA: Actually, this one may be 2 pieces, and my truck is 3 extension pieces) of the extension for the jack. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's what they're for.

Mike

[BC backroader]

Thanks, Mike, for the info. There are only 2 pieces in the jack cubby in my truck, the tire iron/lug wrench piece, and a single extension. There may be a piece missing, as it appears there are unused clips in the cubby. My nice big 3/4 ton scissor jack has enough extensions to reach out behind the bumper, I just need to find where I put it. I'm having trouble finding a replacement for the OEM wheel at the local wreckers', and the repair outfits I've contacted want over $100 to take the ding out. I'll have to keep looking till I find one. In the meantime, a shop that I contacted during the search has a set of nice used AT tires in 245/70/17 with 70% tread remaining, at a decent price, so I'll try to get those after I find the wheel I need.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Sounds like a good trip other than the tire.

[BC backroader]

Yes, it was a good trip, and I'm going back to the old bridge this weekend for a 3 day campout with some freinds, including a visitor from Wa. state. Mon the 3rd is a holiday here in BC, and I'm taking Fri off as well, so I'll actually get 4 days out there. A few weeks ago, I spotted a grizzly on the trail in, so we'll have to be very careful to keep the camp clean and stash the food high off the ground (rope over a tree limb), and put our kitchen/eating area seperate from the sleeping area. There's no cel reception out there, so I'll be off line till mon. evening.

I did get the spare issue addressed, as I was lucky enough, after a weeks searching, to find a pair of OEM wheels to match mine, complete with near new tires in the same size as mine. I now have an alloy spare under the truck, instead of the horrible old steelie. I still haven't found the jack from my old 2500, though.