We left last Friday for a quick run up to the Kawartha area in Central Ontario for a weekend of camping and trails. We had hoped to catch the autumn colours in full display, but we were about a week too early. It was a group of five Jeeps, but we had a very cool diesel Range Rover Classic join us on a whim. We had met them at the campground on Friday night. Ian and his family were looking to scout some trails for a Land Rover event and didn't know quite where to start. They were invited along with our gang.
The first trail is called Forest Mountain. Now, everything up in this area is either rock, water or trees... with a little dirt thrown in for good measure. We pulled off the gravel access road, aired down and began the trail. It starts out fairly flat and twisty for maybe a mile, then the hills begin. We had maybe gone 2 miles when we found a few rocks to play on. Not everyone climbed the rocks but we watched the bigger Jeeps and then carried on a couple hundred yards. On one obstacle there was a loud snap of metal bits from the rear end of the RRC. In an instant it was down to front-wheel-drive only. Not very good.
We pulled him or winched him up and over a few more obstacles until there was a grind and crunch from the front axle of the RRC. The passenger side birfield / CV joint was very unhappy! He was down to 0-wheel-drive. Also not very good.
We hooked a strap to him with the plan to pull the broken and beaten RRC out to the road to wait for a flatbed.
The weighty Rangie was too much for one Jeep to pull uphill and over obstacles so we hooked a second Jeep to the front of the first to give more pulling power. As he was getting pulled out, Ian found that the Range Rover wouldn't steer easily with the busted joint up front. Perhaps something was binding inside it. This made the extrication process much longer, as we had to winch or skid the front end of the RRC around trees and rocks while pulling him up rocky climbs.
Once we got to the flatter, windy section of trail near the trailhead we unhooked the front-most Jeep and pulled one in behind the Range Rover. We were then able to brake-and-pivot the Rangie around most obstacles using the rig in front to adjust the attitude and the one behind to act as the anchor point.. A few ATVers even stopped to watch the wagon train work its way along the trail.
After 4 hours of recovery we finally got back to the trailhead, loaded a bunch of their essentials into other vehicles and headed back to run the complete trail. Even took Ian's wife and kids so they could enjoy the trail while he stayed with the crippled Range Rover waiting for the tow truck.
Day Two was on Concession Lake trail. It went off without a hitch. Great trail, great friends to spend it with. Good trip to end (likely) the off-roading season with.
It was nice to see how everyone worked together to get Ian's truck off the trail. First, that a new trail mate was not left behind to figure out how he was going to get his truck off the trail by himself - and became friends through the whole experience. Second, that the whole effort was smooth and safe with minimum damage to the Rangie, no damage to other vehicles and no damage to the trail. Everyone was level-headed and calm during the whole time. Everyone was safe. Kids were kept out of the way of moving vehicles and people were conscious of who was moving and where danger could be. Long recoveries can make people want to rush and get sloppy. Thankfully there was none of that!
The first trail is called Forest Mountain. Now, everything up in this area is either rock, water or trees... with a little dirt thrown in for good measure. We pulled off the gravel access road, aired down and began the trail. It starts out fairly flat and twisty for maybe a mile, then the hills begin. We had maybe gone 2 miles when we found a few rocks to play on. Not everyone climbed the rocks but we watched the bigger Jeeps and then carried on a couple hundred yards. On one obstacle there was a loud snap of metal bits from the rear end of the RRC. In an instant it was down to front-wheel-drive only. Not very good.
We pulled him or winched him up and over a few more obstacles until there was a grind and crunch from the front axle of the RRC. The passenger side birfield / CV joint was very unhappy! He was down to 0-wheel-drive. Also not very good.
We hooked a strap to him with the plan to pull the broken and beaten RRC out to the road to wait for a flatbed.
The weighty Rangie was too much for one Jeep to pull uphill and over obstacles so we hooked a second Jeep to the front of the first to give more pulling power. As he was getting pulled out, Ian found that the Range Rover wouldn't steer easily with the busted joint up front. Perhaps something was binding inside it. This made the extrication process much longer, as we had to winch or skid the front end of the RRC around trees and rocks while pulling him up rocky climbs.
Once we got to the flatter, windy section of trail near the trailhead we unhooked the front-most Jeep and pulled one in behind the Range Rover. We were then able to brake-and-pivot the Rangie around most obstacles using the rig in front to adjust the attitude and the one behind to act as the anchor point.. A few ATVers even stopped to watch the wagon train work its way along the trail.
After 4 hours of recovery we finally got back to the trailhead, loaded a bunch of their essentials into other vehicles and headed back to run the complete trail. Even took Ian's wife and kids so they could enjoy the trail while he stayed with the crippled Range Rover waiting for the tow truck.
Day Two was on Concession Lake trail. It went off without a hitch. Great trail, great friends to spend it with. Good trip to end (likely) the off-roading season with.
It was nice to see how everyone worked together to get Ian's truck off the trail. First, that a new trail mate was not left behind to figure out how he was going to get his truck off the trail by himself - and became friends through the whole experience. Second, that the whole effort was smooth and safe with minimum damage to the Rangie, no damage to other vehicles and no damage to the trail. Everyone was level-headed and calm during the whole time. Everyone was safe. Kids were kept out of the way of moving vehicles and people were conscious of who was moving and where danger could be. Long recoveries can make people want to rush and get sloppy. Thankfully there was none of that!
