post up your camping pics

[dieseldawg142]

upon closer inspection, pretty sure the stepper don't have the clearance to drop off one log, and up the other...not really interested in finding out being a solo run, yeah my truck riding buddy Dieseldawg is at home. he's still recovering from his cancer op.


and here's where i made my first screw-up, thinking i can hike all the way in, up the mountain, and all the way out...a few spots the road was'nt too bad

[dieseldawg142]

don't think the truck would have made it this far anyways....


brought 2 bottles of water with me, sure glad there was lots of fresh water to refill, cause in the 90 degree heat i was going through it fast


that's Alpaca peak, rode my quad into it last yr, but had no batts for the cam...

[dieseldawg142]

Lamb mt


Vicuna peak beside Alpaca


Guanaco

[dieseldawg142]

getting closer to Alpaca, trail curves right by it


after about 12 miles of humping, here's the trailhead up Vicuna, almost hiked right by it. pretty much 2 miles of strait up threw some heavy bush...well at least a 45 degree...

[dieseldawg142]

some of the other peaks around there.
the huge slab of rock is where i learned a bear banger actually does work. on my way down i ran into a blackie here, so i hucked a banger at him and slid down the rock on my ass (ouch...) never seen him again..

[dieseldawg142]

more of this 45 degree carp...coming up to the col between Vicuna and Guanaco


on the col looking up at Vicuna

[dieseldawg142]

Guanaco


the Anderson range. if you kept hiking in a strait line for about another 80 miles, you would hit Nahatlatch


after all the work of getting up here, i did'nt actually climb either Vicuna or Guanaco, just hung around the col. if i had'nt had to hike in so far.... looking at least another 3-4 hrs back to the truck. and i dont really feel like being out here after dark with just some jerky and bottles of water...
\some arsewhole just had to hang up a distance sign.... just what i need to know, ya-hoo...


like i said, aint no spring chicken anymore, stopped and soaked my feet in this nice little creek


whew!! thank jebus, finally, old legs are feeling it now...

[dieseldawg142]

back on the Coke heading down into the smoke again...


this guy did'nt quite make it too the top of the Smasher


after last yrs record winter, there constructing everywhere on the Coke. been nibbling away at the mountain to improve access to one of the runaways on the smasher


and there really opening up the chain on/off at the bottom of the smasher. after last yrs cluster schmuck on the hill, i think there really going to clamp down on truckers attempting to run the Smasher in the winter without chains

[dieseldawg142]

remember the burning b-train of 2x4's?
usually when a vehicle catches fire on the Coke, the wrecker drivers just wait for it to cool down then haul it away. with no water for fires on the Coke, it's a long slow trip to bring up a tanker of water, so there aint too many burn saves. they did'nt save the trailer on this one, but they did get some water up to it, still burning after all day


and in the 90 plus heat, i was hauling azz down the smasher, fast enough to create a draft that picked up and held my floor mat off the floor,all the way down the hill...just thought it looked kinda neat


little less paint..

[snj8198]

how's the smoke up there? any fires?

[dieseldawg142]

Originally Posted by snj8198

how's the smoke up there? any fires?

oh man SNJ, this is now offically the worst fire yr on record up here.
in 2 months over 2.4 million acres gone up. and the worst part is most of them are caused by people being IDIOTS. a lot of people have lost their houses, barn's, vehicles, pretty much the opposite of what is happening to Houston. We would LOVE to take some of that rain off Houston's hands....our backcountry literally explodes it's so dry
around where i live we're lucky and only have 1 fire going right now. We have a big lake (Harrison) near us, so water bombers can get on top of them pretty quick, but with our mountainous terrain, it's still a big challenge... and the idiots are a challenge too. some yahoos lit up Bear Creek at Harrison on july 1st. the fire crews told the people camping at Bear creek, Silver creek, and Cogburn beach to evac. When the fire crews went in to fight the fire, they had to stop and put out 3 unattended fires from the campers-like jeez, how stupid can you be?
they almost have it under control now, 'bout 70%, then last Sat (can ya belive this???) some bigger idiots went up there and lit up another fire. it's only been blasted all over the tv, radios, newspaper, massive fines, and they still do this...
just saw on the news, normal rain for july/aug-75 mm (3") this july/aug so far-10 mm (.3")
smoke comes and goes depending on the winds. some of the fires burning are so massive (Elephant Hill, half a million acres) they create their own winds, and when it's outflows, we get smoked.
we just went through 3 weeks of this at the beginning of the month
surrounded by 8000ft mountains and can't see a single one


smoke really made the sun red in the morning, redder than my cam can do..


this is one of our job sites at 1 in the afternoon...


ha! check this out, but it was'nt plywood..
http://www.100milefreepress.net/news...la-southbound/

[dieseldawg142]

jeez, with the humidity it's climbing over 100....we just can't seem to catch a break
much too hot to be in our non air conditioned house, so took the fam damily to Andy's lake up the Coquihalla. took wife's truck too, so nothing but pavement and gravel roads....
when i went to Vicuna last week, there was 9 choppers parked in this field (fire fighting). only 3 today but no traffic so i snapped some pics. looks like (not a chopper expert...) a huey, and a bell 407 and a bell 212


this thing was parked across the street (nice e-brake...lol)


and with the kid, had to once again stop at McDicks. while sitting in the drive-thru line up, this thing rolled up. i got no idea what it is. looks like some kind of redneck road grader rat rod...it had 4 slicks on the arse end, but was gone by the time we got thru the line up...

[dieseldawg142]

the usual puppy pit stop at Hunter creek. sure is low with no rain for a couple months...


just deep enough for dawg to cool off his belly. he's still quite slow from his cancer op the other week


handed the cam off to my son to get a pic of me and dawg. should have known better....


here's what i was really after... (the little turd...)

[dieseldawg142]

Nak and Yak peaks at the Zopkios brake check


we take the Brookmere exit and head back down south again
some nice country, really quiet, did'nt pass no one

[dieseldawg142]

stopped at this little creek so Dawg could cool down again

[dieseldawg142]

was a nice drive till we hit some logged off areas. ya, i'm well aWare we live in wood houses and wipe our butts with paper, but cmon, this is disgusting, and then they go burn about 30-40% of what they don't take. what you see in the pics will be going up in flames come a wet fall. no need to log like this and really is no excuse to be logging like this. europe has been select logging for yrs and they get top dollar for their wood, so their "expensive" theory is just s**t.
sorry, rant over, just hate this...


actually took these down by Hunter creek earlier, but was not going to post them cause of piss-poor logging practices, but what the hay...yup, that looks real scenic for the tourism industry...

[dieseldawg142]

some nameless lakes on the way in


almost there..


last few miles were rough. smacked the front skidplate on wife's truck twice, once real hard enough to get out and check....she of course was not impressed and did'nt like the road....


and here we go, Andy's lake

[dieseldawg142]

one last stop in the Coquihalla river for Dawg


no idea what yr this is, all's i know is i had to slow down to less than 50 so the kid could snap a pic. must be a s-l-o-w go heading anywhere in this...


tomorrow me and the kid are going to hike into the old Ladner creek train trestle bridge on the Coke

[dieseldawg142]

any rail buffs?
there used to be a railroad (Kettle Valley Railway) running up through the Coquihalla, from pioneer days till around '59 or '60 i belive. was just too expensive and tough to keep open, slides everywhere constantly and immense snows, plus a "easier" route threw the Fraser Canyon. there is quite a bit of the old railbed left up here, which is used by atv'ers, sledders, hikers, bikers. it passes through some beautiful country, quite a bit of what i have posted is off the KVR.
me and the kid went for a short but sharp hike to the Ladner creek train bridge today. from the bridge down to Hope has got some of the best features. There is the Othello tunnels, 5 tunnels blasted right threw the mountains with 5 bridges between them over the Coquihalla Canyon, very impressive area. been there many times, we went there today, but there was like 7 or 8 chinese tour buses with about 2 bajillion chinese everywhere....
Rambo First Blood was filmed here, where Stallone launches himself off the cliff

cool old film of one of the last trains to run the KVR. Ladner bridge looks much better then...lol
it starts not too far from my house at Ruby Creek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw3bRlFkJqY

also found some old web pics of the Ladner bridge. old school, what safety lines...

[dieseldawg142]

some more of the bridge

[dieseldawg142]

passed this nice sub on the way out


turned off at Carolin mine, up to Ladner creek


the Coquihalla hiway over Ladner creek

[dieseldawg142]

we have to get up to the old railbed, steep and rocky, but not very far.
up to the hiway


some lose rock at the beginning


then it turns into about a 50 degree trail

[dieseldawg142]

then we hit another rocky area


and some more steep stuff...

[dieseldawg142]

and here we are pretty quickly at the railbed....


here's a big old concrete retaining wall that held up one section of the tracks...

[dieseldawg142]

found part of an old railroad tie


after a quick 20 min hike we hit tunnel #11, on the other side of this tunnel is the Ladner bridge