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Kamloops Snow RunKamloops areaDecember 19 - 22/03 Written by Greg Dave had been telling me about seeing all kinds of trails in the Kamloops area during his work-related travels, so we decided to spend a weekend checking out some of the trails. Lucky for us, Dave has a place in Kamloops so we didn't even have to camp out in the cold. We left the Vancouver area Friday afternoon, and rolled into town around 21:00h. We awoke the next morning to bright sunlight. After a leisurely breakfast, we headed up the paved Lac le Jeune Road, and off-loaded our quads at the start of Timber Lake FSR. The mainline had been plowed, and a slick coating of ice covered the road beneath the inch-deep snow. A quick blip of the throttle spun our rear tires and snapped the rear of our quads around as we took off down the road.   We cruised along the trail, drifting sideways through the corners, the spray of ice crystals glittering behind our quads in the sun. We checked out an unplowed side road, where Dave's ITP Mud Lite's showed their superiority in the snow over my factory tires. Part of the Timber Lake Rd parallels the Coquihalla highway, and we looked across the white fields to see automobile drivers looking over at us, no doubt wishing that they too were on the trail instead of working.We crested a rise and found ourselves in a wide clearing that looked like it was used to load timber onto trucks. We amused ourselves for a while, doing doughnuts and spinning our quads in all directions at speed. After pulling numerous high-speed rotations around a stationary front tire, Dave had to stop because he was getting dizzy. :) The plowed section of road ended shortly after the clearing, but we were able to continue on; I was leading, and was able to plow through the fresh snow through a combination of spinning my tires and keeping my speed up. We arrived at a downhill slope; Dave took the lead and found himself struggling to maintain forward motion near the bottom of the hill. We turned around and headed back to check out some other side roads. The story was similar with the unplowed side roads; we got a little ways in, then had to turn around as we gradually slowed to a stop, our tires spinning as the snow high-centered our skid plates. We headed back to our vehicles, then continued up Lac le Jeune Road to our next destination. As I followed Dave up an incline, I suddenly saw one of his trailer tires bounce and roll down the embankment on the right side of the road. Not good! Fortunately, it turns out it was one of his spare tires and not one of the tires his trailer was actually using, and he had neglected to tie it down (his trailer doesn't have a rear gate). I climbed down the embankment, retrieved the tire, threw it into my trailer, and we continued on.    We pulled in to the Chuwhels Mtn Road, and off-loaded our quads right below the Coquihalla Hwy next to an underpass. This road was also plowed, although it wasn't quite as slippery as the last road. A Jeep Cherokee with a freshly-cut evergreen tree tied to the roof was just heading out as we entered the underpass. The first turn-off was a cell site access road. It was not plowed, and the snow looked fairly deep. Dave thought he'd try it out anyways; he punched through the snow piled up from the plow and got about 30 feet in before getting high-centered. He was able to reverse out, but fell out of his tracks a couple feet before the Chewhels Mtn Rd and got stuck.We tried shoveling the snow out from under his quad and behind the tires, but there was no movement. At this time it started snowing; a few gentle flakes at first, and then in earnest. We hauled out his new orange tow rope and I attempted to pull his quad out of the snow; my tires just spun and his quad still didn't move. We decided to use kinetic energy, so I gave my quad about a three-foot run to see if I could yank him out. There was a slight "woosh" noise as Dave's end of the rope came apart and flew back at me; still no movement from his quad. We inspected the rope; my end was properly woven into a loop from the factory, but his end was merely doubled back and covered with a black sleeve. Poor quality! We had assumed that both ends of the rope were properly woven, and that the sleeve had covered the weave on his end. So if any of you have one of these ropes, you might want to check it out before you actually need to use it. Dave tied a loop in his end of the rope, and re-attached it to his quad. I again did a three-foot run, and suddenly Dave's quad was free. We rode past a frozen lake that was undergoing aeration via a pump station, which was keeping the center of the lake free of ice. A private lodge was located just past the lake, and that was where the plowed section of road ended. However, the plow operater had left all of the plowed snow across the road instead of moving it off to the side, meaning that we couldn't get past that part of the road. It was getting dark now, and we were feeling the cold, so we decided to call it a day. We decided that tomorrow we'd try to find trails located at a lower elevation. The next morning, we again awoke to a bright sun. After another leisurely breakfast, Dave loaded up the Kamloops topo map on his laptop, and printed out a small section. We decided that the area south of Barnhartvale would meet our requirements. We drove out to Barnhartvale Road, then turned right onto Robbins Range Road, then right again onto Campbell Range Road. We followed this mainline gravel road until we found the turn-off for Sciutto FSR, where we unloaded our quads. There are numerous signs posted in this area, warning riders of dirtbikes and ATVs to stay on established trails and to keep off the grasslands. Please adhere to this directive, as non-compliance can damage the environment and will result in trail closures.    Since our elevation was considerably lower than yesterday, there was only about 6-8 inches of snow blanketing the area. We headed off on the mainline, then took the first branch off to the left. This was a narrow shelf trail that wound through the forest; we followed snowmobile tracks and emerged in an open meadow. We headed south up a hill on a different trail; it climbed steadily in the shade of the hill, branched in several directions, and led us up to a ridge in the sunlight. We stopped for a couple of photos, then followed some coyote tracks to their den, a tunnel dug through the snow and down into the dirt below. Dave marvelled at the tenacity of these creatures, that they were able to paw through the frozen ground.  We checked out some side trails, still climbing, tires spinning in some of the steeper stretches, and popped out on another mainline. I say "another", but it might have been the original main road that we were on before; I don't know. This road was unplowed, but had snowmobile tracks on it. As long as we stayed on the compressed snow, we were able to float on the crust, so we headed up the mainline as it steadily climbed. We eventually reached the end of the road, where the snowmobilers turned around. From the litter they'd left behind, we could see that they'd eaten their lunch here. Please pack out what you pack in!We headed back down the mainline, then took a branch off to the left. This ended up being a veritable maze of trails, many of them branching and re-branching. Dave marked intersections on his GPS, and let it track our progress in case we got lost and had to retrace our route. Some of the side trails were quite steep (for a snow-covered trail anyways); I had some difficulty with traction on one trail, and Dave banged his knee when he slipped and contacted some deadfall while trying to push my quad during the extrication process. On another section, I was walking down a steep trail, slipped on a section of ice, and went down in a heap, rolling to a stop. I had the camera, so Dave wasn't able to record this incident for posterity. We found a wide section of trail, and once again amused ourselves by doing doughnuts and spinning our quads around.      One good turn deserves another!  We explored some more trails, heading in the general direction of where I thought the original Sciutto road should be. We found a frozen lake, and had a blast racing, sliding, and spinning across the ice. Dave got a bit over-exuberant, and during one high-speed manoever, he flopped his quad over onto its right side. The roll was slow enough so that he was able to jump clear, and wound up laying on the ice next to his quad. He was fine; we righted his quad and checked it for damage. His front brake lever was bent, as was the right handle of his quad trunk. There was small depression in the rear corner of each of his right-side fender flares, which I was able to pop back out with minimal effort. I should note that Dave was riding with a cast on his broken right wrist, a souvenir from his last trip on Vedder when he executed a high-speed airborn collision with a cliff face, which crushed the front end of his quad and launched him over the handlebars. This is why we wear protective gear! :)  The lake was right next to what looked like the Sciutto road, so we got on it and headed back towards our trucks. We checked out some trails on the north side of the road; one cool trail worked its way down a gulley, but ended at a "Private Property" sign. Actually, the trail continued on, as did the snowmobile tracks on it, but we turned around at the sign. The sun had already set, and it was getting pretty cold, so we decided to call it. We were doing about 35 mph down Sciutto back to the trucks, and the wind chill on our faces was extremely cold. I tried riding with my left hand over my face, which helped a bit but left me with less steering control, so I ended up slowing down instead. We watched three snowmobilers playing near the meadow, then we branched off and took the first shelf trail back to our trucks. The trail looked different in the dark, and at one point Dave stopped because he wasn't sure if he was on the correct trail. We really wanted to keep exploring, but it was getting too cold, and we didn't want to end up lost in unfamiliar terrain at night.Monday was spent driving back to Vancouver. We had SO much fun on Scuitto FSR, and we're definitely planning on spending a few more weekends here to further explore the trails. The entire Campbell Range area has extensive year-round riding opportunities suitable for all levels of experience, and I highly recommend checking it out. |
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