Field trips 2.0

[BC witness]

I got to spend the day with my youngest son today, in an area that we've camped, hunted, and fished for about 50 years (he's 52 now)and it was a great outing, bringing back many memories of adventures past. We left early this morning for an area east of Manning Park, and just north of Washington State's Passayten Wilderness. This is on the east side of the Cascades, so much drier terrain than the coastal side, where I live. Although it's a long weekend here in BC (Canada Day), we only encountered 2 camps in over 60 km of logging roads and trails, and only 3 or 4 trucks on the roads, so pretty much had a vast area to ourselves.

 

The highlight was making it in to the remote campsite on Placer Lake via 4 km of challenging 4x4 trail, which my son hadn't seen since he was about 8. The H3 handled the rough trail easily, and we had our lunch there before heading out onto more of the 100's of km of logging and mining roads in those mountains. In the past I've seen many mule deer and bears in the area, even a couple of moose and a mountain goat, but today all we saw was 1 grouse, a few chipmunks, and some ground squirrels.

 

The only glitch for the day was the H3 refusing to start after turning it off at one of the viewpoints, 20 km from pavement. It would crank over, but not fire up. This is only the second time it's happened in the 3 years I've owned it, but I know the cure to bypass this anti-theft feature, known as "passlock" , so a little patience got it going again. The trick is to turn the key on to power, but not start, wait at least 10 minutes, then turn to start, and it runs. Apparently, many GM vehicles are prone to this glitch as they age, so it's annoying, but not too hard to overcome.

 

WE were back home at 9:30, after stopping in Hope for a nice dinner, tired and dusty, but happy to have had the day out together.

 

 

 

 

 

[norseman]

14 hours ago, BC witness said:

I got to spend the day with my youngest son today, in an area that we've camped, hunted, and fished for about 50 years (he's 52 now)and it was a great outing, bringing back many memories of adventures past. We left early this morning for an area east of Manning Park, and just north of Washington State's Passayten Wilderness. This is on the east side of the Cascades, so much drier terrain than the coastal side, where I live. Although it's a long weekend here in BC (Canada Day), we only encountered 2 camps in over 60 km of logging roads and trails, and only 3 or 4 trucks on the roads, so pretty much had a vast area to ourselves.

 

The highlight was making it in to the remote campsite on Placer Lake via 4 km of challenging 4x4 trail, which my son hadn't seen since he was about 8. The H3 handled the rough trail easily, and we had our lunch there before heading out onto more of the 100's of km of logging and mining roads in those mountains. In the past I've seen many mule deer and bears in the area, even a couple of moose and a mountain goat, but today all we saw was 1 grouse, a few chipmunks, and some ground squirrels.

 

The only glitch for the day was the H3 refusing to start after turning it off at one of the viewpoints, 20 km from pavement. It would crank over, but not fire up. This is only the second time it's happened in the 3 years I've owned it, but I know the cure to bypass this anti-theft feature, known as "passlock" , so a little patience got it going again. The trick is to turn the key on to power, but not start, wait at least 10 minutes, then turn to start, and it runs. Apparently, many GM vehicles are prone to this glitch as they age, so it's annoying, but not too hard to overcome.

 

WE were back home at 9:30, after stopping in Hope for a nice dinner, tired and dusty, but happy to have had the day out together.

 

 

 

 

 

We used to pack mules into the Pasayten wilderness. One year my packing buddy and I were Mule deer hunting in there and when we got up it was snowing hard and when we met back up at noon at camp there was about 3 feet of snow on the ground and no let up. We struck camp and loaded the mules and bucked about 4 feet of snow over the pass to get back to the Chewack river. I believe the area we was in was called Spanish camp. Big open high country.

 

Fun times.

[BC witness]

One of my favourite areas in the vicinity is the top of Placer Mt., which looks very much like your photo above. While camping up there one fall hunting mulies, we had a similar snowstorm, dropping over a foot overnight, and we'd struggled to get up there in my buddy's 2wd camper van on dry roads the day before, so it was a white knuckle drive back down the steep trails. On another camp trip up there on the Canada Day (July 1st) long weekend, about 30 years ago, it snowed 4" overnight, but luckily melted by noon the next day. I love that high country, in spite of it's challenges.

 

I've hunted the headwaters of the Pasayten River several times, right at the Canada/US border, and once harvested a large black bear boar on the Canadian side of the border that had a US F&W radio collar, which I hadn't seen before the shot. I reported it to Wa. F&W, and they requested I send the collar to them, which I did. A few months later, I got a letter from them with their tracking data for that animal, and a cheque for $20. !

Edited July 4, 2023 by BC witness

[norseman]

2 hours ago, BC witness said:

One of my favourite areas in the vicinity is the top of Placer Mt., which looks very much like your photo above. While camping up there one fall hunting mulies, we had a similar snowstorm, dropping over a foot overnight, and we'd struggled to get up there in my buddy's 2wd camper van on dry roads the day before, so it was a white knuckle drive back down the steep trails. On another camp trip up there on the Canada Day (July 1st) long weekend, about 30 years ago, it snowed 4" overnight, but luckily melted by noon the next day. I love that high country, in spite of it's challenges.

 

I've hunted the headwaters of the Pasayten River several times, right at the Canada/US border, and once harvested a large black bear boar on the Canadian side of the border that had a US F&W radio collar, which I hadn't seen before the shot. I reported it to Wa. F&W, and they requested I send the collar to them, which I did. A few months later, I got a letter from them with their tracking data for that animal, and a cheque for $20. !

I had hound buddies. They would keep that radio collar and tune their yagi antenna to that frequency. Naughty. I never did it.  Then they outlawed hound hunting all together in Washington.

[wiiawiwb]

The two of you share beautiful country. Very remote where you can have vast areas of wilderness to yourselves. Clearly, large enough, with options to go in all four directions, that locating a saquatch is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. They'll have to come to you by announcing that you're around.

 

Those of us in less remote areas must focus on land features that might be an attracting point, such as a pond or other water source. 

 

How do either of you narrow down the search area you choose for that particular outing?

[BC witness]

@wiiawiwb I check reports of sightings, then do as you say above, look for sources of water and food. I'm fortunate to have Thomas Steenburg as a friend, who has the knack for hearing about sightings in our area and following up with excellent interviews, as well as researching historical encounters. The local first nations people are also a huge resource of lore, and Thomas has a way of gaining their trust, hearing of stories that are never general public knowledge.

 

 

[wiiawiwb]

Thomas would be a very good source to have as he has developed an outstanding reputation over the years.

[norseman]

11 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

The two of you share beautiful country. Very remote where you can have vast areas of wilderness to yourselves. Clearly, large enough, with options to go in all four directions, that locating a saquatch is akin to finding a needle in a haystack. They'll have to come to you by announcing that you're around.

 

Those of us in less remote areas must focus on land features that might be an attracting point, such as a pond or other water source. 

 

How do either of you narrow down the search area you choose for that particular outing?

Well for starters the Paysaten is right on the edge of where the Memorial Day footage was filmed. So reports and things like that. I also look at place names. I.e. Skookum lake, Devil’s canyon. And lastly I hunt and fish so I just go enjoy the outdoors and if it comes it comes.

[norseman]

Just found this video. Very germane to the topography being discussed.

 

 

 

 

[BC witness]

Disasterous field trip attempt!

 

My youngest son, Rick, and I headed out Saturday morning for a 3 day trip through some high country with multiple small lakes, about 300km from home. We were going to camp at each of the lakes on successive nights, and come home Monday afternoon, as that's a holiday (BC Day) here. As soon as we left pavement and started climbing towards the first lake, the H3 overheated. A bit of checking showed that the fan clutch was not engaging when it should, so we decided to go the 20 km back to the hwy and cel reception, and call around for a replacement. The nearest town, Princeton, didn't have one, but said their branch in Kelowna did, and we had about 4 hours to make the 175 km trip before that store closed for the long weekend. Since the H3 was running just a little hotter than normal at hwy speeds, we decided to go for it.

 

All went well for 90% of the trip, but just 15km from the parts store, while climbing a 2 km grade with barricades along the sides, the temp spiked, and I couldn't pull off in 100km/hr traffic till a pullout near the top, and the engine rattled, blew a cloud of blue smoke, and seized as i turned into the pullout. It's toast.

 

Time to call BCAA, who inform me that I'd used all my tows for the year, and a paid tow back to my home would run about $1400. My daughter is also a BCAA member, and still has tows available, but she needs to be at the site to show her card before the tow driver will hook up. She agrees to come out to do it, but it's a 300+ km run, and BCAA says their driver could be there at 8 AM Sunday, so she was up at 4 AM to make the drive up, and haul us back home. She arrived at 7:30 Sun. AM, the tow came at 8 as promised, and all was good, except the tow would only be to the local yard until they had a long haul driver available on Monday or Tuesday. The tow arrived at my home at 1:30 Monday, now I just have to find a shop to rebuild or replace the engine. The 3.5L I5 engine is ridiculously expensive, so I may wind up doing a 5.3L LS3 swap instead. Either way, it'll be a while before my off road warrior is ready for battle again.

 

Rick and I spent Saturday night camped at the pullout, where we broke out the camp stove and cooler. He cooked up our steaks and made salads, while I was on the phone making all the necessary calls for help. Since we were no longer driving, we also finished off my 6 pack of cider and most of his bottle of vodka, then tried to sleep in the truck, in 35C heat, with traffic roaring by, with coyotes and cicadas going crazy in the brush all around us. We did manage a few hours of rest, and were up at 6 to cook breakfast and make coffee, but the valley was full of smoke from distant wildfires, so we could hardly see the beautiful local scenery. The second photo is the smoky Sunday sunrise.

Edited August 7, 2023 by BC witness

[norseman]

So sorry! Losing an engine stinks!

[wiiawiwb]

What a terrible series of events.  I hope you'll be able to get your H3 back in business as soon as possible with the least amount of capital expended.

 

You made a wise decision to head back to order the part.  Had you continued on your journey and the engine seized, you would have been out of cell service and in a real jam.  All of us are one accident, misstep, or equipment failure away from an ugly, or even a survival, situation.

 

BC - do you have and carry a satellite communicator such as a sat phone or Garmin InReach?

[Huntster]

13 hours ago, BC witness said:

Disasterous field trip attempt!.........

 

Been there, done that, multiple times. Since 2006, I've had a $950, an $1150, and a $650 tow bills. Thankfully, the only engine I wasted still got me home many years ago. One of those tow bills was due to a blown tranny in my F-350, though. That was a $5800 repair.

 

These things seem to happen on Friday evenings or on Sundays when somebody who can help isn't available............

 

5 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

........do you have and carry a satellite communicator such as a sat phone or Garmin InReach?

 

I now carry a sat phone along with a personal locator beacon in my pocket when in the woods. Two of the breakdown locations I needed a tow from were on well traveled highways in cell phone dead zones.......both times were before I bought the sat phone. 

[gigantor]

On 8/7/2023 at 6:40 PM, BC witness said:

I may wind up doing a 5.3L LS3 swap

 

That's the way to go if you can pull it off. Sorry you lost your engine...

 

An LS3 with some cheap upgrades can make a lot of power.

 

[BC witness]

wiiawiwb, I carry a Zoleo satellite device, and have had to use it once, back in January when I got stuck 12km off the main FSR in deep crusty snow. I called out at 4:30, and the 4x4 rescue group had me out by 11:30.

 

gigantor, I've just spent a few hours on the Hummer engine swap group page, and though the LS3 can be bought cheaper than the I5, there are MANY extra parts that have to be sourced or modified, so I'm waiting for a quote on a good used I5 and labour to install.