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One of Friday's trails took us North to the Mid-Island Branch's stamping grounds -
Mt. Prevost and Mt Sicker, the site of the long since abandoned Lenora copper mines.
After gassing up and airing down at the Red Rooster Cafe, we proceeded up Mt.
Sicker Road to the trailhead. Not too far up the path, we arrived at the first
obstacle, appropriately named the Tank Trap. The smaller ’Zukis had a definite
advantage through some of these tight twisties. The big red Dodge earned its
first battle scar as it passed a stump at the start of the Tank Trap. That stump
decided that the Dodge’s bumper required a little tweak as the behemoth passed by.
Tank Trap
A little further down the trail was about a two-foot drop. The skinnier vehicles could
avoid the worst of it by hanging way to the right, but the fullsize Dodge took another
hit as he had to drag his bumper off the ledge. This time, the bumper got pretzeled
almost a full turn. I wonder if the truck's previously arranged sale actully went
through after the carnage it suffered this May long weekend?
Tank Trap Part Duh
Even the Land Cruiser
was popping taillights on the rock ledges as we neared the site of the old mining town.
There was a fine opportunity to blast through a couple mud pits before we parked to
size up the steepness of the Slag Piles.
First up was Ingo in the bright yellow Suzi. His trip up was steady and uneventful,
but after turning around at the top, and starting to crawl down, he got more than
he bargained for. The steepness of the descent caused some unsettling and
unanticipated acceleration, and Ingo caught some air on the lumps at the bottom.
That should have been enough to discourage anyone from duplicating that feat,
but give him credit—Ingo, with his hands still shaking,
went right back up and this time came down in bull low, as steady as, well, a rock (crawler)!
Slag Piles
Les, driving the blue Suzi which sported a week-old paint job, went up next. The fun part
of this hill is the lack of space at the top (about one Suzuki's width) in which to turn
oneself around. After some very careful jockeying, Les was pointed downhill, and
made a flawless crawl back to the flat stuff.
Lunchtime found us at a pit made almost entirely of clay. After playing in the
washouts and then choking down some sandwiches, we proceeded to a newly built trail called
The Shaft. It starts with a knarly steep climb strewn with boulders, and then levels
off in a tight little spot that requires nerves of steel.
On the right side of the trail after you squeeze past some trees, is an actual mine shaft!
It has huge rotting
timbers all around it, but none that would prevent an errant driver from slipping into
the abyss if not careful. The grey Land Cruiser's size made a tough negotiation even
tougher, and resulted in one particularly nasty boulder taking a bite out of the
rear passenger door. There was only one moment of panic when some young kids thought
it would be fun to climb around in the old timbers, leaving themselves vulnerable to
a nasty fall right into the mine. Some quick action by the trail guides saw a safe
rescue and an admonition to play it safe.
No vehicles or kids were claimed by the gaping Shaft this day, and later everyone
congregated at the top for an enjoyable rock-rolling session down yet another slag heap.
Rock Rolling and Truck Piling!
Our route home took us over some logging roads to neighbouring Mt. Prevost, where
we followed the gravel back to the pavement, and then hit the highway back to basecamp.
Many participants amused themselves by creating a truck pile worthy of the 401 during
rush hour, followed by an excellent dinner of burgers provided by the Sooke Lions.
If you have any more pictures that you can add to this trip
report, please send them to IRC
with a note about who is in the picture and where it was taken. Thanks!
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