On Saturday, August 31, Jeremy and I began the journey to the Whipsaw Trail located just outside Princeton, BC. Eric and Imseon joined us at the meeting point at Starbucks in Smokey Point with the sun shining brightly. We arrived at the Sumas border without a lot of traffic, we opted to continue on to Princeton and have a late lunch. Less than a 30 minute wait, waving both vehicles through very quickly on we went. Heading up to the steep hill climbs to Princeton, the CJ started vapor locking (new feature since changing out the gas tank and rerunning the fuel lines). But with pulling over and cooling down, we could move on and get going again.
Arriving later than expected, about 3:00pm, we met up with David and Pattie in Princeton and ate a delicious lunch/dinner. After dinner, Jeremy and I headed to the parts store to look for fuel line wrap. The others headed up to the ghost town outside Coalmont. Two stores later and not exactly what we were looking for we headed out and met up with everyone at the ghost town. We aired down and quickly headed out as we didn’t want to be setting up in the dark. David and Patti opted to NOT disconnect the sway bar yet as we knew it really wouldn’t be needed today.
We made it to Lodestone Lake and found others in the area, so we headed back to an area with big open sky and WOW were we glad we did. The night sky revealed the Milky Way, shooting stars, and Starlink all with no moon. Truly an amazing evening!
The following morning we awoke to beautiful weather, discovered the cabin near by and packed up heading out about 9:00am. First up was Lodestone Mountain. The view was phenomenal!! We didn’t think we would get that high, but basically 360 degree views including a tiny Mt Baker in the distance.
After we headed down, we stopped at the Lodestone Lake on the opposite side from the night before and enjoyed the views then visited a cabin and headed on our way. Crawling up the hills and through the woods all day. Lunch stop at Wells Lake. Stopping to crawl on the rocks and giving David his first taste of rocks. As the afternoon went on, we came across a section of the trail with some big tank trap kind of vibe. Jeremy and I went through it and it definitely put us in the CJ a little off camber and 2 and 3 wheeling. Forgetting David hadn’t disconnected his sway bar, but knowing they are new to wheeling we radioed back. He opted to come through and as it hit the first section, Patti screamed, he screamed and we all remembered he needs to disconnect the sway bar. They made it through, with lots of laughter at the end. Video to come on Facebook.
About this time, the CJ’s ignition is giving us a bit of difficulty and eventually stops turning over. We park on hills (popping the clutch) for a bit and then eventually, Jeremy strips the column down and bypasses it to start. She’s running a little rough now though as the day goes on… not quite vapor locking, but clear the fuel is hot. Thankfully lots of places to stop and take in the views so she naturally cooled down.
We continued up where there was a group of people we needed to pass. As we passed them, David hit a rock hard. And then… he no longer had a working 4 low basically downhill descent became the main feature. We tried all the tricks, turning it off and back on, tried finding where we think the wires might have disconnected, but in the end he ended up in 4 high to run it out.
The 2nd night we camped at Dick’s cabin. We tried the nearby Lake, but as we were checking it out Eric and I both got bit and decided open sky at the cabin was the right choice. Another great evening of conversation and clear skies.
Monday came and we packed up ready to wheel out for the day. Stopping at the cabins and the mine on the way. At the end of trail, we all aired up and headed out. The CJ was doing CJ things and we sent them all on their way so no one would have to wait for us. We stopped in Hope, but they don’t really carry much in the way of older parts. So slow and go until we were across the border (only a 5 min wait) where we found a new fuel filter and a vacuum leak to fix, making the rest of the journey home not so bad.
All in all an absolutely wonderful weekend!!! Pictures on Facebook soon!
Noni Jones