David Coley
Camp NL Sundays are Awesome
Written by David Coley, OF4WD Camp NL Trail Guide
From the time of arrival (which was Thursday for me), Camp Northern Lights (Camp NL) is a repeating cycle of drink-sleep-wheel; interspersed by alternating line-ups for food, washrooms and showers. Most people who have attended Camp NL know what I'm talking about. This particular Sunday morning wasn't much different from years past. After shoveling some scrambled eggs down my throat and drowning it with coffee, I met up with my co-guide Brian C. Knowing we only had a couple JK's on our sign-up sheet for the cottage-road-like Bass Lake Trail; we were sort-of-hoping they'd be no-shows.
Show-up they did though; which set in motion a truly memorable Sunday. Both participants had already done some of the easier trails down in Bobcaygeon; but the stock JK had felt a little hairy on Rocky Ridge, which is why they'd chosen Bass Lake this fine day... something easy. I suggested that we do the trail, but instead of following it all the way up to Old Logging or Rocky; we take an early exit and roll back to Forrest Mountain for lunch and watch the big boys and buggies. They were all over that.
A few hours later we were back at the staging area to air-up. This is where “Kumar” (the names have been changed to protect the embarrassed) comes into the story. I seem to recall him hopping out of an SUV; the JK'ers claim he was hobbling down the road... either way he was barefoot, muddy from the knees down and panting like a sheepdog - apparently from hiking 45 minutes out of the bush.
He was out wheeling with his buddy, "Harold", and they had gotten stuck. He didn't know the trail name, aside from the few snowmobile markers he'd seen; and was seriously worried about his friend being eaten by bears; because apparently bears love to eat lone white-guys in the woods... Especially lone white-guys who have been marinating in a water hole for the past hour or so. As soon as he described the water hole I knew exactly where his buddy was - not too far away; and going to help him wasn't just the proper thing to do – likely it was also fodder for some good garage stories to share back home.
We got Kumar set up with an extra pair of shoes and some water. We parked the stock JK and the 4 NL participants hop into the other JK and Kumar hops in with me. We motored back up the road to the trailhead and after 50m or so I decided 35 psi just wasn't working. It blew Kumar's mind when I jumped out and started pulling out my valve cores to air down again. He thought I was nuts until we started moving again. For anyone who's never experienced it before; a 4-door JK on aired-down 35's is like floating on a cloud. Kumar just learned something.
As we arrived at the water hole - I was a bit surprised as the 2-door JK wasn't that far in - barely up to his hubs on the passenger side and the driver’s side was almost completely out of the water. As it turns out, there’s a video, because if there's a new Jeep owner out with a buddy and looking for trails for the first time - chances are 100% that one of them will have a video camera.
The condensed version is this: they drove up to a two-sided hole where, attached to a tree in the middle is a faded white arrow that clearly says “Deep Water” and it points to the left. He went left. Promptly freaked when the water came over the hood (smart); shifted the standard transmission into reverse (dumb) and was able to back out a decent way out before the clutch became useless and enough water made it through the intake to finally shut down the engine.
He had a tow-strap - which would have been great if he hadn't been wheeling alone. He said it wouldn't turn over, not even a click from the starter. A quick look in his air box confirmed a soaked filter and two inches of muddy water. I suggested at bare minimum he was going to need a clutch service to get this thing moving; and in the worst-case scenario, a new engine. Harold was happy just to be pulled back to the main road for a tow truck. We had some interesting conversations on our ride back to the city.
I heard from Kumar a week or so later. The final diagnosis: the insurance company wrote Harold a cheque for his brand new (and now powerless) JK Rubicon, clutch packed with mud, engine hydrolocked, interior full of water and pride diminished. The only good news from their experience is that the bears went hungry for another day.
Did Harold & Kumar learn something? I think so, though Harold says he's not buying another Jeep. I’m sharing this with everyone in the hopes that new off-roaders might read this, join the greater off-road community, and learn more about the sport before they trash their vehicle and give up; not to mention tarnish the image of clubs and federations who preach and practice the principles of Treading Lightly.
All in all, this was an unexpected but fun way to polish off another Camp NL Sunday. Can't wait for NLXI!