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Quinton Neufeldt photos
Gravenhurst Mud
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Gravenhurst Mud
Your characters for today’s entertainment.
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Gravenhurst Mud
Didn’t take long to find some deep mud.
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Gravenhurst Mud
John finding a line through the ruts.
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Gravenhurst Mud
Did we say it was muddy.
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Gravenhurst Mud
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The rocky surface provides a false sense of security.
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Time to power up the winch.
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It is a team sport after all.
Story & photos by Quinton Neufeldt
Dirty boots and Stuck Jeeps in Ontario’s cottage country
Who says three is a crowd? When wheeling in Ontario’s cottage country, the more, the merrier. However, in this case there were three vehicles that met up for a ‘”nice drive in the country” on a sunny Saturday morning.
In attendance at the Gravenhurst Canadian Tire parking lot were: Brenda and Dave aboard a TJ Rubicon (fresh back from ”Camp NL”), John solo piloting a Grand Cherokee as well as Al and myself in a Jeep CJ7.
The group left the meeting place a little after 9:00 am in search for “Turkey Hill.” The Turkey Hill trail was a favourite of Brenda and Dave’s the prior weekend, so we decided to see what shape the trail was left in after so much use. This trail is located off Black River Rd, north of Hwy 118 in the Hindon Forest area.
It didn’t take long once we were on the trail for things to get interesting. We experienced rocky terrain, steep ascents and descents, lots of mud and some tight trees thrown in as well. With only three vehicles, we made fairly good time through some of the tougher areas. It also helped that around mid-August the trails are slightly drier than other times of the year, so the mud isn’t quite as much of a factor.
Some deep ruts had us unsure whether to straddle or not? However, the ruts had their own ideas. This trail is like a roller coaster and several short climbs or descents at slight off cambers made for a few challenging moments. The off-roading doesn’t get much better and the bugs weren’t too bad either.
After leaving Turkey Hill, we decided to explore where a previously spotted side trail travelled. The Backroads Mapbook showed an ATV trail going into a swampy area, and sure enough, we found the swamp.
Brenda and Dave went first and engaged the air lockers once they started sinking.
John wasn’t quite so lucky with open diff’s, which left him stranded well out in the sea of mud.
After trying to rock it out, by going forward and reverse a number of times, John finally got out to hook up a strap. I had walked ahead on foot to see that the trail only got worse so we had better back out. The light little CJ7 didn’t have the weight to pull back the Grand Cherokee, so we tried winching next. This met with some success, however the Warn 8,000 lb winch was near max capacity so a snatch block was called upon.
The weight of the Grand Cherokee necessitated strapping the CJ to a tree to anchor it from going down the hill. The distance from top of hill to the Grand Cherokee meant that the synthetic winch line was fully extended, so a strap was used to go the extra distance.
Ten minutes later John was out and was back on terra firma. Meanwhile Dave misjudged how soft the dirt was trying to turn around and needed to winch as well. A good while later, we were all out of the swamp with no further problems, and airing up for the trip home. We weren’t able to leave the trail area until 5:00 pm. Guess that’s what happens when you play in the mud. Regardless, we had a nice view of the Black River at the South edge of Black Lake.