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M.U.D. Run
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A tight squeeze for Jeeps, even tighter for Suburban’s.
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Working through “Ellershouse.”
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Several club members joined the expedition throughout the trip, Jay and his Xterra being one of them.
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It’s called “Hard and Soft” for a reason.
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The group coming out of the last trail.
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Story & photos by James Chisholm
East Coast Wheelin’ the Nova Scotia Way
It started out as a discussion about doing a trail run that was different than club runs in the past. Not an easy run and not stock friendly. Talk turned to a certain “Ultimate Adventure” and an old annual local run, a G.A.C. (Go Anywhere Challenge). The idea continued to gestate and it morphed into a weekend of wheeling and camping trailside.
The gears in Eugene's mind turned in overdrive from the onset of the idea, and we quickly had some routes planned. Before deciding on a weekend, we posted it to club's forum page to gauge members’ interest in such an event. Positive feedback helped us set a date and the only real work left was a graphic for a sticker. A little design work later, it was time for the trail and the only “rule” was this: No Whining!
The date was set for July 25-27. Details were released as the event approached, each Friday morning Eugene posted a tidbit of information regarding the run, clues to the route, and finally the start location and time.
Day 1
We started off Friday morning with five rigs... Tara, myself and our dog Judy in our TJ; Eugene and his brother AJ in the SAR4x4 Suburban; Jay with his 2002 Nissan Xterra; Sam in his 2004 Toyota 4Runner; Robbie and Emily in the 2010 JK Rubicon.
Our first trail, “Big Jones,” winds along a lake past cottages with fun off-camber washout, a few small rock gardens and finishes with a tight winding section through the woods to end on a logging road. The trail is tight in places for a Jeep, but with some (very) skilled maneuvering by Eugene, he managed to squeeze the big Suburban through.
After finishing the trail, and a brief stop at an Irving Circle K, we headed back to the carpool lot so we could meet up with Jonathon and Patrick, driving in Patrick's fully stock 2011 Toyota Tacoma. That made six rigs for the next section of our journey.
Next up was “Ellershouse,” a popular trail with varied terrain. Patrick, being a novice off-roader, and having a newer stock truck was a bit nervous as we headed along this power-line trail. Slow and steady was the name of the game and we navigated through it all just fine. We cut this trail short so we could head into another bordering area. The route was mapped out from a topographic map, and not pre-run by any of us. We had a destination in mind, but unsure if the way was passable. Following the trail on the map brought us to an impassable bottleneck; so a little backtracking was in order find another route. This proved to be passable, but as we went on the trail got tighter, the rocks got bigger, and some off-camber and loose dirt made it an ‘interesting’ challenge to say the least.
It was an excellent day with no major carnage, just the usual and expected pin striping, plus Jay busted a shock on his rear axle, Eugene lost a rooftop marker light and I broke the marker light lens on my front fender flare. Patrick not only impressed himself, but also everyone else on the tight rocky hill. He started the afternoon a little nervous, and finished it on top of the world. Sam learned the virtues of airing down for traction and a smoother ride, and probably would not have made it up an impressive hill at full pressure.
Combined trail/road distance traveled (from our first trailhead to camp) 79.6 km with 33 km spent on pavement.
By the time we made camp it was already dark. Jay decided to go home so he could go to work and Sam called it quits as well. The rest of us set-up camp and had a very late supper. A couple of wobbly pops by the glow of my trouble light and then it was off to bed for a well-deserved night's sleep.
Day 2
We started the morning off right with fresh coffee and breakfast. Both Tara and I were a little stiff first thing in the morning. I didn’t pack the right air mattress and we both slept on the ground. Oops.
Saturday morning, Sam (who didn't camp out) brought Mike and his buddy Doug up to our campsite with a good supply of Tim Horton's coffee and donuts for all (thanks Sam!). While we were packing up, preparing for the next leg of the trip, Tara, Emily and the dog went for a swim in the lake. To start day two, we had five rigs as Patrick and Jonathon returned home after breakfast.
We drove along logging roads of the former Bowater Mersey lands, these unmaintained forestry roads were recently purchased by the province and opened up for recreational use. From here we took another trail through to Pockwock. This trail is an old “road” that dates back to the early 1800’s and was part of the original road from Halifax to Annapolis Royal. The stacked stone bridge supports are still there holding up the newer bridge deck over the river, and plenty of “engineering” was done to the river to channel water for an old mill that can be seen a short walk upstream from the bridge.
Finishing the trail, and driving on our only paved section of the day, we made a fuel stop at another Irving Circle K (better safe, than sorry) and then made our way to the next trail called “Hard and Soft”. It has a bit of everything - rocks, rocks, and more rocks through the one section, then soft mud (at least in the spring) through the second. While Tara crawled the Jeep along, Judy (the dog) and I spent a good portion of the trail walking, taking pictures and picking blueberries and raspberries.
We made it to the end of the trail and once again Sam headed for home (I guess he's not a camper!). Since we live close by, Tara and I made a quick run home to remedy our air mattress situation. Half an hour later, we were back and ready to run our last trail section for the night.
We crossed the road from where we exited “Hard and Soft” and rolled into the “North Beaverbank” trail, which transported us into the Renfrew area. We came to the first MUD hole of our trip, which was still actually muddy at the end of July. And of course, just like my last time here, I got stuck in it. A quick winch back a couple feet, and I was able to slug my way through it. Then Robbie made it through with a little difficulty, Mike and Doug got stuck after winching me back, and Rob & Katie in their 2003 Grand Cherokee couldn't make it through without help.
All the while, Eugene hung back to watch all the fun. When it was all was clear, Eugene took his turn, throwing plenty of mud with his 37-in Krawlers and making it look easy. We followed the trail to where it connects with the Renfrew roads/trails to find a suitable campsite for the night.
We spent another night setting up camp in the dark, but we had artificial daylight from Mike's LED bar to aid the work. After a hard day on the trail - a fire, food, and some bevvies were definitely in order. Despite this, it was about 2:30am when we all turned in for the night.
Total combined distance for the day: 84.9 km including 24 km on pavement.
Day 3
Sunday morning we were up and at 'em, albeit much slower than Saturday morning. Another late night coupled with the consumption of some adult beverages may have had a small hand in our slow pace. Breakfast was a team effort. Tara and I made a small batch of blueberry and raspberry pancakes from the berries I picked on the trail while Robbie and Emily cooked up bacon and eggs. It was a perfect breakfast to start the last day on the trail.
We were in the Renfrew area at this point, an area known for gold mining at one time. Eugene had found a fun little hill climb back when we did our Renfrew Rally. Nearby there are remnants of an old building from back in the gold rush days. In fact, throughout the area there are old mine shafts, and remnants of old houses long since abandoned, all of which makes for excellent exploring.
We stuck to forest roads to our next fuel/meeting spot at, yup, you guessed it... another Irving Circle K, only this time the Big Stop in Enfield. Looking back, maybe we should have approached them to sponsor us as our official fuel supplier.
Here, we met up with Rob Sinclair, a club member in the process of moving to Ottawa for his new posting. We then made our way cross-country to our final trailhead to meet up with Steve Whyte, in his 2000 TJ. It was great to have new people meet up with us for virtually every leg of our weekend trip.
Into the “Rocky Myra” we went. A somewhat long but easygoing wooded trail that ends in the small town of Porter's Lake. Our only hiccup was the disappearance of the plastic bushing that connects the shifter cable to the arm on my transmission. A couple of zip-ties later and we were good to go.
Total combined distance for Day 3: 51.8 km, 17 km on pavement
And there you have it. Three days, eight trails with a great bunch of guys and gals. Couldn't have asked for a better weekend of wheeling. Over breakfast Sunday morning, we were already talking about next summer.
Overall Summary: 216 km traveled from the “Big Jones” trailhead to the “Rocky Myra” exit. In that, we traveled 74 km on pavement and 142 km on trails and forestry roads.
Why do we call it the M.U.D. run? It is a constantly evolving acronym, whose translations include: MisUnderstood Drivers, Mercilessly Unrelentingly Difficult, Major Undercarriage Damage, Mudders Under Duress... you get the idea.