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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
Sandy trails are a trademark of the Fort à la Corne Provincial Forest.
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
High water tables means Saskatchewan roads can turn into lakes with little notice.
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
Saskatchewan proves they have some tight trails in the summer.
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
Brandon Orban’s 1977 Bronco may have won the RTI ramp challenge, but lost here to the mud.
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
Carl Dahl’s 1996 Jeep XJ just didn’t quite have long enough brake lines.
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
More XJ’s in mud.
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
NE Off-Road rank and file.
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
Relaxing after a full day on the trails.
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
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NE Off-Road Club
The Saskatchewan Adventure
The shirt says it all.
Story & photos by Ryan Holota, additional photography by Jen Balderston, Cass Rae, Brett Dansereau & Dayna Avery
NE Off-Road Adventure exposes wheelers to Saskatchewan’s off-road paradise
More than half of Saskatchewan, 34 million hectares worth, is covered in trees. The Fort à la Corne Provincial Forest can be found just a couple of hundred kilometres north of the Trans-Canada highway, but the landscape could not be more different from that seen while travelling the Number 1. This region is now widely known for the kimberlite deposits it contains, but it was once the heart of the 18th century fur trade and an important stop in the journey to explore Canada’s west.
Since 2014, the NE Off-Road Club has been organizing the NE Off-Road Adventure through this historic region. The event has grown from just seven participants in its first year to nearly 30 rigs and more than 60 attendees from every corner of Saskatchewan in 2016. When you put on a good show people come back, and they bring their friends. During this year’s family-friendly event, five experienced local guides led trail rides ranging in difficulty from “stock friendly” to “extreme” using the extensive network of logging and abandoned grid roads in the region to provide access to some of the most beautiful trails in east central Saskatchewan.
The campground opened on a hot Thursday in June and filled with people eager to set up camp and get their rigs ready for the weekend. At sunset on Friday the first run began – an open-to-all ride in the dark to get people acquainted with the landscape, the guides, and to test out any recent vehicle changes before the longer, more intense drives occurring over the next two days.
This forest grows in a sandy region of the province – apply too much throttle at the wrong time and you find your tires digging through the thin soil and deep into soft sand beds. A high water table means that areas, which aren’t sandy, are often muddy, and water crossings are frequent. Natural springs along the hillsides can turn a seemingly simple descent into a white-knuckle ride to the bottom of a valley. Fast growing jack pine and aspen trees create narrow trails that grow even tighter over the summer months. There is no cell phone coverage, so bring a friend with a winch… and a chainsaw.
Creeks erode ditches and natural crossings over time. Because these trails are deep in the bush, they often require some 4xengineering to overcome – such as the log bridge bordering a nearly 2 metre drop that was traversed on Friday’s night run. This obstacle – descending a shallow hill, placing your right tire perfectly on two aspen trunks across the creek bed, and then throttling up the embankment on the other side – is harrowing enough for first-timers. Imagine their surprise when the trail ends with a turnaround a few hundred metres later and they are forced to approach the makeshift bridge again, this time with a steep approach and a much clearer view of the precipitous drop beside the timbers.
Saturday saw four different groups head out just before lunch: a single stock friendly and two medium difficulty groups went off in search of tight trails through the backcountry, while the extreme group headed for the river. All of the groups were treated to a nearly perfect June day in the wilderness and a campfire lunch with new friends.
After returning to the campground for supper, the club made a series of draws for dozens of prizes donated by local and industry sponsors. Following the draws a 20° RTI ramp was pulled out for testing and bragging rights. Many impressive builds took a shot at mastering the ramp, but two vehicles stood out from the rest. Brandon Orban’s 1977 Bronco, equipped with an EFI Ford 5.0L and a custom 3/4-link suspension competed well, followed closely by Carl Dahl’s 1996 Jeep XJ. Dahl’s XJ, with a heavily modified BDS long arm kit, was limited in the end not by suspension travel, but by a brake line that was stretched to the limit under flex. Expect a rematch at the 2017 event.
A shortage of rainfall during the spring months meant that a number of the usually muddy obstacles were dry during Saturday’s rides, building false confidence among the drivers. This was resolved Saturday night when a thunderstorm let loose and topped up the reservoirs, turning many of Sunday’s trails into a soupy mess. Obstacles that seemed easy the day before had become tire spinning and winch-straining challenges. In these new conditions drivers began to push the limits of their abilities and their vehicles. Most made it out unscathed, some were not as lucky, but everybody made it back under their own power.
Sunday’s groups also descended deeper into the river valley where they found trapper cabins dating back more than 100 years. Exploring remote regions such as these serves as a reminder of the rich history that we have as a country, and the importance of getting out into nature and experiencing what we all share.
By the end of the day on Sunday, everyone was tired, dirty, packed up, and on the way back to their homes. The 2016 NE Off-road Adventure was a great success. The club would like to thank the many sponsors who stepped up to support the event and the participants who came out for a safe and fun weekend of four-wheeling.