Winch-Ful Thinking

Tight lines and unforgiving water crossings provided an afternoon of off-road challenges near Dorset, ON.

by

Words and Photos by Quinton Neufeldt

The region south of Hwy 117 from Baysville to Dorset, ON, consists of rugged forests, swamps, flowing rivers and pristine lakes. The area is a mecca for outdoor adventure and it’s especially popular among the wheeling crowd for its relentless - and often unforgiving - offroading trail system.

My buddies and I frequent the trails in this region of Ontario. Scenic and not too far from the GTA  where most of us reside, it gives us the chance to take a number of day trips throughout the season (and even in the winter) to run our rigs, enjoy the outdoors, and take on many offroad challenges that we crave.

On this particular trip early last fall, I met up with a few other friends and we travelled to the Hindon Forest Access Rd. The conditions were warm and dry, which usually means less mud, fewer slippery conditions, not to mention the lack of feisty, blood-sucking mosquitos.

Brenda and Dave were running their red TJ Rubicon, Darrel had his green TJ Rubicon, and I took my trail-proven CJ7. With only three of us in short-wheelbase rigs, we were confident to try some of the side trails with tight trees and rocky conditions.

We stopped to let some air out of the tires at the trail entrance to achieve a softer ride and more grip to better handle the loose, dry soil and stubborn rocks that we were expecting to encounter. A few other wheelers stopped to tell us they were running another part of the area. That’s the beauty of this region. There are a lot of trails to run and escape the crowds.

During the first part of the day, we decided to take trail 28, a marked ATV route. With its long ascending hill scattered with rugged boulders, we all shifted into low-range, low gear and were steady on gas as we worked our way up without stalling or getting hung up on a boulder. Once we all made it without any issues, the trail levelled out for approximately 100 m (about 330 ft) before diverging.

With a choice to go left or right, we chose the latter that led us down into a small valley that had a tight turn at the bottom, followed by an off-camber curve between two trees. This would have been a problematic area in wet conditions but with the drier terrain and our aired-down tires, we made steady progress up towards the next challenge.

Stopping to observe the trail ahead, there were a series of tight corners between trees and a few large boulders. There was also a ravine just off to one side. Regardless, we were presented with several lines we thought we could easily manage. The narrow width of the CJ allowed me to slip easily between one of the large boulders and a tree without too much difficulty. That’s not to say the rock rails on my CJ didn’t get the chance to prove their mettle. Not too far behind me was Darrel making his attempt.

Normally, if a rock is small enough, it’s best to put a tire on it to prevent getting hung up on the undercarriage. Darrel tried this. His TJ slipped off and the rock jammed up behind the front axle. He still had room to maneuver but after several attempts to get off the rock, the vehicle began to tip slightly on one side due to the off-cambered slope.

At this point, a rollover seemed possible so Darrel resorted to his trusty winch. Luckily, there wasn’t any shortage of trees to use as an anchor point and after a quick tug, he was off the rock and out of his jam. Next up was Dave. He decided to try the line to the right of a large boulder and made it around without any issues (he also avoided the spot where Darrel ran into trouble).

Once we were all ready to press on to the west side of the trail network, we threaded our way between trees until coming to an access road. We proceeded around a corner that took us to the head of the next ATV trail (marked 50), which led east.

My Garmin GPS displays most snowmobile and ATV routes in this part of Ontario and since we were familiar with the area we knew it would be much easier to continue on the west side.

When we were about halfway through this part of the trail, we found a nasty, swampy stretch. Existing tracks from other wheelers indicated they made it through successfully. I went through the middle and realized it had a depth of approximately 1m (about 2.5 ft). Darrel tried the bypass. He took a run and used 2nd gear in low range. Even with the lockers engaged, he sunk right into the muck.  After reversing and going forward several times, it was no use and gave his winch another workout.

Luckily, he made it free. Following this slight challenge, we made good progress to a clearing used by the various logging crews and then took a well-deserved lunch break.

At this point, it was now 1:45 pm and we drove along the trail and access road, which was marked 101. This rock-strewn trail is the main route and leads to many side trails to camping and fishing spots. After an hour or so, we were confronted with a large open area of muddy water with some bypasses. I decided to take one of the bypasses and at one point, the front wheels of my CJ popped up after going over a large bump.

Soon after, we came to another long water crossing. Darrel didn’t see a log in the centre of the trail and as he descended into the water, forward progress ceased and he became ‘turtled’. After we inspected his jam, we realized that the front and rear tires didn’t have contact with the ground. However, it was a matter of quick tug from his winch and he was free and drove around the log on his second attempt.

By the time we got out to Shoe Lake Road, it was close to 5 pm. We aired our tires back up and assessed the condition of our vehicles. Everything looked good so we drove south on Hwy 35 down to Minden before making our separate ways home.

See you next time!