August 17-19, 2001
Before we get to the pictures, here's a post-event letter from the prime organizer on our side of the border, Rick Duval:
The first Canadian Superlift 4xAdventure was held this past weekend, August 17th to 19th, 2001 in Minden, Ontario, and was a great success. Over 120 vehicles and 300 participants rode 8 different trails over 3 days. The people, the trails and the food were all great.
Superlift and Sports in the Rough have already asked us to do it again next year and we've said we'd love to. Our sincere thanks to them for their help, prizes and support including: Superlifts partial funding of the hats; National 4wd's $1,000cdn donation; and Sports in the Roughs generous $2,000us donation to Northern Lights. All three companies are now card-carrying, bona-fide, Northern Lights corporate sponsors and supporters!
These companies are supporting us, let's make sure we keep supporting them!
I'd also like to thank the campers, staff, and owners, Bev & Ken Vivian, of the South Lake Tent & Trailer Park for their unbelievable support during the event. We were welcomed with open arms by everyone there and they couldn't say enough about how friendly, helpfull and clean our people were. When you're wheeling near Minden you've got a great place to stay with "flushies", hot showers and a fabulous beach, that's 4x4 friendly!
Watch in the Wheels section of the Toronto Star in the next 3 or 4 weeks for Paul Fleets coverage of the event and the Jeep Liberty as well as the next few issues of 4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility and Off-Road magazines for Ken Brubakers coverage. Watch the www.nl4x4.ca website for a write up of the event as well.
Finally, a special thanks to all trail leaders from the various member clubs and to the support staff who helped keep my head from exploding. The overwhelming success of this first year event shows what we can accomplish when we work together.
See you on the trails.
Rick Duval
Director, Northern Lights 4x4
rduval@nl4x4.ca
South Lake Trailer Park's phone number: (705)286-2555.
Alright, enough of the yacking, here's some pictures of the trails I ran and the event. Sports in the Rough provided a tent, tables and chairs for eating the 4 meals provided, Superlift had a big tent showcasing their products, National 4WD had a small tent and truck with parts, and Northern Lights had a booth with pamphlets not only from them, but also from Thread Lightly, United Four Wheel Drive Association, and the Ministry of Natural Resources.
(Click on a picture to enlarge)
I found this Cherokee/Comanche with a third door pretty interesting, and take a look at the bumper sticker on the Zuk.
And some people just couldn't restrain themselves and tried to make baby 4x4s.
The trails were in the 5 Points Trail System which has 100s of kms of trails. Most of them were rated as 2-3 which is too light for me, so I stuck to Green's Mountain, rated at 4+, for the first 2 days, and on Sunday went to play on Ansen Mountain, a 3-4+. Keep in mind this scale is based on Ontario trails, if Green's Mountain was in Tellico it would only be a 3.
Friday: Green's Mountain
The first day we had 14 trucks going up. Due to the extreme drought we'd been having, the trails was almost completely dry. This opened up new chalenges, but made the regular obstacles much easier than usual, and the trail very dusty. Each obstacle had a bypass around it, but even the bypasses can be deceivingly difficult.
The first obstacle is a minor one that can be tackled easily by entering from the left side and going up the middle. The ones who wanted to have fun though went to the right and had an off camber entry. We got to see some nice flexing on some trucks here.
This of course is me.
And this is John Farley with passenger Karen Branzoni in Mudlite, they were our Tail Gunner for the weekend.
Next we came to a rockface. Usually there's lots of water and mud at the base making it too slick to even think about, but this weekend was different. All the ground around it was bone dry, so most of us went up the rock.
Now here's everybodie's favorite part of the course, the Superbowl. It's basicly a huge ditch, the entry is a very steep but short slick rock face, and the other side is big rocks, dirt, and a tree in the middle to make it interresting.
First up was out Trail Leader Terry Wagg with co-pilot Shayna Reid.
This is Andy Vatcher in his freshly built-up Samurai.
Jim Bog gave his new Buggy a real test. His truck has a full custom body/frame with Suzuki LJ-80 drivetrain.
As I was saying, some bypasses were deceiving, like this bypass to the Superbowl which had the only mud to be found on the trail, and of course it was real deep.
This rocky 'bypass' was built a couple years ago to keep trucks out of the swampish area next to it. Well the 'swamp' was dry and the rocks used to fill the holes in between the rocks had been spun out of place making this section extremely difficult. A few people still had to try it though.
John bent his tie-rod when his right wheel jammed against a rock and his hydraulic assist decided it would still steer the left wheel. We managed to straighten it back as good as new using both his rear and front winches.
This is The Wedge. Most people went up the big rock in the center, but Jim's narrow LJ-80 axles allowed him to go through the Wedge, with only a hint of fear from his girlfriend Barbara who kept looking at the rocks coming up to reach her.
The only damage seen on this trail were the spider gears in Terry's rear Dana 44 axle. Since this was the last obstacle, he opted to just pull out all the loose pieces and drive out in front wheel drive. Of course, it also helps to disengage the parking brake, right Terry?
Saturday: Green's Mountain (again)
Day 2 was a little more exciting with 20 trucks including 2 Superlift demo trucks, still and video camera crews, and much more breakage.
In the span of 5 minutes and in a 10' section of the trail, the Three Stooges with CJs from ORA broke 2 driveshafts, a yoke, a leaf spring, a u-bolt plate, and a body mount on the first real obstacle, the rockface. Then in the Superbowl a 4Runner blew up his rear differential, in the muddy bypass a Samurai broke his rear driveshaft, and on the way out of the rocky bypass a YJ bent his draglink. Repais were quick and we still manages to get back in camp by 4:00.
Back in camp we had a Ramp-Off wich was very entertaining, and later some trophies and door prizes were given out.
Sunday: Ansen Mountain
Ansen Mountain was somewhat uneventfull. It's a hydro line with some spots to play on. We did manage to find a muddy rock section which we spent a lot of time in. The only damage was Terry tearing off a valve stem.
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