Winter Overlanding Overnighter Disaster

I thought I’d post this trip up in a separate thread from my Adventures thread here…. In the hopes that it could be a learning experience for everyone, and yes that includes me

this trip report will take many days to write up and post photos. Please be patient - it’s worth it.

quick summary before I post the entire trip report:

we left in -20C weather , sunny , but high windchill down to -30 C

the goal was the old BC Ranger Cabin , well up the Nathatlatch FSR , outside of Boston Bar BC Canada . My buddy, his 7 year old and I were planning to camp in the cabin overnight.

My firewood plan was to drag multiple timber logs from the logging landing way past the cabin, with my Jeep , and buck / split them all up into a cord of firewood , to feed the wood stove all night . Because the temps by the lake were -30 C

things went smoothly up until KM 16 of the FSR.

I’ll have much more trip report soon

here are a few photos to tide you all over




More to come.

let’s just say at one point , in -30 C temps , things took a turn for the worst . BUT, we adapted, improvised and overcame . It was an extremely stressful, anxiety ridden 6 hours. But things changed for the better , for a measly 20 minutes. Then SHTF again. And again. And again . I really f****** up on this trip.

I’ll have more trip report as I can get free time

 

The drive up the Fraser Canyon was normal , brutally cold winds, bad truckers driving erratically, idiots speeding on black ice.

due to the jeeps poorly designed thermostat , the engine runs cold. You can’t swap out the thermostat for a higher temp one, it’s got a housing / thermostat combo - you replace the entire assembly.
So no heat the entire 250 km drive in -25 C temps. Feet frozen , fingers frozen , body frozen etc. Not to mention the insane amount of fuel consumed too.
Normally in summer I can fill the tank with 125 liters of diesel , and go over 200km before the needle drops to the FULL mark

by the time I drove from Vancouver to Boston Bar BC, I had used a HALF TANK of fuel . Normally I get 900 KM’s on a full tank.

My buddies car was having heat issues too . As in no heat . -25 C temps plus moving at 100 KM’s hour, figure out the windchill.

We got to Boston Bar, diverted onto the Nahatlatch FSR and started the drive into the mountains .


And at KM 15 of the FSR , it was blocked .
Massive logging operation . It’s an industrial FSR , so the logging companies have priority, including the right to completely block the FSR

Chatted with the loggers , they said they would be done by 1430 hours . It was currently 1000 hours .

we turned around , went to the closed provincial campsite back down the road and got a fire going.

a campfire does Jack **** when it’s breezy , -30 C , and damp.

broke out the Husqvarna, warmed it up , got ready to buck up a half cord of dead dry wood from the many available logs on the ground.

chainsaw clutch blew out.

no chance of field repair .

now we were fubared. 4 hours plus to go until the FSR re-opened, no chainsaw to cut wood for the camp fire.

buddy had an axe. Said it was a big one and sharp . Ok awesome. We’ll still get some firewood and warm up chopping the logs up

it was a Home Depot axe. Cast steel. Dull as a round river rock.

i didn’t bring my GB SFA or my felling axe because buddy said he was bringing axes.

so for four and half freezing hours, we wandered around , dragging small logs and sticks to the fire, using one of my 6 x 20 litre jerry cans and a drip hose to drip diesel onto the fire , to try and stay warm.

the entire time his kid was bored, babbling about nothing, irritating my buddy , buddy was asking me a 1000 questions, I was so cold I couldn’t answer, he suggested we pile logs on my roof rack , for the cabin.


Yea - the plastic rails support 100 lbs. I have a Pelican crate on the rack with recovery gear weighing 100 lbs already . Not putting logs on my rack

On and on and on it went.

finally at 1500 hours the FSR reopened .

we drove past the log landing and headed up the FSR towards the cabin

Or so we thought….

 

One KM past the log landing , was a big tree across the road .

No chainsaw, and my Silky BigBoy 2000 handsaw was having none of the frozen log - like trying to saw thru a rock .

buddy was looking stressed, his kid was asking how long to the cabin ? And I was stressed. And cold.

the tree top was lodged in between two large tree, and the root ball was lodged against a big boulder.

I decided to try something, seeing as the tree (14” diameter) was frozen solid.

hooked my logging drag / choker chain around the tree in the middle . Attached the logger chain to a nukeproof recovery point on my Jeep.

the idea was to shock the tree via a hard pulling impact force, to crack itv in the middle.

4WD Part Time mode, center diff locked, transmission in crawler mode

well lo and behold that tree cracked perfectly in half. I dragged it into the ditch , dragged the other half into the ditch and onto the cabin we went.

it was cold enough that trees were exploding in the forest. Quite the sound

 

We got to the cabin .

unpacked the gear.

inside of the cabin was -25C

I took my 100,000 BTU propane tiger torch and warmed the wood stove / chimney HOT.

buddy split firewood , loaded the stove , I lit it with the torch. Fire roaring .

but past experiences in this cabin…. It takes minimum 5 hours to heat the cabin hot .

still, we keep feeding the fire.

I’m looking at all the firewood my buddy brought, plus the small amount left at the cabin…. And again the anxiety creeps in….

we’re here all night, and half of Sunday.

im thinking we are not going to have enough firewood for the night.

and with my chainsaw fubared….yea.

the kid is cold, im cold, buddy is cold. Tempers are “arising”

buddy asks, so we staying or what?
Well yeah, it’s 300 KM’s back to home.

ok

he sets up his inflatable mattress , sleeping bags for him and the boy.



I’m lighting all 5 of my big DIETZ kerosene lanterns for light and extra heat.



its frikking cold .

3” thick ice on the massive lake

wind picking up

we bring the vehicle batteries inside , put em behind the stove to keep warm. Thinking the vehicles would start no prob the next dat


Boy were we wrong…. More on this later

after 6 hours the cabin is warm enough to remove our jackets.

I start on homemade pasta sauce and pasta for dinner. Pre prepped ingredients, onions, loads of garlic, herbs, tomato’s, Italian sausages, ground beef, seasonings etc, all cooked on the TemboTusk Skottle.






It was epic. I ate 3 mess tins worth , my buddy ate two plates worth . The boy ate a few bites and was “full” . Seemed to have room for endless potato chips though.

are you freaking kidding me?

whatever, I know I know camping is supposed to be fun and full of junk food.

I ended up packing about 4 plates of leftover pasta in the GSI aluminum Dutch oven, wrapping it with aluminum foil and freezing it outside , for my buddy to take home



I finally relaxed enough to crack a Reeb open and enjoy it.

 

More to come

 

how bad did his car get damaged when the snowpack slid off the roof?

 

Damn, sounds like it could have taken a turn for the worse!

 

@Arpina23

 

Crazy Canadians

 

Reminds me of a Holiday Inn Express Stay in North Conway, New Hampshire.

 

snow stayed on roof and didn’t budge

Subaru Forester AWD.

FSR is well maintained for 29 KM’s by one of the local residents (has a huge grader with front blade ) . Easy driving

 

More:

after dinner we all relaxed a little better. Cabin was hot enough now that jackets and gloves were removed , cold Reebs enjoyed .

kid kept leaving the door open and going in and out, driving his dad nuts. He finally tuckered out and went to sleep.

I went for a rip in the Jeep, to test out the dinner plate sized lights at night






I had kept track of how many rounds of wood o fed the stove every hour. Looking at the pile of firewood buddy brought, I figured we would actually be alright , now that the cabin was warm and the fire well banked up and established. In any case I had 20 lbs of charcoal briquettes I could add if we ran out. Those babies burn HOT . Plus the Dietz lanterns burns solid 12 plus hours on a tank of kerosene , and provide decent heat too

All night long the forest was alive with sounds of trees exploding from the cold. The lake ice also had interesting sounds as cracks shot across the lake before freezing again.

Buddies kid tossed and turned in his sleep all night , kicking his dad and driving him nuts.

I was TOASTY warm in my HotCore FatBoy 400 sleeping bag. I still woke every 1.5 hours to throw a log on the fire . 4” air mattress kept me isolated from the cold floor

Trillions of stars above in the dark sky. Coyotes, foxes, wolves running across the ice all night, yipping, howling .

Woke up in the morning. Kid was complaining about having to go to the bathroom. That’s what you get when you hold it in buddy! Dad walked him up the ice cold -30 C pit toilet outhouse.

Dietz lanterns still going strong after 12 hours



I made breakfast on the Skottle , fancy hash browns, maple syrup sausages .



We still had a few hours before the FSR would be open for the return drive (logging operations 0600 - 1330 hours) . Squared away gear, took notes on what repairs / supplies the cabin needed . Got the fire roaring hot again.

when I say it was cold outside , I mean it was cold. Hoar frost 3” long covered the ice. When the wind blew , it sounded like a million crystal chandeliers tinkling in the breeze.



stress cracks on the ice due to the cold




about an hour to go before the FSR reopened. Time to start the vehicles and let them warm up

more

 

It got real bad right about then.

more……

 

You need to teach the boy about the value of an empty Gatorade bottle

 

Wasn’t pee he was holding in

His dad was just happy the kid didn’t crap himself in the middle of the night

 

Ah yes.. thats an advanced move forsure and shouldn't be attempted by beginners ! All BS aside I'm glad you made it home broski

 

I think we’ve all had this (ahem) ..fun experience with a “friend” at least once. Good on ya for soldiering thru and not going into berserker mode.