Day 1 is a couple posts down. Make sure you check it out!

Day 2: Since Travis’ jeep was making a horrific screeching sound when it did not have the clutch pressed, we opted to leave it behind. He managed to destroy his throw out bearing in the clutch assembly, likely due to water.. but it’s tough to say for sure. He rode with me for the day. With Dallas’ wiring harness plugged back in, and his jeep running well again, the four of us headed back to the trail head with the hope of going to the top of Cadomin Mountain. The other group in our club that was out there with us that weekend had been up to the top of the mountain the day before. We figured being the group with the smaller Jeeps, we needed to show them we were game too.

We took off from the main trail head towards Cadomin Mountain. I had not been up it before so I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I’m always ready for a new challenge. How does the saying go? “It’s not IF you will roll your Jeep, it’s WHEN.” After trolling down a simple trail for a few minutes and bombing through a couple small mud holes, (one of which I backed out of for a second try and promptly ran into Nick’s jeep – dented my tailgate in, didn’t even scratch his bumper) we came up to a really big wash out on a slightly off camber hill climb. The climb was not steep, but the wash out was large enough to swallow a jeep without trying too hard. The trail was just wide enough to wind up beside the wash out which was good for us because we don’t have 40″ tires. It crosses the wash out in one easier spot and travels along the left side from then to the top of the hill. Nothing too scary here, but you often travel with a tire only a couple inches from the edge of the wash out so you need a good sense of where your jeep sits on the trail.

At the top of the washout, the trail forks, and goes off to an easier trail straight, and to the right is the hill that takes you up the steepest part of the trail. I’ll say right now that I was scared out of my mind. I really love difficult hill climbs because of the adrenaline they give you, but the *love* for them doesn’t kick in until you’re at the top. Worse off was my brother Travis beside me.. not having control over a vehicle on such obstacles would be much worse.. placing your well being completely in the driver sitting beside you. The bottom part of the hill has sort of a staging area much like the other scary hill Dallas has troubles on the day before. This hill was shorter however, but just as steep. There is an odd rocky type section at the beginning with rocks ranging in size from a bottle cap up to grapefruit or slightly larger chunks. The rock looked almost like chunks of concrete and made sort of a grinding sound when you drive over it, kind of like lava rock. Perhaps it was a type of lava rock, but it was greyish white.

Bill was leading the pack and took a few tries to get up. I’ll tell you right now that Bill is an amazingly skilled driver.. mixed with a small dose of crazy. He is brave beyond almost anyone I have wheeled with when it comes to trying these sorts of obstacles. He started off in 2nd gear low. He red lined the jeep and headed up the hill with as much speed as his gear would allow him. Once you get up past most of the lava type rock the hill turns into a sheer rock face of shale. It is stable however, so as long as you maintain your traction on the steep part and your jeep doesn’t bounce around you can crawl up it. I recon it would be impossible to climb if there was a bit of moisture on it. He started to scramble a bit at the top of the rocky section and lost traction and had to back down for another try. At this point my heart started racing, knowing my open differentials would need to carry me up that.

Bill did get up the hill, and it was Dallas’ turn. He locked up both his axles and went up first try. Excellent work! Nick’s turn next. Nick is on 33′s and has his rear d35 welded, and an open d30 in the front. It took him 2 or 3 tries with no luck. He was not able to get past the top section of the rocky part as it gets real steep. Bill recommended he air down more, to about 4-5 PSI (which he did), and he made it up next try.

It was my turn and Travis and I were both frightened.. I aired my tires down to about 5-6 PSI each and took off in 2nd gear low. I didn’t red line the jeep though, and lost my speed in the same place Nick did on his failed attempts. As soon as I got up into the real steep section just before the rock face, I started slipping all over… I started to back down for another try not thinking I would be able to make it at all.. I figured I could be winched up, but that would be a very long process as it was a long ways up. I took off again from the staging area again with more speed this time. I redlined the Jeep and gave it all I could. I ripped up the steepest part of the rocky section without too much trouble and made it to the rock face. I thought I was mostly home free once I got there and gained lots of traction. There was still one more tough part though. On the left there is a 2 foot bump in the rock you need to climb up with your left tires. I slowed down a bit to crawling speed in 2nd gear, and hit the ledge with my front drivers tire. It climbed it fine, but when I got my rear tire up to it my jeep started hopping and losing traction much like Dallas did on day one. I kind of got a little freaked out from seeing him almost tumble down a huge hill and I stomped on the brakes real hard stalling the jeep. From there I was winched up the remainder by Bill.. Thinking of it afterwards I barely kept any tension in the winch line once Bill started pulling and I am certain that I would have gone up it alone, but I was shaking at that point and my inexperience with that sort of thing wouldn’t allow me the bravery needed to try to go forward again alone from there.

What a relief it was to be at the top. Looking down the hill from the top you begin to realize how amazing a almost stock jeep is. Throw on some good tires and they will take you places you probably would never imagine if you’ve not been wheeling for a few years. I guess challenging yourself to try harder and harder obstacles is part of the sport, and it’s what makes me look forward to each and every trip I take. The picture to the left is probably one of my favourite pictures of my Jeep. It’s right at the top of the hill at a decent elevation, and you can see part of the mining operation below.

Once at the top of the hill it weaves through an odd half-dense wooded section with a few trails heading in different directions. They all converge again to a quad width trail that climbs up to the tip of the small mountain we were currently on. The picture here shows Bill right on the top. The view from here is awesome. To one side you can see the continental divide again, stretching as far as the eye can see. If you turn around and look past the trail we just came up, there is another trail that weaves towards Cadomin. The trail there is only as wide as a quad as well. The trail turns into a winding trail that snakes the top of a mountain face. It stays much like this most of the way raising in elevation a bit here and there until it reaches Cadomin Mtn. Once you there I would guess you are at about 7200 feet, maybe a bit more… but that’s just a guess based on the height of Cadomin vs Cadomin Mtn.. There was a couple tough little climbs and descents with lots of little rock crawling obstacles and ledges along the way. Most of the way over there is quite “white knuckle”, as you have a tire right on the edge quite a bit. I didn’t find it too bad because I was behind the wheel but Travis says he was quite scared most of the way.

The picture for this paragraph shows the snaking trail on the ledge quite well. I recommend looking at it at full size to really see it. If you look at the tip of Cadomin Mountain and follow the edge of it downwards to the left, it meets the trail where this winding trail heads. At that point there is two fairly steep climbs that look very daunting from the bottom, but once you start up them they are not so bad. There are a couple trails up each one, so you can pick your line. Once we got up the 1st of the two climbs there is a sort of ledge there about 20 feet wide. Enough room for you to get headed in the right direction to head towards the next climb. Up on this ledge with one last obstacle before we were at the top.. Bill’s jeep started making some really bad “gear-skipping” sounds under load. We ended up deducing that it must be something in the front diff, likely the ring gear’s teeth. We ended up leaving his jeep there for the time being, Bill hopped in with Nick, and we went up the last Ascent to the top. Once on the top there is an EXTREMELY scary section that is on a really bad off camber with some large boulders to climb to boot. Making it over this section on a motorbike or a quad would be ok, but in a Jeep that is wider than the trail we opted to walk the last 75 feet or so. Mostly because the day before when the other group was up here one of the most experienced guys in our club (Steve, who has been wheeling for over 30 years) almost lost his life from a very near tumble down the mountain.

Once we huffed it up the last small incline, we were at the *very tip* of Cadomin Mountain. There is three large rock piles at the top from hikers and motorists alike making their mark. We saw rocks scraped with engraving as old as the 1960′s.. Pretty cool sight. We all put our mark on a 4th pile that had started to the north of the three piles. The 4th pile was only about 1′ high. WHAT AN AMAZING VIEW! You can look down on the town of Cadomin. North/east from there you can tell that Cadomin Mtn. is the first main mountain after the foothills. You can see all foothills, and plains beyond that. Turn around and all you see is the Rocky Mountains. Absolutely incredible. Whether you Jeep, 4×4, quad, or hike, I would highly recommend this trip.

We cruised down the 1st descent back to the ledge where Bill’s dead jeep was resting. We spent an hour or better pulling an inner axle shaft to relieve all the load on the ring gear, so he could roll out in 2wd without the sound of gear crunching. I don’t think any of the rest of us would have been able to get out in 2wd. While it is mostly downhill there is still a few tough rock ledges and some touchy uphill spots. We got back to the scary hill and all crawled down it without much trouble, lots of brakes, and lots of 2lo 1st gear. It was a little scary starting the descent but once you realize you have lots of grip and lots of room if don’t keep 100% traction, it’s not that bad.

I took off in the lead for the 1st time of the day after the big descent thinking we were home free. I got to the washed out hill and started rolling down it. Just before the section where the trail crosses the wash out I slipped in and almost flopped my jeep on it’s side. Travis jumped out to assess the damage (he was on the part up in the air), and just his weight leaving the jeep was enough to rock it a bit more over. We ended up having him and Bill both holding the drivers side of the Jeep up while I slowly crawled forward onto the crossover section which was only 10 feet away or so. Later on down the hill I looked up to see the progress of the other guys, and was that Nick had slipped in too! This time it was below the washed out area and he had no choice but to try and drive out of it. There was no way he was going to get away with it alone though, so Bill, Travis and I all held one side of his jeep up while he slowly crawled towards the trail again. It wasn’t working too well and he just kept sliding along the bank.. so he gave it a bit more gas and managed to scramble out of the wash out and back on to the trail. The trail was now even tougher than it was with a nice crumbly edge to help you slide in. Dallas was the last one through and he made it without problems. From there back to camp was smooth sailing..

It was an entire day of mostly white knuckle ledges and hill climbs. While it was an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go back to try it again, both Travis and I had a very significant sense of relief to be off the trail and back on safe ground at the end of the day.

Bill: Broken ring gear (4.56) in his d30
Davin: Dented tailgate

-Davin (Raskull)