Quads in the high country

[H4831]

I did it, I did it! Thank you, PHARAOH2, for telling me how to post more than one picture at a time.
So, here is a new thread on using quads in the high country, with no, or extremely little, damage to the environment.
In the top picture my retired biologist friend and I camped out at 6,400 feet altitude in the Monashea Mountains for a few days in August. That's me in the picture. Timberline is quite high at that latitude. It was hot weather at lower altitude, but beautiful at this height and a spring of crytsal clear and ice cold water was within easy walking distance. We travelled in luxury, each with his own tent! The clear, star lit skies are unbelievable at that height in the thinner air.
In the lower picture is a group of very responsible quad drivers at an old, abandoned, forestry lookout at about 7,500 feet altitude. The group shown, and some others, worked for about three years, in their spare time, and with the blessings of the BC Forest Service, to rejuvinate an old jeep road to the site. Much of the trail is over alder infested avalanche slide areas, and only people familiar with mountains will realize what a job that was, working by hand, to make it into a drivable quad trail.
Once on top, there was absolutely no riding of the quads in the alpine.
Fantastic views from up there.

 

[Grtwhthntr]

Thanks for the pics. great destination and view by the looks of it!

 

[Levi Garrett]

How did the machines fair at altitude?

 

[Amphibious]

Once on top, there was absolutely no riding of the quads in the alpine.
Fantastic views from up there.

]

that you for being one of the few to show such discretion. great pics, looks like you had a lot of fun!

 

[H4831]

Levi, There was no noticable decrease in performance at those heights. There undoubtably was, but they still ran OK.
I am well aware of leaning the mixtures with altitude, having flown quite a few aircraft that did not have the "automatic lean," feature. If you left it in full rich until 7500 feet, then watch the rpm as it was leaned, you would gain about a 150 rpm. The procedure was to lean it to maximun power, then enrichen it for a loss of 25 to 40 rpm, in order to keep the mixture rich enough to keep valves from burning.
In some high performance snowmobiles of the 1975/85 era, the main jet had to be replaced (to smallear size) once, or even twice, in getting to about 7500 feet!
And Amphibious, there are actually more sensible riders of quads in the back country than one would think, from reading many of the postings on these threads. More and more riders are belonging to organized clubs and they have strict rules, that must be followed. This is our main hope in being able to continue to use quads in the back country.

 

[Mur]

Happy New Year H4831,and good on you.As you say there are a lot of responsible quad riders in BC,unfortunately a few bad apples get all the press.While I am not a fan of government regulations,I'm thinking about a 1-time registration and plate system,at least we could identify the wrong doers! Mur

 

[martinbns]

Any more pics?

 

[northwoodslivin]

Looks like good times we're had there

I want to do something like that one of these days but leave the ATV home and do it canoe style.

 

[Amphibious]

Looks like good times we're had there

I want to do something like that one of these days but leave the ATV home and do it canoe style.

some good spots for that between Wells & Likely off the old road in Central BC.

kayak/canoe right up to the glacier

 

[canuck]

Gawd, I hope to never see that in my haunts here in Alberta cause unfortunatly it seems the irresponsable are the majority.

 

[John Y Cannuck]

Loading an ATV up with a lot of stuff on the racks MAKES you a responsible driver. Weather you want to be or not.
I bet there were a few spots where the riders had their feet out.

 

[H4831]

Loading an ATV up with a lot of stuff on the racks MAKES you a responsible driver. Weather you want to be or not.
I bet there were a few spots where the riders had their feet out.

You got that right! But it was nice to have a few extra things at camp. Each of us has had our share of MINIMAL equipment trips, but it gets nicer all the time to have some comforts.
I'm a ham radio operator, so I had a portable radio and we made prearrangements to talk to some people at 8:00 every evening. Sometimes quite a group joined in.

 

[northwoodslivin]

Point is, you had fun and we're responseable. Dont let the odd #### on this site make you feel otherwise, and you know who you are. If you have nothing nice to say, dont say it at all.

 

[H4831]

Looks like good times we're had there

I want to do something like that one of these days but leave the ATV home and do it canoe style.

It just about makes me ill when I look at Google Earth, and see how our wilderness in the north has gone, over the 50 or 60 years. We once enjoyed real wilderness.
Hundreds of miles of wilderness waterways in the Rocky Mountain Trench, navigable by small river boat or canoe, before the Peace River dam was built at Hudson's Hope in the 1960s. In all those miles on the rivers there was nothing more than the odd trappers, or prospectors cabin, plus two trading posts, drowned by the dam, that had been completely served by river boat or bush aircraft. No road even remotely close to the area.
Even the Nation River and lakes was complete wilderness, again, with just the odd bushman's cabin. Oh, it's all there yet, served by many logging roads!

 

[northwoodslivin]

Ayup, I hear you. There is a lot of logging that goes on in my neck of the woods as well. It's a shame when you think about it. But I guess the wood to build needs to come from some where huh.

 

[leadslinger]

Happy New Year H4831,and good on you.As you say there are a lot of responsible quad riders in BC,unfortunately a few bad apples get all the press.While I am not a fan of government regulations,I'm thinking about a 1-time registration and plate system,at least we could identify the wrong doers! Mur

we have the lifetime plate system here in Ontario,
i assumed it was same all over.
me wrong i guess.

 

[TFunfer]

Looks like a good time.

That second pic looks very familiar... near Revelstoke, BC perhaps?

 

[Foxer]

Looks like any higher and you'd bump your head on the sky

Sounds like a helluva trip

 

[Woodsman]

Great pics! How long of a ride is it from where you started to the top? We have quite a few trails here out east, but no where near the views you westerners get at the top. Looks like a real good time!

 

[cdngunner]

By God, you remind me of Red Fisher.......