SEP/OCT 2010

Conquering Kinuseo Falls Road

by Deny Chramosta

This adventure actually begins in British Columbia a few years ago, when we first heard of the old Kinuseo Falls Road and how Kinuseo Creek had washed it away—and all the bridges had been removed. We tried the first, most western crossing during a trip in July of 2007, only to have Dave Harris, from Prince George, in his SOA BJ60, stuck axle deep in wet quicksand adjacent to the creek. That year had extremely high snow packs and made us decide that if we were to attempt it again, we would try later in the year, hoping it would be dryer and the creeks would be lower.

Locals had mentioned to us that this old road was impassable, as the majority of the road had been washed away by the creek and that only quads could make it (since they had cut a long path through the trees, around the major washouts). We were not going to give up quite yet, as I can’t count how many times in the past we have run into quadders on a crazy trail only to be asked how we got there—so we knew there was still hope for this old road. This trail was no different. In fact, many of the crossings we completed hadn’t seen quad traffic for a long time, because even their trails down to the creek crossings had washed out and we had to do a bit of trail building to get through.

Fast forward a bit and my brother Jim Chramosta and his wife Lindsay were aiming to take their 11 month old son John on his first camping/wheeling trip in their 1981 SOA BJ60. They had been itching to go wheeling (as well as to explore the beautiful Tumbler Ridge area) ever since they moved north. The two haven’t been wheeling for a few years due to Jim’s lack of truck maintenance and thus they had never prepared their truck for such a trip. Even for this trip, Jim had to replace two broken front springs during the week before we departed and as we were leaving, he stopped at my place to weld three pieces of scrap metal I had lying around to fix up his frame. Little John did well on this trip and I am sure he had almost as much fun as his parents.

Near the beginning of the trail, I almost flopped my BJ42 on its side in a washed out cross ditch. I tried to take a route that we had thought might be easier for the longer wheelbase trucks but this decision soon had me winching out of my predicament. We opted to get the shovels out and hit the ditch head on, as well as laying a few logs across the gap to help us cross, and we quickly made it through without any other incidents.

Our northern birds (the mosquitoes) did well to pester us all weekend, especially during our brush clearing of an old quad access to the major creek crossing through a low, wet area. Luckily, the last day was slightly breezy, which kept the big pests from driving us crazy.

Many creeks were crossed on this trip, and although none of them were very deep, approximately five of them were deeper than my 36" Swampers. At one of the crossings, where I was coming back to help out a buddy, I acted too quickly, took a wrong line and started spinning out in the soft river bottom—while my hood was under water. Before water started to rush into the cab, I grabbed reverse and with the help of the current, backed out, then took a better line. The most challenging crossings were encountered when we actually had to follow the creek around two bends in order to find our way through two major washouts. We continued fording back and forth across the creek while avoiding the deep holes until we found the old road again.

My buddy Adam Thomas, driving his 1979 Bronco, has had a string of bad luck in the Tumbler Ridge area and was finally rewarded with a fairly problem free trip. He did, however, blow his rear drive shaft u-joint while busting a doughnut on an old abandoned saw mill log shavings pile...

Kinuseo Falls offers a rewarding view and a satisfying finish to a long weekend of wheeling.
Photo by Deny Chramosta

The water swallowing up 36" Swampers, as they desperately fight the current and hold on to the loose, rocky creek bottom. Photo by Adam Thomas

Deny Chramosta’s BJ42 winching through the first major washout on the trail (some road building would be required to get the more stock trucks through this area).Photo by Jim Chramosta