Wheeling at The Alberta Safari Company

[Boar-Ral]

(I apologize for how long-winded this write-up is, but I find these useful for reference in the future.* If you want to skip the write-up, you can view the pictures here and a couple videos here and here.* (You will need to use QuickTime to view the movies.)* The forums are not accepting my inline pictures, due to a problem with how it handles the URLs.)

The Edmonton Chapter of The Canadian HUMMER Club spent September 23 at The Alberta Safari Company and tested out some of the local trails.* The Alberta Safari Company has been used as testing grounds by The Edmonton Journal and AM General, is the annual location for The Tough Truck Competition, and was recently documented by The Discovery Channel on a piece regarding offroad competitions.

Several members were unable to attend the event, and only me and my wife in our H2 and another local member and his girlfriend in their H3 made it.* I coerced my manager into coming with us with his F-150 in case we got stuck.* We were not comfortable relying on the H3 to extract the H2 if it got stuck.

We arrived at The Alberta Safari Company at 10:30 am and met with the owner, who described the area to us and offered to bring out his Jeep in order to give us a general idea of where we should go.* It had been raining for two weeks leading up to the event, and he was concerned that even the Green Trail, which was usually used to get from obstacle to obstacle, would be difficult to traverse in areas.

The first damage to our H2 occurred within a few minutes, and we had not even entered the trail system yet.* I was backing up and turning, and went sideways into a tree I did not see, hitting the mirror directly.* When I moved forward though, I was able to fold out the mirrors again, so nothing seemed to break.* The plastic was not even scratched.* We continued through a muddy incline with only a few inches of clearance on either side, and it would not have been that bad, except neither the H2 or H3 had mud tires, and a couple times we slid sideways.* When we made it to the top of the hill in our H2, we walked down and guided the H3 through, with a couple of us pushing on the side of the H3 to keep him away from the tree.* It was his first time offroad, and we wanted things to go as smoothly as possible, as to not scare him off.

After we all made it to the top of the hill, we continued along to a narrow land bridge that was washed out at the edges, with muskeg on either side.* There were a few deep mudholes on the other side of the bridge that were difficult to get through, but no one got stuck.* After a few more meters, there was a much steeper hill, but because it was covered in mud, the H3 took a bypass.* We scaled it in the H2 quite easily, but coming down the other side, the F-150 was hurrying to get out of the way because there was not enough traction to stop until we met level ground.

The trail continued to narrow, and we came to another steep hill, but it was curved and off camber, with trees very close to the trail.* As we climbed, the H2 started to slide, and came within four inches of* trees on the driver's side.* We backed up slowly, and the owner of The Alberta Safari Company came to speak to me.* He told me that it was instinct to steer the wheels away from the direction that the vehicle was sliding, in order to try to correct.* The problem with this, he explained, is that the front tires spin much more, because they are eating at the edge of the ruts, rather than just following them, and this causes the back end to start to slide as well.* Worse, if the tires do bite, you will then cross the trail, and he in the opposite situation that I was in now.* He said that the key to climbing this slope was to go fast, and to steer into the trail, not away from it to correct.* I was understandably nervous and did not want to lose my mirror, or worse, but he has been wheeling for a lot longer than me.* I backed up as far as I was able to, as I continued to slide off of the trail.* When I was back far enough, I eased into the pedal, and steered into the trail.* It was simple.* The vehicle never slid, though the tires did spin slightly, and we made it to the top of the hill unscathed.* The H3 was more nervous, mainly due to inexperience, and he was helped to back up and turn around, and given directions on where to go so that he could meet up with us further down the trail.

We met up with the H3 again, and the Jeep departed, because he had other business to attend to.* The F-150 was in front, and after traversing a couple 90-degree bends with nasty washouts at the edges, we approached another hill that was steep, but clear of trees for a couple feet on either side, so we all decided to climb it.* The F-150 made it quite easily due to his mud tires, but the H3 needed a couple tries, just because he did not build up enough speed.* I took a run at it, and made it to the top, though my ABS and Traction Control lights turned on when I stopped.* Within a couple minutes, they turned off, so I think that the ABS sensors just got muddy or something.* The owner of The Alberta Safari Company returned with his Jeep and told us that we would soon be approaching a bend that was off-camber.* He did not tell us how off-camber though, and the F-150 went ahead, and saw the bend as he came over a small rise, but did not have time to stop.* He missed the turn entirely and went into the bush.* He attempted to back up, make the bend, and climb out, but the camber kept him in the bushes, and stuck in the ruts that he was making.* The Jeep backed up towards the top of the hill and pulled the F-150 out.* The H3 was next, and I tried to spot him, but this is something I am horrible at.* My goal was to help him make the turn before the off-camber section, and keep his driver's-side tires on the edge of the grass.* Instead, he slid before he made the turn, and ended up in the same location as the truck.* Unlike the truck, though, the H3 managed to slowly climb his way out, even with just the stock tires.* I followed next, and managed to stay near the top of the off-camber area for a few more moments, but eventually slid into the same ruts as everyone else.* Instead of trying to scale the hill like the H3, I decided to go forward, into the bush, and just push some small trees over, because at least I would get some traction there.* After a couple minutes, I made my way to the top of the hill, and we took a break for a few minutes.* Everyone was impressed that we made it out without mud tires, especially myself, since I have been stuck many, many times in the past.

We had been wheeling for about three hours, and we needed to start making our way back to the trailhead, because some people had other plans for that evening.* We followed the owner's Jeep through a few more narrow trails, and made our way to Hummer Hill, one of the obstacles built for AM General in the 1990s.* We spent some time climbing the RTI ramp, but it was too muddy to get very far on it.* Instead, we spotted some mudholes nearby and decided to take turns driving through them.* After that got boring, we found an even deeper mudhole, which ended up making us leave the area later than first intended.* The F-150 went first, and got stuck within a few feet.* The H3 was strapped to him and managed to pull him free.* I wanted to see how far I could make it with my stock tires, and plowed through.* I need to work on using the skinny pedal less, but nothing broke and no one got hurt, so I figure that it was alright.* We made it a lot further than the F-150, and almost pulled out of the hole, but the front end just spun too much in the mud.* (I was also upset that the rear end unlocks at 50 km/h, which* might have been part of the problem, too.)* The F-150 pulled me out, and we made our way back to the trailhead, where we met the owner again and chatted for a few minutes.

By now, we had been out there for about six hours, and were getting tired, so we decided to call it a day along with the others that had other things to attend to.* Everyone seemed to have a great time, and we look forward to going again, next time with more members.

Sorry for being so long-winded, but I hope that you enjoyed!

[Motohead]

nice write up...


I had to eat once and piss twice reading that...

[Arizona Hummerboy]

Nice write up and the pictures were good.

[dochummer]

Great write-up and pics!

[frenzy1]

Nice readin' !! Love the pics !!!

[Boar-Ral]

Originally Posted by Motohead

nice write up...


I had to eat once and piss twice reading that...

hehe! Thanks. I have a tendency to write far more than is necessary.

[DDWH]

Good read and nice pics!