South Western Ontario Aiming For The Yukon

[mdawdy]

To celebrate Canada's 150th a buddy and I are Jeeping from South Western Ontario aiming for the Yukon. Don't know how far we will get but as the bikers like to say, "It is the journey not the destination". Although in this case the destination does have some importance.

The plan is to leave On Monday May 29, take the long way staying in Canada because of our purpose, head north to the Bruce Peninsula, grab the Chi-Cheemaun to Manitoulin Island, round Lake Superior, and be on our way.

Along the way we would like to meet up with any like minded off road enthusiasts, have a coffee and hopefully be invited to wheel on your favorite local off road trail or with your club or group on an organised event. We will have a flexible route plan and schedule so we hope to be able to accomodate any invitations.

Both of our trucks have 33" BFG KO2 tires with 1-1/2" SpiderTrax adapters, RockHard oil pan and transmission skid plate, ACE Rock Rails, ARB deflator, SmityBilt air compressor, SmityBilt X20 10,000 lb winch, Cobra 19DXIV CB radio, class III receiver hitch with D-ring shackle kit, 30' 20000 lb tow strap, tools, spare oils etc, and whatever else. And we are using GaiaGPS on an Android Tablet.

In addition the 2016 Wrangler JK 4-door has 2-1/2" Rock Krawler Flex Stage 1 suspension lift, TrailHead Customs steel front bumper and MetalCloak Diff cover; and the 2014 Wrangler JK 2-door has a winch mount that can be readily moved between front and back.

We are retired guys, each with one full year of off road experience with the London Area Jeep Owner's Club [LAJOC] including a basic club organised local Off Road 101 course, a full day very serious OF4WD Off Road 101 course up on the Canadian Shield, and some additional weekends up on the Shield around Bobcaygeon and Minden mostly rock crawling, first on beginner then on intermediate trails. We are definitely not into advanced trails or deep water. And mudding - well it's OK but rock crawling is not so messy

We are adventurous. We'd love to spend some time on your favourite local trail or with your club or group on an organised event. We are using the Gaia GPS app on an Android Tablet, so if you can point us to GPX files for local trails that would be very helpful.

I'll keep this thread updated as our plans evolve. I may start a FaceBook page for this event but, while I have been a high tech computer guy for decades, I am relatively new to FaceBook.

I have on past holidays been to the west and east coasts and up the MacKenzie highway when it was gravel to Hay River - but that was back in the '70s in a Mazda 616

Thank you,
Mick

[email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/MickDawdy
https://www.facebook.com/London-Area-Jeep-Owners-Club-117304282012253/?fref=nf
LAJOC | Welcome to LAJOC’s New Website
http://mdawdy.webs.com/

[Vinman]

Sounds like a fantastic trip. While my particular Jeep seems to have fell madly in love with jackstands for to past few years with no end in sight, I'm sure there are a few other members that would be more than happy to show you around on some local trails.
 

[hps4evr]

This sounds like a great trip. Keep us posted on when you figure you guys will be through southern Alberta. We have two great areas relatively close to calgary that have many open and legal trails to try. There isn't much for rock crawling but the trails are fun with any level of obstacles to deal with, you guys will do fine. The scenery on our trails will be the icing on the cake.
As you head west your last good chance to go rock crawling will be in Manitoba, there are a couple clubs/groups you can contact there as well.

[morerpmfred]

Welcome to the group. There are some world class trails in southern Alberta. Plus two designated off road areas.
With the current ndp goverment we will be seeing substantial trail closures in southern alberta. Now is the time to check out some of these trails before they are gone forever.
We can not give you gps tracks in these other areas. It is best we show you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mdawdy]

Thank you for the replys. When it is closer to time for us to leave I'll post a rough itinerary and update it as we go along. Lookin' forward to these trails and meeting more Canadian Jeep people 

[mdawdy]

SW Ontario to the Yukon

I have created a FaceBook Private Event where I will post pics and notes at the end of each day - as long as I am near a tower If you wish to meet up us for a coffee, or invite us to wheel on your favorite local off road trail or with your club or group on an organised event, or to just follow the progress of our adventure, then please send me a FaceBook Friend Request. Then in return I will invite you to the event page.

Note too that if I have already invited you, you in turn can invite your friends. I encourage you to do this for any friends who you expect may be interested in following this adventure.

Thank you,
Mick Dawdy <- This is my FaceBook name. You can find me with a FaceBook search

[mdawdy]

Sunday May 28, 2017 Al Bennett and Mick Dawdy left from Brantford and London Ontario respectfully in off road prepared Jeep Wranglers heading for the Yukon. The purpose of the trip was to celebrate Canada 150. We returned about 8 weeks later.

I have completed my writeup about the trip to the Yukon and have decided to post it on each of the FaceBook sites and WebSites where I first posted the introduction. I have written it using MS Word 2007 and saved it as both docx and pdf files.

Since my original post of this summary on my FaaceBook page I have modified the file to include two videos which I had inadvertently omitted - one of a fox running along the road allowance near Sambaa Deh TP, the other a short video of my own Jeep in action with the Thunder Bay Jeep Club; and in the text I renamed what I had mistakenly called snow grass to its proper name, cotton grass.

The files are on DropBox set up so that anyone with the link can access them. Here are the links...

DOCX
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mz0ylxid3eokslr/YukonTrip_Text%26Pics.docx?dl=0

PDF
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4nw2fgc05ehm0jt/YukonTrip_ForPdf.pdf?dl=0

Click on either of the links - they take you to DropBox. There is an option in the "..." at the top right to download the file.

The docx file contains the full text with all pictures, links to Google maps, and with embedded videos, so it is a very large file - 518,115 KB. That is in excess of 500 megabytes, a bit more than a half of a gigabyte. It is the embedding of the videos that makes it so large.

The pdf file contains the full text with all pictures, links to Google maps, and with links to YouTube for the videos. This file is 9436 KB.

If you have any problems accessing or using the files please let me know. I do hope that you enjoy this.

Mick

[Sixty4X4]

I know this is late but that is one awesome writeup guys. If you want a different adventure then try the ice road to Fort Chippyewan and one can go on to Fort Smith. Head in from Fort McMurray. Best times are mid Jan to mid Feb.

[Josh54]

Looks a very beautiful place to ride and have some adventures. Heard how good the Fort  Chippyewan as well.