I recently participated in the Kootenay Cannonball off-road event for Ford Raptor enthusiasts. It took place in the area around Nelson, BC. Six Raptors showed up including people from Seattle, Spokane, and San Francisco. As in previous years, the event was headquartered at Baldface Lodge - a cat skiing and snowboarding lodge accessible only by helicopter in the winter. The Lodge is normally closed in the summer but is accessible by a rough and twisty mountain road. The nerves got on edge early when we were told that a couple days before our arrival a local lost control of his vehicle and went over the edge. When rescuers went to recover the body, the poor guy had already been eaten by bears! Later in the weekend we had to stop by the organizer's home in Nelson. Everyone was chatting outside when someone noticed some movement in a huge cedar tree in the back yard. A grizzly with two cubs was up there! Besides putting the dog in the house, nobody got too excited. Although one of the U.S. guys looked a little nervous and muttered, "You guys and your bears. You're hardcore up here!"
The weekend involved mostly slower technical driving rather than the high speed runs we'd done before. The first day was cloudy and rainy. The Raptors had no problems tackling the steep and narrow rocky trails. Until one hit a large rock resulting in a flat tire and whacked out steering alignment. The wheel and tire combo that most of these guys run weigh about 100 lbs so changing a flat can be challenging at the best of times. Everyone was very well equipped with recovery gear and they had the tire changed amazingly quickly. The wonky steering made for a little excitement on the narrow trails though.
The second day cleared up but the mood quickly changed when we found ourselves on an extremely narrow, deep forest trail. It was more like a dark green tunnel than a trail. Fallen trees had been cut to make it passable but many still jutted out like a jousters lance making it slow going moving the big Raptors through. The road finally opened up, to everyone's relief. But the real challenge had just begun. We now found ourselves along a goat path cut into the side of a mountain barely wide enough for the trucks to fit on. On the driver's side were massive exposures where a truck would not stop until it had gone down thousands of feet. On the other side, sharp rocks jutted out from the bank just waiting to gouge a sidewall. This meant that in some sections the drivers had to ride up the bank to avoid the rocks which provided a view out the driver's side straight down to the valley bottom. During this section it didn't seem like seatbelts would be much help anyway so every truck's passengers hung out the windows calling out instructions to the drivers - "You've got a good 3 inches on this side!"
We finally reached an open area where we could stop and actually open the doors. The tension was thick and nobody was saying too much. Mainly because the push to the summit was still to come. One driver said he was having some panic attack symptoms so he left his truck and rode in another to the top. He later said being a passenger was much worse than driving. He and a few others chose to take their chances on foot, walking down from the summit rather that ride in a truck. The Raptors gauges showed an 18 degree grade going up to the peak. That doesn't sound like much but it feels like you're looking straight up into the sky. The switchbacks here were so tight that the Raptors had to do a 3-point turn to get around the corner - backing up to within inches of massive drop offs.
There was only room for a couple trucks at the peak but the view was glorious! As we walked around the summit we found a memorial painted on the rock for what was apparently a truck full of kids that had gone over the cliff years ago. The remains of the truck were still visible as a bluish speck at the edge of the forest below.
Here is some brief drone footage of us at the summit:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3zvamqxacx8hv3v/mountain%20top.mp4?dl=0
