One of the reasons we bought our little Honda CR-V this year was to get to some of the more remote trailheads which require high clearance and/or four-wheel drive (4wd). Our destination for this weekend can be reached from three directions, two of which require 4wd. Since we were camping overnight we didn't fancy the 1400-m slog from the valley as listed in the "103 Hikes" book. The eastern approach required driving through an alder tunnel, which I didn't fancy because I'd like to keep our paintwork in reasonable shape for a little bit longer. That left the western approach from Branch 12 leading off the infamous Hurley Forest Service Road. The first 2 km of this road used to be driveable with a regular car but at some point a series of water bars were dug in, so now those folks are faced with an extra 5+ km (and a couple of hundred metres of elevation gain) to get to the lake. Despite a few tricky spots, and scraping the bottom in a few places (not too surprising with five people and their gear in the car), we made it to the official trailhead, joining three other high-clearance vehicles.
There's no doubt that the road was hard on the car - a 2-litre engine pulling that load up a dirt road has to work very, very hard at times and now I begin to see the advantages of a bigger engine with greater torque (and a low-gear setting too). Well, maybe that'll be for the next upgrade. For now we'll be content with where can get to with this one, and enjoy views such as this. Now, if only someone could come up with an anti-mosquito device...
Enjoying the view of Tenquille Lake
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