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took the m37 out for a day of wheeling and exploration to mt sheer and the old Britannia mining town. http://goo.gl/maps/WWqqj
it was lightly raining when we left the yard at 9am and by the time we hit the sea to sky hwy (an hour latter) it was pouring. visibility was poor and the wipers were not up to the task. the problem was compounded by the 60yr old glass that has more wrinkles than my body work(only about 3 inches of the 10 inch blade makes contact with the glass).

unfazed by the conditions i put my foot to the floor and used the chatter bumps to keep her in the lane. (there's nothing like driving by braille )
hit the gravel and locked the hubs. after an hour on main forest service roads. i got to the turn off (i had scoped the weekend before in my 510) to find a excavator blocking the way. we found a fun way, through tank-traps that were so steep the running boards lost paint and the bumpers plowed. after some crazy off camber, over log action we reached a swollen creek. i slowly approached the ford and dipped the front end in. i chickened out right before the front hub was completely submerged in the white raging torrent. the only other way across was a dilapidated bridge with a fresh max load sign saying 3000Kg . with 500lb of leeway i crossed the bridge and made it hear :

we checked out a bunch of trails then headed for the top of the mountain,


and that's were the story ends, just like the batteries in my camera. "if you don't have pictures it didn't happen!"

WOW, Nice Trip!

awesome thanks for sharing bring spare batteries next time!!!

Cool trip, it was a lengthy one too. I have yet to drive my 53 in the rain, just call me chicken.................

Great Stuff, Thanks for the report.

MM

That kind of territory sure looks familiar. It looks just like the kind of places my wife and I used to take my truck.

I'm just south of you on the U.S. side of the border, outside of Seattle.

The DNR has closed all the forest roads in the 3 county area around Seattle and there is no way to get out in the woods anymore to go 4 wheeling around here. You have to drive at least 100 miles on freeways before you can even get near an open forest road.

That sure looks like fun. I wish we could still do that down here.

52 M-42

Excellent pictures, I wish we had areas like that to explore around here.

Bert

Cool pics! As for driving in the rain, I've gotten caught several times this year, the worst was a thunderstorm with torrential rains and water running 1-2" deep on the road. Having heard the horror sorties about NDTs on wet pavement, I took it easy. Actually, I couldn't see more than 100' ahead, so slow was the order of the time anyway. Having the vacuum wipers, I found one works sometimes, add the passenger side and both stop. I only need to see out the one side. Thanks for the fender mounted heater/defroster. Even at 90 degrees outside, I was fogging up fast. The defroster helped, though it hit sauna temps and humidities in no time.
In the end, the M37 handled the water on the road better than the daily driver, lots of weight=less hydroplaning. Taking it slow helped stopping and tip-toeing around corners was a wise move. Otherwise, if you don't mind getting wet, an M-37 in the rain isn't a big deal.

52 M-42 wrote:The DNR has closed all the forest roads in the 3 county area around Seattle and there is no way to get out in the woods anymore to go 4 wheeling around here. You have to drive at least 100 miles on freeways before you can even get near an open forest road. That sure looks like fun. I wish we could still do that down here. 52 M-42

that sucks man. the same has happened around me. a lot of the local hills are now closed to mv's. they have become water sheds and eco tourist sites filled with hippies and dog walkers. the furry creek area were i took the pics was sold to an asian developer who is going to destroy this area by building a community in one of the most polluted mine sites in BC. sound like a place i would want to raise children

WarrenD wrote:Cool pics! As for driving in the rain.......Even at 90 degrees outside, I was fogging up fast. The defroster helped, though it hit sauna temps and humidities in no time.
In the end, the M37 handled the water on the road better than the daily driver, lots of weight=less hydroplaning. Taking it slow helped stopping and tip-toeing around corners was a wise move. Otherwise, if you don't mind getting wet, an M-37 in the rain isn't a big deal.

i know what you mean about fogging up. its hard to find a balance between sauna conditions and visibility. i now carry a squeegee with me and wipe the window constantly. it makes for involved driving ( reach up help the wiper along, grab squeegee, swipe glass wave to the people and repeat). having a squeegee onbord also repels "squeegee kids" from the truck.
for a long time i was under the impression that nds suck. till i stopped running 40 year old rock hard tiers. i found new ndt's griped like hell and cut through standing water beautifully, but still very frightening in freezing temps.

m-37Bruce wrote:Cool trip, it was a lengthy one too. I have yet to drive my 53 in the rain, just call me chicken.................

for me it was a short trip. eight years in a row i did this loop in February : http://goo.gl/maps/dnMW8 one year it took me 8hrs to negotiate 70k in 3+ feet of snow.

Tuko wrote:awesome thanks for sharing bring spare batteries next time!!!

I know, i know i know frustrating thing was i have a big box of AA's in the glove box but my Olympus has its own proprietary bat

hoping to make it out in with a few other m37's latter this month i will bring two cameras and take lots of pics and hopefully some vid. its hard to find a good camera operator

Welcome to the board and thanks for posting the pics. Your truck looks great and I can see you have OD in your blood. The trip looks like it was fun. It's been a long long long time since I've done any off-roading like that. Maybe when I retire I'll have my truck done and can do that again. Keep enjoying your ride for as long as you can.

That loop trip looks great! That would be fun.

Keep the pics coming. BC is beautiful country! I would really like to see pics from your loop trip last February if you have any.

52 M-42

Hi and welcome from Northeast Pa Like the photos and WOW what a collection. Keep them rolling.

What beautiful pictures. That looks like an awesome region to go exploring in. Thanks for posting.
What is that off to the starboard side of your truck in the picture with the debris? Looks like an old generator or crashed satellite?

Looks like a dynamo or a water powered generator.......... what a great picture!

m-37Bruce wrote:Looks like a dynamo or a water powered generator.

you are correct sir it is part of the old generator and pump house i think its called a pelton wheel.

52 M-42 wrote: I would really like to see pics from your loop trip last February if you have any.

i have limited bandwidth so i made up a couple .gif's

its hard to find a good camera man, so often the pics i get are not the good one's because in driving at the time. its also hard to convince a passenger to to jump out of the warm truck into the freezing cold to run a head and get some pics