Forestry Trip – Kenilworth / Imbil Area - Sunday 8th September 2002
Attendees: Graham, Bryce and Ethan Hood in their L92 Series Turbo Wagon
Dwayne Boyton in his MY91 Series Brumby
Megan and Daniel Kreutzer in their 98 Outback GX
The trip began with us all meeting at the Charles Moreland Day Use Area near Kenilworth, or so David, our “Trip Leader” thought… it took him a while to work out that both Dwayne in his Brumby and us in our Outback had been following him for the last 50 or so kilometres. As soon as we arrived, Graham and his sons also showed in their L92 series wagon, and David made the executive decision that we would all start heading off along the river. Nothing too difficult was promised, just one difficult hill they, the experts (David and Graham), said.
So, off we went. David, the trip leader, decided
that he would rather go second behind Graham … something about Graham knowing
the tracks better (something I later thought to call into question). The first
fifteen or twenty minutes were great, just easy tracks with a couple of creek
crossings. The first hill wasn’t really a challenge. Of course, Megan and I took
it a little easy in our as yet unmodified Outback, not wanting to hurt it too
much.
The same tactic proved fruitless on the second hill, though. The
unmodified Outback with its relatively high low range gearing (and inexperienced
driver in this type of vehicle) didn’t want to make it over this rather steep
and slippery ledge. What can we say, the engine stalled, and the car then
proceeded to slip rearwards into the embankment, which luckily for us stopped
the rearwards sliding. The first recovery exercise for the day was then launched
using snatch straps, snatch block, a winch cable and Dwayne’s Brumby, which had
been behind us. After a little effort, (most of which was expended trying to
stay upright on the track), we freed the Outback and reversed it back down the
track. An inspection of the damage initially saw the left corner of the rear
bumper pushed in, but thanks to Subaru’s magic plastic bumpers, the dent popped
straight back out, leaving the bumper virtually unmarked.
Graham then suggested that we take the ‘easy’
and more scenic option. We all headed back down the hill, and along the new
route.
The
track was great, and as promised very scenic providing us with a view of a
combination of rainforest, palm trees and other vegetation. But, of course, this
wasn’t what we came for. The track soon turned a little rougher, steeper and
more challenging. By this stage, we had worked out that the only way to
guarantee success in the Outback was to launch it at the hills with the throttle
opened up. This wasn’t too bad, except for the odd scrape on the front bumper.
This time it was Dwayne’s Brumby that had a few
problems gaining traction resulting in a lot of black smoke and the breakage of
the fan belt. David carried a spare, and after a quick running repair, the car
was on the track again.
We continued on, this time facing the challenges of a rather eroded downhill section. Luckily there were two tracks – the easy and the hard way. The easy way was most definitely the safe option, so that was the one taken by Graham, Dwayne and us. David, always open to a challenge (must have thought us weak for choosing the easy option), soon found himself running out of useable track as the eroded section ran straight down the middle of it. The washout was both deep and wide, requiring quite a bit of reinforcing to allow David to get his car out.
Lunch was devoured at the top of the next hill,
all of us getting up there with plenty of revs and dirt flying everywhere. It
was at this time that we were beginning to have doubts about Graham’s intimate
knowledge of the tracks in the area. He kept telling us that we had surpassed
the worst of it, that this one was it. Of course, as soon as we crested one
steep and demanding (for the Outback) section, there would be another. Having
said this, we did finally reach a better track which took us back to Sunday
Creek Road, a veritable highway compared to where we had just been.
This is where we parted company. Megan and I decided it would be better to give the Outback a rest, whilst Dwayne, David and Graham decided to take the scenic tour back to Charles Moreland. We guess the lessons learnt from this trip should be: don’t take an unmodified Outback on this type of trip, as the gearing and ground clearance aren’t suitable; carry consumable spares if necessary; and if somebody has found an easy route around an obstacle, follow them.
Having said all of this, the day was very enjoyable, if somewhat challenging at times, and that is what it is supposed to have been. By the way, the plans for the modifications to the Outback are being made as this article is written.
Daniel and Megan Kreutzer SC521