X88 expeditions - Documenting and sharing overland travels, adventures, and expeditions

September 14, 2008

Camp NL 2008 - Part I

So this year I actually did a bit of advance planning and was able to go to Carlisle AND the annual off-roading weekend, called Camp Northern Lights, about 2 hours north of Toronto.

Not without my share of headaches though. CampNL has three full days (Fri - Sun) of trail rides so my plan was to either go up Thursday night or very early Friday. Everything was going great Thursday as I picked up the Trailblazer from National4WD and getting the 4.56 gears and electronic locker installed.

Knowing that the speedo would be WAY off, I brought along my laptop and the HPTuners program. And then like a rank "noob" I decided to try to reprogram it in the parking lot of a nearby Canadian Tire. Of course the absolute worst thing that could happen, happened. I scrambled the computer (or so I thought).

Lucky I subscribe to OnStar so I got a free flatbed tow (GM roadside assistance) to a dealership close by my home to the get the computer re-flashed (as I had the original PCMforLess tune on my laptop). Well the bad news came on Friday around 11 AM. The computer was not just scrambled, it was was fried. They wanted $900 for a new one. I told them to go **** themselves and got towed back home.

I then got on the line with PCMforLess and they very graciously helped out by sending me a replacement computer with my original tune PLUS the gear ratio change for $99 + overnight shipping to Canada with Saturday delivery.

So on Saturday the replacement went in, I went through the security procedure, and I headed off to CampNL in Minden. I arrived just in time for the last dinner scraps and the for the weekend awards and prize giveaways. I then quickly set up my Tent-Cot and dozed off.

The next morning my friend Mike came up. He was going to ride shotgun and take some action photos and video. All the pictures are actually frame grabs from the HDV video we shot on Sunday on the Concession Lake trail. Check out his photography site at MikePhoto.com.

6:00 AM at CampNL headquarters
Driving through Kinmount on the way to the trail
Airing down with the Mil-Spec deflators

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