Saturday, June 23 2012

Beverage

Going deep

Awesome flowers

One of the many nameless lakes around here - complete with beaver lodge and loons

The feathery tamarack tree

Great trail through the woods

Bear Lake Trail

Bear Lake

Our destination for the day

Moose rack

Good thing it is not hunting season!

There is no lack of colourful  foliage around

The wild rose, easily the most awesome smell in the forest

Yes you get muddy when you ride with Casey

Cleaning off at Vimy Creek

Vimy Lake

Casey having a dip

Lily pads

Time to head home

We awoke today to wonderful sun shine.  It looks like it will be a most wonderful day for a ride.  Unfortunately, Shirley had to work today and Dave's shoulder is bothering him (from landing that 10 pound fish yesterday) so it is only Gary that will be joining us on today's ride.
We will be following some of the Rally trail so that should give Casey plenty of mud to romp in!!
Our first stop is always the little white church (so we can have "one" for the folks in the cemetery).  Today, Cliff arrived with the lawnmower in the back of his little Japanese truck.  He is on a mission to cut the grass in the cemetery and in front of the church.  He keeps it looking wonderful and the whole setting is nothing less than incredible.  What a wonderful spot for a final resting place.
We access the rally trail head and soon find ourselves in the mud.  Although the trail has dried a fair amount, there is still plenty of wet spots and deep ruts to traverse.
As we come to one of the bigger mud holes, we find about 20 people standing around it watching as a few members of their group try to extricate one very stuck RZR.  As I take in the scene, I see so many of them totally covered with mud that all I can really see is the whites of their eyes!!  Some of them look like they went for a swim in the mud!!  They must have been there for a while as they had a little fire going and were well on their way to being "happy".  They looked like they were totally having FUN!!
Dave told us about a trail that travelled along side Bear Lake and that eventually leads to a hunting cabin so we decided to check it out.  We accessed the trail head and found ourselves on one of the prettiest trails in the area.  It took us through deep forest, over hills and into small valleys before we saw the lake and were able to travel along its shoreline where we eventually found the cabin.  What an ideal place for a "little getaway"!!  Man, I could sure see myself sitting here for a few days for some rest and relaxation!!
The cabin is definitely used for hunting as there were several sets of antlers around and being so far into the bush, I am sure that there is an abundance of wild life in the area.  Gary noticed some movement on the lake while we were there and him and I walked down to the shore to see what it was.  It was two pelicans swimming around enjoying life!!  They did not take too kindly to being disturbed and flew off before I was able to get a decent picture of them.  They sure are big though!!
We head back to the main trail taking the same trail out and once there hear the tell tale sounds of quads.  I think the group of quadders we passed earlier have finally extricated themselves from the mud and are now "on the move"!!  As it turned out, they had indeed done that and we played leap frog with several of them before we finally broke off the main trail and headed down a more obscure trail.  It wasn't long before we heard quads again and saw one coming our way.  There were two "big" boys riding this quad and neither one of them looked too happy.   They did not stop, just carried on down the trail.  Before too long, a side by side came along and although he had no plans to stop and talk with us, we hollered out to them asking if they were looking for their group.  They said yes and just then, the other quad returned with the two sad fellows riding it.  We asked them if they were lost and they said "Oh Yeah".  This is probably is not a good position to find yourself in when you are this deep in the bush!!  We gave them both directions as to how to find their group who, were supposedly making their way to Otter Lake so,  off they went and we never saw this group again for the rest of the day although we did hear the occasional quad along our travels.
Once we hit the grid, we travelled to Vimy Lake where the kids were able to wash all the excess mud off their arms and faces so that they looked a little less scary when we actually got back to town!!  I found a 2XL rain jacket on the trail leading to Vimy and wonder if it had been lying there since the rally a week ago.  Oh well, one can never have too many rain jackets so I will wash it and use it!!  Woo Hoo, I love finding all sorts of treasures on the trails.
It was soon time to return home (John has supper to cook!!) so we headed towards Leoville.  Gary's quad has run great all day despite the fact that he has two broken front CV joints!!  These he broke on the rally and the parts to fix it have not yet arrived so decided to come on the trails today despite this fact. After all, what else could possibly go wrong?   He did well and we were on the last leg of today's trip.   It was grid all the way home now.
John and I arrived at 8 mile corner and since this is one of the official "beer" stops, we waited for the others to arrive.  They did....all riding on Casey's quad.  What the Hell???!!!!  I should have taken a picture of the three of them on the quad but by the time I got into gear, turned on the camera, the moment was lost.  Too bad!!
Apparently Gary lost a wheel on the grid!!  What, lost a wheel!!!  OMG - only Gary could manage something like this!!  Imagine his shock when his wheel passed him on the road!!  Oh how I would have loved to have been a little fly riding on his quad when that happened.  I can only imagine what he said and I don't think it would have been "oh my goodness"!!  Fortunately, Gary was able to control the quad so that there were no injuries.  He simply attempted to steer it into the ditch where he had to leave it until him and Casey returned with his truck and trailer.
We eventually all made it back to Leoville.  It is a good thing that we were only 8 miles from home as I can't imagine that it was too comfortable riding 3-up on Casey's quad.  Gary was worried that he would have a heck of a time finding the missing wheel.  He had visions of it traveling "miles" (well maybe not miles) into the bush and not being able to find it.
As it turned out, the wheel was found and the quad, Gary and Casey returned home where John had supper waiting.  Dave and Shirley joined us for supper and it was more than delicious.  Mmmm - ribs, baked potatoes and caesar salad.  What a great way to finish off a wonderful day (well maybe not so wonderful for Gary, but apparently the wheel is an easy fix, thank Heavens as I am not sure how much more Gary can take with all the trouble that quad has given him - he just may "blow"!!).
Good ride, Good friends and Good food.  We truly are blessed.