Sunday, June 24/2012

The sun is shining again this morning so it looks like it will be another nice day for a ride.  Casey has to go home later so it will be just a short ride today.  Gary has not decided as yet if he is going on today's ride so we will wait to hear from him.  Dave and Shirley will join us so it should be a good time again on the trails
Gary has decided to join us and quickly put his tire back on and is now ready to go.  We head out of town and have not even travelled a mile before John decides to ride in the ditch right through a stinky wet muddy patch and I am covered with mud that stinks like the worse slough and cow shit mixed together!!  WTF!!!  **^##@**>"<  He is dead to me!!  As it turned out, everyone but Dave and Shirley entered the stinking mud and Gary ended up getting stuck.  While being extricated, apparently realized that he had not put gas in his quad so decided to head back to Leoville and go fishing instead!! Thinking that today may not be the day for him to be on the trails, he called it quits!!
John and I found out about Gary at 8 mile and after the necessary refreshment stop, the four remaining quads headed out.
Today, we will travel down 8 Mile Trail until we hit the "back" trail leading to Huard Hill Shelter.  This snowmobile shelter sits on the top of a hill overlooking Huard Lake.  It is nestled in dense forest and surrounded by miles of muskeg - ugly, unforgiving muskeg.  It is here that Casey broke his first CV joint a few weeks ago.
As we travel down the trail, there are several animal tracks in the mud - the usual wolf, bear, moose and deer.  I never get tired of looking at all the tracks and find myself making up little stories in my head based on these tracks.  Oh what tales these tracks could tell!!!  Of course, with John,  once you have seen tracks, they all look the same so unfortunately I did not get any pics of them.  It is hard to take pics when you are travelling down the trail at Mach 1!!
The "back" trail to the shelter is peppered with water holes and requires a bit of skill to cross them.   I must say that Shirley is getting so good at riding her quad that she had no trouble at all getting through them.  She gets this big "shit eating" grin on her face when she manages to do what the "big dogs" do and one can not be anything but proud of her.
This trail also gave us the pleasure of seeing the first Tiger Lilies (our Provincial Flower) of the season. John did stop to let me take pictures of them.  Woo Hoo!!   I guess he was tired of my whining by this time and decided that it was easier to stop and let me take some photos than to listen to me whine!!  Good call Honey!!
We left the shelter and headed over to the other side of Huard Lake taking a few side trails along the way.  There are some awesome trails in this area and one can never get tired of riding them no matter how many times you do it.
We eventually find our way to Vimy and eventually home.  It is still early but Casey must return to Saskatoon tonight.  After filling up on some quickly made chili, the kids head out.  They have a two hour drive in front of them and I sure don't envy them that.
Once the kids leave, John fires up the fancy new log splitter and splits a bunch of wood - getting ready for the next campfire.  It works like a charm!!  What a great little gadget and I am glad that my sister Jan mentioned it and I am even more glad that Kimmy was able to snag the last one in the store for us!!

heading out of town

Beverage, anyone?

Gun Club Trail

Still a bit of mud on the trails although it is getting better

Nasty Ass deep holes

Dave

Shirley

Casey showing off!!

Not so smart now!!

Casey and Amanda

Huard Lake Shelter Trail

John, having to winch out of mud - went right when he should have gone left

First tiger lilies of the season - Woo Hoo

Our Provincial Flower, Incredible beauty

Now you know why I was whining when John would not stop and let me take a pic!!

Huard Lake

Huard Hill Shelter

More tracks in the mud - maybe mink, perhaps weasel

Standing wondering what we are doing while I am wondering what he is doing!!
Curious little creatures - and this one had the starts of a nice set of antlers  

I am scheduled to work in the morning (I got the call just before leaving for the ride) so head to bed for some much needed rest.    All in all, it was yet another good day.