Thursday, May 23/2013

Lots of water - this was at 3 mile corner - the start
of today's trip into the forest.

Today we are headed out to the trails for our first ride.  I will be riding my own quad and John will be on his.  It should be fun but first I must head down to Gale's and help her put her garden in.  The sun is shining this morning and it should be a good day to  garden.  I must remember to put on the mosquito spray as I know that those pesky little creatures will be out in full force.
I gathered the seeds and Hogan and I headed to Gale's.  I forgot to check the power steering fluid in the truck and once driving, realized that I probably had NONE in the truck as it was steering like the old manual steering used to be.  It was a good thing that I only had a few blocks to go!!  John has ordered a new steering box through the garage here in town so that will be nice to not have to worry about that  when one jumps into the truck to go somewhere!!
I arrived at Gales and we quickly got the seed potatoes cut and ready for the ground. She planted purple potatoes and I had red so together we had enough for about 10 rows.  Woo Hoo!!
Out came the seeds and we got busy.  Two hours later the garden was planted and looked awesome.  Gale has a huge garden and I decided to plant all my potatoes over there.  That would free up a lot of room in my garden here at the yard for other things.
With Gale's garden done, I returned to the bus to get ready for our quad ride.
Before too long we were loaded up, fueled up and ready to go.  We headed out to Mile 3 Trail and entered the forest.  Wow, I could not believe the amount of water on this trail.  We did our best to stay along the edge and managed to get through it without any difficulty.  It is a good thing that we were carrying mosquito spray as the vicious little creatures were everywhere!!  It is a good thing that we brought back a few cans of the "40" deet stuff from the States.  I think we are definitely going to need it this year.

Last year the kids were stuck in this "pond" for over an hour.
Today, I don't think I would even try!!

John and his new ride - first beverage break.

Marie and her ride

At the Leoville warm up shelter

A busy beaver - trying to build its damn.

We headed towards Eddie's Trail and accessed the forest once again.  This trail travels around the perimeter of a seeded field and as long as we all "stay on the trail" the farmer who owns the land keeps it open for quadders to use.  So far, so good.  Over the years, I don't think there have been too many issues.
Eddie's Trail was actually pretty good as far as water goes.  There were the usual ugly spots but trails have now been cut around most of these areas so it was pretty clear sailing through this trail.  I knew that there would be lots of "winter kill" in the deer population due to the heavy snow fall and the deer's inability to get down to the grasses below and there were a few carcasses lying along the trail.  Survival of the fittest is the only way Nature knows.
We stopped at the new Leoville Snowdrifter's winter shelter.  It was a metal container that had been hauled in and it was totally awesome.  The club had done a wonderful job on the placement and the surrounding lands.   They had a huge fire pit and wooden benches all ready to go.  There was a little wood burning stove inside the container and lots of dry stacked wood.  Hopefully, there will not be any vandalism to the structure.  I heard that the club wants to build a deck around the structure as well so that will really look nice once that is done.

Eddie's Trail (along side the seeded field)

Crossing Vimy Creek 

It was much deeper than usual as the beaver damn had
been opened by a previous couple of quadders.

We met up with the two quadders who had opened the damn
and they said that Mr. Beaver was watching them.  I imagine
he had the breach repaired by the end of the day.

After we  left the shelter, we carried on down the trail to Otter Lake.  It too was a good trail with little to no water obstructing our way.  The lake was peaceful and it was nice to sit and enjoy the quiet solitude of this end of Otter Lake.
From here we travelled up to the area of clear cut forest and eventually made our way to the North Road.
From here we accessed Vimy Tower Road and took another trail over to Vimy Trail.   John and I had not been on this side trail for several years and found it to be a nice little short cut over to Vimy Trail.  After traversing a few good water holes (all with good bottoms) we hit the main trail and headed towards Vimy Lake.  When we arrived, the creek was flowing like crazy.  It was deep but easily crossed.   We noted that the beaver damn had been breached and that is why the creek crossing was much deeper than it normally is.  The water was rushing through the breach and John and I assumed that the beaver was no longer around and obviously not maintaing his damn.  I was a little sad about that  as John and I have spent many hours camping along this little lake watching the antics of this beaver family.  One year the beaver had actually made a game out of swimming around with our big dog.  He was a lab/shepherd cross and loved to swim and the beaver would lure him out into the water and swim just far enough ahead of him to play hide and seek.  It was so funny to watch and the dog definitely got his exercise.  Another year (when we were between dogs) John and I were sitting around the campfire by the edge of the lake and both the male and the female beavers came out of the water and joined us at the edge of the water.   It was incredible so, needless to say, I was a little sad that the family had obviously moved on.
It was getting late and time to head back home so we accessed the North Road and headed towards town.  We had heard another set of quads on the trail ahead of us just before we accessed Vimy Trail and eventually passed them just before Mile 8 Trail.  They had been stopped and we carried  on.
As we were enjoying a beverage break at Mile 8, we heard the other quads coming down the road.  They passed us but soon turned around and came to join us.  Neither John nor I recognized them but after introductions found out that they lived in Leoville and were actually two of the Snowdrifters who had hauled in the container shelter in for the snowmobilers.  It was interesting to talk with them and we found out all sorts of information.  They are hoping to actually put another shelter up and are trying to decided just where to do it.
While chatting with these fellows, we mentioned that the damn was broke at Vimy and they said that they had just broke it open!!  For what ever reason.....I don't know.  They mentioned that Mr Beaver was right there when they did it so I was glad to hear that.  I imagine that he will have their carnage repaired by the end of today.  I was so happy to hear that the beavers were still alive and well at Vimy.

Sunset in town

We were soon back at home and John quickly got a fire going in the fireplace.  This was the first fire of this year and it was awesome.  Of course that meant that steak and baked potatoes were on the menu so I quickly wrapped the spuds up and John got them on the grill.  An hour later and we were dining like royalty.  What a great ending to a fantastic day in the forest.  A wonderful sunset finished off our day and then it was time to head to bed.

Vimy lake

Vimy Creek -  just down stream from the damn.  

Flowing much more quickly now that the damn was breached.

Our 1st Fire

I have another busy day plannned for tomorrow.   Gale and I are headed into North Battleford to shop so that will be a day long affair.  Gale needs company for the trip and I am always up for a day of shopping.   "The Budget" could take a hit tomorrow........again!!