Monday, June 3/2013

The sun is shining this morning and it looks like it will be a nice day for a quad ride.  It will be good to get out into the forest and see some more trails.

Our trail today

We headed down the North Road then took a trail off to the left.  We had seen this trail several times and had always passed it by.  Today, John decided to go exploring.   Of course there are always "spur" trails associated with many of the main trails and we explored some of them.  Many were dead end, one actually led us into a tree stand and bear bait area.

Wood Violet

Crossing a field of dandelions

Eventually we found the main trail and were greeted with fields of dandelions.  As you can see from the pics, the view was incredibly pretty.  Nothing but yellow and green.  The trail was actually quite awesome and at one point, the dandelions gave way to about a quarter mile of swamp.  As we traversed this, I wondered what the rest of the trail had to offer us.

John heading down the trail - I think
we will call this Dandelion Trail  

more wood violets

As it turned out, this was the only swampy area we had to cross and actually if one remembered not to drive in the other guy's tracks, the crossing was uneventful.  At one refreshment stop I took the time to enjoy the numerous wood violets that were in full bloom.  There is nothing like Springtime in the forest.  It was so peaceful and quiet and if not for the sounds of the bees and the insects, there would have been no sound what so ever.
We carried on down the trail (which had now turned into a designated snowmobile trail) and eventually crossed and open field, encountered some cows and eventually were stopped by the Big River and all its surrounding marshland.  I could see why this is a snowmobile trail and not a quad trail.  There was no way that we were going any further in this direction.  There was a sign on a tree saying "Leoville 5 kms".
We turned around, travelled the few miles back to another trail and carried on.  Here we were able to access a designated wildlife area where only hunting "on foot" was allowed.  As we travelled through his area, I marvelled at the absolute beauty of our forest.
Eventually, the trail spit us out onto Gun Club Road (or 8 mile trail, whatever you want to call it) and we then headed towards the trail that would eventually take us to the Huard Lake snowmobile shelter.

Huard Lake shelter

Overlooking the lake

looking down on the quads from the shelter's deck

Forces helicopter flying by

This trail provided us with a bit of a challenge today.  Normally there are a few nasty little mud holes and water that needs to be crossed and we were not disappointed today either.  One of the nastier spots had been excavated by Mr. Beaver so there was an issue of crossing one of his "runs".  Some of these can be quite deep and require a good deal of skill to cross however, today, the run was not all that deep and both John and I crossed without incident.
We never get tired of looking at Huard Lake from the upper balcony of the shelter and today was no different.  It is beautiful there and the lake was so blue, that and the surrounding greens of the forest combine for an awesome picture.
We heard a helicopter off in the distance and knew that the sound was coming closer.  We thought it was a fire helicopter, checking the forest but once it came into view, we thought that is was perhaps a military chopper.  It was huge!!

Wolf track

Hes a big one

On leaving the shelter we had to once again cross several "wet" areas.  Some years, these spots prove to be quite challenging and a winch is often required to get to the other side.  Today, they were easily traversed and we were soon heading down the trail towards the Clearwater Grid.   It was along this trail that the tell tale signs of extreme amounts of snow showed up.  Many of the smaller pine trees were bent over into the trail because of the prolonged weight of the snow on them.  It was slow going for a while but not difficult.  One just had to slow down and move the trees as we came to them.
We made it to the grid then headed down the road towards the other side of Huard Lake.  Of course we are not ones to stay on the main trail and once we hit the Huard Lake road, veered off on another trail that would spit us out back onto the main Huard Lake Road a little further down.
It was on this little "scenic" trail that we saw the huge wolf tracks.  Wow, this was one huge beast and not one I would like to meet.  Even the size of John's hand paled in the presence of these tracks.  I put my hand down into the track and it would take one and a half of my hand's width to cover the track.  Incredible!!

Huard Lake

Huard Lake picnic area

We soon found ourselves on the other side of Huard Lake.  This is were people come to launch their boats so that they can fish for the jackfish that inhabit this awesome little lake.  There was no one here (I love quadding during the week) but there were hundreds of swallowtail butterflies.  It was awesome just sitting quietly watching them.  Spring is definitely in the air!!

Vimy Creek - the beaver dam

From Huard, we travelled to Vimy Creek and the lake.  The last time we were here, the beaver damn had been compromised by another couple of quadders so we were interested in seeing how Mr. Beaver had made his repairs.  He had indeed been busy with the repair and the flow of the water had greatly reduced however he still has some work to do.  Although the water was not flowing at anywhere near the speed that it had been, there was still a lot of it flow through the damn.
From here we decided to head down the North Road, back towards town.  I was getting tired so it was time to head home.  Both John and I would rather not,  ride the road home, so thought we might just take 8 Mile Trail over to Eddie's Trail then, access 3 Mile Trail.  This would spit us back out onto the North Road 3 miles from town and we could ride the ditch into town.  This would add at least an hour more to our day so we decided to make the decision as the which way to go once we hit 8 Mile.
As it turned out, we met Dave and Shirley just before 8 Mile so had to stop and share a refreshment with them.  They were supposed to be riding with us today but Dave started feeling ill so decided not to join us.
Meeting Dave and Shirley, decided how we were heading home.   After we finished our refreshments, it was even later in the day and most definitely time to head for town.  We kept to the Grid all the way home, meeting up with Dave and Shirley again about 1 1/2 miles from town.  They had gone to do some practise shooting when we left them the first time and now they too were headed back to town.
Back at the bus, the quads were put away and I headed to the shower.  Oh dear, that bed is sooo going to feel good tonight!!
 

Beaver Lodge on Vimy Lake