Friday, October 17/2014

Well, if we do not go from one adventure to another, then I just don't know!!
Today, a truck came up the infamous "hill" (not really anything to get too excited about as there has been several vehicles come up the hill) and stopped. The fellow driving it got out and set up some sort of a placard about 30 feet from the camper. He then got back into his truck, moved it and parked in front of our truck. John went out to see what he was doing and found him loading a rifle.  Apparently he was going to do some target shooting. I guess it was a target he had set up and not an innocent "placard".
John told him that he didn't think shooting so close to the camper was appropriate and asked him to take his target practise somewhere else.
I guess the guy was not too happy and was not going to move so John ended up calling 911 and reported the guy. He was angry, cursed at John but picked his target up and left.
Of course the RCMP informed John that we were sitting on Crown property and the fellow was within his legal right to target practise but agreed that him being so darn close to the camper was dangerous and inappropriate.
With the exit of the nefarious "shooter" the drama ended and hopefully that will be the end of it.
We are hoping to go for another ride today so hopefully when we return, our camper is not full of bullet holes!!  LOL  Well, maybe he could just shoot the truck since it doesn't seem to be cooperating as it should!!

#47 Trail Head

Today we thought we should explore a few of the trails off to the east of us so we accessed #47 and started our adventure. It was awesome trail, offered some varied terrain but spit us out onto a road near the local ski hill. Of course quads and roads are never a good combination so we turned around and did the same trail we had just done, backwards!! It is always different no matter how you do the trail so it was like riding it for the first time!! All those down hill grades became up hill climbs so that was kind of cool!!

More beautiful vistas

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We traveled through some pretty incredible country and remarkably we have only seen two mule deer in all the trails we have traveled here in the Crowsnest. Kind of strange if you ask me. On the other hand, we have not had any close encounters with any bears either and in light of the recent grizzly bear mauling near Fernie, B.C. that is a very good thing. So, I will count my blessings!!

Just fooling around with the camera

Did this trail down and then back up

Now that looks like it could get nasty!!

We accessed another trail once we got back to the top of the Memorial Trail we had just down twice and found some water lying in small valley.   Good thing we are up on the ridge I thought to myself.    Well, it wasn't too long before the ridge dropped into the hollow and John and I found ourselves faced with some nasty ass muskeg. There is just no way to go through this stuff and remain unscathed. As it turns out, I needed my winch at least three times while John only required his once. It was on one of my pulls that I damn near re-broke his leg as I had put my quad in reverse and not unhooked the winch cable so when I hit the gas, I dragged John's quad with me and tried running over his leg at the same time.  He was not too impressed with the whole situation but Hell, I didn't do it on purpose!! Or.....did I!!  He will never know.  I did apologize though and used my sad face!!

Muskeg....in the forest!!

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When we finally got around the muskeg, we were both sweating buckets so it was a most opportune time for a refreshment break. I checked out the surrounding mud for any bear track and found none.  I got to enjoy my beer!!

It was nasty!!

#39  Trail Head - this should lead us back home

If we were following the map correctly, we would hit the road and then access trail head #39.  Low and behold.....there it was. I am so glad that the signage on this side of the highway is much better than on the other side. We found ourselves back in "the burn". Here we traveled through the fire ravaged country side again and I marvelled at all the new growth that was coming up. It was here, when we stopped for another break that the wind came up and we got to hear what can only be described as a "screaming" wind. It was incredibly eerie as the wind came up and made this most incredible screaming sound as it blew through all the standing burnt trees. I looked over at John and said "And when was the last time you heard a "screaming" wind?"

Iron Mountain Lookout tower  (look close
it is on the top of the hill)   

We continued along this 39 trail following the creek and soon came to a sign that said #38. Oh, Oh, we were headed in the wrong direction and had completely driven off our map. There was no 38 on our map so once again, we had to backtrack to find where we had missed the trail that would take us to #41!!  It was a good thing that this leg of the trip was only a few kms long so it didn't take us too long to find the proper trail  (now how on earth did we miss that one!!).

Traveling through the "burn"

The bridge over Lynx Creek to #38.  Oh, Oh...wrong way!!

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Finally back on track, we hit #41 and headed for home. It was getting late and the relentless wind was getting a bit of a chill to it. It was most definitely time to get back to the camper and get the heat going.
Back at the camper, it was time for a quick shower to get all the trail dust off then start supper. All in all, it was another good day.

Trail Head #41  -  almost home