Saturday, November 5/2016

Once again, there was a good frost on the ground this morning.  The chill was definitely in the air. We waited until the sun came over the top of the hills then headed out.  It was a lovely day.
Today, we set out to do some trails on the opposite side of the camping spot and were soon faced with a "measuring gate".  If your quad could fit through the gate, then you were free to travel a much narrower trail.   Our side by side fit through without any issues so off we went.  Initially it was a bit of the same old "up and down" nonsense from yesterday with us crawling up and down on the spines of the hills.  It reminded me of some of the trails we did in Utah where we climbed along the various ridges hoping we didn't fall off the trail!!  Anyway, John and his ever seeking nose soon found us an awesome trail that took us through a stand of Maple trees that sat in the bottom of a small canyon between the many hills.  It was like we had entered another world completely.  Gone was the rough, rock strewn trails and we were travelling the sweet scented forest loam.  We stopped here for a beverage and it wasn't too long before a rather nosy woodpecker came to check us out.  He hung around for a few minutes, pecked on a few trees and left again.
We saw several mule deer today and that was incredible too.  They stay mainly near the various stands of trees and I'm sure we scared them when we passed and that is why we saw them.  They certainly can run and jump.  Before too long they were gone and I still didn't have the camera turned on!!
We made a huge loop today and I was quite convinced that I had my directions in my head only to find that I was totally turned around!!  Man, it is a good thing that I am not the one responsible for getting us back to camp.  At one point John mentioned that we had been on this particular trail earlier in the day and I of course disagreed and informed him that we were way further east earlier today. John just smiled, shook his head and we got back into the quad.  No sooner had we gone a bit further down the trail and there it was.......the same damn "measuring gate" that we had passed through earlier today!!    "Now, do you know where you are Marie?" he asks!!
We accessed another narrow trail after passing through another gate and this one took us on another adventure.  It was a very narrow trail and we both wondered what one was to do if they met with another quad coming the opposite direction.  There was absolutely no room to pass so I guess someone would have to back up until there was room to pass.   I was actually surprised to see no "one way" signs as some of the trail took us along very steep shelf trail and I wouldn't want to have to be backing up on this part of the trail.  Hells, bells, I didn't even want to go forward, let alone backwards!!
We passed through several stands of maple trees and I was surprised to see the vast stands of evergreen trees that seem to have found their way into the clefts and valleys between the hills.  It was quite impressive.  These small little "forests" were thick, green and lush.
It was along this trail that we saw a moose.  He was meandering slowly across the trail and didn't really seem to interested in us.   He even hung around in time for me to snap a few pictures of him and get a video too.  He then had enough of our nonsense and wandered into the trees and out of sight.  Well, that made our day.  Not only were the trails better today, so was the amount of wildlife we had seen.   A bit further down the trail, a pheasant flew up as we had startled it too.  Holy Buckets....life is good today!!
This trail eventually spit us out just below yesterday's tower trail and so we climbed back up to the top and then headed down, towards camp.
We got home just in time to watch the Saskatchewan Roughriders get their asses kicked by the BC Lions.   Eventually we couldn't watch the slaughter any longer so John got the campfire out and we had a few beverages beside it while our supper cooked.   Steak and baked potato, fried garlic mushrooms and caesar salad.......is there any better way to finish off the day??   Life is good!!

Starting "up" the trail

A rocky climb.  Lots of evidence of Spring run off

It doesn't look steep....but it is!!

Long steep climb

The surrounding hills.  Miles and miles of hills

A stand of Maple Trees

A Maple Leaf!!

Beverage?

So many trails traversing the spines of these hills

Snow on the mountain

This guy didn't make it (back in the day)  Looked to be a 1950s vehicle

Moose

on the loose

Managed to find a few trees amongst the hills

Getting back to camp

Awesome day