After 4 hrs on the highway, my brother and I arrived at our turn off. From there it would be about another hour to make it the last 30km to our camp site. There had been some light rain, so the service road was wet, it’s one of those roads that stays firm, but the road surface turns into snot with a little water. The trip in was fine, we had to cut a few trees that were down across the road and had to roll some large rocks out of the way that had tumbled down. We made it to our camp spot in fair condition, minus the rear vent cover on my trailer (this is important later). Not sure if I lost it to a sweeper on the trail, or on the highway, but whatever, it is what it is. We unpacked the basics and unloaded a couple quads, time for a look around.
Basic map of our location: the tent is our camp, the Table is at West Lake (5km from camp). The cabin is at Crooked Lake (7km from camp), and the Binoculars indicate a viewpoint off the end of the old Airstrip, overlooking Crooked Lake. (When we stopped in at the viewpoint my brother managed to park his quad on a Hornet nest…….. that was an interesting few minutes).
The fish 30km north of camp is another lake (ATV access, brutal trail).
No signs of recent human activity, so we headed back to camp and settled in for the night. I sent a Sat message to my wife indicating that the road in was clear and that I would expect to see her and the girls by 2-3 pm the next afternoon.
Saturday morning, brother and I loaded his truck/trailer with boat/kayaks/canoe/paddle board/etc and headed to West Lake for a little fun.
Knowing that there are no other people in the area is important, especially when pulling a trailer, if you meet another vehicle, you’re NOT getting around each other.
Small viewpoint on the trail down to West Lake
This is the only access point to West Lake, there is one picnic table, an outhouse, and enough room to park 3 vehicles as long as people park responsibly.
West Lake has Grayling, Lake Trout, Pike, and Whitefish (that I know of). The water was so clear, we just went “sight fishing” for Pike and Grayling to burn some time.
There are also thousands of these in the lake, not sure what they are, but they were hitting our fly’s like crazy.
Also witnessed a lot of this, Bait Balls, or maybe Mating Balls of Whitefish.
After a little fun, we headed back to camp. We grubbed up and decided to get the camp better organized. Unloaded dirt bikes, set up beds and cooking area. Also very important, we put up a large tarp as rain was in the forecast and we still had a large hole in the roof of my trailer.
By 3:00 there was still no sign of my wife/girls, and no messages….
I was about half ready to jump on my KTM, backpack loaded with chainsaw, etc, when I realized that I didn’t even have my Inreach powered up. Lightbulb moment, she can’t send me a message, or more accurately, I can’t receive a message from her. Powered up and message rang in instantly.
She was running late, and was not even leaving town until 2:00. They were waiting for my youngest daughters best friend to get home from VA, they would then load up the friend and bring her along. Fine with me, I just hoped they thought to bring bedding, food, and such for the friend (friend is vegetarian). I never brought “extra” stuff and certainly never packed for vegetarian meals.
So, with several more hours to kill, brother and I returned to West Lake for some more action.
Wife and girls rolled into camp at about 7:00pm, still light out with very minor bit of drizzley rain. The girls were pumped, very excited to show their friend around the old AF Base and area. They threw their beds together in the trailer, with my 2 girls taking the rear bunks ( under the missing vent cover….. I’m sure you see where this is going….). When they were settled, the girls decided to go for a ride around, the friend didn’t bring her dirt bike, but she actually rides a KTM similar to mine (she has the “Rockstar” edition), so I gave her my bike for the trip. Off they went, within 15 minutes the wind blew up hard and the sky opened wide. I’m talking torrential freakin downpour, between my brother, wife and I we managed to save the camp. At one point I was lifted at least 4’ off the ground while trying to hold the tarp down, all three of us calling each other for help but none of us could help each other. Maybe 15-20 minutes of total chaos, then it stopped, almost total silence, back to light breeze and slight misty drizzle. The camp was in shambles, there was a chair in the fire pit, but the fire had been drowned almost instantly in the flood, brothers tent was rolled to the edge of the bush even though it was full of gear and several 24 packs of beer. The tarp had shifted over the trailer, totally exposing the open roof vent, and my girls beds were completely drenched. Speaking of drenched, the girls rolled back into camp shortly after, I had thought they would have been smart enough to take cover under a wayward pine or something, but nope, toothy smiles and ear to ear grins as they peeled off sopping wet riding gear plastered with mud.
So, we fixed the tarp and secured it down. Friends bed was on two thin foamies, I pulled one out and made a bed, I had my good sleeping bag as an extra comforter for my bed (wife gets cold at night), used this to make one bed for my girls. They figured they could both sleep in the one bag. Good enough, we went to bed, brother slept in the cab of his truck (most of his gear in his tent was wet).
This will take a few posts, I’m only on day two, lol. Please bare with me.
RD
Late August camping trip (Very long, pic heavy)
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