Fun Day - Sat. Feb 16th

Don't we always choose the days for our rides!  What a mix of weather - sleet, hail, snow, fog, and yaaay - a little bit of sunshine.

We decided to head out to Smith Lake again since the snow conditions are always good out there.  Marcel informed us - "no playing or detours along the way - we'll save that for the afternoon."

When we headed up into the logging slash that takes us over to that side, we could barely see the riders in front of us.  It soon cleared up for our lunchtime campfire and was feeling quite warm.

Not a dead tree to be found here for a campfire.

Finally - one dead tree beside the road!

Lunchtime  at last.

 After lunch, we set off to do some exploring.  The weather quickly changed to blizzard like conditions.

Jan decided that the guys needed some exercise after lunch.

Janet got tired of waiting so was practicing some sidehilling....

Back to the Thuya side

We did several detours onto side roads on the way out and rode back into the "taj mahal" tree fort area again.  This time it was easier to get into since we had a base from the last time we were in there.
The day went much too quickly and it was time to head back to the parking area to load up.

Funny how both Geoff's couldn't seem to find their brakes.

No cooking again.  We all went to the Opax Mountain Cafe for an early dinner of lasagna, salad and breads.   What a delicious way to end the day.

Thanks to Jeanne, Syd and Geoff for submitting the great photos.

Smith Lake Ride

Our club's dedicated group of mid-week riders met at the Opax parking lot on Wed. Jan. 23rd.  We set off on the south side of the highway and within the first 15 minutes, we already spied 4 moose.  We were able to have a good look at them since they were in no hurry to leave their feeding area.

There was enough snow this year to be able to climb over "the hump" to access the logging roads and lakes to the south.  The guys had marked the route in the fall to make it easier to access.

The snow conditions were good since no one had been in that area.  Lots of different and interesting animal tracks.  We stopped for lunch at Smith Lake at an old log cabin that had a sign on the door inviting people to use it.  Unfortunately, a pack rat had decided to use it before us so we opted to have lunch outdoors.

We had the afternoon ahead of us so decided to check out the "taj mahal" of tree forts.

The access had a few challenges and obstacles.

Fearless Jeanne wasn't letting a few trees get in her way.

The visibility was poor but we had come this far and a few challenges weren't about to stop us.  Some of us hadn't made it to the tree fort on a previous year's ride.

If you're not looking up, you can almost miss it especially in the snow and fog.

The visibility improved and we stopped to play on a few different lakes on the way out. including Thuya Lakes.

On the way back to the parking lot, we decided to go up just one more road since it looked like good snow conditions.  What an active area for moose.  They had our road all tracked out!!

We rode back to the parking lot with the snow coming down around us.  As always, an awesome day of riding with about 110 kilometres of exploring.