June 22 2008
I awoke at 6:00am (which is way too early on a
Sunday morning) to be greeted with the heavy patter of rain falling
outside. I groaned quite loudly, not at the fact that it was only 6am,
but for the fact that the Moose ATV Club would be guiding a visitor from
Kelowna BC on an epic journey around the Septimus area so he could film
for a new Quad show this spring. And here it was torrential downpour.
GO
RIDING TV is a new quad show to be aired this spring on the Outdoor Life
Network (OLN) as well as a new launch of their own magazine, and Rod
Romanow had journeyed north to join the Moose to get film footage of our
great area. And here it was, quite a discouraging start to the day. Oh
well, in typical fashion of one dedicated to an outdoor activity, and
still missing a few brain cells from some of our “hey let’s go riding as
it’s only -35o “days this winter, I climbed out of bed and
prepared to face a miserable day out on the trails.
One thing I noticed as I brought the quad out of
its gentle slumber was that while rain was still pouring off the roof,
it no longer seemed to be falling and with each passing moment, the sky
seemed to be getting a bit brighter. Obviously I wasn’t getting any
brighter, because it took me a while to figure out that the sun was
still rising, one of the major reasons it was starting to look like it
might be a nice day. Having planned to start the day with Miles and Greg
and breakfast at the Silver Creek Restaurant, we invited our visitor to
tag along, and spent an hour regaling Rod with stories from the north,
quad trips and episodes, and sites we had encountered in the last
several years of being quad enthusiasts.
Amazingly, he chose to still go out with us that
day.
We met up with a few early participants at the
Taylor Esso, and before we could get out of the trucks, more trucks,
trailers, quads and people started arriving behind us.
In
all, 14 riders showed up to go out and at 9:00am, we all headed out to
start what will “not soon to be forgotten” day. After Rod did a short
interview with me, Rod headed up the start of the trail to set up the
camera to get some footage of the crew (quads) and at this time we held
a brief meeting to explain how the day would go. Each time we approached
a “scenic” shot, the group would stop, and Rod would head up the trail
to set up. After a few minutes, the group would continue ahead, and pass
Rod, then head a few hundred feet away to wait for the rest to catch up.
So basically the day started out like this: Leave
the trucks, stop, ride, film,
wait. Head toward the Warm up hut, stop, ride, film, wait. At the Warm
up hut, stop, ride down the hill, film, and wait. One might think that
this would be a rather boring day, but as with the weather, spirits were
lifting as new friendships with those who had not ridden with us before
were forged, and the friendly bashing...banter I mean, rose in volume.
From behind the cabin we rode left at the T and then back towards the
fence line with a few filming stops along the way. We made another
filming stop at the sharp corner on the down slope of the first big
hill, with most, if not all, riders trying to shower the cameraman with
dirt and debris as they made a sharp right turn on the trail. Rod said
it would be a great shot, and I was glad no rocks hit the $10,000 camera
he was holding!
Part way down the hill part of the trail, most
riders chose to go around the large puddle in the middle of the trail.
But what would the north have become if there had not been a few “I can
do that” people in the group?
An undisclosed rider (Jason) decided that his bike
could make it (might have had something to do with a video camera
pointed in his direction) and into the deepest part he splashed. With
Rod aiming the camera, the undisclosed rider (Jason) revved, splashed,
and chewed his way, with cheers and laughter being heard above the sound
of his 800 Can-Am blasting out the full throttle sound of the V-Twin.
A
state of the art “Louisiana Mud Winch” line (aka "stick") was offered to
the undisclosed rider (Jason) and for a brief moment it seemed it might
help. But I think he would have made it anyways.....
Yea..... Okay...... Sure....
As the muddy rain quit falling from the sky, we all
hopped on our bikes to continue the ride. At the bottom of the hill, a
small misunderstanding sent one group along the road to the pipeline,
and the other half thru the trail to the same place. The trail riders
missed one footage shot of a hill, but other than that, all riders met
at the creek crossing on the pipeline. Rod got some excellent footage of
a long hill climb with the whole group of riders stretched out in a long
string as they left the creek. More footage was shot along the pipeline,
and soon we were at the intersection of the pipeline and Stewart Lake
rd. It was decided that a brief trip to the lake would be a good spot
for some interviews and some nice scenic shots of quad riders
interacting with Mother Nature, so away we sprinted to the small lake a
few clicks away. At this point, a local work crew was taking a fishing
break, and when they found out what was going on, they were kind enough
to move their truck out of the way so we would have a “nothing but
quads” shot. Thanks guys!
Lunch was eaten, interviews conducted (I still have
no idea what Rod asked Bob, he is being mighty closed lipped about it)
and some great scenery shots were taken. Cameras clicked, questions
asked about machines, new faces, old faces, the only RzR side by side
there, so generally people poked, prodded and laughed the whole stop.
Now, here is where the fun really began.
We had chosen to head back along the old trail from
Stewart Lake that comes out at Kilometre 28 on the Septimus Rd. Many of
our new riders had not been on that trail yet, and so far the day had
been a fairly clean and dry run. We were about to change that for a few
of them. Entering the narrow trail, Rod was amazed at the drastic change
in scenery.
No longer the wide open pipeline view, but a narrow
single quad track thru rolling hills and steep drop offs. Several times
riders had to squeeze to the side so Rod could get back in front to
film. After many shots, Rod declared that he now had more than enough
film to make his story, and did not need anymore.
Silly mortal. We were just getting to the good
stuff!
We arrived a section of trail that was part muskeg
with heavy floating grass on top. Please keep in mind that this trail
has been used for many years, but had not been ridden in a while.
Most quads made the first hole without too much
problem, but by the time the RzR went thru, he needed a few attempts to
make it. We traversed around a Beaver dam giving it wide berth and
across a few muskeg ribbons. Further down the trail we came to the
flatlands where the first quads thru did not have much problem, but some
of the end riders found off camber spots that had one rider swimming
with the fishes, or bugs at least. Part of the trail had a pit of muskeg
damn near impossible to pass over/thru, so a path around was found. It
was at this point that the group started to spread out a bit, with
adventurous people heading on down the trail.
We
came to a bridge that was “interesting” and had the RzR head down the
forge area instead of crossing....
A few more clicks, a few more bugs/rocks/muskeg
pits and puddles and back at the trucks we arrived. It was nice to see
people chatting afterwards, and making plans for another ride.
Hope you can join us!