toy run

so, tom and i met early saturday morning for the 4x4 toy run. i brought starwars lego and hotwheels to donate.

We ripped it up just past chute lake, it was awesome. there were almost 70 trucks and more than 100 people. the photos speak more than drunken blogging even can.

a sweet 2wd dune buggy we followed up for a bit. no windows















some mad ass willy's we followed up



















this was the sketchy way up. we took the other sketchy way up.





















the pallet truck. every trip should have one










the parrot in the pallet truck












group photo












some sweet wheeling near the top... the "difficult route"









how to plug a tire in a pinch. we passed these guys straighening their bead lock ring on a rock, with another rock














some shots from the way down

















can't wait for next year. reserve your seat in my truck now.

got sidetracked on an adventure by another adventure!

So, mike lau and i were headed up to postil lake for a calm relaxing bbq. We sure didn't get too far when we ran into tyson and friend. They here having a little problem at the same spot as the log bridge problem i had a few posts back. we drove up and saw the o-so-familiar situation.

After he got out, we decided to meet at the mud pits for a short little rendezvous. No problem. Except the trail was no longer mud, it was an icy rutted mess. But we made it.

following dood on the way. had to stop for a tree

Then the "hey, why don't you guys come with us on this next trail?". Sure. lets go. What an epic trail. as usual, i had the smallest truck but the biggest sense of adventure. weird how those things go hand-in-hand. also how trips with tyson and damage to my truck also go hand-in-hand.

bumper bumping


some minor on the trail repair


how it's done


about this time, mike and i decided we could not commit to hiking 25 km out of the bush due to a totally destroyed truck, so we let the built trucks cross a mad ditch and we went the other way. up to postil lake for a nice mellow fire and some hotdogs. good times.

postil lake

hot dogs

mike and his bb gun, and a fire, and a 4runner, and awesomeness

another backroads escapade. with tom.

it was time to get more firewood. did i mention i don't have a fireplace? who cares. the smartest thing ever said by an american president went someting like this... "cut your own wood and it warms you twice." so true. and so we were warmed twice.

tom is a dood from my old haunt in pinawa. actually, i taught him grade 11. now he has a masters, so i guess i didn't completely turn him off school. but now that he has more education than me, and i'm not marking his papers, we could just be two cool doods hanging out.

I found a spot on the map that said 4x4 only and pretty much headed straight for it.

Our first stop was brunette lake. i was the only person with brown hair there... kinda misleading. we had first tracks all the way in. The site leaves someting to be desired for camping, but a cool trail led in to this small frozen lake.



the turn around at the "site". room for a tent and a fire. thats it. definately a canoe spot next summer


next was aileen lake. again first tracks. pretty cool. a bigger site, but not much.


it was so cool, tom made this pose...it may also have been a "yea!, we didn't die" dance


then, onto the trail back towards flyfish lakes. we did this trail before. with less snow, downhill. this was the snowy, rocky uphill direction. almost a mistake. almost.you may remember flyfish lakes from last week's post.


tom and i found a bit of firewood, the chainsaw helped us. turns out, tom cooks a mean hotdog. only 4 ingerdients... hotdogs, buns, bbq sauce and fire. what else could we possibly need. did i mention we had some beer? well, we did.

while we were eating, some people on quads came by and said something like "did you guys come from THAT way?" i guessed by their reactions to our "yea" that they saw the uphill spot with the huge rock that we had to churn up in 4wd lo. our tracks were kinda hard to miss. that rock will never be the same. no pictures. sorry. my mom might see it.

rememberance day geocaching and stuff

time to log more geocaches. friday seemed like a great day to adventure with christine and the yellow lancer. Our goal is 55 geocaches this year, and this brought into the high 40's. No geocaching photos, they are kinda secretive, but here are some photos of the adventure anyway. until the pouring rain turned us homeward.

this is the trail to hardy falls in peachland. we've been there before, and we'll go again. a sweet short fall walk.


we made it. the falls changed a bit since a big landslide last year, but still worth the stroll.


christine on the yellow leaf road. it was chilly, but can't stay inside al winter 'cause of a little wind.



the stream is a big salmon run in fall. we were late for that, but also missed the ridiculous crowds. just in time for crisp leaves though.



the rainy and wavy okanagan lake. picture makes it look calmer. it wasn't.

sweet burgers in peachland, a day off with pay, great company and a relaxing day. what more can a dood ask for?

Nov 5. so you say you need some firewood? and some snow?

10am. saturday. steve calls. i thought he was dead. he wasn't. turns out he lives in white rock. but he makes a special guest appearance when he calls asking if i wanna go get firewood with tim and him. yes i do. so i pack up the chainsaw, mixed gas, and random other stuff, and off i go to meet them.

we head up beaver lake rd, aiming toward flyfish lakes. a place i've seen on the map often enough, but never fully busted into. today would change all that.



about 1/2 way up we hit the snow. about 4 inches, so not really enough to make it dumb, but enough to make it a bit more fun. we got to the forest site no problem, and proceeded to get a fire going. then i break the recoil on the chainsaw and begin field stripping it on a snowy picnic table. after officially giving up, it works. funny how that works.

the lake is totally frozen over. not enough to walk or drive on, but enough to remind us that snow wheeling time will be here oh-so-soon.



the forest site here is minty mint. good spot to camp and fish in the summer, avec a canoe.


after filling the backs of our trucks with wood and watching our sweet campfire run its course, its time to continue on. always a better option that turning back. After the camp spot, the road quickly becomes a trail. some big frozen puddles we broke through, some we didn't. but is was 17 km of awesome.


We finally ended up at haddo lake. its a much bigger lake but was also in the process of freezing over. also, only a short jaunt back to the main road and, bob's your uncle, back to 2wd.


logged some sick new trails. got tons of firewood. didn't break anything.
sounds like success.

Nov 4. boring title, i know.

Friday night the call came from tyson, "wanna go have a fire up at the postil mud pits?"

yes. yes i do. so did about 60 other people. When we got there, there was a mad huge fire like this...

i didn't know any of those people when we got there, but i knew them all when i left.

i especially knew this guy
i helped him pull his 4runner out of a big hole. actually, lots of people helped. his girlfired (in the truck still) was not impressed. everyone else was.


this guy was almost beyond help. a big chevy could not get him unstuck. it took 2 big truck pulling simultaneously to finally get him out.


just after midnoght it was time to head down. tyson said "hey, wanna check out a trail i know?" again, yes i do.

This was the end of the trail, and the back end of the truck. notice the rear passenger tire off the ground. good times, good times.


and a little side view. perhaps you can see the dilemma.

the approach angle was a little too crazy, and there was no way i was going to get out of these 2 ditches without getting high centered. i shouldn't say no way, because the way was to build a bridge out of random firewood we had collected to make the ditch less deep. see?

as you can tell, i'm pretty pleased with myself. and why shouldn't i be?


so we made it down to civilization. everything was good. great actually. what a sweet night. had a great sleep. dreamed of large women.