Doin' the Rocky Mountain Trench Lake Tour, May 2011

The never ending winter continues (I was turned nearly into an icicle doing the two hour ride from Whitefish, but that's another story) here, so I finally broke down and licensed the WR. I am generally one for the mountains rather than the low down stuff, but it seems this year if I wait for the snow to go, I might as well just tune the skis again and wait a few more weeks.

Anyways, the fun of running around on the slab quickly wore off (in about half an hour), and I decided that bumbling along the bottom of the Rocky Mountain Trench was better than nothing. Besides, I had my new SPOT to get a clear grasp of how to best use it.

I generally don't take a whole lot of bike pics in my photographic/trout bum stumblings through the mountains. So to appease the hordes and attempt to keep your attention, here's some two-fiddy cheesecake for you:





So with that out of the way...

The trip was through the bottom of the Rocky Mountain Trench, just a little east of Kimberley BC, up to Canal Flats, with perhaps a stop or two at hot springs as the mood struck. Being by myself, didn't have to worry about consulting anyone accompanying me about "what next". The ride is kind of neat because of this:



That is my grandfather, humping a #2 tie from his tie mill, circa about 1938. Owned the mill and he was the one who humped and stacked the ties all day. Homesteaded by himself near Jenner when he was 11, lived in a soddy with two oxen for warmth in winter, finally got starved off when he was 17. Just kept getting knocked down and then kept getting back up and going at it again. Always had that big smile, a helping hand for anyone, and never asked for a dime from the government while struggling to make it. Anyways, he's another story in himself, and why I have no time for those crying for entitlements and "share the wealth" - he got ahead with a Grade One education, effort, guts - and a smile.

How he fits in with this story, and why even a valley ride is kind of special, is that the ride laces in and out with logging tracks he cut after the War, through the 50's, and the early 60's before he sold his lumber company to one of the forest biggies and retired. It is kind of neat to ride those roads not lost to forest ingrowth and think my Grandfather cut and travelled them when he was my age and younger.

So with the setting, let's ride!

First there's the approach march - and a clue why I can't ride the mountains yet:



Kind of pretty. The sad story is there's one hell of a lot more snow up there now than there was two weeks ago... and it's sticking.

So first we have to get over Cherry Creek before heading north



Getting a little blown out... could have tried fishing but I was out for a ride.

Finally hit the power line/gas line, commonly known as 'the Powerline' around here to everyone. With just a few obstacles, you can ride from nearly the US border up to the entrance to Kootenay National Park on this. Lots of ADV sorts use the more obvious parts as an alternative to the slab when coming through here.



Drills north for quite a ways before you start seeing the Rockies again!



I gave Hahas Lake a pass because there were Slow Elk all over the damned road, and I didn't feel like running through a mile of cowshit when I was all nice and clean and dry like. Ditto for Reed Lake, but I did get a picture of this pretty cool flower I noticed while deciding whether to ride through a herd of cows and cowshit:



Flowers in a ride report? Yeah - my wife is a registered landscape architect who specializes in native plants and restoration of fire based ecosystems. Besides, she is really nice to me when I come up with a great picture of wildflowers or plants...

Anyways, onwards to Ta Ta Lake:



The local story is the name comes from an incident where the Mounties DIDN'T get their man near here, and the last thing they heard him say as he beat feet on his horse out of reach of them was "Ta Ta, boys!". Could be, given as Horsethief Creek is just up the road and Fort Steele just half an hour away.

Ta Ta Lake is easy to miss. Used to be pretty good flyfishing and duck hunting in my adolescent days back in the 60's, but I haven't wet a line there in many years now. Have to try it again some day - no shore fishing here, however.

A short way up the road: Echo Lakes, a string of three lakes, starting at the south



Shrubs budding out... theoretically that means it's spring...



And the middle lake:



Ran into some old high school friends there - one has just retired as our local government fisheries biologist, so I assumed he would know where I should be going fishing in the next day or so (little did I know...). They had been pulling some 28" plus trout out on chronomids. Nice! I guess those triploid hybrids are doing very nicely here. What's that The Sperminator says?

I'll be back...

Next up, McNair Lakes, another group of three little lakes at a slightly higher elevation.

South.



Middle



No picture of the north lake.

When I was a kidlet, in my very early teens, my grandfather or father or a friend's father would load us up and drop us off here for a week about this time of year with an old Woods canvas tent, an axe, a couple of hunting knives, a package of matches, a sack full of cans of beans, stew, etc if we were too incompetent to catch anything, a cast iron frying pan and pot, our fishing rods, and a 12 gauge shotgun in case of bears. We fished from shore or on rafts we made... without lifejackets.

I suppose these days they would be thrown in jail for child neglect - not only leaving us all alone out in the woods, without life jackets, unsupervised, and failing to provide us with the necessities of life - but oh my God, children with matches, hunting knives, axes, and worst of all with a loaded gun (they're useless unloaded)! The end of the world approaches!

Nobody put an eye out on any of those trips. God we had a lot of fun, and God we caught a lot of fish. Kids today should be so free and so lucky.

On to Tamarack Lake!

Wait. No lake picture. Fail. Sorry, I forgot. My father died not too long ago, and when my brothers get back again sometime this summer, some of Dad's ashes are going into Tamarack as he spent so many days here fishing with Mom and us. Got caught up thinking about that, forgot the pics... next time.

Pretty good fishing lake, and it doesn't get the pressure the other local lakes do. You can actually find yourself the only one camped here at times. I've pulled some trout out of there around five pounds on a little three weight rod... it's worth a go if you're in the area.

But I did notice the wild flowers by the lake shore while musing about Dad...





Boy, is my sweety going to treat me well when she gets home!

Around here, crocuses are not only a sign of spring - they're also a sign that them little bastard woodticks are out so you better check yourself over when you get home. Sure enough, when I got home, I found two on my leg, slowly climbing towards their version of Nirvana. I put them to the torch - I hate those little bastards.

Next stop... Larchwood Lake.



This picture really doesn't do it justice. It really is a beautiful lake, and I'll have to get a better picture next ride through there, particularly if the water is still. For those of you coming through the area thinking of doing what the locals called the Skyline to what visitors call the Skookumchuck Lookout, this lake is pretty much right below you and a short side trip. The fishing is pretty damned good here quite often as well - which unfortunately means there's usually nearly a dozen trailers camped here. Getting so crowded around here a guy needs to move to Montana... wait, I already did that.

Better get moving, got some miles before the next stop. So on the Torrent Road, running alongside the Kootenay River (Kootenai River once it crosses the border).



Fish this river in the right spots in late March/early May, and you can hook up with some rod bustin' bull trout... The Rockies are the backdrop there, of course.

Hooking east into the Purcells, we ride along Skoomchuck Creek/River (more blue ribbon flyfishing water for Westslope cutties) to come to Buhl Creek Hot Springs, just a few miles east of where the Purcell Wilderness Conservatory is:



We used to camp up here elk and moose hunting, and then wash up in the hot springs at night - another "back when I was a kid" memory. The hot springs aren't hot springs anymore, they're lukewarm springs - but they'd sure as hell beat washing in the damned river! And if they were hot, like all the other hot springs around here now, there'd be thirty yahoos camped in the area, screaming and yelling and fighting all night, and leaving a ton of trash when they headed back to town.

Because they don't get used anymore due to the temperature, the neglect of the pools shows in the slime and primordial ooze that has taken over the pools. The whole thing is nothing but a giant petrie dish experiment these days, and it would take some serious work to get them back to the nice sandy clean pools they once were:





So, anybody for a dip? Didn't think so...

I looked around for the road to an old mine called Pico City, but couldn't find it and don't know if it even exists anymore. Last time I was in there was in the 70's, in a Datsun 510, and I thought that car might be staying in there forever. Road may be gone by now as many are... but we'll go by and take another look later when the snow is gone and everything is dryer.

Didn't hit Copper Lake on the way back to the Torrent Road. Didn't forget - the snow line stopped me before I ever got close.

Next stop: Findlay Creek and canyon:



When I was young and stupid, I used to kayak in parts of that canyon when the water was quite high. I imagine the young and stupid still do. I am old and soft wise now and no longer stoop to partake in such cheap thrills (or whatever). Findlay Creek Falls is just a short distance from here, but the day was getting long and the sun was already out of the canyon so I got back in the saddle and headed towards the last lakes of the trip. The canyon and falls is well worth a stop if you're touring through here, and like most places around here, the fishing is pretty decent as well.

I was getting low on fuel so stopped to empty the fuel bladder into the gas tank (handy, that) and suck back some water and some elk jerky. This area burned around a hundred years ago and the exposed hills for some reason never quickly grew back - perhaps the fire was so hot it sterilized the soil. Anyways, there are lots of fire hardened pieces of wood that have been there forever among the grass since I was a kid hunting around here and no doubt before that, and while I was gassing up and drinking up, this little microcosm of hardiness caught my eye:



Talk about making a living clinging by your toenails!

Next stop: Fisher Maiden Lake



Never talked to anyone that knows where the name came from, but it has quit a cachet to it, doesn't it! This lake fishes nicely at times and it usually gets ignored by the ravening hordes of Albertans stampeding to fill up the campsite at Deer Lake, known for the last couple of decades as Whitetail Lake.

Next stop. Blue Lake. Sun getting too low in the sky to make a pic worthwhile. Too bad. Next time.

So, the last and most northerly lake of the ride: Whitetail Lake.

From the road above, the south of the lake:



And a last picture, risking the mob of trailers, generators, and other accoutrements of civilization competing in their communion with nature in the camp ground, the lake from the north end/middle off the dock:



From there, a short retracing of steps back to Findlay Creek and out to Canal Flats at the south end of Columbia Lake. Get here early or have spare gas with you boys, you won't gas up here in the evening.

So there you go: about all the west side lower level lakes on that side of the Kootenay, about 120 miles off the slab, pretty close to 200 if you count the hwy miles to get to the start and and back again via road. If you want to spend the night, go to ground near Canal Flats and do the east side on the way back - but that's another ride for the future. But... I was home before dark!

You'll find this ride's GPS data experimentally posted at my SPOT Adventures site:

West Kootenay River Lake Ride

And more importantly, at Craftycoder's most excellent and far superior DualSportMaps.com website:



And because you've been such a good audience and I know you really wanted to see more pictures of motorcycles instead of flowers and stuff... one last picture:



Hope you all enjoyed the look!

Pretty country, I'm amazed by contrast, flat in the foreground and massive hills in the background, where i live its all small to medium hills

Damn Jager, you really make me hate Delaware. A lot.

Do you still have the stock 2 gallon gas tank? Or did you upgrade to an IMS?

Just flippin gorgeous. More pictures please.

Hey... I haven't seen you near Vermin....what gives?? Awesome shots Rick...just breathtaking.

combo wrote:

Pretty country, I'm amazed by contrast, flat in the foreground and massive hills in the background, where i live its all small to medium hills

Anyways, this area is known as the Rocky Mountain Trench and forms the greater part of what National Geographic has chosen to call The Crown of The Continent (I think they're on glue, but whatever). When I was a kid, biologists commonly referred to it as The Serengeti of North America due to the wide spectrum of mammals here and the biodiversity. The species are all still there, but the numbers have dropped considerably in the last few decades due to forest ingrowth and overgrazing.

The Trench itself varies but the trench bottom runs around thirty miles wide or so. On the east side you have the Rockies, with the local portions referred to as the Front Ranges where these pictures were taken, and on the west you have the Purcells, Selkirks, and as you get a bit further north the Valhallas, Bugaboos, and Monashees.

For a guy like me, it just doesn't get better than this (well, except for the contemptible gun laws and politics which caused a two hour south migration to Montana, where the outdoors is almost as good). The military has given me the opportunity to experience just about everything (well, I managed to avoid the clap), and I've seen a goodly portion of the globe. If I was forced out of here and had to go anywhere, I suppose the Bavaria area of Germany would be high on the list... but the amount of people! You quickly find out travelling in Germany that you don't just pull off the road and throw up your tarp when you want to call it a day.

Haven't seen Patagonia yet (working on it), but that is a possibility. Bottom line, I don't think any other place I know of offers a combination of the mountains, lakes, rivers, streams, hunting, and fishing that this area does.

So that's why I'll never do the TAT, the CDR, the emerging Trans Canada Trail, or any of those other rides. Everything I want and like is right here, and rightly or wrongly, I'm just not much interested in riding in flat areas, deserts (I'll make an exception for Moab; it's on my list), and bush. People save for years of their lives to come here backpacking, hiking, fishing, hunting, and riding and it doesn't make any sense to me to leave all of this.

So I'll leave it to others to enjoy the long trails; I'll just keep riding in circles. I could ride the rest of my life around here (although my wife now tells me everything I buy these days has a lifetime guarantee) and probably not see everything more than once or twice. This summer I hope to do a week long ride sort of like an inverted "D" around our place in Montana which should keep me in the mountains most of the way. And if and when winter decides to leave, once the snow leaves the Bugaboos I hope to spend some time in there as well. It doesn't seem like too many dual sport guys have gone into the Bugs, possibly because it is all in and back trips, no loops or anything like that.

SheWolf wrote:

Hey... I haven't seen you near Vermin....what gives??

Haven't seen you here either... what gives??? Scared of my wife?

No, the only option I got was working there for months. No thanks.

Seeing as how the Cadet season is starting and the battle schools are ramping up, perhaps I'll ask if there's any MSFA courses the military needs taught in or around Vernon. If you actually grew up around Vernon, you know all about cadets, right?

A few days... I could stomach that.

I need to think on that. I keep thinking of your suspension guy, and sending my stuff off to Go Race as opposed to dropping the bike off and then picking it up... hmmmm. The suspension upgrade is a luxury I don't really need, however. The headset and swingarm need doing again, and I would like to learn to do it myself - PROPERLY - with the proper tools available and with some adult supervision looking over my shoulder. I'm pretty handy with a lathe, milling machine, or shaper, and not a bad gunsmith, but for whatever reason anything to do with fixing vehicles or bikes, I can screw it up. My brother the HD mechanic says he wouldn't trust me to change the oil in his truck... big vote of confidence always in the back of my mind when I change the oil in my WR.

Anyways, I know you're there along with your trusty sidekick 0007, and up in Kelowna a school friend of mine, Dave George, now resides. Dave and I rode and raced together back in the late 60's and early 70's. He was going to be a doctor, straight A's, got kicked out of high school for getting caught drunk at a school field one single lousy day - and then went on to build one of the biggest Yamaha/Harley dealerships in BC before selling. Super, super guy - another example of succeeding with character, resolution, and willpower. Customers love Dave. Apparently he just can't stop working on bikes and has opened another small shop in Kelowna to stay out of trouble, so maybe I need the excuse of bike service to go see Dave for a few days and maybe do some riding together again - 30 years later.

We shall see...

Yeah, the cadets are all over the place in the summer. One of my neighbors was with the air division and still helps out once in a while up there. He's pretty much retired now, tho. If I had half the chance to get my ass out of here and head your way I'd do it. I'm kinda shackled here with my kid being special needs and all..fighting the system day in and day out to make sure he gets the support he's entitled to. Aaaand fire season seems to be trying to do its thing here. I'll give it another 2 -3 weeks and see what happens. Lots of fuel load and thunder storms apparently forecast for the summer, so it will be interesting to see what procures.

As for ol' Red, I don't even think he's been out riding his R yet, the ass. I ran into him at the Yammie dealer during their demo days, but that was maybe 2 weeks ago. He's been working his ass off. Or wait...he did get that new trials bike of his, the traitor...