I got out for the day on Sunday, with my daughter Andrea. It was a multi purpose trip to the East side of Harrison Lake. We took metal detectors to search old logging camps and beaches, my rifle for black bear and cougar, both open till June 15th, and camera for the money shot of Sasquatch.
The metal detecting produced lots of rusty nails, some melted aluminum slag (old beer cans, probably), and 1 modern nickel.
The hunting got us a close up look at a nice chubby blacktail doe, but no sign of bear or cougar, though we've had sightings of both in the past in this area.
The search for Sas was fruitless, with no sign of tracks or anything else.
The real adventure started at about 5:30, when a moment of inattention on my part got the right rear tire of the SUV over the edge of the trail, putting me in a position where I had no traction to go forward uphill, and no option to go backward downhill, as that would roll the car onto its side in the ditch. After 30 or 40 minutes of trying to use rocks and logs to make a way out, we gave up on that, and walked a km back down the trail to the main logging road to flag down a 4x4 to help pull the car 3' forward to get me back on the trail. After 45 minutes with no traffic, we started walking west from the km 43 marker. At km 35, we finally found a dirt biker with a Garmin InReach gps with satellite text capability, and I sent messages explaining our predicament to my son, who has a 4x4, and to fellow BFFer MagniAesir, who also knows the area and has a 4x4. Before either could reply, a couple in a Toyata Tundra 4x4 came along, and offered to help out. I sent follow up texts to let my son and Magni know that we now had help, and off we went to rescue my SUV. The actual pull out was very easy, and both our rescuer and I got turned around to head back down the trail.
I offered to buy the couple a 24 case of beer, a bottle of whiskey, or at least pay them for their time and gas, but they refused to take anything for their help. By the time we were back on the main logging road, with 43 km still to go to reach pavement, it was fully dark, at 10PM. At km 9, we finally got a cell signal, and I was able to call Magni and my son to let them know we were safely headed home. At that point, my son answered that he was already coming up the logging road, at km 6, so we met him just a few minutes later. We finally got onto pavement in another 10 minutes, and started home, stopping at a Tim Hortons in Rosedale for BLTs and hot choclates, since Andrea and I hadn't eaten since about 2. We finally got home at 1:00AM, completely beat, and legs aching from the long hike.
I'm going to Cabella's this week to buy an InReach unit, since a text out sure beats a long hike on a dark logging road!
I didn't think to get a photo of my driving boo-boo, but I did get a few shots of the location during the day: