Winter Quad Ride from Chippeway Bay

Offloading at the Chippewa Bay barge ramp.

When you get a sunny day in winter, the outdoors calls, real loud.  Wayne went out to the barge and got our quads ready for a winter ride.

Chippewa Bay is good winter destination because it gets direct rays until the sun sets behind the Bunster Range at about 4:00. Back at home in Hole in the Wall direct sun ends at 12:30 this time of year. Winter sun and exercise are a welcome combination.

Rest break in the turnout next to a slash pile.

It takes about half an hour to get from the cabin over to Chippewa Bay. Since it was a week day, we called Western Forest Products to make sure we wouldn't interfere with any logging activities.

The low lake level and calm day made the barge ramp easy to use. We started up Chippewa Main heading for snow country. The lower road was clear and well maintained. Logging here has been quiet for several years, but that's about to change.

Powell Lake and the high country in the backgrount.

After following Powell Lake for some distance, we headed uphill towards Heather Main. It didn't take long for us to see patches of snow, and suddenly the road was covered in a thick coating of the white stuff. Like some of the people here in Powell River, we don't have tracks to turn our quads into snowmobiles.

We make it to the snow level.

After a break to enjoy sunshine and a winter wonderland, we headed back down to Chippewa Main. Heading north we passed the brushing machine where it stopped clearing alders from the roadbed.

Ready to start back down after a fun day up in the snow.

We bumped into a Western Forest Products crew surveying for replacement culverts under the road so the brusher could safely continue and the road would be ready for logging trucks.

We saved a bit of sunlight for our barge ride home, the end to a great day in the bush. -- Margy