The day started with a challenge at our meeting place in Valley Ridge. It turns out that this was the City street cleaning day for this district and we would not be able to park without the prospects of a ticket and potential tow away. We vacated the area about 5 minutes before our leaving time without one participant having appeared. It was decided to go to Shouldice thinking that our missing participant may have gone there. No participant there, calls were made to emergency contacts to those meeting at Cochrane corner and the trailhead about our delay, and we completed the carpool and headed out.

At the trailhead, we met those scheduled to meet there plus great news -our missing participant was also there. Turns out they had mistaken their leaving time with the meeting place time and decided to carry on out to the trailhead, thinking that they had missed the group. After regrouping at Waiporous Campground entry into two vehicles (Clifton had been to this parking area once before) we trundled up the Bible Camp road. At the parking spot, there really was only room for the two vehicles without obstructing the road, so this proved to be a good decision. With the delays and added car shuffle, it was about 11 before we started hiking, over about an hour later than anticipated.

The route in is the old Eau Claire tote road (forestry/logging company) which has currently been taken over by the ATV crowd. Lots of deep mud-holes filled with water and iced over. Often it was necessary to go into fairly open forest beside the track to avoid these. This was not really unexpected, and to add to challenge, some of the uphill sections had films of ice that covered over gravel, so careful negotiation was required fo these sections in the morning.

Difficult trail conditions

Despite this most of the group did not bother with icers. As we progressed along, we kept an eye out for the cut line running perpendicular to our track to take us into the dunes area and Horse Lake. This was found without too much difficulty, and this has now been converted to an ATV track also. Further along the ATV track diverted left from the cut-line, so we opted to follow the ATV track. This proved to be a good choice as travel proved easier and it took us out into the meadows of this back area where the dunes and lake are situated. Daffern's book is rather vague this, especially for first time explorers.

It was already 1pm so most of us were glad to stop for a lunch break in the edge of the meadows in warm but somewhat windy weather. Shortly after lunch, we came to a Y-junction and followed the right hand branch,

Hmm, Horse Lake or the dunes?

this brought us to Horse Lake, a nice little body of water in the upper expansive meadows.


Horse Lake

As Daffern's description for this trail area mentions a number of sand dunes for this area, we decided to head to an open area south of the lake which was close and would seem to contain some. After finding an easy crossing of Aura Creek and hiking about 20-30 minutes,


Open, wet meadows

it appeared there were no dunes in this area, so it was decided to return to the lake. After examining the book map, it showed a dunes location on a side valley from the return trip route. This could be a possibility to check out if time allowed. By the time we reached the Y-junction, which we suspected was the trail to the dunes time was getting on. However, not being sure as to the distance in and as time constraints as to the original times allocated for the trip, it was decided to leave it for another day. The return part of the trip proved to be a bit slushier helping with grip on some of the steeper downhill sections. Not far from the cars we spotted wild horses about 30-40 meters from the ATV track.


Four mustangs

I believe most enjoyed the exploration of this new area, as none of our group had been in this area before, much less some of us up the Forestry Trunk in a number of years. The meadows are especially nice including the setting of the lake. The tote road is a little boring, but the cut-line access was much better scenery-wise especially when it descended into the Aural Creek drainage. For those into things- fauna, there are a number of large piles of wild horse poop along the route. The wild horses obviously graze well in this end of the world.

Thanks to participants: Philip,Carmie,Jeannette,Janet,Margo,Clifton,George and Marianne for accommodating the unfortunate later start and the extra time required at certain intersections for navigating the route in. As with all Ramblers trips the batter and conversation on numerous topics was enlightening and most enjoyable. As this is ATV territory, the destruction of the environment by these vehicles came up a number of times. Coincidentally, we didn't see or here a motorized vehicle all day while on the trails. We did not make the sand dunes mainly due to time constraints, so it appears that a further trip will be necessary for those that would like to see these.

Thank you to Philip for providing photos of the adventure.

Bob C/S

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