Day 3 – Shea Lake

Close your eyes for a moment and picture this.. a field of pure gold waving in wind, you've laid down on the ground with not a soul in site.  The sky a pure blue, with the whisps of only a few clouds in it, a slight breeze blowing in the wind and the sounds of nothing but the whispers of the long grass in your ears.  A place where you can close your eyes as you lie there and feel nothing but harmony, peace and the warmth of the sun.  That’s what Shea Lake makes me think of, not the area where the picnic tables and “civilized” area is, but if you continue on around to the meadows on the other side where the old structures are.

You’ll pass by the “alien invader” or so we call him, and happen chance upon a few really neat old structures that still have the remnants there.  Reminds me of being 7 or 8 and living out in an area like this, but up in the Caribou with the remnants with a tarp over them as our shelter.  But it was summer so it was ok.  Where there was no worries, no expectations nothing but the innocence of a child being amazed that they could disappear and lie down in the fields where nothing else existed…

Alas back to the storey.. we had pulled into Shea Lake and made our way around to the Meadow with TMax going Dude.. where do we camp (wait until you see the video that’s still to come), having picked up Beast, Lone Ranger & a few others that had temporarily waited in another camp.  You come around the meadow and the view that greats you is a mesmerizing memory.  Pristine meadows with the beautiful trees standing up out them, it truly is amazing how nature even in its destruction can be exquisite. 

The meadows  offering purity topped off with the touch of the serene lake.  And one of the best parts – lack of those things that like to suckle your blood when you leave a touch of skin exposed.  However on our way in we did make witness to a sight of humor.  The Cow Skeleton that had been build and propped up against the stump that was obviously placed by someone that was praying to the gods of mosquitoes and it worked!

Everyone got set up, with Bruce making up his command station to again indulge us in the best homemade delights that can be offered when one is “roughing it” (if this is roughing it I’d love to see luxury”.  Jordy and I wandered for a bit watching things before picking our spot a little distance above (just in case another PSI debate occurred) and sat back and watched those that were there.  Then it struck us how amazing the group we were with was.  There were no disabilities, those that were here were the poster perfect picture of passion and belief of living by ones priorities and not letting anything get in their way.

Embracing the very meaning of not accepting of complacency and knowing that life is not lived until you are standing there living out your fantasies. They know that to sit by and accept the status quo is to slowly die inside, apathy can not be accepted.  To Kranium, Little Rob & Geoff – you truly inspire you are some of the most amazing people I have ever met .

Without the threat of mosquitos people were able to meander without carrying their dual sport cans of OFF which lead to more delicious dinner.. J  Non DEET flavoured!  That evening was a quiet one and no big adventures became of it.. just a beautiful summer evening.  As the sun faded into the night people slowly drifted off to bed  so they would be ready for the next day – the trip to Cabin Lake.  Excitement was in the air and anticipation of what it would be like. 

Being that we had been there before we were to be leading the next morning, however going a new route that I was a bit nervous about.  Remember at the beginning when I said I had figured out I had a 17 in GPS Screen – it was very nice to have the next day!

We woke up at about 8:30 and viewed the scene below, a few people were starting to wake up the smell of eggs and breakfast could be caught on the wind. Jordy and I respooled the winch line from the tow job the day before and this time I was his Winch Wench and the back was ready at about 11 to head out.  I did notice that each day it was getting a little later and later.  We said a goodbye to Shea Lake knowing we would be back again soon and headed out towards Kingsvale.  Kingsvale held our exit through the roads to Cabin Lake and they are a full true maze of trails.

As we headed around the lake we noticed that a bright orange truck was still there, thought it was a bit unusual and Jordy got on the radio and was told they were on their way.  Little did we know that we should have waited.  The mog’s starter was having a few issues and BushPiggy’s bumper got intimate with it.  Apparently the Bumper liked being behind the Mog so well that it wanted to stay partially attached! 

Well the general rule is that when you get a turn you wait for the next person, however good that plan always is – the morning driver meeting had not occurred (shouldn’t it also include the navigator.. hmm ) so of course a few people got left behind in the twists and turns out of shea Lake.. you know the left hand turn that will take you to the main road… lol   We stopped once we were a bit down Kane Valley road, where you could safely park 20 trucks and not worry about them not seeing you or the oncoming traffic.  After about 20 minutes everyone was in place and we all made a pack to ensure we didn’t lose anyone.  Jordy was a bit sad as we were going to lose Luc the tailgunner soon.  He had  a VHF and it worked well.

We started the convoy moving again and entered Kingsvale and then turned onto the only road there that would lead us deep into the Misty Mountains. The Misty Mountains were a huge and dangerous mountain chain that divided the lands of Eriador and Rhovanion. Its length was about 700 miles and some of the peaks were as high as 18,000 feet. There were only a few passes, one of them the High Pass which the company decided to use but which was now inhabited by… no wait wrong story - but the bug sure seemed like it!

At this point my UNDERSTANDING was that we were going to pick up one of Terry’s friends at the lake that was down the road.  However my only concern was this would have us routing through a road on the backroad map book to the main road that we hadn’t been on that I wasn’t sure if it would go through.  Had my DRIVER advised me that the plan had been cancelled I would have opted for another route.  However that being said the route worked out, I forgave him and we saw some beautiful sights.

We passed Gillis Lake and using my really cool 17 inch GPS Screen  (thank you for the inverter) & Backroad Map Book I had identified the road – Lower Maka Road.  I had advised the DRIVER that we would be turning soon, however the driver failed to see the turn and we continued past it a whole 257 meters.  We then turned back and saw the one sign that would worry me.. Road Deactivated.. ok my thoughts at this point.. I take 20 trucks down a road with the word Deactivated on it, 4 water way crossings according to the book and chance having a wash out and trying to turn around 19 trucks and a Unimog on a road where the ground is giving away – or having them all “backing up” and repeating our adventure of a few weeks ago – but alas this time Jordy would  be on the cliff side.. ok that’s good then I won’t have a nervous breakdown and if we do have to back up – I am on the safe side to jump out.. all’s good then – hand me a beer and let’s go!

So we start gingerly down the road at a slower pace than normal as we didn’t know what was around the corner.. and I have no desire to repeat the experience of being thrown 30 feet out of the back of a jeep and landing in a small pile of sand amongst a bunch of sharp rocks.  Luckily I let out a breath as the road seemed well travelled and didn’t have willows growing in the middle of it like the South Spious did when we attempted that one in Nov of 07 with a foot of snow on the ground.

We made the first water crossing – and well I would call it a dry run off creek bed.. which I was happy to see, we then passed the 2^nd one and then luckily we ran across 2 other vehicles at one of the few safe spots to pass.  The timing amazed us.. They had come through the other side, the road was clear and provided the fated report of lots of large succubus’s at Cabin Lake.. noooooooooooo

Alas bugs, nor snow, nor grizzlies would keep us from our appointed destination – we must march on!!! (Well most of us anyway).  We continued on up the valley to the other end of the road made our way on up the main road to our turn off.. however we had one long awaited stop to make.   The area we’re in there is not like Harrison or Stave.. it’s dry, very very dry.. and the temperature was climbing throughout the day.  Most people hadn’t had a shower since Tuesday morning and it was now Friday (of course I snuck in a quick one on Thursday).    You know the kind of heat.. the heat where you don’t really sweat as it dries right away, the kind of heat encompases you and you long to be sitting there with someone holding an ice cube above you and letting it land drip by drip slowly up your body.. where the only thing more refreshing then that would be a cold mountain river..

Well right there – that was on the agenda, we knew that the main river was right around the corner – just hoping that it wasn’t too populated at this point, and that we could fit in all the trucks.  Have you ever tried standing around 20 macho men covered in DEET, Dust & Sweat?  In some ways kind of appealing in its brute masculinity – on the other if some of them didn’t go in that river I’d be standing a bit further away around the campfire later.  Everyone got parked and I think some literally ran towards the river peeling the shirts off and looking forward to it – until they took a step in it.. lol

It has been years since I’ve seen grown men nervous about water temperature.. lol but it felt so good.. the water was pure, deliciously delightful and brought a soothing sensation to the bites of the last few nights.  Plunging my head into the water felt so invigorating – luckily BushPiggy had thought to bring down some soap  to the river – it kept me from having to hike back up to the truck – so I do appreciate that!

After cooling off I grabbed the camera and took a bit of video, just to capture the moment and Tmax yells – “What are you doing”.  I just laughed, I’m starting to think he doesn’t like being on video – always has a comment to make about it.  It was neat to see how everyone had dived in the water and enjoyed it, normally it’s only kids that will ignore the cold – but here it felt so good.. Alas all good things must come to an end and we did have a goal of Cabin lake – we still had a few hours to go and I kept my fingers crossed that we would take all the right turns. 

2:30 we gathered everyone up and headed out the new convoy that was short by 3 trucks.  Gavman, Hunter & Raymond has elected to stay behind and let the kids enjoy the “skeeter” free zone and not have to pack them up.  Being that Jordy & I have 7 kids between us we can understand this more than anyone can imagine.    We headed on up the road that is otherwise called the “mini whipsaw” towards our final destination for the day.  Jordy has made a deal to flag all the turn offs for hunter with the “green geocaching tape”, and I had planned on marking the coordinates however as good as any plan – those that were there know how the first stop turned out.

Jordy got his exercise, we drove about 600 meters passed it and I say “aren’t we supposed to flag that” and Jordy goes “ohhh shh..” and then gets out and literally runs back – all the way back to the last truck and flags it – then runs forward as we know that we need to get going and people want to see the promised land!    We continued on up the “deactivated” road enjoying the memories of all the times we had been here before and thinking back to how GEOCACHING takes us to so many amazing locations.  We were running a bit ahead of the others – which is good on one hand as Jordy’s window was rolled down and he ended up brushing up against a tree with dead needles – which promptly landed down the backside of his shorts..  so he had to make a temporary stop to “shake it out”.

The vistas are really neat, just all those trees that are in the way that block the view.. lol  at least here they haven’t paved paradise and we’re not in Ontario where they’ve actually created a “tree museum”.  Jordy and I quite enjoyed the peace as we made our way the hour up the road making sure that we kept the truck behind us and that no one was having mechanical issues.  We made it to the top and took a quick jaunt down Spious to the final turn off that creates a maze.  Now Jordy and I have always had a debate on this little section and must admit – in spite of CRAFT disease – he got it right.

I was certain it was 3 lefts then a right, he said 3 rights then a left.. either way it was 3 of something. Well we didn’t want to lead 20 trucks down the wrong path so we made arrangements with those behind us and gave them a handheld radio and the flagging tape.  Jordy and I would venture down the road a bit and if it was good then radio for them to flag it and bring the others along.  Well Jordy listened to me the first one as he smugly grinned, I very very quickly admitted he was right and that we needed to turn around but in my defence it only took me 436 meters to recognize it!!  We then doubled back and brought the others along.. and then the next ones were easy as we knew they were right & right!

We made the final turn off and stopped to pause on the beauty of the final ascent into Cabin Lake.. to us it wasn’t the promised land – we had been here before and hiked to the downed airplane, to us it was the “we did it” land that bring forth that memory that will last you a lifetime.  One of those things that seemed so surreal, how many others ever make the hikes through the alpines meadows and see the flowers.  For those that can, get out of the vehicle once in a while and take a hike.. it’s amazing what you can see.   We crested the last peak and you can see the lake below – so beautiful it’s breathtaking.. the cabin that is up here.. quite amazing to think that someone built one and lived here, can’t say I blame them it would be perfect for me.

From what we heard the others were just as taken aback by its beauty as we were the first time.  We all slowly made the way down and luckily we were the only ones there.  The little flying creatures were not as bad as I had expected, and were bearable with another spray of OFF and my bug zappers!  Everyone found a quiet spot and I let Jordy camp in the middle this time.. (which is good I had less distance to take him to pour him into bed that night).  Bruce set up his command center, Tmax brought out the boy toys and you could feel the excitement of those being there..

To this I will close off the day and will be back soon with the next tale of the adventures.  Off to take care of a few things including vacuuming the Yeep and enjoy a good cold bottle of Bud.