After packing our lunch and gathering warm fleece and coats, we head out shortly after 8am. We had no problem finding the turnoff to the road that would lead us to Adanac Road. It was a gravel road that was somewhat rough in our truck but on the whole, not too bad. We came across lots of cows...they run “free” here. Lots of “Stock at Large” signs. Not really knowing where we are going, it seemed to take forever...but once we got to a junction in the road where we thought we must be close to where we were supposed to be, we stopped to ask a fellow that was camped just off the road (there were lots of people camped along the river (and elsewhere for that matter). Judging by the hand-drawn map we had, the fellow figured we were in the right area, so we drove up the road and found the sign that said “Quad Squad”. Unfortunately, the sign was confusing as there were arrows point in the wrong direction leading us to believe they were further up the road. So we ended up driving about another five minutes up the road and not seeing any sign of the club's camp, we turned around...but we did see 3 white-tailed deer bouncing up the road.
Back by where the "Quad Squad" sign was, we parked the truck just inside the area and walked down to where the group of RV’s were parked and introduced ourselves. We received a very warm welcome from Mark and Linda. Mark asked if we had received the email that he had sent...hmmm...no we hadn’t. I guess he had sent us more detailed directions...no idea why we didn’t get the email, but we managed to find the right spot!
Rather than drive the truck into the area where they were camped (the road was quite muddy in some spots), we decided to just unload the quads where we had parked. So after chatting for a few minutes, we headed back to the truck to get ready...and by shortly after 10:00 we were back with the group, meeting more people. I’m not going to profess to remembering everyone’s name...but Mark was leading the ride, Linda followed him...there was Karl (President of Quad Squad) with his young grandson, Frederick, riding with him...and there was Lina, Randy, Alf...along with a couple of others whose name I can’t remember...Joe (2nd Vice President of the club) brought up the end. Altogether there must have been about 12 quads on our ride.
We went up to a great lookout area...
...I was reassured that we were not riding up there...
Great views...
We stopped for lunch at a spot by a creek that some have camped at before...
I’m not even going to try to remember where each of these pictures was taken...just beautiful country!
This picture shows the back of Turtle Mountain (on left), part of Frank Slide (Alberta's deadliest disaster--more to come on that sometime next week) and the town of Hillcrest...
This picture shows the back of Turtle Mountain (on left), part of Frank Slide (Alberta's deadliest disaster--more to come on that sometime next week) and the town of Hillcrest...
Yes, they had quite a forest fire through this area back in 2003 (I think)...it burned all the way from Waterton...
We went from mountain tops to valleys and back again...there are miles and miles of quad/snowmobile trails in this area.
This is Frederick (and me on my quad)...he reminds us so much of Rob when he was that age...with his glasses and his ‘Fox’ jersey on...he even has a little Honda 80 motorcycle!
There are signs on a lot (not all) of the trails...
It was close to 6pm by the time we got back to camp...wow, what a ride! With the trails all quite rugged, we stood up a lot, manoeuvring our quads through the rough terrain...and we were tired! We decided to join them on another ride tomorrow, so rather than load our quads, we left them in their camp. No problem, Mark said...he’s sure he can get $50 for them if we don’t show up tomorrow...(haha)
They invited us to stay for a beer before heading home...
We took a different route home. Mark had suggested one that gets to pavement sooner...so it ended up being 20 minutes on gravel road and then about 20 minutes on a secondary highway ...a very scenic drive...
...before we were back to highway 3, then it was another 20 minutes to Coleman. Since it was late by this time, we decided to stop at The Rum Runner Pub for dinner on the way home. So it was close to 9pm by the time we eventually arrived back at the trailer. I had to wait for the hot water to heat...then it was a shower and to bed...we were beat!
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