Escape From Weigles!

Andy and I met at the Metral Bux and headed off to do a spot of fishing.  Well it was a good old gumbo-day today, with more mud and "biowaste solids" spread on the roads into Weigles than I've ever smelled before.  I aired the tires down to 22psi front and rear today, and despite the rear TKC-80 looking long in the tooth, the tires were great.  I was considering going to a D606 on the rear, but I don't know if I'll ever encounter slicker mud, deeper puddles or more rutted gumbo than we saw today, and the tires never had a problem.  As I was airing the tires down, Andy met an old sailing acquaintance of mine who let us know that there is an alternative way into the logging roads rather than the Domount-Weigles tank-trap route.  The traps are fine, except as they fill with water, you're never sure if an ATV'er has dropped a log in the bottom of one, and, at the speeds we swoop in and out of those "Squamishes" (as the locals call them), that could be a neck breaker.

After getting to one of the nearer fishing holes I promptly snapped my rod on a snag, and so went for a walk to find some other bounty while Andy fished.  I stumbled upon some chantrelles which were about a week old, but still in good nick, and so collared them.  I also stumbled on these...



 I hadn't seen any of these since being in New Ayanch in northern BC 20 or so years ago, so, although I'm 99.9% sure I know what they are, I wasn't sure enough to take and eat them.  So I left them - hopefully for their spores to populate the area.  I know they have some in Shawnigan Lake, but they are usually higher than this...And no, I'm not telling...what, where or how...they're too "lucrative", and this information will encourage others to decimate the area to harvest them.

After fishing was a bust, Andy and I decided to try to find an alternative way back to civilization based on what my sailing buddy had intimated earlier.  So with GPS's in hand and fading light we headed east...

 The yellow trail is the usual spot to our fishing areas via Weigles Road and the tank-traps.  The green to red is the connector past Boomerang, and then the red is the new route back to the yellow gate at the end of Weigles/Domount road.  We explored all the main spars off the road in the clear cut, until we got to a road that entered the forest...

Little did I know that I had been here before.  Ryan had taken me this way as an alternative to Weigles a few months ago, albeit the other way.  I was to remember why I didn't like this trail at the time and dismissed it at as comfortable alternative...

Looking back down the dirt climb.  Going up the muddy rutted slope was not bad.  The torquey beast just loped up it.  My rear tire was my concern, but it needn't have been as SuziQ just loped up.  Looking down afterwards, I had a flashback.  Ryan had taken me down this slope when I had first had my bike.  I damn near didn't do it after I watched him skid all the way down with his rear locked up.  Basically, I rolled it down using the clutch and breaks for stoppage...  It's funny how time flies and now, I don't think, even in the mud, I'd worry too much about it.  Stand on the pegs, grip the tank and pump the brakes gently if you need to.  Just keep steerage!  Yeah, right.  Sounds easy!  A 606 is more aggressive, and one of those on the back would certainly hang on better than a TKC if you needed to trail brake a little.  But on the road, the TKC is far superior according to the posts I've been reading.  Ahh well, a decision to ponder over the winter...

All in all, a great day for both of us.  We both really enjoyed navigating our way round the back side of Weigles, sans biowaste...