After Work Fishing at Boomerang Lake. ♫

I made it out to Boomerang Lake today after work.  It was pretty touch and go; a choice between running the cat to the vet to help mend her failing kidneys or hit the trails.  We got home and she greeted us at the door having picked up during the day.  Out I went!

It turns out that Paul couldn't make it today.  Something to do with transporting his offspring to various group functions in the cab.  It was a chance for me to slow down at the local logging road intersections and become a little more familiar with them, (rather than mindlessly BLASTING through them as usual).  I went through the usual route at Weigles Rd., through the tank traps, left at what I'm calling "Intersection A," and left again on logging road 142, ("Intersection B"), to Boomerang Lake.  I'm feeling much better about knowing where I am out there now. :)

The Route  (Click Image to See Full Size)

The "Tank Traps."  There are six or seven of these nasties in close proximity to each other.  They have a way of sharpening your concentration just a little as you position yourself over each hump.  First time was a bit of a horror show, but they're becoming easier each time I go over them.  I kind of look forward to crossing them now.  We get through them in about a minute or so.

"Intersection A"  Great road surface all around here.  Right to Round Lake and beyond.  Left&Left to Boomerang and beyond.

"Intersection B"  Left, (or straight ahead in this pic), to Boomerang Lake.  You can really move on these open flat logging roads.

I fished at the "boat ramp" location," ("Fishing Spot 1" on image below) for about 40 minutes, finally wading in above my knees to get the casts out to a few swirls that were appearing in the lake.  No bites at all.  After watching some pretty active swirls and jumps to my left, I spent twenty minutes trying to get into the bank NW up the lake.  It was really tough going trying to find a spot in there.  I'm keen to see where Paul has been casting from.  (Here maybe:   49° 13.411'N  124° 2.135'W)

I jumped back on my bike and rode NW back up Rd. 142 and tried a few more spots where I thought I might get to the active fish.  No dice.  Finally I moved up to the other trail entrance to the lake which lies a few hundred yards up the road, ("Fishing Spot 2" on the image above).  It was weedy here, but I think it's a pretty good spot and worth trying again at some point.

The Boat Ramp (Fishing Spot 1)

"Fishing Spot 2" Looking back down the lake towards "Spot 1" on the far right.  Beautiful Lake!!

"Fishing Spot 2" looking left.  It's great to see local lakes that are so full of lily pads.  People haven't managed to ruin this one yet.

After catching nothing and eating all of my secret recipe spelt grain cookies, I took off back to "Intersection B" and turned right to go find Round Lake, (without the help of my trusty guide who was by now knee deep in spotty screaming children).  I found Round Lake and continued for a few turns before noticing the sun was getting a bit low and turned for home.  (Hit reserve tank at 179Km). 

Oh... The compulsory 3D anaglyph image:

Boomerang Lake from "The Boat Ramp"    (3D anaglyph image:  Needs red/cyan glasses to view)

 

Boomerang or Bust

Are there fish in Boomerang Lake or did Paul buy farmed trout at his local supermarket on his previous visits?  Hopefully tomorrow's trip to Boomerang Lake will prove beyond all doubt if the lake contains any edible lifeforms.  Stay tuned for photographs of two happy individuals holding their supper.

Here's the route:

And of course, the compulsory red/blue 3D anaglyph image, but only because Paul can't find his glasses:  (View full-size for best 3D effect).

Photos to follow tomorrow with any luck.  :)

Rhododendron Lake

Went to Rhododendron Lake...  No photos... forgot memory card... (Thanks for your photos Paul).

Absolutely fantastic ride!!  Over 100km travelled.  Caught trout... had a blast.  Sore back.

View Full Size... Click to Enlarge

View Full Size... Click to Enlarge

View Full Size... Click to Enlarge

View Full Size... Click to Enlarge

Rhododendron Lake

Fishing on Englishman River after catching "Paul's fish." 

Note*   This Save-On-Foods bag is one of those EXTRA large ones.  Paul and I had to carry the behemoth trout together, (resting between attempts of course).  Yummy trout!! 

3D Anaglyph Image.  Needs Red/Blue Glasses.  VIEW FULL

3D Image... Needs Red/Blue Glasses

Needs 3D Glasses... VIEW FULL
This image shows the surrounding area to Rhodo Lake.  The high lake labelled "Arrowsmith Lake" is Parksville's reservoir, and is a future ride for us when we get a dry enough window to give it a try. 

Photos from Spunky's Previous Classic Bike Show (2010)

I was looking through some old photos, trying to find the shots of last year's classic bike show at Spunky's.  I found them.  Wow, the earlier show was quite a bit better.  Here are some of the bikes from that show:

Vinnie!

Same Vincent

HRD Vincent and a Velocette.  (Vincent had difficulty with Harley Davidson over what they saw as copyright infringement with "HRD" appearing like a Harley trademark.  Quite honestly I think it could only have HELPED their reputation and sales.  I believe Vincent stopped the "HRD" marking soon after the squabble).

The Norton Section

A really tasteful Norton 850 Commando Cafe job.  I'm liking the Corbin seat on that!

The Newer Nortons

A beautiful ex-war 1938 Norton.  If you haven't noticed, this was a special Norton show...  The guest of honour was the 2010 Norton 961 sitting in the showroom.  A Norton rep was in there too trying to encourage Spunky's to become a dealership.  There's still no sign of a Norton in stock to this day.  :(

A local guy from Departure Bay area owns this beauty.  Paul and I have passed him riding out in Nanoose before.  Now that's a well-maintained bike!

These were getting plenty of attention.  A matching pair of Honda 750 fours, (both have same owner). 

The silver smoke BMW 90/S hit the market in 1975.  To my eye, the styling on these great looking bikes is still up-to-date thirty six years later.  

Norvil are a motorcycle company in the UK who rebuild Nortons to factory or custom specifications.  Actually, they claim to exceed original specifications with their assembly guidelines.  They've had trouble shipping completely assembled bikes overseas for some reason.  Too bad--looks like a really nice job on this one!  It was hidden in a corner with big gorilla sized people ready to swoop if you so much as thought about sitting on it  :)

Got a spare $20,000?  Good, put it in the bank until you can add the crating fee, paperwork fee, taxes and other misc fees and ride out of Spunky's close to $24,000 poorer.  It really is quite a bike though.  I don't think Triumph have a thing to worry about... it's an entirely different market. 

Again!!  Hey, at that price it gets two photos.

It was a much better show last year, (although we did get there a little later this year).  With any luck we'll get to see the Vincents again in a year's time.  The general consensus was that they really made the show.  

Behind Mount Benson

I finally did it.  Paul led the ride today and showed me the route from Doumont Rd to the main logging road that runs around the back of Mt. Benson for its entire length, ending on Nanaimo Lakes Road.  What a fantastic ride!  We stopped first at Boomerang Lake and then made our way down the main logging road heading south.  We met up with Ryan and Adrian coming from the opposite direction.  They had just taken their bikes up to the aerial towers on one of Benson's summits.  There's no way in hell I'd get up there!  They're very skillful riders, both of them.  I've a long way to go to get to that level of riding.  :)

Onward we plodded.  Paul was in the front for the whole day today and being as dry as it was, I sucked in several pounds of trail dust into my lungs.  I gave up watching my tach after thirty minutes; the dust had completely covered me and the entire bike and none of my controls were visible.  A dust mask of some kind is a must next time!  A bandana would work well.  Next we turned right off the main trail in search of  Lucid Lake.

Google Earth View of Benson and Lucid Lake

  We took a wrong left turn not far up this trail which ended abruptly after a reasonably steep climb over some nasty logs and uneven terrain.  We did get a great view of Ryan and Adrian's aerial towers though, right before we turned around and headed back to the Y.

Dead end on first attempt to Lucid Lake.  That's Mt. Benson's aerials in the distance which you might be able to see if you click on the photo and zoom in on that high rock in the background.

 Down we went, rejoined the trail at the Y and took the other Lucid Lake choice.  This led us to a large clearcut area where we dismounted and walked off in search of the lake.  After trudging through deep dry tinder for 100 yds or so, we saw a logging road off in the distance and a smaller trail leading off to our left.  We followed it and within five minutes we were at the beautiful Lucid Lake.

Looking for Lucid Lake.

The Clearcut.  I have no understanding of logging and replanting practices, but this sure looked like the area had been stripped and not replanted at all.  Maybe there's a timely plan underway.  Sure looked like a tinderbox wasteland.

We found it!

Absolutely beautiful... elusive Lucid Lake

Lucid Lake...  Fly fisherman on the far side.

We had planned to go fishing today.  We weren't ready to stop yet... we decided to press on to the gate at the far south end of the main logging road where I had been skunked on my solo ride a week ago.

A quick stop further along the main logging road to catch the views of Ladysmith Harbour

The same view zoomed in (Ladysmith Harbour)

And... just a little further down the road, the elusive back view of the nasty yellow gate that stopped me the first time.  It was so much nicer to be on this side of it.  Paul took me up the road a short distance and showed me the "work around" that he had learned about a week before.

THE INSIDE OF THE GATE

Mission accomplished... now for some fish.  We decided to try Round Lake since it had been stocked with trout this year.  Round Lake looked fantastic except there was nowhere to cast a line in the water without standing on moving logs.  Is wasn't working, so we moved on to "Dragonfly Lake," or "Bladder Lake" as it has been more recently dubbed because of it's proximity to "Kidney Lake."  (It actually has no name according to local maps).  *NOTE:  On Oct 11th, 2011 this lake was named by the Triumph Thruxton Committee and shall be officially known as "Triumph Lake" from this moment on.  No fish there today.

Dragonfly/Bladder/Noname Lake

Setting up the rods at the only easily accessible spot on the lake

A view straight across the lake.  Note the very thin line of trees the logging company has left to obscure the nearby forest massacre.  I wonder if it's replanted???  Silly question.  

This was taken from the same "easy" location.  The far left of the picture shows another location that Paul tried, but it was difficult to get to.  These were the only two hard bank fishing spots we could see. 

Mt. Benson from the Black Bear Pub!

There, what a spot to finish our ride.  It was a perfect way to wash all the dust out of my throat!  What a terrific ride that was.  This is another one I want to do by myself more slowly so I can get my bearings.  I think I'll re-travel some of the routes we took and map them out with my GPS.

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Just for fun, here are two 3D red/cyan anaglyph images that you can view if you have any red/cyan glasses kicking around.  (click pics to enlarge).

The "clearcut" near Lucid Lake

Rock formations near "Dragonfly/Bladder/NoName Lake"