25.   With machines fuelled up and loaded down with ice fishing and outdoor cooking supplies French, Stroh and I headed out over the highway back to Salmonier to continue exploring this beautiful area of the province. Terry would be joining us later in the morning with his 2017 Argo Avenger 8x8.

24.   We headed East on the transmission line hanging a right onto the mining road eventually taking a couple much narrower ATV paths deeper in the country.

23.   Even after Saturday's rain the trails were still spectacular for riding. Well packed and surprisingly smooth.

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20.   We stopped on another new (to us) pond, took a guess on where to fish and planted a few lines.

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18.   The brooks were running pretty good after yesterday's rain but the ponds were in great shape as long as you inspected them and crossed with caution.

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15.   After an hour or so Terry arrived and we continued on our backcountry adventure.

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12.   We travelled well back into the country climbing hills, breaking through bog on one of the woods paths and crossing an open river to arrive at a pond near the Avalon Wilderness Reserve. It's very important not to cross into the reserve as its closed to motorized vehicles all year long, you may loose your machine if/when caught in there.

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10.   Around suppertime we put French's Husqvarna top handle power saw and my new double bit axe to work and gathered up some firewood to build a fire for cooking.

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7.   I also had a chance to try out my new GSI Pinnacle single burner gas stove today. I used it to boil water to make instant rice, and to later boil my Dr. si Kettle. Even though it was breezy the stove worked awesome, no issues with blowing out and the windscreen kept the heat concentrated on the pot. It was faster than my MSR Superfly in similar conditions, but the cold really takes a lot of good out of the gas cylinders. All these stoves work better in warmer temps as the liquid fuel boils a lot less at lower temperatures. All in all, still very impressive.

6.   While I was getting moose in the pan and cooking rice French sliced & fried up another pack of delicious fresh fish white puddings.

5.   I fried up my marinated moose, onion & fresh mushroom dish which was prepped at home, bagged and left to marinate all day while we were in the woods.

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3.   Once the moose & onions were cooked I mixed in the rice to bring it back up in temperature and absorb any juices from the meat/veggies. It was AMAZING.

2.   As darkness wore on we enjoyed the evening under bright stars as we burned off the remainder of our firewood and packed up the machines to head back out of the country.

1.   All in all it was a deadly day in the woods. We made it back across the river, through the bog and down over all the hill climbs with little trouble and had a great run back to the trucks. All machines are running well, who knows where we will end up next!

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith