Here are a few photos of a little more exploration of B.C. So much to see so little time. 🙂
Got together with some new friends from the Kootenays to ride some new territory
Arrow lake looking South
My ride of the moment
Safely tuck abord
Looking North up Trout Lake-- A favourite route
Found a Quite Bay on my solo explore up to the end of the Duncan Lake reservoir.. You Washington peeps can thank us for holding the water until you need it.. Look up the Columbia river treaty
A lunch Stop in Beaton.. Not much there. Met Donnie the resident that owns most of it.. nice guy who let me use his spot
Camp At Glacier Creek campground
Found a gated road, grr!! Yes it was locked, I checked. LOL
I got to camp a day early, so did some exploring up to the end of Duncan Lake and beyond. There had been quite the thunderstorm the night before which started a lot of fires.. Was nice to still have clear sky.
A bit of smoke starting to gather
The pictures don't show the Beaty of this place
A few narrow bits- don't want to meet traffic here
Bridges are all single lane
Some nice creeks running into the lake
Plus a few big trees left standing
By that after noon most of the crew had shown up and we had a lazy night of meet and greet, a few beers etc etc.
I elected to ride with every one and stated I would turn around if things got too spicy
The crew, nice selection of bikes, I would later learn, Gary on the new Honda 450 had just broken a rib.. He did awesome but called it after one ride.
Me, I got stuck on a loose rocky up hill. Big rock face I had to climb, lost momentum and spun out. So I didn't make the top up into the alpine.. I was shown pictures just to rub it in. 
Mike and Jay came down to check on me and helped turn me around.. both very accomplished on Dual sports. I was getting the winch ready when they did. Not required when you have help.
I amused my self checking out the fire that was started by the lightning. It would later run up and over this ridge.
The Village below was never really in Danger. At this time !!
Then headed back to camp.
The next morning we all headed out for Trout Lake, the next valley over from Duncan lake.
Stopped at this rest area with a fish viewing platform at the river exit out of Trout Lake. ( How Many Trout Lakes are there anyways ? )
The Crew again
We all headed up Gerrard FSR.. Steady climb with loose rocky switch back right from the start.. Jay said it had been chewed up lots since last time he was up here due to all the quads going up. Anyways, I got quite a ways before I got to a climb where I just said enough is enough and turned back
Amused my self by looking at the wild flowers
And the water falls
I didn't feel quite so bad as Sue, a very accomplished rider also turned around at a nasty loose switch back further up. Good thing I called it quits when I did. So we worked our way down together.
Once the guys joined us again we headed for the village of Trout Lake. For Ice Cream. They also knew of a mining road that they thought I might make it up..
I Did 
Sheer grit, determination and a bit of stupidity Loose and rocky but the grade was just manageable
Mike and Jay went further up but Sue, Chris and I hung out and cooled off in a creek and looked at old equipment from days gone by.
This road doesn't even show on Map books so really out there. We are the blue dot.
But the Winter guys use it all the time to get up this high..
What a beautiful area! 😍
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Back at camp that night, we were able to see more of the fires around us. The helicopters had been busy all day working some but with all that were started with the Thunder Storm the few days before there were just too many. The one right above camp had burned over the top and was working its way down. We all sat out on the beach with our beverages and had a good show. looking the opposite way from the night before. We were all partially packed up, just incase we got the word to move.
This one never did come round the ridge but gave off lots of glow each time a tree candled up.. They had been working this one all day with buckets.
We were all up early and packed up, no issues with fires and the smoke had cleared some what.
Chris and headed out and rode together. When I caught up, at the ferry, I had to stop and pee, he doesn't Dam-it. I noticed my rear tire was getting low. Maybe my high speed run to catch up had something to do with it. or it was just getting low and over heated.
Any Ways, rolled on to the ferry with it flat,
Got off the ferry and pulled into the parking lot and swapped it out for the spare I always carry.
We elected to take the FSR road along the west side of Arrow lake even though there was a fire at the start.. We were soon past it.. Wasn't as mush fun as I remember it from last time, just rough, hot and Dusty.. The smoke in the air killed any of the nice views.. Meh !!! We got to pavement, took a break at the other ferry terminal !! , and headed for home on familiar old highway 6.. Nice chunk of twisty tarmac. Then up and over a nice bit of gravel to avoid the heat and stop and go of town and home. It was hot when we dropped into the valley, 40 degrees C which is never fun. Managed to turn the trip home into a 400 k day, most of it gravel.
Put the rig in the shop to unload later.. Cold beer was first on the agenda.
So a great few days, rig held up, almost, Lost the front fender, rattled too loose to repair on the road. Will fix, make it better. Broke another bit of the frame structure. Front spare tire mount. Will fix, make it better. And destroyed a tire.. Not bad for 1200 K of really rough treatment
