A Day Trip To South River
When a snowstorm left us just enough snow to open the local snowmobile trails for Family Day weekend, I was ecstatic. Darrell and I made plans to spend the weekend riding.
We had a fantastic couple of days riding trails that ranged from great shape, to ones that were thin or bumpy, to sections that were bare field and awful. From riding under sunshine, to riding through squalls, we loved it and felt good about getting some kilometers on the snowmobiles.
However, we also really wanted to experience some new trails, and since some trails had gone green in the Bancroft area, and we knew we could camp at Silent Lake Provincial Park for night, we made plans to do that for weekend after Family Day.
Of course, the forecasted warm-up came in even hotter than predicted, shutting down many trails or worsening their condition. Including the ones we wanted to visit. By Thursday night, we called off the trip and went to go check boat ramps instead.
Seeing open water or only a light skim of ice at the Georgian Bay boat ramps we frequent most often, we decided getting the boat ready should be our top priority.
But then at some point on Saturday, I suggested we go ice fishing. Somewhere with a lot of ice that I would feel safe on. And preferably somewhere to fish for trout.
And that’s how we ended up spending our Sunday driving 3.5 hours to the South River area, with the dogs along for the ride.
As we headed north on Highway 400, the snow disappeared. It was quite the shock until we got to the Parry Sound area and found more snow. What a weird winter!
We had debated bringing the snowmobiles up to ride the trails that were open in the South River, Sundridge, and Kearney areas. It was for the best that we didn’t. The roads were and many areas were thin or had no snow. That said, some sections looked awesome.
Somewhere along the drive I had developed a massive headache. The kind that makes your head throb with every movement and has you prepared to vomit at any moment.
To give my head a moment, and check out the sights, we drove around to a few different lakes to see how they looked and figure out if there was winter access for a few. Two of the ones we were really interested in are snowmobile access only. Or I guess you could hike in if you had less gear, didn’t have a splitting headache, and had the dogs a little prepared.
We eventually ended up at a small lake with only one hut on it. The crappy winter has made me really nervous of ice in general, but when I saw ¾ of the auger disappear as Darrell drilled the first hole, I figured we were okay. There was at least 8 inches of beautiful black ice and a whole pile of white ice on top of it.
The dogs were eager to get out of the car and Erza couldn’t help but let out some excited barks and throw herself at Panda a few times. Molly was just happy to stretch her legs.
It was a short walk before my pounding head made me stop. We drilled a few holes and set up.
I sat on my stool, jigging a small spoon, listening to the ice talk, while Panda laid down beside me. It felt great to be out there.
Darrell set up at a different hole with the other two dogs and did his best to call fish in.
We drilled a few more holes, moved around a little bit, marked some fish in one hole, but ended up with no bites.
The father and son team over at the point put on a clinic, catching several fish.
Before long we decided to pack up the gear. I was feeling worse and needed to get back to the truck. Once there, we pulled out our new Woods O’Hara camp stove for its first use and boiled water for our OTG Meals.
Then it was time to be on our way, after an all-too-short visit to one of our favourite places. A quick stop at the grocery store yielded a bottle of ibuprofen and eventually it managed to take the edge off the pain. And then, we drove through quite the snow squall heading back to the highway.
Back at home it was time for horse chores and unpacking the truck. Our plans may have changed several times, we did not end up with any fish, and I felt like crap, but it was such a great day. These are my favourite kind of outings!
argosgirl
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