Remote Wilderness – Cross Country Riders: C. Carter and D. Kachur
The goal of this trip was to get to Ritchie Falls, Ontario via Cross-Country from north of Elliot Lake. Thinking back to the days of true wilderness rider Bryan Pacello, he has done this run before. According to Bryan, it sounded like maybe it was one of his 1990’s era adventures. Fast forward to February 2022, Chad and I were going to tackle it. To add some beautifcation, we started at Endikai Lake then worked our way cross-country through a series of remote lakes and logging roads to get to the Boland River road. We could have easily trailered to the Boland, but that would have taken away much of the spectactular wilderness scenery along the way.
Scenic Views
There is no shortage of big hills along this run. Here’s a view of the Bolger Lake mountain along the Little White River valley. We also went by the historic Wilkie Lake Fire Tower and Old Baldy mountain not too far in the distance. The Boland River road also has a few views including Thunder Mountain, located on the south-side of Rawhide Lake. On this route, we were just a stones-throw away from Ceolin Falls, a popular summer swimming hole, as we passed it on the shoreline of the Boland River
Breaking Trail
Astonish Lake was nasty! Totally slush infested and deep too! There was a possibility that we could have buried our sleds out there, but manageed to make it to the other end and that was a relief. The first 12 kms of the Boland was already trail broken, but after that, it was pure virgin powder and deep. Chad and I each took turns breaking trail, however, it came to the point where Chad’s Long-Track Renegage was needed to continue the plowing as we pushed further east into remote wilderness. As late afternoon faded away, daylight hours were running thin. We were within 13 miles of Ritchie Falls before making the decision to turn around. We may re-tackle this trip at a future date.
Author: Dan Kachur – https://sled-x.ca
