Damn I need a camera person!

With the best of intentions on doing the 'healthy' thing paddling around this afternoon, I strapped the kayak in the Raptor and took off west toward the mountains. 2 minutes before Ghost lake where I usually play around, the turn off to Waiporus came up - Waiporus has an extensive set of trails that would take two weeks to fully travel.

Fuckit, hang a right, and off to the trails. The road in is a 30 minute 'shake yer teeth outta yer mouth' ride that is full of 6"-12" deep potholes. Fast or slow you can get just about any vehicle sideways there, including the Raptor several times.

My revised plan was to see if Ghost River was full enough to play in the kayak. It wasn't. Oh well, since I'm here...

I took several videos on the way out (thought just occurred to me after I had most of my fun), but wished I had a camera person to take a few action shots. Flying over rock berms sideways would have made a good entry in this months contest.

Ghost river is not your typical wheeling terrain - its rocks. Lots of them. Much of it is a dry creekbed after they dammed the area off and diverted the water elsewhere - but its about a half mile wide creekbed that goes on for miles! For the most part, the rocks are well settled, and safe to travel at moderate (to stupid) speeds as I've discovered.

Again, I have not gotten a mic for the camera yet, so turn the volume off!
Part of the way out...
‪FILE0059.MOV‬‏ - YouTube

And the final part of the way out...
‪FILE0060.MOV‬‏ - YouTube

The only carnage I experienced, other than some steering noise and brake chatter, was a broken passenger side mirror. I clipped a tree branch at 50 and the mirror didn't like closing that fast. I may post up pics later, and see if any tech's can help - it still functions, just doesn't sit back in the normal position very well.

All in all, it was a good 5 hours spent out in the great outdoors. Never untied the kayak, but there's always tomorrow!

Right on, looks awesome. Thanks for sharing

Great vids.....keep em comin!!!!

Wow its so beautiful there, wish it was like that here on the east coast!

SeaRaptor said:

Wow its so beautiful there, wish it was like that here on the east coast!

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It truly is - 2 years ago I was sent out here to 'fix this branch' of our company and spent countless hours doing so. But getting out and around in the off time this year has really opened my eyes to the natural beauty of the land. And I'm so very fortunate that the mountains start within an hours drive.

In Jersey, you have to travel north to Maine or Vermont to view some rocky terrain. And those (Appalacians) are some of the oldest mountains on earth.

But beauty is in the eye of the beholder - if you can find a nice wooded area with a creek running through it - then that can be your haven and a place to run away to.

/shakes head - ok, before someone shoves a gay flag on this post - BUT IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WHEELING!!!

Ha nicely said, ya I've been all over the Appalacians as far as hiking, lots to see but its just not as breath-taking as your setting or the guys in the mid-west. Now Vermont and Maine def. have the terrain but its over 10hrs away soooo im stuck starring at flat pinelands. It will work for now I guess.

Well Hell - plan to take a tour out here then! 2 days to cross the continent and spend a week here exploring the mountains. I can be an ok tour guide, and ya got a place to stay with BBQ every night. (steak's cheap here)

This might be a good place to have a Raptor roundup - Calgary's 3 hours north of the Montana border. I'm happy to host one sometime if people are interested - but after September we could be snowed in. That just makes for some more interesting wheeling on the trails.

Well I would def. be down for that trip, only thing holding me back is a Raptor ha. Hopefully will have one in hand by Nov.-Dec. 2012s start there build date mid-Oct if I remember what Randy posted. So anytime after that I would be game!

Really nice! The first vid looks like skiing. If we had trails like those, somebody would charge twenty bucks admission.

debate said:

Really nice! The first vid looks like skiing. If we had trails like those, somebody would charge twenty bucks admission.

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I think that's one of the best posts I've seen from you! You're on the right track, as the AB govt here is trying their best to limit roads and trails here. Charges for use may be implemented in the future here but not yet.

There's a huge debate about trail usage for trucks, ATV's, and snowmobiles here and it seems the beurocrats favour the snowmibile trails. More and more truck trails are being shut out yet the snowmobile trails are expanding.