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 Trip Reports 

Clear Creek History Lesson

Harrison Area

March 26/06

Written by Treds
Photos by Treds and Paul T.

I got the idea of this trip from a conversation with Glenlivet a week or three earlier. He had mentioned the Caterpillar that was abandoned on the road near the Clear Creek Hot Springs and proceeded to give us a little history lesson on the area surrounding the hot springs. I had been to the springs earlier in the fall, but at the time didn't know the local history. Glenlivet's oration (made whilst imbibing a malty beverage after a fun day at Nickel Mine) put the bug in my ear for a re-visit. Thus began the seed for this trip.

Prior to the trip Glenlivet posted in the trip thread his accounting of the local history...

"Henry Larsen logged at Silver River in the '50's and made a lot of money doing it. Word had it he was once the third richest man in B.C. That's his old concrete bridge abutments you see at the crossing at 16 kilometers. His wife was a bit of a nutbar and whizzed away a lot of Hank's money on this idea she had about making a fortune in mining. She built the cabin and built the old goat-trail-of-a-road using that old Cat! She also put in a heated pool there, the ruins of which you can still see as you go to the tubs. Lakeside Logging was formed when the virtually-bankrupt and debt-ridden Pretty's Timber was bought by a tiny company backed by TimberWest's bankroll, on the expectation of the wood remaining in Pretty's license. They put the road in for a whirlwind two years of logging the heck out of the best of what was left of Pretty's wood. Ivan Pretty didn't inherit his fathers brains and had let the company slide into debt, despite it having one of the most lucrative setups a fellow could ask for. Pretty's largest secured creditor was Interfor, whose bean counters thought they would just sit on their keisters and get the whole outfit for free, for the value of there 4 million dollar Pretty's debt, and get all of Pretty's' Harrison and Sowaqua timber licenses, additional timber rights needed for continuing their Hope operation.

The idiots didn't count on TimberWest wanting the wood, and not being able to place the bid themselves, fronted Tolmie the money to do it! But I digress... Once the new Lakeside put in that road it was open season on Clear Creek, because although once you needed to have strong guts and a good off-road vehicle, or good lungs and legs to get there, now every yahoo could drive whatever they had right to the spot. Too bad. And yes, the first year after they put in the good road, some idiots burned the cabin. Spent some good nights in that cabin myself. It was a goodly size, had a fine loft, and was solidly built. It may have been built with the help of Henry's employees, because he was a good-hearted soul and would hire his men on off-season time to do other things, such as build the log cabin they used to store powder, that used to stand on the other side of the main road down near the end of the airport stretch. Idiot vandals burned that one down a few years ago too.

I'm pretty sure Hank didn't die in a logging accident. According to an older fellow I talked to who knew him, he lost most of his big logging outfit as a result of many fires, and he lived in a cabin at his dryland sort for some time following. I don't know what became of the wife.

Down in the bush about a 20 minute walk from 21 km, there is still the remains of one of Henry's yarders on skids with everything still there, showing some fire damage. You have to know where it is because it's completely overgrown.

Larryjj, I think that to fire up that Cat you'd need to bring in a holy relic at least as powerful as a splinter from the True Cross, or perhaps the Arc of the Covenant itself."

On a sunny Sunday morning we met at the junction of the Hicks Lake/Harrison East FSR's, very close to the hotly-disputed Trout Lake which may or may not exist. Many quadders have ventured deep into the woods to locate this mystery lake and to this day we have yet to find any of their remains, but that's a story for another day.

The weather was perfect; a nice forecast of +12 degrees C, and sunny. Wow-wee and I pulled up to the appointed meeting spot and found a decent spot to unload, just behind Glenlivet who was busy setting up his ramps to unload. Many others were busy unloading and prepping for the ride. Wow-wee and I unloaded our quads from the trailer, and pulled them up to the truck to don our riding gear. I looked at Glenlivet and he was putting his ramps back in his truck, even though his quad was still loaded. I went to have a conversation with him, and it turns out he had switched jackets after loading his quad, and had left the keys to his quad in the chest pocket. He then proceeded to tell me he had a bird strike his window, and a rock also had chipped his window (oh-oh, bad omens presenting themselves early, the little voice in my head says). The rest of the unloading was uneventful and we had ten riders ready to go.


We rode up to the Bear Creek campsite and went down to the beach to have a little fun on the rocks on the lake-shore. We had a few less-experienced riders with us, so the pace was moderate to let everyone get a feel for rates of travel. Mr. Photograph (Paul T.) would have stopped at every nice waterfall we encountered along this strip if the opportunity had presented itself, however we managed to get him to move along and save the photo-ops for group stops or else it would indeed have been a very long day.


Polecat took the lead and we proceeded along the eastern shores of Harrison and up through the logging camp at Bear Creek. A few stops for head counts and we were up past Silver River. Here the FSR turned inland and left Harrison Lake. We then came to the airstrip, which is about a kilometer long and fifty meters wide, providing all with a need for speed. Everyone got their quads above eighty km/h and we blitzed this section in record time, all grinning like Cheshire cats during this phase.

We passed the turn-off for Hornet Creek FSR, and we arrived at the sand piles where we immediately had to go to the top to see what some dune riding might be like. Some people played while others were content to bask in the sun and enjoy the spectacle of the hill climbers. SprinterX showed us how well the sport bikes performed in this environment, and Polecat was shooting some decent rooster tails during his ascents. Then out of the forest who should appear, why none other then Glenlivet without any reindeer. He'd made record time driving to and from Hope and had caught up to us. The man is quick.


We got back on the trail and proceeded up to the Clear Creek FSR, gaining some elevation along the way. It wasn't long before we encountered the first snow on the trail. We all had to play, and fish-tailing was then our favourite sport. Onwards we climbed; there had been a few 4x4 trucks through here and the ruts were dictating where the quads were going to go. It became a train ride as we rode the rails through long sections. We were able to bust out of the ruts when the FSR was wide enough to allow us to do so; most of us did as the continuous ride at an angle was a pain in the uh, butt.



Finally we saw the abandoned Caterpillar on the side of the road. We stopped and checked it out and did the picture thing. Some more discussions about the Cat by Slime Green Cat took place, but I was entranced with the sun, snow, and quads, and failed to take note of the dialogue (my bad).


The Clear Creek Hot Springs are a few hundred meters up from the Cat, and half the crew had split and rode on ahead. The thrill of perhaps finding a forest nymph frolicking in the water too much for them. The rest of us caught up to the eager ones and walked into the springs for a look-see. Drat! The forest nymphs must have been scared off by those guys on the sport quads! The spring are contained in two large wooden water barrels that will hold about four or five people. Our lead technician for this trip, Gerry, quickly whipped out the thermostat and measured the temperature in all the pools. The hottest we found was 105 degrees F. There was a fiberglass-molded Jacuzzi there that we all agreed would give most of us the cooties if we ventured near it for any reason. We stopped and called a lunch break as maybe someone wanted to go for a dip. All being extremely shy, no one doffed their clothes to for a dip in the pools when given the opportunity. All agreed that shrinkage is a bad thing for quad riding, and proceeded to eat their lunches and break off into many conversations.


Lunch done, we jumped on the rails and begin our descent from the springs. We finally got below the snow level and as there were branches off the FSR, SprinterX and his buddy decided they had a need to explore. At this time we said adios and keep on riding out the Clear Creek FSR, finally coming to the Harrison East FSR. The day was still young, barely noon, and there was a lot of country to explore. It was decided that we'd better go see the canyons up Kookipi Creek FSR while we were in the neighborhood.

A quick rip up the Harrison FSR to the Big Silver Main FSR was done in a flash, then once again we encountered snow on the Kookipi FSR. Back to some rail riding; busting out onto fresh snow was made much easier here as the road was wider. Up to the canyon for some ooh's and ahh's pics (and a pee) and we were off to the granite canyon a little further up the road. Upon reaching the granite canyon, we all wandered into the forest to get to the top of the waterfall which must drop sixty to eighty feet under the bridge where our quads were parked. The view was wonderful, and we lounged around enjoying the sun and snow some more.


Back on the rails and down to the Harrison FSR to begin our return. Some of us filled up our tanks with gas to prep for the return run; it was decided that we'd make minimal stops on the return.

The race was on. We made good time back to the sand piles and did a body count. There was an air of excitement as we knew the airstrip was just around the corner. Go! Glenlivet set a cracking pace, only to be passed by Polecat as we hit the strip. Polecat was out front, but Glenlivet wasn't having any of that and nailed it, returning to the lead at a brisk 108 km/h to win the bragging rights for the day (I mentioned earlier he was quick). A couple more quick stops for occasional head counts and we all arrived safely back at our vehicles.


As we were all loading, a lone quad came screaming down from the path we had just come from and who should appear?!? (not Glenlivet, not the reindeer) It's Larryjj!!! He said he drove past our morning rendezvous and had been up to the springs looking for us all day. Fact or fiction?!? ...only from Larryjj!!

No Polaris's were hurt during this extended ride, although we did find one that had run out of gas.

All in all, a fun run on a beautiful day, with a great group of people!! The Quads.ca crew rocks!!
 
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