The tower: Mikey's alternative ride out: Over the beaver dam It'll be a shortcut, he said! Shortcut: The trail in: The trail out: and stuff we found: A fantastic ride! Mike says we can ride this in our sleep...I wanted a nap about now. Bikes at the base of the tower: THANKS MIKE!
That was great stuff guys. The whole small bike thing !!!!! Ya, go Mike go.... Looks like it was easy to touch the ground...
That 110 is evil...on an incline like Aldina, the front wheel goes straight up on a first to second shift. Then, it tries to kill you, because the thing tries to kill you by throwing you off the trail with every rock or log on the way. I will name this bike "Christine".
Anyway, we had a great ride. Thanks again to Mike for providing the bikes. I think I'm hurting now....
Interesting places. That's a great idea to take a bike that is small enough to pick up and lift over obstacles. I think I'm changing my strategy. I already sold the DR350.
It was a lot of fun. I've been wanting to do a play-bike ride out to the Aldina Fire Tower for years. A number of years ago I followed a dirt road off of Hwy 588 and then eventually a skidder trail to the tower (with some bushwhacking for the last couple hundred metres). But I had never taken the route from the north off the Boreal Rd (actually I tried years ago - but couldn't find the original old route from the Boreal Rd.). When we were at the top today - I said to Ron "I believe this is the highest elevated road you can take in all of Ontario". There are no roads up to the taller high points in the province. Heck at 670 m ASL, we were higher than the top of the CN tower is above sea level. Apparently the CN tower's top peaks out at 627 m ASL - though the tower itself is 553.3 m tall. In one of the photos Ron posted - you could see snow. That photo was taken looking down the trail from just below the top of the hill and adjacent to the tower. We really needed Lappeman for this ride. Even when I had the camera - I couldn't pull it out fast enough to catch Ron flying all over the trail and into the bush. Ron called the TTR-110 "spastic". I told him that we could trade. The TTR-125 was much easier to ride. But Ron refused to do so. I think he liked the challenge of riding the little TTR. The TTR-110 really is very twitchy - with such small wheels. But it has plenty of power - almost too much power for its size. I rode with a friend who owns a KTM EXC500 and the TTR-110 could go virtually everywhere he went (except for the tall sand hill climbs). He tried it out and called it a "suicide machine" because there is no engine braking, and the bike is just so responsive and twitchy. Ron went off the trail with it several times - but he loved it. He couldn't stop laughing. When I'd look back at Ron at times - it was like the bike was possessed by Pazuzu from "The Exorcist". Ron was all over the trail - wheeling it one moment - and sliding sideways the other. I felt like I needed to throw holy water at the bike. But Ron somehow managed to tame it. And it was a major workout. Half-way to the top - Ron and I were drenched in sweat. Even at about 8C I think we were a little over-dressed. We thought it was going to be much colder. With the alternate route back - we took the old original road (probably the one that I couldn't find years ago). It meets up with the newer route near the base of the climb. That old route crossed the small "bridge" and the beaver dam you see in the photos. Once we reached the Boreal Rd - we gunned it back for a short spurt on the Boreal and back to where the truck was parked. I couldn't catch Ron on the hard pack. The TTR-110 is geared down one tooth in the front. I thought for sure I'd be able to whiz by him. Maybe my TTR-125 is geared down too? Nevertheless - I hit the rev limiter in 5th a few times and couldn't catch Ron. I did notice that his front wheel left the ground when he changed into 2nd gear. Ron told me later that he was actually holding back with the little 110 because he wanted to "take it easy". Mike
Those little bike are a terror to ride. I had a chance to ride a offbrand 80cc bike and it took every I had to keep it from crashing.
Super ride guys! Looks like a blast! Glad to see the tower is still standing...for now I tried the old road the first time I went out there years ago and almost got stung to death at the culvert. There was no makeshift bridge there and when I tried to knock the edges of the washout down, I hit a hornets nest :eek1
The road up to the tower gets pretty steep in sections - it felt like we were doing a hill-climb competition at times. But the bikes dug in and got us up there. A few years ago I was in contact with Robert Eno (who has been researching fire towers) and he mentioned that he thinks the old Lands and Forests probably abandoned the Aldina Tower and put one up on Tower Mountain instead because the route up from the Boreal was just so steep and rough for 4WDs to get up. I could see that being the case. It looked like an old river bed in places. It makes me wonder why they didn't come from the south side. For the beaver dam - we just push the bikes over it - in neutral. Ha..ha.. How's that for versatility? Mike
You know - we could make a yearly thing with this. Anyone else with some small play bikes lying around? Mike
If it wasn't for that damned dam - the old route is definitely the most direct and easiest route. I'm sure we could build a better bridge than the one that was there. With a little work - we could create a route around the dam pretty easily. The other route has two washouts, lots more water and mud, and is way less direct. Of course - that's what made it fun too. For those who are interested - here is a Google Earth capture of the route. The labels are too small. But from top to bottom: The location of the beaver dam. The location of the culvert. Looks like a cut line? Some maps suggest this is part of the old road. But it just seems way too straight. The fire tower location. Mike
I have a whole bunch of information, that was digitized, on the old L&F towers. I got it just before I retired but it is buried on an external hard drive somewhere in the basement. Being a krappy day i may go look for it. If you get a hold of a Debbie Maclean at the MNR (first name dot last name at ontario.ca) she was the holder of a lot of that info when i left. I think her source was a fellow from Alaska who did most of the research.
Yes - that's right. I was at Debbie's place on Wabigoon Lake last year (during my small displacement ride with Ron) and we discussed some of that stuff. I was in contact with Robert Eno when he was in Iqaluit - I took some photos of the footings and what looked to be remnants of an alidade stand left over from the Tower Mountain tower. He wanted some information about the site. It's interesting - I believe Robert mentioned that there is no data on the Tower Mountain fire tower. He mentioned that records weren't always well kept - and that they may have switched to the Tower Mountain site just before the tower system was abandoned. He mentioned about the road up to the Aldina Tower being pretty inhospitable. Also - one of my students knew an old-timer from the Whitefish Lake area - who she said - would absolutely know more about the Tower Mountain fire tower. I asked her to ask him if it was alright if I met with him. She said "No problem - I can set it up!" Unfortunately - a few weeks later he passed away. Mike
HI Mike, it is good to see you and Ron are keeping yourself entertained. Maybe I should pick up a little bike.
Hey John - good to hear from ya!! How are things - have you been able to get out over the past couple of weeks? I'm still trying to get another CBR125R site up and running. No luck so far I'm afraid. I'd love to haul the bikes to Flack Lake and explore that tower (Wilkie Lake Tower?). I need to put that on my list for next summer. Mike