Cabin on Crooked Lake

It was great being back in my home church today.  It's a small church so everyone knows everyone and I got a lot of hugs and "welcome backs."  My grandma told the elder in charge this month that we would be back for church this week and then told us that we should plan to have a song ready for special music.  So, last night we practiced a version of "Jesus Paid it All" that Jonathan had sung at his church during Spring Break with Bryn playing the piano.  This time he also had the parts for two cellos, so Ty played the one cello part and I played the other on violin.  I think it went pretty well and afterward lots of people told us it sounded great.

When church was over we went home for Sabbath lunch and relaxed for a little bit watching a few kids videos on Tyler's request.  After watching a couple of the half-hour videos, we put on quading clothes and my parents, Bryn, Jonathan, and I drove up to my uncle's cabin for some outdoor fun.  My mum took pictures and then decided to stay in the truck and read while the rest of us drove to a dam at the end of the lake.  When we got back to the cabin, we weren't quite done wanting to quad so we set out again in the opposite direction and went on a trail leading up to a lookout.  We got as high as we could before the trail disappeared and then made our way back again.  Then Jonathan wanted to try out my dad's motorbike again so he took it out on the logging roads while my parents, Bryn, and I carried our canoe down to the lake.

First my parents and I took the canoe out for a ride, but it wasn't too enjoyable because of the large quantity of mosquitoes hovering nearby.  I kept hitting my mum on the back to kill the ones that landed on her.  When we got back to shore Jonathan was back from his drive and so I went back out with him after I covered myself with bug spray.

Then Bryn joined us and we proceeded to try to get stuck in some waterlogged logs and trees in one corner of the lake.  It's a favourite pastime of mine and Bryn's when we go canoeing at the cabin.  It's really a very challenging sport to get stuck and then try to find a way out of the mostly-underwater maze.  By the time we made it back to the dock, it was getting dark so we pulled the canoe back up to the trailer, loaded everything up and headed back down the mountain.

Quading

Forgive me for the title of this post.  I have yet to figure out if quading is spelled with one D or two, but I think it looks better with one, so that's how I spell it.  (If any English major, or any major actually, can shed some light on this predicament, your help would be welcome.)

Today we took Jonathan for his first quad ride.  At least I think it was his first.  If it wasn't, I'm quite sure he'll correct me in the comments :)  My dad took off from work early and we loaded up the quad trailer and drove up into the mountains about 45 minutes to McCullough Lake, also called Hydraulic Lake.

We unloaded our two quads and my dad and Tyler's dirt bikes at the main campgrounds, found helmets that fit everyone, decided who was riding what, and took off.  I rode one quad with Jonathan and my mum rode the other with Bryn. We drove down a trail several km's until we got to a big sand pit that my parents and some family friends had found last fall.  There my mum got out her camera equipment and started snapping pictures while the rest of us zoomed up and down the sandy hills.  After a bit I got off the quad so Jonathan could do all his daring feats without the burden of another person weighing him down.  Later, he let me have a chance to drive by myself.  Although it was a little freaky driving up some of the steeper edges of the pit, I managed to conquer the slopes, both up and then back down.  When everyone had their fill of sand-pit-quading/biking, we got ready to head back.

Me driving toward Ty's biking boots

First, I had to tow Ty's dirt bike a little ways to get it started since the battery wasn't holding a charge.  Then my dad gave Jonathan a little lesson in how to drive it.  I didn't wait around too long to watch and jumped on the back of my dad's dirt bike, which Ty was driving.  It was interesting riding on my dad's bike since one of the back foot holders has broken off, so I had to hold my right leg straight out, but pull it closer to the bike whenever the trail narrowed or we had to go between rocks or metal poles.

We got back to the campground first so, while we were waiting, Ty taught me how to drive the motorbike.  I've driven a 50cc and a 70cc bike before, just small ones with no clutch to worry about, but never a large one like my dad's.  Soon my mum and Bryn drove up, just in time for my mum to snap a picture of me falling over when I didn't have time to steer the large-for-me bike out of the way of an oncoming tree.  A minute later, my dad arrived.  We all waited around for Jonathan, but he didn't show up.

Rolling so the bike wouldn't crush me

Finally my dad was getting worried and decided Jonathan had missed the turn, so he climbed onto the quad to go find him.  Just as he was leaving the campground, we heard the sound of a motorbike and Jonathan drove into camp.  He had missed the turn, gone as far as a gazebo he didn't recognize a little ways down the trail, and turned around to come back.  Once we were all accounted for again we got out campfire food and made a supper of roasted hot dogs, veggies, beans, and, of course, marshmallows.

Soon the sun was starting to set, but Jonathan wanted to go out for one more quad ride.  He and I took out the two quads and drove back up the trail to the gazebo that Jonathan had found on his misadventure earlier.  We watched a loon swim across the pond nearby and then saw a beaver coming toward us.  We stayed really still and quiet as it got closer and soon it reached our end of the pond and pulled itself out of the water to preen.  Finally the sky was getting darker and we knew we had to get back, so we started up the quads, which sent the beaver rushing back into the pond.  Once we got back to the campground the males hurried to load up the quads and bikes before it got too dark, then we drove back home where we cleaned dirt off ourselves and relaxed for the rest of the evening.