ATV 7

We got sidetracked for a few weeks and the wife got sidetracked for more than a few weeks ! Connie really has been wanting to go to the high country and get back into the forest. After studying the map for a short time and checking the forest closures site, we found our spot to explore. Here on the map I see the huge lakes??? I heard the name Long Lake but don’t know anyone that has been there. I know it’s going to be a great day look at the parking spot we found within ¼ mile of the main road.

I always photograph these old corals and this one has a barn still intact,,, SWEET !

(Below) Off in the distance San Francisco Peaks with lots of snow still on them.

We finally get to Long Lake. It’s not exactly in the forest. It’s kind of barren and more up on the high plains. The lake is HUGE ! Sometimes the maps don’t really show the size of the lakes, they show the size it could be in a 100 year flood.

The pictures on the left is looking from the boat ramp and North. Boat Ramp? I don’t see any boats in the water???

The sequence of picture below is from the South west end of the lake. The boat ramp is so far away from here you can’t even see it. This is a big big lake!

The next lake to be visited is Soldier Lake . This is a good size lake with no evidence that anyone ever fished here, no worm cans, beer cans, almost no tracks from anyone coming down the trail to this area,,, strange ? It looks like at one time someone had a sweet little homestead not far from the banks of the lake.

Just south of Soldier lake is Soldier Annex Lake ? I don’t know if there is any significance to the names. This lake is about 2X the size of Soldier lake. If you want to be by yourself this is the place. This place is barren so do bring a sun awning.

Our 4th lake was Tremaine Lake, as you can see from the sign we will not make it to this lake. I guess the other lakes were just so over crowded that they had to have this one closed to protect it from ??? something?

Time to head back into the trees.

Just in time for lunch and we find this cool forest table.

(Below) How nice of someone to leave us these hooves just in case we need a little snack.

We met our goal to get to the lakes (3 out of 4 isn’t bad). On the way back we can concentrate on taking the side roads. As you can see we found some sweet secondary forest roads.

We found an area marked Jack’s Canyon.
This canyon had a really scenic road that ran along side a creek, very nice.

This whole area would be great to camp in. The forest has many small clearings and clumps of trees. It was almost dark as we loaded up. You could really hear the forest come alive. I’m camping here this summer !

Many of these fire roads are easy to ride on with only occasional rough spots. I use the pinecone test. If the pinecones in the road are not smashed flat then the road is not traveled very often by heavy vehicles. This entire area has a zillion secondary roads that look very un-traveled. I think we will be back to this spot for more exploring in the future. A great place for a nice peaceful ride