I'm thinking of beginning a new blog titled :"Travels with Trevor"

Or, maybe Trials with Trevor?

STRETCH as I like to call him, towers over me.

Hitting the road/trails

He's about 6 feet 13 inches, while I stand 5 feet 4.

If you can imagine Trevor riding his first gen KLR 650 with it's 3 foot high seat, and imagine him putting a regulation CFL football under his butt, his knees would still be bent!

A couple of weeks ago I get a call... "Wanna ride the power line with me?"


Last time I rode a power line was 1978.  My then B-o-L Dean and I, both on identical TY 175 Yamaha trials bikes, went out for a short ride.  In those day a speedo (not like in swimwear) mirror bulb horn and a small head and taillight were the only street requirements in Alberta.  Since it was only going to be a short ride on the power line, we had no food or water to my recollection.

They can somehow manage to get it in full, but can't carry it out empty?!

We rode north on Highway 63 towards the oil sands and took an access onto the power line.  In those days, the Ft Mac Dirt Riders occasionally ran Enduro events along the line.  Then as it is now, FM was completely surrounded by wilderness and when I say WILD, let me tell you, there were bears, moose, wolves and outnumbering them all... drunks!

There is reputed to be a two stroke Husqvarna buried in the muskeg as well as the JEEP that tried to winch it out before the handlebars disappeared!

The PL ran parallel to the highway in most case less than a mile from the pavement. You may have been a hundred miles, so dense was the bush.



Anyway it was summer, hot and the bugs were out in full force.  No bug spray naturally... When they build these things, nothing gets in the way.  A wide right of way is slashed across hills and dales and the towers are erected.

We meet up with an old friend of Trev's

Well on that day what we didn't count on was greasy hills with thousands of short stumps from 4 to 24 " in diameter.  Not only did we have to endure (get it?) the stumps but we had to literally carry the TY across muddy bottom streams that often had a drop of several feet from the trail and then tire spinning push/ride up the greasy hill.

I nearly died!

Cool old time Kelly's Cross village store

SEE what I'm thinking...


Trevor being Trevor said apart from some muddy spots, it was, if I remember... "A piece of cake..."

Last year when we tried to ride this same section of power line the bush was so dense we didn't make it across.  With the building of ATV trails Island wide this section was open.

Off we went, I on my trusty XT 225 and he on his Killer. (KLR?)

Trail is in good shape.

Once in Kinkora, I followed him to Ross road, which is more trail than it is road to be Frank with you, until the turn off.  We had a brief confab and headed onto the trail.  Well apart from some mud, it was... a piece of cake.  The little XT is so good at these things, light weight, 32" seat height, 6 gears and four stroke SOHC 2 valve grunt to save wheel spin.  It was hot as it's been this summer and pretty humid out in the hills but we soon saw pavement as we rolled out of the trails.



Having more tome than brains sometimes I blurted out... "Hey Shorty, feel like doing Brookvale?" which is very near our highest elevation of nearly 500 feet!  Okay it's not Rocky Mountain high but remember we are an Island so that's sea level to 500 feet!

Coming from the Devil's Punch Bowl, headed home.

The ski park is definitely OFF LIMITS to ride on the hill, but they were kind enough to place several trails bordering the park for us motorized bunch.


Trev wondered about the condition of the trail, it can often be washed out badly, but having past through here only a week or so ago I could vouch for it's condition.



It was mostly chugging in 2nd gear for me, silent and still as a moonlit night at Playa Los Cocos.

From here I took over leading as I am familiar with these trails and we did some glorious short connectors on public roads and narrow trails.

TIME standing still for no one, we parted en-route home, he towards some of his local trails and me... mine.