Reaching Chapleau from Aubrey Falls Via Short-Cut

This was an attempted Cross-Country route connecting Aubrey Falls with Chapleau

Early Janauary - Group Trip

There were 5 of us on this trip and the goal was to get to Chapleau from the Aubrey Falls side of the Domtar trail system via the Ranger NE route. This would allow riders the opportunity to skim up to 30kms off the trip when heading north or south to / from Aubrey Falls.

We worked our way to the top corner of Ranger North-East route, then started on a narrow bush trail that continued further north. Eventually, it came to a dead-end and we knew that ahead of time. Now, it was time to analyze the immediate surroundings and determine the best way to punch a cross-country route further north. We only had a 2 km bush-trek to complete then we were back on the modern logging roads from above, coming down from the Sheppard-Morse.
As Kenny Rogers once said, "Know When to Hold Them and Know When to Fold them". That was exactly the situation we got ourselves into as we rode right into the middle of an unfrozen swamp at the top end of Lac Cherie. It didn't look pretty. Should we gamble and go full throttle right through and hope for the best or should we turn around and get ourselves the heck out? Damn It, we were so close and only 4kms away from the Laughing Lake Road / Domtar junction. Fortunately, we made the right call and turned around. Oh well, you can't win them all. We reversed our path and headed back out to the Whitman Dam road. From there, we shot north to Ogidaki Mountain for an afternoon of deep power riding and more gruelly punishment of closer to waistline snow.

Early Janauary - Group Trip