Trip Report Trip Report: Expedition 2019, the Swisha Loop

[Twinkie]

Hey all, thought I'd post a trip report our Expedition 2019. The planned route was 399KM, in the end we ran 275 over 2 days, but only made 100K of the "Swisha Loop". The end.


Kidding. Night 1 had us meeting at a private property outside of Otter Lake, and was on the original GPX of Swisha Loop, excellent place to start we though. We left Camp 1 around 8:45 and immediately started following the track. We turned down in to some single track lane with a dire warning of "Route Barre"...

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[Twinkie]

We headed out of Otter Lake again after a top up of fuel (& beer!) following another part of the Swisha Loop track, heading about 30K up gravel crap road till we started heading East, and up towards ZEC Pontiac.

This was relatively unmaintained, unpopulated area, minus a couple of Forestry workers we saw, until we popped out just outside of ZEC Pontiac, then there were people around, this place is populated (a bit) I thought to myself. Just outside of the ZEC entrance (around 4K or so) we found a nice campsite on water, but it wasn't large enough for the group.

We moved on to the ZEC entrance to talk to the gate keeper. He advised it was $10.45 to go through the ZEC and needed to know where we were going and how long. We asked about camping and he told of us a campsite at the far end, about an hours drive. Sounds perfect. We never found it. This place is horribly signed, and not maintained much, on purpose I guess. It is a ZEC afterall, not a provincial park for camping. We drove 109KM through the ZEC looking for the site, until we were at (one of) the exits, we must have passed it, searched around, up down and around, no camp site. Screw it, let's go back to a hunt camp we saw and use their driveway for camping. And that's when the bugs found us, by the 1000's. Crazy killer misquito's. Black flies that would attempt to pick you up and carry you away. Craziness. Huge thanks to everyone (I mean everyone but me, I was huddled in the fetal position trying to stay covered) effort for a fire, wood was gathered, pit was built, wood split, fire started, and we all went to bed. I went down 1st (9:30), I couldn't take it anymore, the sound, the bites, I needed to hide. I was quickly followed by Stacy, Richard & Max (Stephane & Sophie didn't even make it to the fire I don't think). Tom & Dawn stayed out later, but were hiding in their tent by 10 I believe, it was that bad.

 

[Twinkie]

Day 2 had us breaking in to 2 groups. Tom & Dawn would start limping out with front brakes, with Max. Richard, us, Stephane & Sophie would head 50K'ish further up the track to see what is there, and if the countryside changes at all. It didn't change much. 3K out of camp we had a bear cross the road in front of us, guess I should have moved the garbage off the Jeep afterall, he may have been tracking the smell, he was heading our way. We started around the 56K mark of the signed road, and stopped at the 100K mark.

We were following the published track for most of it, which veered off the signed "road", and eventually became unused single track, and yep, another bridge wash out. This one looked passable with some work, but we could see on the tablet that the GPX track joined back up with the signed road, so it was decided to back track to the road and follow it. We ran up to the 100K sign, took milestone pictures, headed back to a nice lake & hunt camp for lunch. On the way up we saw some massive bear tracks, about 1.5 times the size of my hand. We were tring to find them on the way back to show Richard as he had missed them, only to find a giant wolf track, and moose, all in the same area. I'm thinking the wolf(es) ate decent yesterday as they either got themselves a moose or a bear. The terrain is nothing spectacular up there so far, a few nice river or lake views, but no great expansive views.

A shit ton of clear cutting in the past with ground scrub now in the 4-5ft tall growth range. It's unbelievable the complete destruction they do with that type of cutting, but the general population never see's it so it's not complained about.
On the way out we continued to look for our ZEC campsite as a passing truck early that morning had told us the site is actually outside of the ZEC gate, again, we never found it. LoL


Overall we ran around 275K, didn't accomplish much, but had a great time with friends doing it. And really, aside from the back to nature crap, that's why we do this, enjoy your time outdoors and don't forget to bring your friends along!

 

[Twinkie]

Map plots for the day(s):

 

[zuk]

Thanks to all. Was a good time with good friends.

 

[badcompany]

Thanks for posting the trip report and the pictures.
Looks like an awesome time was had by all including the Black Flies
Maybe an earlier trip next year to avoid he bug problem?
Glad everyone made it home safe.

 

[Richard]

Thanks Terry for organizing yet another expedition, bugs aside I had a great time. And next time we need to bring a dinning tent!
Also I went to the ZEC Pontiac website which has a great map page, I turned on the campsites layer and guess what? Not a single site is shown within the ZEC, not even the one we saw east of the office with a sign.

 

[junkpile]

Nice write up, thanks for posting. Lots of beautiful spots to camp and swim up there.


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[Twinkie]

Thanks Terry for organizing yet another expedition, bugs aside I had a great time. And next time we need to bring a dinning tent!
Also I went to the ZEC Pontiac website which has a great map page, I turned on the campsites layer and guess what? Not a single site is shown within the ZEC, not even the one we saw east of the office with a sign.

Yeah, I had looked earlier, but it's all in French so that didn't get me anywhere. LoL Glad we were not crazy, although that means the guy at the gate is crazy!

 

[Twinkie]

Nice write up, thanks for posting. Lots of beautiful spots to camp and swim up there.


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Hidden gems I guess, where we were at the end of Day 1 we couldn't find anything decent to camp in. Actually, if we had of went a little south about 10KM, we would have found something somewhat decent on water, but we would have been right beside an active sand road. Would have been very dirty.

 

[Twinkie]

Thanks for posting the trip report and the pictures.
Looks like an awesome time was had by all including the Black Flies
Maybe an earlier trip next year to avoid he bug problem?
Glad everyone made it home safe.

The black flies loved us, especially Stacy. The back of her neck looks like a mini bomb strike happened. I counted over 50 bites.

 

[Function > Form]

Sounds like a good time, looks awesome, maybe I'll join you next time around and hope not to limp it through the bush!!

Glad everyone made it to the end safely.

 

[badcompany]

I just have a question I'd like to ask please.

Is there any interest in a fall trip like this one, or something like this one?

thanks.

 

[junkpile]

I’ll put my hand up for that.


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[Twinkie]

I won't have time for that this year, but will give you the track to get you straight to the 100K point avoiding our pitfalls of the weekend. That would put you out the Rolphton end in around 10 hours of driving assuming the road terrain doesn't change from what we last drove on at the 100K mark, *and* there are no other water crossings that have washed out.
Let me know if someone wants to take this own and I'll get the 100KM GPX track ready for you...

 

[Cochise]

Awesome!

Thanks for posting, Terry.


My GC diesel just kicked over 200K, so it's finally broken in.

Going to out crawl Mitko's junk, if he dares. :flipoff:

Sounds like you guys had some fun.


I'll be keeping my eyes open. Summer goes fast!