Day Trippin' (1 Viewer)

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Jan 21, 2005
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Powell River, BC
We were thinkn of spending our Sunday doing a little day trip to some sort of relative local area for a picnic. Browsing thru my backroads mapbook I spotted Kenyon Lake. Its on the east side of Stave, near the north end. Its reached by the Lost Creek FSR wich starts at the end of Sylvester road out east of Mission near Dewdney.
Anyone been there and can tell me what its like?
 
Todays trip report to keep you all entertained;

As previously discussed, we headed up Sylvester Road to the east side of Stave Lake in search of Kenyon lake.
It was all pretty much 2wd gravel travel until we took what turned out to be a wrong turn and headed into BoonyVille and Quad City.
The road soon came to a river crossing where I stuffed it into lo and hit the locker to get over some largish rocks. After that things got a little tight as it was getting a little grown in for my liking. I soon decided that this was not the way and turned back the way we came. We passed this fella on the way down and he gave us some rough directions, he hadnt been up for a few years and was looking for the same lake we were to.
But, luck was with us this day and we soon spotted some water on a short rocky road down to what I think was Kenyon Lake.
There seemed to be just the one 'camp' area, barely room enough to put the truck let alone pitch a tent, but a very quiet and serene lake with some nice mountain views. Someone had made a tiny dock that jutted out into the quickly deepening water. Looked like a good spot for some spin casting, but it was to hot in the day for fish to be biting I think. There was a bit of a sandy area right beside the dock and I sampled the water to cool down. The lake was quiet warm which seemed a little suprising given the elevation (2400 ft i think the mapbook said) and the depth of it.
We are some lunch and lounged around for a bit then decided to follow an ATV we heard pass earlier and see if it went around to the other side of the lake. We loaded up the truck and then noticed all the new custom pin striping from the days earlier excursion :doh: Oh well, It was bound to happen sooner or later.
We backed up to the road (no room to turn around down there) and kept going around the lake where we met up with the guy on the ATV who was havinbg his lunch. He wasnt sure where the road went but didnt think it went to another part of the lake. He did give us some directions to Salsbury Lake, so we headed that way.
We arrived at Salsbury lake and as described was full up with weekend campers. Theres about 3 or 4 campspots there but its all quite dusty and gravely. There is a nice little beach and a small island near it. Lots of garbage strewn in the bush tho.
On the way to Salsbury the road had split by a BCF marker, so we decided to see where the other part of the fork went. It continued for quite a ways down with lots of potholes and then over a bridge with a nice cold looking river below.
Shortly after that the road seemed to come to end as some rocks were piled there. I got out to take a look and it was all just an illusion, very passable. As I was getting back into the truck a quad pulls up and after conversing with the fella (Dave) he says we have to go down there..it leads to Cypress Point on Stave Lake and its Incredible. That, and his buddies are behind him in a Landcruiser so naturally we head down.
Its a rough rocky 2wd road (some clearance req'd ) down to a large parking area. There was a couple in a fj40 leaving just as we got there, I told them to come to Cruiser days :D . From the parking lot, its a short hike down a steep bank to the camping area. Did I say Incredible?
Theres room for about 5 tents underneath a cedar grovem right beside a river and some really nice beach area out onto Stave. The water was really warm and everyone kept raving about how nice it is there. I'll see if Deny can post some more pics for me ;)
We chatted with the Landcruiser folk for awhile. Turns out they were from Point Roberts (he bought the '92 fj80 he had for 5200$ :crybaby: ) and some friends with them were from Florida.
So after some nice chitchat we packed up and headed home. It was about an hour from the parking lot back down to the #7/Sylvester intersection.

My pavement Princess is looking a little rougher these days. After Whipsaw
Becky was saying 'we should lift this truck' :princess:
 
Cool...sounds worth checking out!

gb
 
Here are the pics. Kenyon Lake:
KenyonLake5.jpg
KenyonLake7.jpg
 
nice Jeff,
did some one build the vehicle friendly trail down to Kenyon lake, or are you real hardcore, because last time we were there, it was a quad only trail through mud and deep ruts, unless there is another spot to get to the lake?
Cheers,
Deny
 
Deny said:
nice Jeff,
did some one build the vehicle friendly trail down to Kenyon lake, or are you real hardcore, because last time we were there, it was a quad only trail through mud and deep ruts, unless there is another spot to get to the lake?
Cheers,
Deny


oh baby, I'm hardcore! :grinpimp:


Well..I guess there's another way in actually then? The road we took down right to the lake was maybe a 50' long tops, right off the 'main' logging road.
There seemed to be a possible camping spot on the other side of the lake, but I have yet to review the video when I zoomed in on it to check it out. The mapbook seems to show what looks like another road to it around the backside.
That, and I'm assuming it was Kenyon Lake :)
 
It definately looks like Kenyon lake, but where we get in, the south side, there is no dock, real muddy quad trail you have to walk for 50 ft, and the lake is pretty shallow for a while in. there is an island right? There is a road that climbs around the north side, but it is up quite high above the lake, it is a cool little trail though.
Cheers,
Deny
 
well, there must be 2 ways in then. Cuz that area was quite drive-able in..but the lake got deep real fast at that little 'beach' area with the dock. I didnt notice any Island tho. I did start to walk a trail that seemed to climb high up around the lake...but gave that up after i started huffing and puffing. need a quad!
 
Sweet,
We've been there a million times, and never knew there was another way to the lake. Is it just to the left before you start climbing the steep hill that takes you above to look down on the lake? If you keep going, and when you hit the Y, go left, then it winds over a mountain pass, and after doing a few cool wash outs, that me and my brother built around, you get to a washout with huge rocks, and a 5 min hike along the road gets you to a killer viewpoint of the end of stave lake, and a glacier on the west side of the lake.
Cheers,
Deny
 
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Actually, looking at the pictures again, are you sure that isn't one of the Twin Lakes? That one has a dock. Was it south of Salsbury Lake? If so it was Twin Lake, and Kenyon is still a lot further up the road.
Cheers,
Deny
 
Twin Lakes

Hrmmm...it might be. Cuz I got awfully turned around up there and my route didnt quiet seem to match the mapbook. I'll check when I get home, but I dont recall seeing any other lakes (aside from Davis and Salsbury) in the mapbook?
On the road that rounded that particular lake, there was a nice view of stave, with the allouette power intake thingy on the farside. Which also was sort of across fro Cypress Point, so this lake seemed to be roight above Cypress point, relativley speaking.

So Twin Lakes does show up on the mapbook, but for whatever reason I failed to notice them. :eek: That is definetly where we were.
 
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Yeah, I don't know if the twin lakes are on the mapbook map, but I am almost certain that is where you were. If that was the first left just past the large gravel pit/ shooting range, then it is twin lake. That lake is warm, deep, and has dock, with short road down to lake, and no island. Kenyon lake is up higher in the hills, one of those glacier formed lakes like Wilson lake, and pretty cold, no dock and island, that is pretty big. If the access is on the northern side, then it has to be Twin lake, because that is where it is, Kenyon has VERY steep walls on the northern side of the lake. Thats cool you guys found Twin lake, because it took us quite a while to find that one, it is a nice lake.
Cheers,
Deny
 
Aye, think that be it then. It was shortly after some gravel pits. I spotted some blue off the main road and figured thats gotta be it. This would also explain why the map didnt make to much sense then as well.
 

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