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Bovin Lake is located in the West Castle Wilderness Area (or whatever it's called, it's crown land). As it happens, most of the road access is controlled by Shell to access a couple of their leases. And so for most of the year (ie. winter) it's closed off to motorized transport of any kind. But for the summer they open it up for campers and 4wheelers to access. At the end of the road is a little 4x4 trail that will take you up to Bovin Lake itself. I was down in this canyon for work about a month ago, before the road was opened to the public, and have been plotting ever since.



^The start of the 4x4 trail, I like where this is going...



^The truck stops here (pun intended). Hiked along the trail another kilometer or so then went up. 8:30ish?



^The line of choice.



^Much snow and many summer lines methinks.



^Cooper cooling off at the base of our line. This was after about an hour's worth of hiking straight up from the 4x4 trail.



^And Cooper taking a break at the top! This was around 11:45.



^Yep, still winter! The headwall on the right side sits above Bovin Lake.



^A weekend project perhaps?



^LETS SHRED!





^Had to hike around this stretch of rocks about halfway down the line.



^End of the line.



^This was his first time snowboarding, he did excellent!



^Upper right was the line of choice, bottom left was the encore. Seriously, I had about four or five hikers and a couple folks on quads watching me at this point. They were all slightly bewildered.



^I called it Cooper's Couloir, since it was his first decent!

Excellent! Gotta go hit that other "project" now.

Sometimes you just have to get those turns in
Hope the hipflexor is doing better than it was at splitfest, my right leg has a presistant weakness in that area that needs to be taken care of this summer.

Funny enough, I've only had that problem when skinning up or snowshoeing. Never had a problem booting it. I wonder if it has something to do with all the extra weight being carried by the foot/leg? Yesterday was all scrambling on the rocks, with my split and skins being packed up for no other reason than not knowing what to expect.



^More or less the area I was in.



^If the weather is nice next weekend, I'll see about getting over that snow blocking the trail and getting farther down the valley to explore this patch on Loaf mountain's SW shoulder. Maybe make it a multi-day affair.

So, appears to be a long weekend with nothing up work wise...

^So yea, went back for a bit more exploring.



^Pretty sure there was some snow here a few weeks ago...



^Coopers is no more, until next winter that is.



^Fingers looking less fat as well.



^With a serious obstacle in the route, we'll leave it for another time.



^So up the lake we went for some R&R.



^So much for that, Cooper chasing marmots gave me the opportunity to hike a steep line off the lake.



^Gorgeous view, remember that peak.



^End of the line.



^Shredded!



^Dog tired dog.



^Ended the day kicking back by the campfire.



^More marmot chasing the next morning.



^And onto contaminating are water source for the weekend, an underground sourced spring.



^Didn't think trees came this perfectly spaced in the backcountry.



^And the view from the top.



^Bovin Lake. If you look closely maybe you can spot my truck and tent.



^Cooper probably wondering when this dog walk will end.



^The line from the previous day.

Sorry, didn't get any shots from that second line on the second day.