Monday, July 4, 2011

A Short-ish Day and a Fascinating Lake

Camping in the hidden hollow along the creek was great...except for one thing.  That night there were thunderstorms and rain....ALL NIGHT LONG!   Ok, maybe not all night, but it sure seemed like it to me.  I had a very hard time sleeping with all the lightning and thunder and pouring rain.  At one point there was unceasing lightning....but the thunder seemed to be fading away.  It took me a while to realize there was a firefly caught beneath the fly of my tent....flashing incessantly...imitation lightning! 
A few photos of our campsite:
 Can you find our tents?  They're in there somewhere...
Overnight, the creek just about doubled in size.  I wish I had taken a pic before it rained...
Under the trees along the bank was where I took my swim.  Mostly flat bottomed, about 3 feet deep...before the rain.   I'm not sure how deep it was in this pic...
As we packed up in the morning, there was some wildlife that appeared...
Slugs...all over our tents and shoes....
And this very strange string...climbing on my bicycle tire...
Preparing to leave...my steed beside the stream...
When we finally got started we rode into Houghton.
There we stopped to walk up to Moss Lake...since the dirt road was too steep to ride...

Moss Lake was very beautiful and unique...I've never seen anything like it.  It is a quiet little bog at the top of a long steep dirt road.  There are insane little catfish that mob the edges of the lake at one area wanting bread...
We walked along the boardwalk that goes out on the peat mat and viewed the wierd pitcher plants and occasional trees growing on the surface of the lake.
 Carnivorous plants...
 Crazy trees...
After we left Moss Lake, we stopped at a gas station/general store for some jelly...
We had been riding through a lot of Amish country...and here there was a horse and buggy at the gas station!
 Route 19....pleasantly wide shoulders and no killer hills.  There were some gradual inclines...but nothing terrible.
 We only rode about 30 miles before we decided to stop.  I was tired, and we had lost a lot of travel time visiting Moss Lake.  This time Tuck didn't want to hide by the side of the road...so we stopped at a small, slightly dilapitated campground outside of Scio.  We were very happy to have access to showers, bathrooms, mowed grass, and legal camping...for only $20.
 A lot of our equipment (such as tents) was wet, plus I washed our clothes in the shower, so Tuck set up the clothesline to hang the wet stuff on.  While I was showering and washing the clothes, Tuck was suddenly attacked by a mosquito...
 Finally, I made supper...
I attempted to make spaghetti...but it ended up without enough sauce...

 Tuck gave it rave reviews anyway....

The washed clothes were hanging on the line, the dishes were washed, we were tired....so off we went, into our tents, to sleep off the tiredness of a day's ride...

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