Saturday, June 30/2012

I have finished my night shift and I am soon headed to bed.  I must make coffee first though and check out what has been happening in the world of Facebook.  While I am on the computer, Casey walks in and we have a quick chat.  He will be changing oil in his quad and getting both John's and his quad fuelled up and ready to go for the ride later today.
I have a few hours of sleep ahead of me and I quickly head to the bed and do just that.  I am awake by noon and we are on the trail soon after.
The sun is shining and it is going to be a wonderful day.  There is no rain in sight!!  Woo Hoo.
We head out toward Three Mile Trail and into the bush (we are doing "the block" today).  Of course Casey (and Amanda, his new friend) head for the mud and corruption along this trail and are covered with it when we reach our first refreshment stop!!  You just can not keep him out of it!!  The horse flies are loving all the "wet" around the quad and are flying around like crazy.  They have now arrived in the forest - I swear they were not here last week and will take a bite out of you just because they can.  They really are not very friendly but will usually leave you alone if you can stay dry!!  Bug spray deters them as well and it is a must when one goes into the forest.  I love the Watkins repellent as it lasts all day!!
The cattle must be in the pastures that we travel through as all the gates are closed so we now must close all gates we go through.  It is nice when they are open but one must respect the open/close gate rules.  You know, the unwritten rule:  if the gate is open when you arrive at it, leave it open but if it is closed, you make sure it is closed when you leave.  No one wants to see cows where they don't belong so we are diligent when it comes to gates.
We finally hit "the block" and head down towards Deer Lake (full of trout, for all you fishermen out there).  The beavers have been busy since we were last down here a few weeks ago as there is now a little "pond" across the forest access road where there was only a small little trickle of water (perhaps only 12 inches across) before.  I am sure that it will only be a matter of time before one of the outfitters who use this road to access their land will destroy what the beaver has so carefully constructed.
We arrive at the designated "refreshment" stop and Casey is the first to walk to the shore line where he discovers a tow rope lying in the water.  It is covered with mud so I assume that someone put it in the water to wash it off, got distracted and ended up forgetting about it.  Hey, around here, what someone loses, another  finds.  I have found so many things on the trails around here that it is always an adventure and I often start out on a ride wondering what I will find on the trail that day.
We hadn't travelled very far down the trail when Casey (who was leading) stopped and I hear John saying to me "moose, moose".  I look down the trail past Casey and see a cow moose with her baby.  Oh my, nature at its finest.  I quickly grab for the camera (which is always hanging around my neck) and try and get a pic of them before they decide to run away.  I did manage to get one but it really is a lousy shot and one must look hard in order to see the one moose - Lord forbid that I could have actually got both Mom and baby in the shot!!   Casey said that they came from the lake side of the road so I don't know if they had been swimming or just foraging along the shoreline.  It is a wonderful environment for moose around here but danger also lurks around the corner for this baby.  The forest has both wolf and cougar and either one of them would undoubtably love a tastey morsel such as this baby moose.
Casey continues down the trail ahead of us and soon John and I find him pulled over checking out something in the front of the quad.  As it turns out,  his front shock on the driver's side has blown apart and is now rather useless.  It won't end the ride but it will certainly be a bit rougher for him.  John has never heard of a shock doing this but if something could go wrong, it is bound to happen to the Caseman.  I think he is competing with Gary to see which yellow CanAm can have the most "issues"!!
Yellow - Lemon - Hmmmmm.........
We carry on down the trail and eventually turn onto the Heart Lake Trail.  We often stop here, have a beer and check out the house boat.  We passed Cliff (and his rescue dog) on the trail today so he must have been down here checking on the houseboat as well (he owns it).  Today, I took the time to take a pic of his rather unique toilet chair.  It is quite the thing - complete with toilet roll holder (aka, a long neck beer bottle) and a solar light for those late night trips!!  It even has a drink holder for those times when one must sit and "contemplate".  All the conveniences of home!!
We then take the trail that will lead us to Otter Lake where Leon has his home built barge moored.  It is a wonderful trail which takes us past Beau Creek and into the deep forest where many of the forest creatures dwell.  There is plenty of signs of wildlife and it is good to see as this affirms that the forest is healthy and able to sustain life.  What a wonderful "playground" we have here surrounding our little town of Leoville.
We make it to the barge, stay for a refreshment then start back to the main trail.  Once there,  Casey wants to show Amanda the "lookout" on the hill that overlooks Heart Lake.  It is steep, rutted climb and looks intimidating for the faint of heart but we have been up there so often that it is almost second nature to us.  Once up there, both Casey and Amanda climb the tower (you just got to do it) and take some pictures.  While sitting there, John noticed that we had somehow lost one of the bags we had that hang down the back fenders by my legs.  WHAT!!!  How on earth could that have happened?  Well, there is only one thing to do and that is to retrace our tracks and find the damn thing.  I am pretty sure I had it before we accessed the Otter lake trail as I had mentioned to John that we had those fancy new "pincher things" for picking up cans off the trail and we had not seen one can so far today.    John, not totally convinced about my incredible powers of recollection, thought we may have lost it on the Heart Lake trail.  So, it was decided that John and I would check out Heart Lake while Casey and Amanda would travel back along the Otter Lake trail.  As it turned out, my memory was correct and Casey brought it back from the Otter Lake trail.   It was now time to head home.  I am tired and so need to get off this quad, have some supper and go to bed.  There is no "party" left in me today.
Before we left for the ride this afternoon, Dave came over with four deer steak for us for supper tonight and I was so looking forward to this.  Amanda has never had deer steak before so instead on cooking all four, we decided to do 2 beef steak and 2 deer.  This way, if she did not like deer, there was always a beef steak for her to enjoy.  As usual, they were cooked to perfection and it was only a short time later, that I was in bed and asleep.  I think a bomb could have gone off and I would not have heard it.  Oh yea, did I mention that I work tomorrow?  I am tired just thinking about it!!  The others will just have to party without me although it will not be nearly as much fun!!   Good Night.

Prairie Lily

Beverage

Heading to the Block (look closely, there is a deer running
across the road)

Beatifull Skies

Still muddy

Heart Lake

Redneck toilet - complete with long neck beer bottle toilet roll holder,
its very own solar light (in case you have to "go" in the dark, and a drink holder)

wild flowers

Otter Lake

Casey coming down the trail

Otter Lake Trail

Casey, by Leon's Barge on Otter Lake

refreshment break

Water coming over the beaver dam on Beau Creek

wild daisy (maybe aster)

Beau Creek

Casey and Amanda

more wild flowers - life is all about stopping to smell the flowers

Up on the tower

Swallowtail Butterfly

Great scenery

Our last stop, then home.  Always stop and share "one" with
the folks that rest here beside the church.