The church bells started ringing at 10:30 and I was so surprised to hear them. They didn't hardly ring at all last year so I was really pleased to hear them today. There is something about the sound of church bells that is comforting to me. Perhaps it is a memory from my childhood - who knows- but the sound has always put a smile on my face.
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| Ride to the Block |
Monday brought lots of sunshine and we decided to take a scoot down into the Block with the Sami. At least we could get out of a "sticky" situation should the need arise with the Sami as opposed to "Old Blue" who does not have a winch and is only two wheel drive.
We got to Deer Lake without any difficulty and we were actually quite surprised as to just how dry the road was. Man, it was like a regular highway!! There would be no trouble in getting your boat down to the launch this year. There is virtually NO WATER and that, is not good.
We drove along side the lake towards Slide Out and the trail is normally quite a challenge with mud and corruption along the way. Today, it is dry, dry, dry and I shudder to think how vulnerable this forest is for fire.
We cruised along the trail for a bit then we turned around and headed back the way we came. John had seen another trail we had yet to check out so headed there. With the land being so dry, we wondered how far we could get down this trail before having to turn around, as we were headed towards some pretty nasty muskeg!!
We took one fork in the trail and that ended in a huge slough so turned around and took the other fork. Well, we were good going one way but had chewed up the trail a bit and on the way back out, got stuck up to our knees and things and needed the winch to get over one very stubborn root!! Thank Heavens it was working and we were out in no time at all!!
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| Deer Lake |
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| Little muddy - got stuck!! Thank Heavens for the winch!! |
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| Saw a nice Black Bear on the trail but he didn't stick around!! |
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| Headed home |
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday were work days so our adventures in the forest were curtailed until Saturday when we were once again in Sami and headed down the North Road. We decided to check out "8" Mile and "Eddie's" Trail
Once again, we were surprised by the dryness of the trail. "8" mile had only a bit of mud and was easily traversed. We noticed too that several "piles" of wood that had been left over from the logging operations over the past couple of years had been burnt. Presumably this is an effort to "clean up" and in turn reduce available fuel for any future forest fires so that was a good thing to see. There are tons of little chunks of wood lying around that will be good for our campfires here in the fire pit so one of these days we will have to take the truck out and load up. Woo hoo, another year of free wood....no chain saw necessary!!
We accessed Eddie's Trail and found only minimal bits of water. All the usual "wet" spots were bone dry. Holy Buckets!!
Quad rallies are being cancelled because of the terrible dry conditions and one really has to be careful if they adventure out into the tall grasses with their quads. The risk of fire is huge. There is a big forest fire burning in the province now that is apparently burning because of a quad rally. Apparently, some grass caught on fire from a hot muffler and whoosh......forest fire!!
We passed several tree planters along the way doing there thing with replanting trees in an effort towards sustainable forests, That is a good thing. There will be lots of new growth trees popping up and growing in a few years time. They are pretty small now but they will grow and that is a good thing.
At the end of Eddie's Trail I saw the first crocuses of the Spring season. They looked awesome. It is these flowers that usually are the first to peek their heads out of the warming soil and greet the changing season. It was good to see them.
It was a good ride.
We stopped at the little white church on the way home just to see if my little white foot stool was still there. Apparently, we forgot to put it back into the Sami when I got in the last time we were here and now, it is missing. I can't swing my leg up into Sami with the arthritis in my hip so have been using a foot stool to get in. It works well but works way better when one actually puts it back into the sami for future use!! Well, I guess someone is now enjoying my stool!! I now have something else to put on my Walmart list!!
This brings us to the end of another week. It is hard to believe that May is almost half way done. The long weekend is coming up and that will make it seem to go by even quicker. Oh well...not much to be done about that. Time marches on.
Life is Good!!
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| Headed out to "Eddie's" Trail |
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| no water - anywhere!! |
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| Crocuses!! |
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