Arnie and Shelly had to head back to the city today, so left early. They stopped to visit with Arnie's Mom then headed in.
John and I had planned a trip up the Green Lake trail so once all was packed, we headed out for another wonderful adventure. Remember I said those words --- wonderful adventure.
Because of all the rain, the trail of course was quite muddy. We started at the Vimy trail, down to Huard, up to Mystery Hill, to Bug then towards Island Lake where we accessed the Green Lake Trail. Mud, Mud and more Mud and lots of deep ruts but the little samurai handled the trail well. We made it to the bridge that Arnie was concerned about and rather wary of us crossing but we discovered that someone had constructed another bridge further down the trail which looked much safer than the one he had been on with the rhino. We traversed this new one without any difficulty and another one as well. Both the bridges we used were by no means dangerous and if anything were to happen, it was only about a foot to the ground and there were plenty of trees to hook the winch to if necessary. John had put the winch back on to the truck "just in case". Always a good thing to have when out on your own - remember I said this too!!! The bridge that Arnie had been on was over an area where the water had eroded the ground to at least a six foot ravine - not a good place to be if the bridge were to fail!!
With the bridges behind us, we continued up the trail and eventually found a new outfitter's cabin tucked back into the bush at the end of the lake. This was new to us and it was lovely to see. We enjoyed the view at the end of the lake but the mosquitos were ferocious!! I walked out into the area where the river ran into Green Lake hoping to see some sort of a bridge that would allow us to cross the river and gain access to the trails on the other side. I could not get anywhere near the river as the recent rains had made the land around the river a bog. Ideal for beaver, ducks and mosquitos.
We were forced to turn around and admit defeat but this gave me a chance to stop and take some pictures of the huge ferns that have been growing along the trail. As you can see, they were quite tall and oh so beautiful. There is nothing like a wild stand of forest ferns to make one glad to be on the trails enjoying all of nature's little treasures.
We drove back to the grid road, again through all the mud the trail had to offer and as you can see by Hogan's face, the mud was flying. If he would learn to keep his head inside the truck he wouldn't have to deal with all the mud on his face!!
We decided to take a different trail back and drove down the grid to the trail head. Back into the forest we go and homeward bound. It was 7pm and time to start heading home. We had about three hours of daylight left - plenty of time - right?
This trail too was wet and yet not horribly so. We came to one rather large water hole which covered the whole trail and without any hesitation, John drove into the right side of it only to be stopped 3/4 of the way through. It was DEEP but he managed to back out of it with only half the water in the mud hole coming over the end gate and onto Hogan's feet. Hogan, realizing that he was in jeopardy of not only getting his feet wet but also having to swim for his life, leaped into the front seat on top of me!! By this time John was out of the hole. I looked to my right and saw a trail which I correctly assumed would take us around the ugliness that lay in front of us. John however, in all his wisdom decided that we would try the hole once more but, on the left side instead. The last thing I said to him was "are you sure you want to do this?" Remember I said this!!! John's response was to gas it into the great unknown that soon, would not be so unknown!! In we went with all the mud flying and when we finally stopped, we were about half way through with the nose of the truck dipping down into the water. Of course the side that was the deepest was mine. The water was pouring in in huge volumes - even through my window and in no time at all my ass was in the water and my seat was submerged. The engine had stalled and the dog was freaking out!! Jesus, Mary and Joseph - I had to crawl my wet ass out through the back, fighting the freaking dog and cursing John - all at the same time. "How stupid can you get" I asked. Of course you do remember that he is unable to really move around all that well - especially when we are sitting in the middle of the deepest mud puddle in the effing forest. Guess who has to get her feet wet and get the winch - and that effin thing better work since now we realize that the handle was totally under water (oh why hadn't I put that stupid thing in a zip lock bag). I look longingly at the trail that would have taken us around this hell hole and I get into the horrifically muddy water knowing that there surely was a creature or two just waiting for me!! My rubber boots were immediately filled beyond capacity and I was standing in water past my knees - beauty. The mud is making it incredibly difficult to move and I had some loser telling me to hurry up. Where the hell is a gun when I need it? I could have buried him in this hell hole and no one would have ever found him - that is how deep this thing was. I look towards the heavens to give me strength because the devil is saying just drag him out of this truck and hold his head under the water!!!
I finally make it to the winch and God has answered my prayers because the winch worked!!! Yeah !!! We managed to get the little truck out of the hole and on to solid ground amid a barrage of me telling John how stupid this particular decision was and why the hell would he do something like this when we are alone and thank God he had put the winch on the truck!! It was a full fledged GONG SHOW and we were the stars!!
Being that the engine had stalled, John had to check what ever it was under the hood to see if we had taken on any water and yes we had but we should be able to still drive it home. The question now was should we turn around and take the grid road home or should we continue down the trail - Hmmmm!!
I just want to say now, before I continue that I DID NOT MEAN TO RUN OVER HIS GOOD FOOT!!! John told me to get into the truck and start the engine - which I did. I though it was in neutral and when I released the clutch the truck lurched forward, landing on his foot. All I heard was "BACK UP THE TRUCK - BACK UP THE TRUCK!!! I knew I was obviously on his foot - GOD please don't let it be his bad foot - oh and maybe not his good foot either. And, this is perhaps why one should NEVER go on the trails by yourself. I immediately put the truck in reverse (or so I thought) and let the clutch go and once again I lurched forward -- Jesus Christ Wally, where the hell is the reverse in this truck. John is still yelling BACK THE TRUCK UP or maybe it was "back the fuck up" I don't really remember because by this time a bit of panic had set in and once again I had to ask God for a bit of help and thankfully he came through once again and reversed was found and I backed up off John's foot. Thank You God and I'm sorry John!! He was leaning against the fender with his head down and this would be classed as one of those awkward moments to say the least!! He looked at me with one of his famous "I'm not impressed" look on his face. What could I say --- shit happens. I looked once more at the trail that would have taken us around this hole and reminded him that I had said "are you sure you want to do this".
Once the initial shock had left, we realized that the injury, although painful at the time, was not as bad as we had feared. The truck was running and we would continue down the trail - further away from help if the engine decided to quit. Great, the mosquitos weren't eating the shit out of us enough already - why not risk spending a night in the forest. Maybe I will drag John back to that mud hole!!
Long story short, the truck ran like crap for a few miles but seemed to quiet down and we managed to make it back to the yard all in one piece - well, one of us did!! Some adventures I can do without but man, do we have stories!!
