Almost time to start sweating

July 13, 2006 (4:22am)
63º F, Partly cloudy, NNW wind 3 mph.

Good morning,

Looks to be a warm one today and the next few days. The weatherman is talking of 100º F heat index for Saturday and Sunday. There isn’t any rain in the mix until possibly Sunday afternoon. The soil in the area here is really dry and needs the moisture. This weekend is also Kewaunee’s Trout Fest this weekend, with a biathlon on Saturday. That should be fun!

Yesterday I mentioned all of the boardwalks and stairways constructed on the trails in Porcupine Mountains State Park. This picture shows an example of one of them on the way to a waterfalls on the Presque Isle River. For me they are harder to walk (the stairways down) than the old trails. The work required to put these in is incredible. I suspect most of it was done by hand. None of the surrounding area is disturbed by any heavy equipment. All of the vertical posts for the bridge and stairways are set on concrete columns. Bet that was fun digging into a lot of rock and mixing the concrete to fill the tubes. Much of the decking could have been pre-cut and brought into the job site, but there is a lot of cut and fit work still to do at each place. I think the work was probably done by a government program, like Wisconsin’s Youth Conservation Corps, for kids on the edge of trouble and out of work. Wonder how many blisters and mosquito bites were experienced.

The second picture shows the old way of crossing the ravine, usually with a running creek or river under the log. We used logs or downed trees to cross most of the time. I remember one time, the log was longer than this and about 8 feet above the water of the Little Carp River. There were about three girls crossing on the log, each with a 40-50 pound pack on their back, when my dog, Trav, decided he wanted to cross faster than the girls were. He put his shoulder into the back of the last girls legs and pushed to speed her up. The gal, nicked-named Rock, didn’t like the prospect of tumbling into the cold river water from the log. I am not sure how she did it, but she kept her balance, yelling un-nice things at Trav, and made it across without any problems - other than being scared. Crossing on logs were always a challenge, even without a pack, for everyone. Some of the gals had never had to even try their skill at it before the trip. It was one of those things that helped some to really gain some confidence in themselves. Also for a lot of chatter and teasing too!

What was all of the walking for? This is the end of the walk. One of the three waterfalls on that stretch of river. Well worth the walk. The water is as clear as a bell and rather cold. I think I read or heard somewhere the water temperature here was in the upper 40's or lower 50's most of the summer. I do remember it was very welcome to walk through them in the very hot air temperature at the time. The falls are all very beautiful and welcome sights to stop and appreciate. At the time we were in the Porky’s, and other trips, we could drink the water directly out of the streams or rivers. Not the case any longer. We also could build campfires using downed wood, but that is not possible any longer either. I often wondered why there were not more wild fires years ago, but probably the folks in the woods were more attuned to the needs of the woods and how to use them. It still is a very beautiful portion of God’s world. We certainly enjoyed it greatly.

For me, yesterday was pretty much a waste. I have been dogged by a serious kink in my back for the past couple of days. Popping a couple fo pills didn’t seem to make much difference either. While it will be some hot today, I plan to get some things done anyway, with or without a pain in the back. I did futz a bit in the garden, but not even much of that. Did manage to stagger into town to do a couple of errands, noticing the price of gasoline had dropped a couple of cents/gallon. Suspect that will rise again today.

It was defiantly not a wasted day for Margriet though. She baked two breads, a fruit bread, and a big batch of cookies. Guess the new stove’s oven works pretty well. I did extensive quality control testing and found the results very adequate. We have to bring snacks for after church on Sunday, hence the cookies. The bread really turned out well. I made sure we tested that for supper last night, even though it was too hot to slice properly. We ran out of honey-butter, so she made another batch of that too. Gosh we have a really tasty diet!
We found there was a wide variety of prices for gasoline on our ride, but mostly about the same as at home. That did surprise me some, since Michigan’s tax rate on gasoline is lower than Wisconsin’s. We saw a low of $2.899/gallon (shortly after I had filled at $3.099/gallon) and a high of $3.229/gallon. The price had dropped 2¢/gallon at home in the time we were gone. The odometer registered 630.9 miles from the time we left to the time we arrived home. Oops! More than a tankful getaway. With the prospect of the price of gasoline rising even farther, I think most of our rides are over for the summer, except for the Holy Spirit Conference in August. But .... Ya never know!

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><