Determined to get a nice long ride in today, we headed out by 11:00 with
an estimated GPS trail to the Bear Store, a little tourist-y
convenience store with a small exotic menagerie and ice cream cones (our
big attraction). We crossed the road to begin, following the same
trail we took on Thursday, though this time we took the right fork,
which headed us straight down almost to the main road, which we crossed
to follow a wide gravel road through a neighborhood, but that backed up
to the Bear Store. As soon as we saw the yellow caution tape, as we had
been told, we knew we were in the right place. We turned along the
little trail along the fence, came past a little paddock with a couple
of Shetland-like ponies (one of which was either very fat or very
pregnant) who whinnied at our guys. We came around some cages and tied
the horses to a tree in front, though there was a couple of pigs whose
smell made Apollo all crazy for a few minutes. Interesting that the
wallaby jumping around in front of him didn't seem to bother him, but
the little pig sleeping in the corner of his pen made him get all antsy.
Anyway, we got our ice cream cones and sat at the picnic table for
awhile, taking a nice break, before heading back out on the trail. We
continued east on Wickert Road to the end, then left to the main road.
We decided to follow the main road to the official trail crossing, but
were no sooner heading up the trail when we hear ATV's coming, so we
moved off to the side, and about 8 noisy machines came streaming down,
one after another. It was a good thing they had to slow down for the
road, if they had been going any faster we might not have been able to
get out of the way! We decided we would head back to a neighborhood
road rather than take any chances on running into any more ATV's (it was
apparently their trail anyway), so we followed the road back to across
from where we came out on the road and headed north from there. Hubby
wasn't happy with the gravel road, so I turned into the woods as soon as
I saw something that looked remotely like a trail. It came back to the
OHV trail, so we had to take that for a while, hoping no one came down
it. Fortunately, no one did. We soon found the snowmobile warming shed
that one of the ladies had told me about, but I had been under the
impression that there was a trail directly across the road from there,
but no such luck. We headed south just a bit, crossed Rollways Rd, and
still couldn't find a trail. We headed north again, hoping that, like
our previous ride, we would find a trail that would cut back to the
east. Eventually we did, and that led us to another seemingly
well-traveled trail, which we turned north on, but that quickly took us
right back to the road! Kept going until we finally headed east on a
deer trail (I think), just to try to get us back to the blue trail. It
was mostly cross country until we finally hit it, near the river, and
then followed the blue trail back to camp as we had done before. It was a
bit over three hours (with stop for ice cream) and just over 8 miles. A
very nice ride, though we were both tired, from the heat (it was high
80's, unseasonable again!), and from the duration, as we haven't been a
ride this long for some time. Looking forward to a day "off" tomorrow,
with only preparations for our Monday departure to do, though we had to
add a little more water to the RV to finish laundry and insure
sufficient water for much needed showers.
Determined to get a nice long ride in today, we headed out by 11:00 with
an estimated GPS trail to the Bear Store, a little tourist-y
convenience store with a small exotic menagerie and ice cream cones (our
big attraction). We crossed the road to begin, following the same
trail we took on Thursday, though this time we took the right fork,
which headed us straight down almost to the main road, which we crossed
to follow a wide gravel road through a neighborhood, but that backed up
to the Bear Store. As soon as we saw the yellow caution tape, as we had
been told, we knew we were in the right place. We turned along the
little trail along the fence, came past a little paddock with a couple
of Shetland-like ponies (one of which was either very fat or very
pregnant) who whinnied at our guys. We came around some cages and tied
the horses to a tree in front, though there was a couple of pigs whose
smell made Apollo all crazy for a few minutes. Interesting that the
wallaby jumping around in front of him didn't seem to bother him, but
the little pig sleeping in the corner of his pen made him get all antsy.
Anyway, we got our ice cream cones and sat at the picnic table for
awhile, taking a nice break, before heading back out on the trail. We
continued east on Wickert Road to the end, then left to the main road.
We decided to follow the main road to the official trail crossing, but
were no sooner heading up the trail when we hear ATV's coming, so we
moved off to the side, and about 8 noisy machines came streaming down,
one after another. It was a good thing they had to slow down for the
road, if they had been going any faster we might not have been able to
get out of the way! We decided we would head back to a neighborhood
road rather than take any chances on running into any more ATV's (it was
apparently their trail anyway), so we followed the road back to across
from where we came out on the road and headed north from there. Hubby
wasn't happy with the gravel road, so I turned into the woods as soon as
I saw something that looked remotely like a trail. It came back to the
OHV trail, so we had to take that for a while, hoping no one came down
it. Fortunately, no one did. We soon found the snowmobile warming shed
that one of the ladies had told me about, but I had been under the
impression that there was a trail directly across the road from there,
but no such luck. We headed south just a bit, crossed Rollways Rd, and
still couldn't find a trail. We headed north again, hoping that, like
our previous ride, we would find a trail that would cut back to the
east. Eventually we did, and that led us to another seemingly
well-traveled trail, which we turned north on, but that quickly took us
right back to the road! Kept going until we finally headed east on a
deer trail (I think), just to try to get us back to the blue trail. It
was mostly cross country until we finally hit it, near the river, and
then followed the blue trail back to camp as we had done before. It was a
bit over three hours (with stop for ice cream) and just over 8 miles. A
very nice ride, though we were both tired, from the heat (it was high
80's, unseasonable again!), and from the duration, as we haven't been a
ride this long for some time. Looking forward to a day "off" tomorrow,
with only preparations for our Monday departure to do, though we had to
add a little more water to the RV to finish laundry and insure
sufficient water for much needed showers.
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