Monday, October 21, 2019

Lake Ste Kathryn day II

Sunday at Lake Ste Kathryn and nearby. Since we got all the work we hoped to do completed yesterday, today we'll hike the trails at Camp Nesbit which is very near here.

A cloudless, windless morning at our favorite camp.

We snuggle around the fire.
Let's go for a morning hike.  It was in the 30's last night.

Perfect weather for winter dogs.


We started out at Norway Lake. This is the beach area.
Where are the kids?


Then we hiked over to Lake Nesbit. Hey!
We smell chippy in the wood pile.
There are several very nice, well maintained trails here.

Not a long hike, but it was fun to see the trail here.

Later, after lunch, camp and canopy all come down.

It's been a busy, busy weekend and we just couldn't stay awake
any longer.

Fall at Lake Ste Kathryn!

With reasonable weather predicted for camping and doing trail work, on late Friday afternoon we loaded the camper and headed south to Lake Ste Kathryn. Everyone likes being in the woods for fall adventures!   This post will be Friday and Saturday.
The camper being loaded.  Arly even hooked up the heater.

The dog truck was loaded as well.  Not filled yet!

The only photo taken before it was dark.  We got there at dusk.

Huuuummm coffee, the next morning.

What a gorgeous fall day to be at Lake Ste Kathryn!

I smelled bacon fat! Ya it makes kibble taste great.

Then we went for a quick hike to check the trail out.

Of course we take a dip in deer marsh as soon as possible.

It sure is fall and more than 50% of the leaves are down.

Tamaracks are yellow-green and will soon be bare.
Next spring they will get new needles.

We've never been here in the fall before.

It's only 3 miles around and puppies can run all the way around it.

An old but very large wasp nest was spied since the leaves are down.

Puppies lead the way.

Another dip was in order, at the headwaters of the East Branch.

A blanket of yellow we walk on.

Now we need to have lunch and grab a few tools.

There were just a few campers here, so we went over to see
if they were trail mutt friendly.

Oh ya, they are!

Back out to clear the down trees found, we spied this on the road.
It's from a BIG dog!  (125 lb or larger wolf)

OK, let's get these trees off the trail.

We cleared just a few trees off today and took care of
some problem areas.

This is down wash mess from a beaver pound.

This is dam debris that tries to come through the culvert.

An hour later, all better.

At 3:30 we were done so we head back to the dog truck
under a light drizzle.

Trail mutts do love being at Lake Ste Kathryn.

Let's relax around the camp fire. It drizzled less than 2 hours.

The canopy was needed for the drizzle and a wind break.

Ya, it's fall.

The sun goes down over the lake.  Where did the life guard go?

We stopped to see the friendly campers again.

Oh ya, we don't get no petting at our site!

The steps to the lake.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Pilgrim Watershed Trail bridge shuffle

On Monday the long-lost bridge in the Pilgrim River Watershed Trails was finally moved back to where it should be. Ever since the Father's Day Flood last summer it's been located about 400 ft downstream from where it was originally installed.  Stephen H and Keith M came out to help and we couldn't have got it done without them!
First job is to attach a hitch to it. 

Then we attach the Boss's winch cable and reel her out
of the creek bottom.

A bit of a bump to get up.

It took some nudging.

Almost there.
 
After it was out, it was attached to the Boss's hitch and out it went.

Add a hand cart and zooooom it goes to its rightful location.

Back down nearing the creek bottom.

And now it's back in place! 
It was pushed about with the 2 wheel cart under it.

More work remains.

Like adding some abutments to raise it higher for future floods...

And staking it down so it can't be washed away ever again.

2 leggeds like to keep their feet dry but we'll cross in the creek any day!

What a beautiful fall day to be in the woods.
BIG thanks to Keith and Stephen!