Another very hot day (unseasonable… what else?!), so we decided fairly early that it was too hot and muggy to ride. This place is also the buggiest we’ve seen, lots of mosquitos and those spotted-winged flies that take big chunks out of the skin, leaving welts and bumps all over the horses, and us when they get the chance! We decided that rather than try to ride today, we’d get up extra early tomorrow and get out tomorrow before it gets too hot. I spent the day working on the computer, as I have just barely enough cell phone service here to get online, and I’ve been getting behind in some of my work. Got caught up, which is a good feeling, while Hubby mostly read, at least after he got the second generator out and we got the air conditioning going. First time we’ve had to use that in a LONG time! Glad we had it though, at least it made the day tolerable. Not looking forward to trying to sleep in this tonight though!

Finally dragged ourselves out of bed on the fourth or fifth snooze alarm, after neither one of us had much sleep last night, probably because for the first time, it was too hot and took too long for the RV to cool down inside, so we ended up only getting a few hours sleep. Nonetheless, we were on the road by 8:00, taking a longer route than necessary out of the forest because my phone GPS took us the wrong way, likely because the signal was so intermittent. We finally got back to Route 2, the main road here in the Upper Peninsula, heading west. We stopped at Rays Mill and Feed in Bark River to pick up some Purina Enrich 32 that we had confirmed they had in stock, as well as a bag of their oats and a few other things. I got into a conversation with a woman while I was there, asking her if she knew a good place to get a yooper pasty (“yooper is from ‘U.P.er’, a resident of the UP, and pasty (pronounced pass-tee) is a local cuisine item brought over from the Cornish miners in the 19th century like a calzone with mincemeat inside, and which I wanted to try before we left the area) but she didn’t know anyplace going west, only back east, unfortunately. I pulled out a few minutes later, and didn’t see Hubby behind me, and when I called back to him, he said a young man who worked at the mill had overheard our conversation and had run inside and brought out two frozen, apparently home-made pasties from a freezer inside and gave them to Hubby! Hubby offered to pay him, but he insisted on making it a gift! How nice! I stopped at a corner so I could put the pasties in the freezer so we can have them later, but our plan had been to have a hot one for brunch, so now we would have to go to a Plan B (which I hadn’t thought of yet). Our next stop was for fuel, then, just as we were leaving a small town shortly before the Wisconsin border, I found a place called the Pasty Oven (Plan B!), so we pulled in and purchased two small classic pasties with the traditional rutabaga and beef pork filling, which we promptly and quickly ate on the road. They were very nice, and, according to Hubby, very true to the original British style pasty. Two more stops, one for propane and water in the RV and rain barrel that we picked up at the Ace Hardware, the other for shopping at Walmart about 30 miles east of Smith Rapids for groceries and other essentials, then a straight shot out to the forest, with just 2 miles of a gravel road to traverse to the campground. Just before reaching the campground on the right, there is a covered bridge on the road, apparently one of the few left in Wisconsin, and we’ll have to cross it with the horses to take the linear trail west. Found a site, #10, where Hubby thought we could get a satellite signal (I thought 9 would be better for that, but it didn’t have as much shade and was smaller), and it didn’t take long to settle in. I put the horses on their anchors for a while, as the area has lots of unmowed grass, put up a highline for later, got the satellite up and running with some effort, all while smacking at lots of mosquitos and some huge and nasty horseflies that were bringing up welts and blood on the horses, and trying to do the same to us. We sprayed them with more fly spray. We had bought some Dumor from Tractor Supply that didn’t work worth a darn, then when I was cleaning out the horse trailer yesterday I found half a bottle of Bronco, which has historically worked better, though these critters are stubborn! Settled in for the evening at last, with all the fans running, as the heat and humidity are really bad here, at least ten degrees warmer than what we left in the UP! Hubby’s already making plans to get out the second generator so we can run the AC tomorrow, and I’m in full agreement

Had a few chores to do today, like rearranging the hay on the truck, and Hubby spent quite a while resurrecting a nice multiple tool jacknife of mine that had seized up from humidity and lack of use, as well as a few other jobs, so it wasn’t a terribly relaxing day, but it was a productive one. Got everything put away that we could, so our departure should be fairly quick tomorrow morning. No dump to go to, and Clio has been very good about sticking her butt out in the woods to do her business, so cleanup has been pretty easy here. We had to get one large bucket of water from the pump, but we had we had the horse trailer not leak on us, it seems we would have had just enough water to last the week. Hubby thinks he found and repaired the leak in the tank, around the nozzle, so hopefully that will solve the problem next time. Finally finished up and settled down for the evening.

Another fabulous ride here at Pine Marten! This place definitely goes toward the top of the list of favorite places, one we would certainly make an effort to return to. Today we took our longest ride in quite a while, about 9.5 miles long, including most of the Ironjaw Loop and half the Swan Loop, which took us past numerous lakes, through all kinds of forest, up and down a few hills, with lots of opportunities to trot and canter. There hasn’t been a cloud in the sky for days, and even though today was the warmest day we’ve had, it was still quite comfortable, probably in the low 80’s, with a nice breeze cooling things down even more. The horses were great, and seemed to really enjoy themselves, having had a rest yesterday. We stopped along Swan Lake (I just HAD to get to that trail while we were here : -) for a drink of water at a marked watering hole and shared apples with each other and the horses, resting for a bit halfway through the ride, then carried on from there. What a perfect day! Got back around 4:00, got everyone settled in, pretty much finished up the water in the rain barrel, so we’ll have to get at least one or two more buckets from the hand pump before we leave. We probably would have had enough for the week if the water tank in the horse trailer hadn’t developed a leak, we lost half of that before we discovered it, but saved what we could. I’m thinking about getting another portable rain barrel, just to insure we can get a full week (or maybe even two, as we head out to the desert and plains areas, where water is at a premium), and I can hopefully get it delivered to the place we’ll be staying at the end of the month. This is the first time we’ve done it this way with the new rain barrel, and it’s been working out great. Had a quiet evening, though we have a list of chores for tomorrow as we get ready to depart tomorrow.

Took the day off today, just ran out a couple of times to check on email and upload some of my blog, relaxed, read and watched TV the rest of the day. Nice, and Hubby needed it because his back was hurting him a bit after yesterday’s ride. Had a horse trailer come in in the early evening, they parked at the other end of the field next to the road, so we hardly noticed them.

Another good night sleep, another quick run out to check on email, learning our client’s schedule doesn’t mesh with ours, so no logistics to work out, back to camp, saddled up and headed out on the Triangle Lake Loop, another fabulous ride! Good footing once again, a beautiful trail that mostly follows the circumference of one of the many lakes here, though a few more roots sticking out of the ground than before. Just over two hours, 6.4 miles in all. They’ve really done a nice job of marking and mapping these trails. There’s a “You Are Here” placard at every intersection, and there’s just enough trail markers to be reassuring, not so many as to insult your intelligence (though a few of the arrows are probably not necessary, but better safe than sorry, I guess). There were a few good places to trot and canter, though we mostly walked because the trails were narrow and we didn’t want to twist anyone’s ankles on the roots. Really enjoyed the ride again today. That large bird screeched at us again when we got near his domain, but it didn’t startle anyone today. I tried to get a picture of it, but he took off before I had a chance to. I need to look up what kind of bird it was, possibly a hawk, but maybe an owl. It’s underside was completely white, but I think some of it’s top feathers had a darker pattern to it. It had a good screech, though! Got back around 3:00, had our ice cream lunch, did a little planning now that we know we don’t have to fly out next week, then settled down for the evening.

Slept well and late again today, which is much needed. Several forest workers arrived to mow the lawn and clean the vault toilet, and since I had to go out and try to find a cell phone signal, I stopped and spoke to one of them about where the nearest signal is, and he gave me some instructions to go west out of the camp and look for the “top of the hill” where there might be a signal. I headed out, and sure enough, just after a mile, I found two bars worth of signal, so I pulled over, did some essential computer work, and got back to camp by noon. We then saddled up and headed out on Lyon’s Loop, named after the ranger who first developed trails here. What a fabulous trail! Footing is dirt and sand and some pine needles,with only one short stretch on the back side of gravel, but even that was covered by a layer of leaves that kept the discomfort to a minimum.  There were several great areas for trotting and cantering, while most of it was single-track and winding through all kinds of deep, even eerie woods, which kept my Apollo constantly on guard for any horse-eating stumps or critters. We had one hawk kind of squawk at us unexpectedly which caused everyone to jump, but eventually everyone settled down and it was a great ride, lasting just over two hours, 6.6 miles in all. Fabulous! After getting the horses settled in, I took another quick drive to the top of the hill to check on my email, as one of our clients is inquiring as to our availability over the next few weeks, so I may have some logistics to do pretty soon. Meanwhile, got back to camp by 7:00 (which seems much earlier, but it gets dark so late here!), had dinner and a movie, per our usual schedule.

Delightfully quiet here, so we both slept well and late. Although we had originally planned to ride today, we were both a bit spent from the long drive yesterday, so we spent the day reading, napping, watching TV and generally winding down today. Some day riders came in for a bit, but other than that, there was no activity here today, so it kept being delightfully quiet.

Headed out early as we had along drive ahead of us today. Packed up and managed to get out quickly, heading out by just before 8:00. We headed for a nearby county park that Sanidumps.com says has a dump, and arrived there by 8:30. Fortunately, it was right out in front, no time wasted trying to find it, easy in and fairly easy out. Just before we reached I-75, we started running into a rain front that my smartphone radar showed me was coming. At the freeway, we stopped for gas and put the tarp over the hay, then made the decision to stop and have breakfast at a cafe, in the hopes that the majority of the rain would pass over us by the time we finished. Not quite, but a lot did. We headed out, taking our time, with the tarp at least giving us some bare protection on most of the hay, but of course, the tarp had already lost it’s corner grommets, so it didn’t take long for the bungees to break through, though only on the back, the front stayed secure. The sky started to clear somewhat once we crossed the Macinaw Bridge to the upper peninsula, so after a few miles, we were able to stop and take the tarp off, allowing the wind and sun to start to dry the hay a bit. One more stop at Jack’s Supermarket, where we picked up water at the Home and Garden center next door, filling both the RV and the portable rain barrel, which I set up in the back of the pickup, now that I had moved some hay around to make room. A few groceries later, and we were on our way to Pine Marten Run! The route was pretty straight forward, though we did have over 5 miles of dirt road, it was some of the best dirt roads we have ever been on, almost no holes, not much gravel, so we made good time. At last we arrived at the camping area which was a small grass field with a vault toilet in the middle of it, and a hand pump at the trailhead. We soon picked a spot toward the back of the field, high-lined the horses between well-spaced pine trees, and proceeded to settle in. It didn’t take long, even with the satellite setup, so we were able to resume our usual evening schedule by just after 5:00. Only trouble was, being so far north, and so far west in the Eastern time zone, we still were having twilight at 10:15! That seems really weird! Beginning to wonder if maybe we’ll be able to see some Northern lights up here! Only down side is that I lost my cell phone signal quite a ways back, so computer work may be problematic if I can’t find a nearer signal. Can’t have everything!

Another hot day, but we got most of our chores done early, including rearranging the hay on the truck to make it easy to reach both Apollo and Clio’s hay, and to fit the portable water barrel, as we know water is a hand pump at the next camp, and we want to arrive full. Just a matter of finding a place we can pick up water in town on the way in. No Walmarts in Manistique! We will have to find someplace to shop though, plus we need to dump on the way out (I found one nearby on sanidumps.com), and it’s going to be almost 5 hours just in travel time, so another long day tomorrow, even if we DON’T run into any trouble like we did last week! Watched the final on Wimbledon (yeah, Britannia), finished putting stuff away, including a load of laundry I did earlier, fixed the lid on the toilet which has been slipping badly (with a whole new fix we hope will work), then settled down for the evening, looking forward to cool showers and an early evening!