Hiya Sweetie!
Up bright and early again, seems I’m right on schedule, even got out before Sam and Susie this morning! They caught up with me and I let them pass once I hit the blacktop, they always like to drive a lot faster than me. A pretty short drive to Luzerne, but when I arrived, there were a couple of tenters setting up, and one of them was putting her tent right in the middle of the area that I needed for my rig. Why do tiny tenters so often want to take the biggest site available? Well, I explained to them the situation, and one seemed okay with it, the other one got downright nasty with me, even when I tried to apologize! Of course, that same woman dismantled the firepit that someone had created in order to use the stones to prop up her tiny tent stakes, and obviously wasn’t going to put back. The fact that this trail and these camps wouldn’t even be here without the MTRA was of no interest, she just made a fuss over being kicked out, saying I did it “rudely” when I was actually pretty nice about it, just in a hurry because I had a lot to do before the bus came! Anyway, they moved like snails but finally got moved, though I had to really rush around to get things done in time. Anyway, I just managed to finish in time to get on the bus, and was back at McKinley saddling up Flash in no time. I think we were the last ones out of camp, which is pretty normal, but Flash was pretty energetic again this morning, so it wasn’t long before we were catching up with folks. Uncharacteristically, Sam and Susie were at the back, but that’s because Susie was on a new horse and she was taking her time with her. I passed up a bunch of other groups, too, and I was working on my conditioning pace of one mile slow, one mile fast. Colleen on her paint kept up with me for quite a while, but eventually dropped off. The trail was really nice at the beginning (well, once you get past the half mile out of camp of clear-cutting) until the boardwalk bypass, which was mostly roads, first asphalt then dirt the rest of the way back to camp. Sam and Susie took a lot of shortcuts and popped out in front of me on the asphalt road, but I ended up passing them again and getting back to camp, miraculously, before 2:00! Once again, Flash did a magnificent job! I rode past the bus to get my highline stuff, but it was locked, so I had to just let Flash graze awhile and eat on his hay bag. I broke a stirrup strap today, so the last couple of miles was pretty uncomfortable. I managed to piece it back together but the stirrup was too short, so once I got back and got Flash settled, I started working on it. Happy to say the tenters moved way over to the other side of the campground, happy I don’t have to deal with them! Took me over half an hour to fix the stirrup, but it’s something I should have done a long time ago, hopefully it will permanently solve my problem. Disconnected and drove over for my bucket on the bus afterwards, got the highline done, had some dinner, settled down for a quiet evening. Looking forward to a day off tomorrow, though I will be going into town to see about propane, and to have a meal at the famous Ma Deeters everyone talks about. Flash will be happy about that, too, I’m sure! Good night, baby! Love you!
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