Welcome to the Jungle

Day 54 - July 30th
46 miles
Total: 2217.4 miles
Moving Avg: 8.4 mph
Overall Avg: 5.8 mph

I suppose if a man brings a weedwacker to the forest, he may be loud. Or maybe the chainsaw could be a clue. Or perhaps the fact that he brought an ATV that was turned on between weedwacking and chainsawing should have been the clue that prepped us. Or maybe when he said "I like dispersed campsites" said with bunny ears around dispersed might have been a red flag. We even ignored the comment about his "sweet sound system that [he] likes to crank up."

Shortly after we crawled into bed, Welcome to the Jungle and other great 80s rock music was blast into the thick of trees. Our ear plugs drowned out most everything, but the bass beats. Then just after dozing off he decided it was time to fire off a couple of rounds from his gun.

At least no bears will come by we thought as slept took over.

At five thirty we woke, hoping to get a jump start on the day. The last several days have been mighty hot and humid, and we wanted to get as many miles under our belt as possible before the heat swallowed us in its stifling embrace.

One quarter of a mile later, we passed homes with "Slow Children At Play" signs. I hope last night's gunfire was well aimed.

The rest of the ride was through the green tunnel, or maybe green corridor. There was little to no views of the mountain ranges surrounding us. Instead we had to find joy in the "impressive stands of Larch, Douglas Fir, and White Pine" in the area. I do have to admit though, the ride was fairly enjoyable. It had rolling hills of easy grade, and a surface that was just smooth enough to not annoy, and just bumpy enough to have fun with path finding.

As the heat climbed, we dropped off the hillside and crossed Swan River to catch a soda at the town of Swan Lake. From there we bypassed a hot viewless climb through the green corridor, by riding the highway to camp. It was a moderately quiet highway, which passed along the lengthy Swan Lake. The views of the lake and the forested hillsides were a nice trade up.

At the end of our ride, we arrived at our hosts place, but not without difficulty. Googlemaps directed us through private property and then through landscaping with no path or road. We had to backtrack and do our own route finding. I couldn't even use my GPS map because it stopped loading for me today.

We made it to our hosts, and found our way into a Teepee for the night. That's pretty neat.

Live life at a slower place.

Sent From:
http://maps.google.com/maps?z=12&t=k&q=loc:48.07013+-113.99519