Big Lake (Thurs.-Sun.)

All our days here at Big Lake are cloudy and rainy.  It rains sometime during the day, and usually also during the night. The camp host said it has rained every day since the first of July.  The mornings start out generally clear, but by noon it is overcast and appears to be raining somewhere in the area.  We have been going for rides every day (Joe and I did take Saturday off because it clouded up earlier than normal), and we usually get sprinkled on, at least.  Sometimes it is more than a sprinkle.

But the scenery is beautiful, even though the roads are muddy.  I usually provide the entertainment for Danny and Sherry, trying to dodge the mudholes that I see Joe dive into.  We sometimes find a secondary road to follow, and this one ended with some logs in our way that we had to drive over.  On this road, though, we spooked a flock of turkeys, probably 20 and they were huge.  One was scared enough to fly, so we got a good look at him.  There's lots of pretty meadows up here, and everything is green, green, green.

 On Saturday, we all drove into Springerville.  Danny decided he wanted to gas up for the drive home, and suggested we all go in and have breakfast at Booga Reds.  So we did that, plus a little shopping, stopped for diesel and Joe's diet soda, and headed back to camp.  It had been really cloudy all day, so Joe and I opted out of the late afternoon ride.   But they got drenched before they got back to camp, so we felt really good about choosing to stay in and take naps.  Sunday Jeff and Brenda got up early and headed out to the lake with their boat.  But as had been reported, the fishing is not very good and they didn't even get a bite.  When they got back to camp, they unloaded the Arctic Cat (they keep it in the box trailer to keep it dry), and we all headed out for a ride.  We knew rain was coming, so we geared up for it before we even left camp. 

 One of our stops was next to an area that was being logged from the fire 2 years ago.  It is so sad to see the damage from that awful fire, but we can see that the forests are coming back.  Unfortunately, we will never see the tree growth in our lifetime, but there are lots of signs of rejuvenation, lots of beautiful forest flowers, and lots of young trees growing.



Joe has found a kindred spirit in Danny.  We know we need to keep these two separate.  But the campfires would be awfully quiet without these two.


Our ride today took us along the East Fork of the Black River.  This is one of the prettiest drives we've found.  Jeff and Brenda caught sight of the rear end of two elk as they (the elk) topped a ridge, and Danny and Sherry stopped to look at a grave stone and spooked a badger, but none of the rest of us saw that.  Sherry also spotted a deer, but Joe and I didn't see anything.
08, 11, 12

We stopped for lunch right along the river.  Our buddies shared a tender moment before we headed out from lunch.

We did get caught in the rain before we got back to camp, no surprise.  As many clothes as we had on, I think we would have been disappointed if we had not encountered rain on this ride. 

We reconvened for dinner at Jeff and Brenda's.  Brenda had made crockpot stew, and that warm meal really hit the spot.  Unfortunately, Sherry had another migraine come on, so she went to bed.  After dinner, Joe took Brenda and I on our EWVD, but it was unsuccessful.  All we saw were cows!  We are thinking the elk don't like all these cows and have found other grazing areas.  We sure are not seeing the herds that we saw last year.  We finished our evening sitting around the campfire for a little while, before it started raining again.