Yes, I took a semi-break for a few days. You are welcome. I know y’all have been wondering about my sanity. She blahgs every day? She BLAHGS EVERY DAY? SHE BLAHGS EVERY DAY? What could she possibly have to say? Indeed. I only *very* intermittently had any kind of cellphone signal since Friday. We eventually figured out that we could get enough signal at our campsite in the GORGEOUS Tahquamenon State Park Rivermouth campground by sticking an iPhone in the Lyme Lounge window frame.

I launched off the Planet Ann Arbor at 0-skunk-30 last Friday and I reached the little rest area just north of the mouth of the Tahquamenon River and across from the Tahqua Trail, the rest area with super-clean outhouses (seriously, they do *not* smell) around noon. It is also one of the few spots in the Tahquamenon area where there is a reasonable AT&T phone signal. I stopped. I used the outhouse and checked my phone (I won’t tell you in which order.) The GG had JUST TEXTED that he was in Paradise, heading down toward the Rivermouth campground, so I called him and a few minutes later, he met me at the rest area. There followed a bit of a kerfuffle that I am not strong enough to write about at the moment (picture the GG going like a bat outta hell past MEEEEE stopped at a “trailhead” and then picture yer fave blahgger driving up and down a damn dirt road wondering where the hell the GG was and calling him incessantly and FUTILELY!!! (BECAUSE NO SERVICE!) trying to find the correct trailhead. Or don’t picture it. Please. I was MAD! And then we got connected and I was mad a bit longer and then I wasn’t because, well, stupid, and then because I was walking in the woods.

The GG has been up at Tahq with our North Country Trail buddies for over a week. They worked on multiple prodjects but many of them involved beavers. The next pic shows the 220 foot boardwalk they built over one particular beaver dam. We felt honored to facilitate the Porterization of this boardwalk yesterday afternoon and there are some pics of that but it is well within the realm of possibilities that those pics might incriminate someone of something so I won’t post them… The North Country Trail volunteers work like, uh, beavers, to keep the trail open for everyone who wants to hike it. This particular section is not easy to get to.

It’s a bit harder to see the beaver deceivers that the GG spent a lot of his time on. He got into the water to install these things. The work was mostly done by the time yer fave slacker got up there but he had this “T” thingy to attach on Sunday. After listening to MUCH discussion amongst the work crew, I sorta understand how beaver deceivers work but I won’t try to ‘splain it here. Maybe @tmotu will comment with a coherent description.

But Friday. When I got there and went through the kerfuffle, I needed to hike! So, the GG hiked me past all of the hard working NCT volunteers and on up to the ridge that takes the NCT from the Tahqua Trail to the Lower Falls campground. We didn’t go that far that day. It’s something like nine miles up there and we weren’t quite into that much hiking that day plus we’d’ve had to hitchhike back down to our vee-hickle(s). We did hike to Camp 10 Lake and here is that beautiful lake, which we can see from the ridge.

Eventually we got back to our campsite and here was the sunset over the mouth of the Tahquamenon River.

I had a very hard time leaving our campground this morning. It wasn’t just that we had to travel 350 miles south to our home. We love our home. It was so hard leaving all of our friends. Carol in her beautiful tent that miraculously stayed dry last night because we did have rain! Booker and his folks. I walked down by the river with him and his mom this morning. And then we hung out in Stan and Kay’s luxurious trailer while they and the GG talked trail language and I worked on old unfinished xwords with an ear open. We’ve been hanging out with these folks for many years now. I love them. Since I am not the kind of person to go out and recruit friends, they fall into the category of people who I am friends with because they didn’t give up on me. Love.

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