A more appropriate question in this situation would probably be where is the suspension bridge (see second pic)? But it’s a similar situation to one that occurred a few years ago with the same couple of hikers. That one involved a log bridge.

The GG and our friend Joan were hiking the North Country Trail (NCT) in the yooperland in the late fall (early December, maybe?) and at one point, the only way to cross a creek/river was via a kinda skinny log bridge. The GG fell off the log bridge and got wet up to mid-torso. It was COLD and he was a couple of miles from whatever car they were driving at that point. So he ran (to stay warm). By a total stroke of luck, Joan had a cell signal (not guaranteed everywhere in the yooperland) and she was able to connect with one of the “Trail Angels” who were supporting the hike. So when the GG got to the trailhead, a Trail Angel was there to meet him with a warm car and some nice warm, dry thrift shop clothing, including a beautiful NCT blue* jacket.

Since he did not freeze (or drown), we can laugh about this. He texted me and the beach urchins to notify us that he had fallen off a log bridge but was okay. Okay. Friends, he fell off the log bridge no fewer than THREE TIMES! How did we figure this out? Did he ‘fess up to this? No, he did not. But Little Cat Z and I read Joan’s blog (My Quality Day) and she had written a more comprehensive description of the incident.

In today’s event, the weather (and water) were much warmer than the yooperland as Kentucky (usually) is and nobody fell in. As you can see, Joan is maybe knee deep so fording/wading that creek was easy (as far as I know).

*There is an actual “NCT blue” paint color, believe me I know from years of the GG filling up empty peanut butter jars with paint to hand out to volunteers to blaze trees. We still save peanut butter jars toward that effort. Ever tried to clean one of those things? Since I have known the GG, I have always thought blue would be a good color for him. He was not all that interested. Brown brown brown. After the log bridge incident with the “new” blue jacket, he has adopted that color and has multiple blue clothing items. Not probably official NCT blue but similar colors.

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