Day 14 May 22 (part 2)

So, where to begin?  My Fiat (clown car per my grandson Cam) has some serious issues.  It's been popping out of fifth gear but I've just plugged along at my old man slow pace in 4th - gas mileage goes down but it's a Fiat - still gets damn good mileage.  Once in a while it popped out of 4th but I just ignored it, put it in  gear and went on my merry way.

Back to my story.  Yesterday on my way to the trailhead it was worse - basically I had to keep my hand on the shifter the whole time or it would pop out of gear.  How do I drive, drink coffee and keep my hand on the gear shifter?  1st world problems.  What was more disconcerting is I had trouble downshifting.  I couldn't downshift and later on just struggled to get it in gear at times.

A person smarter than me would have turned around but no, I made it to my  campground (Perch Lake National Forest Campground), set up camp and headed out.  What I do is drive to where I'm going to start and then drive the route to where I'm going to end to leave my bike.  I need to know the route back to my car and if it even exists.  A half mile past where I would be starting this stared me in my face:

Hard to tell from the picture but that tree was 6"-8" or so in diameter and wasn't budging.  I opted for route 2 and was met with this:

This tree was rotten and broke up when it hit the ground so I was able to move it out of the way.  It's turning out to be a hell of a day.

It was super windy today but the trail, as always was beautiful.  The hike (6.7 miles) was relatively flat with only 279' of elevation gain while the 7.3 mile bike shuttle had 449' of elevation gain.  In the woods the trail was always sheltered from the wind - on the road, not as much but really not too bad.

I hit 100 miles today!!!!!

While hiking today I did a lot of thinking and decided the Fiat needs to be fixed before it's put back in use so the next couple of weeks are going to be somewhat unknown.  For sure on Saturday Deb is going to shuttle me.  After Memorial day Deb and I may go camping and I'll get shuttled by her or I'll borrow her car (leaving her without a car) and there is a plan to hike/shuttle with Jake.  Whatever happens I'll be on the trail Saturday and hope to crank out some solid miles.

The Pileated Woodpeckers are industrious.

The fungi are amazing at times

The Trillium's were less prevalent today (are they reaching their end?)  and really took a beating from last nights storm but not to worry - there are more spring flowers out there.