Halfway – a good name for a jumping horse; although perhaps this name might jinx him/her. Me, I’m halfway done with this trip. I remain terribly homesick. If you are homesick, it’s generally for a familiar and much-loved place, and in addition, for the creatures that inhabit that place.

Me, I am homesick for my animals, especially the horses although I do miss looking out the bedroom side window and seeing Sassy the Goat standing on her dog crate. I have decided to spend more time with all my animals and less time on the Bright Lights Book Project. Hah. Easier said

Becky

than done. I will, barring the unforeseen, which is rain, spend more time in the mornings with Shadow, Ryder, Ruth, Bader, and Ginsberg, and Raudi, Tyra, and Hrimmi.

Ruth, Bader, and Ginsberg, the three chickens. They are impossible to tell apart, always have been, so I finally decided that based on this, that they are well named.

I’m now at the tipping point. I have gotten away the past few years without doing any heavy exercising, but can go no further, meaning that if I don’t pick up the pace that I won’t be able to get back in good shape again. There’s still time, although the window of opportunity is slowly closing.

Today I rode 22.8 miles of the Dempster Highway – it was 11.4 miles to Engineers Campground and 11.4 miles back. (Duuh.) I rode my fat tired bicycle. This bicycle is a very good ride although the fat tires are of course better suited for snow packed terrain as opposed to gravel terrain. The ride did not feel effortless, but it did feel effortful. I also ran out of water because I left my Nalgene water bottle at home and was using my travelling mug, which does not hold much water. It does keep water hot though.

Becky drafted behind me; her mountain bike had thinner tires.

I was also overdressed. I was carrying a fanny pack, so I had no place to put my fleece coat. I was also wearing a long underwear shirt.

We got to the halfway point and checked out the campground. We both liked site #10, but as Becky pointed out, there were several tents in adjacent sites and a shelter directly across from it. She was right in saying that soon, it would be noisy.

We ended up making a reservation for Site # 1, and then headed back to where we’d left the man truck and Becky’s very visible orange tent.

It was a good ride back but a bit of a slog because the road had a patchy, gravel surface. Grr, grr, grr.

The rock formations on the nearby Ogilvies are called Tors. Becky aptly named one formation Stegosaurus because the tors looked like they were once a spine.

We returned to our gravel pit campsite and discovered 3 things. 1. It was near standing water. 2. It was buggy. 3. There was a front end loader parked parallel to the man truck. The message was that we’d erred in thinking that the area that we were originally going to camp in was to be ours. So we loaded our bicycles back into the man truck and drove to Engineers Campground. And lo and behold, the multiple tenters had returned and had commandeered the shelter.

Looking outward: It’s now fall. The leaves on the trees and the surrounding shrubbery is now yellow.

Next: 232. 8/24/23: Clandestine Camping, Again, Again, Again