My legs were so tired that I tossed and turned all night, so we had a much later start than expected. Also we had an early morning scare when (I’m not sure what exactly woke Steven up) but I woke up to a flash of lights and to hear Steven in a terror stricken voice whisper, “Something or SOMEONE is in the cabin.” Well, there was neither something or someone in the cabin so once I was able to calm the situation back down we got some more needed rest. We headed to the trails and decided to try the Mouse Trail. As we approached Tsali Recreation Area we noticed a lady outside of a VW van watching us with a huge grin. As we got out of the car we heard in a New Zealand accent, “You two look like the sort of people who might have a bike pump! Just when I thought no one will be riding these trails during the middle of the day you show up.” I decided her VW van of the late 90s model, festooned with racks for all sorts of outdoors gear, would be a perfect adventure mobile. Her license plate read “NeedMore.” I didn’t think to ask her what she needed more of? Air for her tires perhaps? The Mouse Trail was our favorite thus far. It had less climbing than the right loop and a great overlook trail. The overlook was a brutal, uphill slog which involved some “hike-a-bike”, but some great downhill riding. (NOTE: MARSHA PLEASE STOP READING THIS PASSAGE FOR TODAY. THERE IS NOTHING MORE EXCITING THAT HAPPENS. THE NEXT PART IS A SECRET TO BE SHARED LATER) After this exciting part of trail we encountered our first wildlife confrontation, a pit-bull. No collar. With mauled ears. A large, muscular, muddy pitbull. I am a bit of the anxious type and had spent my time worrying about falls, rocks, tree branches, and mountain descents, but an-on-the loose pit-bull had not crossed my safety radar. Steven mentioned that he looked well fed. Barely audible, I noted it was probably on careless bikers. We cautiously were able to bypass the dog by keeping our bikes in between him and us and carefully walking around him. We finished up our ride pretty proud of ourselves and rolled into the parking lot. There was a family just getting ready to hit the trails including a girl of about ten insisting that she lead the way. It deflated our egos a bit. We returned back to the safety of our cabin and Hamburger Helper and decided we had time for a quick hike along a forest fire road behind our cabin. The walk and scenery was fantastic and we were able to add a pheasant to our bird-spotting list for the year. Back at the cabin I had settled in for a relaxing night when I heard shouts from Steven, including “grab my knife!” It turns out Steven had two ticks on him. I’ll just summarize the next several hours as saying there were lots of screams of panic, a load of laundry done, Google searching tick bites and Lyme’s disease, panic, some more panic, and little sleep.

Til Tomorrow- Certain She’s Lyme Stricken Libby and Tick Magnet Steven