This past Saturday, Jim and I headed out to trout camp so that we could be ready at first light on Sunday to receive what may be at least a few deliveries of gravel. Saturday night into Sunday morning brought with it some fairly cold temperatures with the dash temp. gauge reading 34 degress at one point. The sky was crystal clear for much of the evening and I was even able to catch a shooting star in the 3am hour while using "the facilities". What a jolt going from the comfortable warmth of a synthetic sleeping bag to the ice cold chill of the early morning air!
The landscape has changed considerably since my last visit only a couple weeks ago. The cooler temps have caused the leaves to turn just about every color imaginable. It truly has become a decorated canvas as the forest takes the slide into hibernation! October's cooler temperatures are great for working. The abusive gnats that left welts on the skin are now long gone along with the unbearable heat and humidity. I left camp from my previous outing soaking wet with sweat feeling as if I had been the main course for a flurry of insects. 
This time around, even in full sunlight, working was almost enjoyable! ALMOST! No humidity, a cool breeze, 40-55 degree temps. Ahhhhhh, now we're talking! It was like having a personal AC unit on your back. I don't mind work, I've done my fair share and I'm always willing to help others regardless of the time and energy involved, but of all the consequences including sore joints, back, tiredness, etc...I can stand sweating my (you know what's off) the least. If I'm cool, then I'm cool to keep going until I fall over. So, experiencing a day like this was more than welcome to me.Three videos are linked within this post. The first is video/gif file of the trail/road into camp after I moved several large boulders from the path to a better, out of the way resting point. I used a tow strap, trucker's chain, low gear and the hitch on the mountaineer to tow them from the grips of the earth to the entrance into camp. It took a few changes of direction and I had to unhook and re-hook the chain after moving the mountaineer to a better pulling spot, but the work wasn't all the difficult. Kinda fun, to be honest. I found it nice that the owner of the next camp up the road stopped down to make sure I wasn't stuck in the mud. He had heard the slow reving of the motor and the multitude of car door slams and was compelled to come down to see if everything was OK. Thankfully, I was not stuck and it was only the rocks that were temporarily. It is a comforting to know that even when you think you're alone, you're not and there is always someone within at least a 10 minute walk that is willing to lend a hand and help out if you need it. Anyway, if you look closely at the .gif images as they scroll, you wil be able to make out the dark streaks from smashed earth and ground up soil. These paths were left from dragging the two boulders. One of the stones was resting above ground and wasn't too difficult to strap and tow to the beginning of the driveway. The other one, the less flat one, the one that is darker due to dampness, was only slightly pertruding from the hole pictured near the end of the series in the .gif. I strapped it up and began to pull only to find out that the rock was way bigger than I thought. I would have left it where it was, but the way it was jetting up from the surface of the soil, it would have always been in the way and a major hazard to our suspensions when entering camp. It took a much more time to move and left a huge hole in its place. Jim and I had figured we'd have to get gravel eventually, but this hole and the nearby rocky ravine made the decision an expedited one to make.
The second video is a 5 minute condensed version of the 55 minutes it took to receive, spread and level the 10 tons of gravel!
This video is the walk from the street, through the entrance, down the drive and where we usually park our vehicles (noted by the deep ruts in the dirt). The next load of gravel will be closer to the street and come spring the next two loads will cover where the cars park at the end.
