Rambling Round: Day 1

Recently I found myself with a handful of days in a row off from work and without any other pressing obligations. Seemed like a good time to go out into the world and see what the lines on the maps looked like in person. On this trip, I had decided to take the most back road routes that I could find. I would be untied to any certain plan. I took my camping equipment and three days worth of food. If there were no stores, than no problem. My route took me through mostly National Forest, finding places to sleep would be fine.

My first stop for the day was Braley's Pond. I had never been here before but know the name from the acai bowl at Pulp. Thought it would be nice to see the namesake. This is also where I found out that my camera battery was almost dead. I turned it on to take this picture and the little "low battery" light was blinking at me warning me that the amount of photo documentation of this trip would be limited. The idea that every picture I took would have to count occurred to me, and reminded me of a time when all I used was film. Remember film? 

Any how, this is somewhere along the Bull Pasture River. It is just outside of Williamsville. I was following the route that I had chosen, when I looked at the map and saw that there was another option that followed the river through a gorge and was only a little bit longer. After riding for about a half hour, a fork in the road appeared that was not on the map. I looked at the map, then the road, then the map again and came to the conclusion that indeed,this road does not exist on the map being followed. It is however very real. Real pretty. I felt like I had gone through some kind of time warp when finally I popped out at an intersection that only had three lines on paper and four in front of me. "Where the hell had I just been?" I asked no one. Luckily a fella in a pickup truck, sensed my confusion and said "Oh yeah, your right here." and pointed to the spot where I knew I was, but still had no idea how I got there. He asked where I was going and gave me  "The Look of Concern". You may be familiar with The Look, maybe not, but if you keep riding bikes and ask for directions from someone in an automobile, you are bound to see it eventually. They think you're crazy. Which I guess is fair, I was starting to feel a little crazy every time I looked at the map and couldn't find the road I was clearly on. Moving on, he pointed me in the direction I needed to go and a pedaled away.

Now, my hope for the day was to get to Lake Moo Maw to sleep. It is a beautiful ride and would recommend it to any one with some time on their hands. I didn't take anymore pictures this day, if I stopped to capture the magnitude of wonders that are in the world I wouldn't ever get anywhere. I will say though that when I got to the lake, I was greeted by a very friendly stranger named Skip. Skip was part of large group of people enjoying an annual Father's Day camp out. They invited me to hangout out at the fire with them which I did. While I made my dinner, a dozen or so children ran around playing tag in the twilight. Eight fathers hung out, smoking cigars and talking. Before I left for bed I saw Skip breath fire. The perfectly bizarre end of day one.