After a full day in the tent, we were ready to go. I made Bunny the delicious breakfast and coffee she has come to expect, nay, demand. Today, we had a new breakfast scramble from Next Mile Meals which is the new standard for Bunny. Next Mile Meals is a new company created by former thru-hikers that wanted to have tasty and nutritious backpacking meals. Healthy is nice, but the cherry on top for Bunny was a scramble without green peppers (and with the gaseous side effect on Bunny, I appreciated it as well). While I finished tearing down camp, Bunny performed her morning routine. When she returned, she said ‘Clean face, clean hands, clean butt..who could ask for anything more AND don’t you quote me on that!’ Or some such words to that effect.
As I said, we were ready to go. Today was our earliest start this trip—out by 9 with a goal of 14 miles today. There was virtually no one on the trail today. We only saw a total of 3 people all day. One man was day hiking and a couple was having a picnic beside the trail. They might have been backpacking or just picnicking. We didn’t get close enough to make the call.
This part of the trail dropped down to the shore of Ky Lake. It was an deal day of hiking, but I wouldn’t want every day to be like this. I’m a firm believer for the need of crappy and hard days to really appreciate these great days. The closest thing we had to controversy was when Bunny was walking briskly in front of me and suddenly stopped. This usually signifies that a fart is imminent. I braved myself for impact because she was statuesque in nature.
To my relief, it was just a snake. I would rather face a poisonous snake than end up in one of Bunny’s clouds. With a snake bite, there’s a pretty good chance of survival if medical attention is received within a day or two.
We were kind of surprised with the lack of nature in the LBL. Sure, we saw lots of deer, a few snakes, turtles, and plenty of birds, but no small mammals, bison, or bear. All of the wildlife must be headed toward the cities to reclaim it in nature’s name. Before we came out, we were seeing almost daily news reports of dolphins in the canals of Venice, deer on city streets, and lame bears limping around Chicago.
To my great relief, Bunny’s attention is starting to turn towards artistic endeavors. If she gets involved with art projects, she just might stop thinking about chores for me to do around the cabin. Before we even started on this short trip, she was talking of collecting spiral shells from Kentucky Lake to make a welcome sign for the cabin. When we stopped for lunch on the shore of lake, we found a beach covered with spiral shells. Bunny was in heaven.
We were making great time and still had a leisurely lunch on the beach. We came to a trail junction to Coffin Cove which was less than 0.2 off trail, so we had to go check it our. I’m not 100% certain, but I’m willing this got it’s name early on after the dam was built and the lake started filling. There are lots of little family cemeteries all around and I’m sure not all burials in olden days were very deep. I can imagine a few shallow dug graves spitting up some occupants…
The site was beautiful. It was a sunny day (but not hot), there was a pleasant breeze, lots of birds in the trees around us, and there were even logs for us to sit on. We couldn’t resist the campsite. We decided to cut our day shorter than planned. After a nice rest, we set up our tent. Bunny went down to wash off and splash in the lake, eventually falling as she was imitating a spawning fish.
Even though water was plentiful, we decided to eat our other ‘heat and eat’ meal of rice, quinoa, and beans. Once we started eating this, we saw the error of our ways. This was the companion packet to the Masala Chicken we had eaten our first night out. The meal was less than satisfying. Good thing we had mint Oreos to drown our sorrows in.
After supper, we just sat and watched nature and the sunset. This was the best campsite we’ve had the entire trip. Like is good on Kentucky Lake.
EFG