Friday 4-1 April Fools' Day & Hiking

 

Happy April Fools' Day. Did you play jokes on anyone? I didn't, it was just another day.

The day started out cold with the temperature of 32 degrees but no wind. We had a gorgeous day with sunshine and the high of 68 degrees.

I made cinnamon french toast sticks for breakfast. Then we hiked half of the Frontier Force Trail. It is a 9.4 mile bike/hike trail through the park. It goes along the banks of the Arkansas River, around both loops A & B, we're staying in loop B. We picked up the trail by the playground and headed towards the James W. Trimble Lock and Dam. The trail is very flat, it weaves through trees, goes up and down small hills, goes through arms of the river and was wet at places. We had a lot of rain a couple of days ago but you can get around the wet spots. There is a long bridge at a creek so you can get across it. This bridge makes it very challenging because it's not too wide. There are small bridges at some of the wet places, I think it's because it's always wet at those places. 

When we got near the lock we heard a signal horn and saw a barge getting ready to go through the lock. We walked across the road to a parking lot to get a closer look at the tugboat and barge come through the lock. As the tugboat was coming out we saw a gentleman cooking breakfast on a grill and another talking to him. I waved at them and one of them waved back. We always like watching boats going through the locks, especially at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. In Sault Ste. Marie, they have a lot of ships go through their locks. They have a huge observation deck and a schedule showing when a certain ship is coming through and how big the ship is. We have only seen tugs and barges going through the locks on the Arkansas River. The barge today was about 600 feet long. We had a nice hike. By the time we got back to the Minnie we had hiked for two hours and went 4.5 miles.  

The control building for lock and dam

 

Barge coming out of the lock

 

Tugboat pushing the barge

 

The long bridge that went over the swamp area

After lunch I played my computer games. I did the Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 5 games. It took me 10 minutes and 21 seconds, which put me in 6th place in my group. Then I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges of five different games of each. 

While I played my games Larry read. When I finished I read. 

At mid-afternoon we went on an hour walk. Larry walked with me down to the day area and then I walked another half hour.

For dinner I barbecued seasoned pork. Afterwards I went for another hour walk. I walked to the day area and boat ramp then a couple more times around the campground. By the time I got back I had done 28,500 steps. This put me in 4th place in my group. I finished reading A Noble Radiance. I'll started the next book in the series called Fatal Remedies.

I'm enjoying walking around the campground, I don't have fight roosters. When I was walking around Ozark Campground there were two roosters by the boat ramp. One of them came after me and started pecking at my legs. I was glad I was wearing jeans. I screamed at it to go away but it wasn't scared at all. I ended up kicking at it but it still didn't leave. The next lap I stopped at the parking lot of the ramp and turned around. I guess the rooster won.