July 15, 2008 – Biking and Ball Mountain Dam

We awoke to a beautiful, cool morning and had a nice bike ride on the rail/trail. At the end of that trail, we walked down to the river and found lots of little frogs (this one is in the center of the picture):
They are the same color as many of the rocks so we did not see them until they moved – hope these little guys don’t get stepped on.

There are so many wildflowers here – a photographer's dream:

Did you notice the bugs/bees/beetle in some of them?

When we took our hike on the West Trail, we saw people canoeing in the dam. We did talk with one of the young rangers (actually I think he was an intern) on how to get access to kayak. He gave us some suggestions but wasn’t sure so we went scouting.

On our way to the dam (yes, this was a beautiful day!):

The dam:

The spillway (notice the people – this was HUGE!):


We did try a couple paths and walkways but there really is no boat access… ah well!

I did subject myself to another laundermat. Since it is going to be beautiful for the next few days, I wanted to wash our rugs and air dry them. So we did find a laundermat a few miles away, were able to use the washers but over half of them are broke… So before we leave, we will be heading back to Manchester laundermat! (Oh my!)

And we continue to have great campfires!!