Today I decided that my feet were up to finishing our hike of the Bearwaller Gap Trail. This time we started from the other end, at the Overlook. We parked the truck and started down the trail. The first bit is switchbacks down to near the lake level. Then the trail mostly follows the shoreline, although up on a bluff.
We enjoyed the trail. It offers views of the lake and dam. It traverses several small habitat niches, with a variety of trees and plans and flowers. We even saw some small prickly pear cacti in a few places.
We hiked to the point where we lunched and turned around the last time we hiked this trail. I had marked it on the Garmin. It turned out to be over four miles, so we actually didn’t make much progress starting from the campground end.
We had lunch again on the rocky bluff overlooking the lake, enjoying the warm and sunny weather. Our only complaint about the trail is the many downed trees across it. Some required quite a bit of maneuvering to get past.
We were happy hikers when we reached the parking lot in the late afternoon. But then Ken noticed some oily stuff pooling in the passenger side rear dually wheel. Spatters on the tires indicated that the leak had started while the truck was in motion.
We did some research to try to figure out what might be wrong and whether it would be safe to tow the rig or even to drive the truck to a repair place. We also checked for truck repair locally. The only possibility had an answering machine message announcing that he wasn’t taking any new work. Ken decided to call the Chevrolet dealer in Lebanon, about 30 miles from Carthage. He found out that the service department opens at 7:30 a.m.
Our reservation ends tomorrow (Friday), and we are supposed to leave in the morning. We asked about the possibility of staying or moving to another site tomorrow, but the park is absolutely full. So we called the nearby marina. We had talked with Allen the owner while out on a walk and found him very friendly and helpful. He graciously agreed to let us park the trailer in his large upper parking lot. Of course we have no idea how long it will take to get the truck fixed, so we might end up renting a car and returning to stay in it tomorrow night. So many uncertainties!
We had planned to do our laundry before leaving, so we gathered it up and headed over to the laundry room at the marina. After that we had a late dinner and planned to get up early in the morning to move the trailer and call the service department.
I started to notice more rash and itching again, and this time it includes welts on my legs and buttocks as well as more itchy blisters on my feet. Darn! I'm still sleeping on the couch.
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