Seven Lakes Trail...the trail

Over the past ten years, I've had some moments where I was riding my 4-wheeler, trying to keep up with the guys ahead of me, not seeing much else than the rocks, small boulders, deep ruts, or steep hills ahead of me.  My mind was filled with, "Yikes, geez, you're kidding me, ow, oof, auuuw, eeeiiii," instead of ,"Oh how beautiful, I love this rocking motion, those flowers are beautiful, I can't get enough of this fresh smell of pine,  or I wonder if there's a moose in that timber."

This ride in to Granite Lake was mostly an "oh how beautiful" ride, but moments of "geez and oof"  certainly came often enough.  Overall, it's a pretty rough ride, and I wouldn't recommend it to a beginning rider. 

The gals riding in the side-by-side machines have an "oh s#*t handle" (technical term in the 4-wheeling community) they can "white-knuckle" when getting jostled around.  And they were teased by their husbands for having to grab it often.  By the end of the day, my arms sure felt the strain of holding the handle bars tightly and guiding the wheels slowly through rough terrain and down steep, rocky hills.  I attempted to take some pictures (when possible) to show what the trail looked like in spots.  Of course, some of the worst didn't get photographed...too busy negotiating the next move and keeping the caravan moving along.

The last mile into the lake was pretty rough!!  That's it below.  And it was like that nearly the whole way.  I might have let slip a "you've got to be kidding!"...just once...as I pulled out my camera to take this shot. As I was jarred around, I'm pretty sure a couple of  "oofs and uuggs," escaped into my helmet.  It's actually harder on the body going down hill than going up.  I was hoping there would be a good place to turn around at the end of this, because we would have to crawl out of here! 

In the picture below, you can see we rode in pretty close to the lake, had a wide place to park, and found a nice spot to eat lunch.  From this point, we could easily hike down to the lake.

Approaching Granite Lake from the trail.

After lunch and taking time for some photos, we decided we should head out, as it looked like rain clouds were rolling up over the mountain peaks and moving in.  It took about 2 hours to ride out...and no rain, until we were loading up.  Whew!  It was just a good sprinkle, and we all hurriedly loaded our machines on the trailer, got them tied down securely, and headed down the mountain. 

The day ended with a stop in Dubois at the Cowboy Cafe for a burger and fries! And camaraderie and joking and relaxing!  The bumps in the road...slowly morphing into joyful memories.