Hike Five

Mommy and I did our fifth county hike. Since two were long and counted double that means I have earned my badge. That doesn't mean we don't plan on doing all the other hikes on the list though if we can. Mommy has been sick all weekend. She didn't feel good on Thursday night and worse on Friday and then, because she was running a fever, we spent all day Saturday in bed except when she went to the grocery store and did a load of laundry and picked some late tomatoes and raspberries. Today she still wasn't feeling great so all she did was go back to the grocery store because, "Shopping when you have a fever means you forget to get the stuff you went to the store for, like toilet paper." and she also made some spaghetti sauce out of some of the tomatoes. I was such a good boy about not getting any walks yesterday that Mommy felt I really deserved a hike today, but because she still didn't feel great she chose the shortest hike for today. Also, that hike is all mowed trail again so I didn't have to wear my boot. It was only one mile long.

We don't go to this preserve except when it is on the hiking challenge because it isn't the nicest place. Before it was a forest preserve it was a gravel pit and it must have been in really bad shape when the county got it because the trees are very small and the prairie is just starting to get some real plants in it. The trail on one side runs down the right-of-way for a long stretch of high voltage power lines so you are walking under the giant buzzing pylons. Another side runs right next to the interstate highway. Mommy says when we walk there she always hopes nobody loses control of their car because we'd be in trouble if they did. What was the gravel pit is now a nice little lake that you can hike around though and Mommy says the preserve serves its purpose because it is built in the area of the county which is mostly multifamily housing developments and malls. Mommy says if she had to live in one of those housing developments or work all day in one of those malls she would probably spend a lot of time at the preserve just to keep her sanity.

Anyway, the hike didn't take long, although Mommy did want to sit down around the 3/4 mark so we did and I ate a lot of treats out of her bag and looked to see if there were fish in the lake. If there were, they weren't by the shore. There must be some because there were fishermen on the shoreline and one of them had a bell on his pole that kept ringing. It was a nice little walk for a dog who is such a good nurse for his sick Mommy.

The lake

Mommy and the mowed trail and recovering prairie

High voltage lines

Some of the little trees