County Hiking Challenge 2012--Hike 1

The county is doing its annual hiking challenge again this year and it started this week.  Mommy had planned to do our first hike yesterday, but I was very sore from my laser treatment and I refused to go.  This morning Mommy woke up not feeling very well and, after our morning walk and paying bills, she went out to the porch to take a nap.  When she woke up about one o'clock I reminded her that it was hiking challenge time and we should go.  So she got our stuff together and off we went on Hike One.

This hike is along a section of the river trail that we used to hike a lot, but now that I can't hike as far Mommy doesn't take me there very often because she says it isn't worth the drive.  I was happy it was on the challenge this year.  This hike goes though some high meadow and then some trees and there are ponds, swamps, vernal pools, and flood plains all around.  The county has put in signs at points along this section explaining why wetlands are important for the ecosystem.  There used to be a big problem with flooding along the river because people didn't understand why they shouldn't fill in the wetlands and build houses on them.  People sure can be stupid.  The county changed some rules and bought some of the flood plains and the flooding problems are a lot less now, which is good, but I guess some people still don't really understand about wetlands, thus the signs.

 

Starting off on the hike

  

Great egret in one of the ponds

  

Heading towards the woods

The official hike was only 1.8 miles long, and ended a short way after the woods, but I wanted to keep going so Mommy said we could.  I was glad we did because I managed to hike to the bridge over the river which meant that I got to take a short swim!

  

The river

  

Taking a cooling off swim in the river 

Ominous clouds rolled in and for a bit we thought we'd get rained on, but we didn't.

 

I'm getting tired and lagging behind

You might notice that I'm wearing my choke chain.  Normally I don't wear that collar, but I have a skin tag or small fatty tumor right where my harness sits on my chest and I decided last night to try to remove it myself.  It is an ugly bloody mess and Mommy says when I go back to the vet on Tuesday for my next laser treatment she is going to ask the vet to burn it off, assuming I don't finish chewing it off before then.  Bad Mommy put peroxide on it after the hike because of my swimming in the river.  Ouch!

  

Hooray! Mommy's car!

My back end was very tired when we got to the car and I had trouble getting in.  I got stuck in the footwell until Mommy came and helped me up onto the seat.  I hope these laser treatments work so I don't end up in embarrassing situations like that anymore.

  

Driving home

The total distance I ended up hiking was 2.5 miles.