Not a Hiking Challenge, but a Challenging Hike

It was supposed to be rainy all day, which is why Mommy took me hiking yesterday afternoon, but then today Mommy finished her chores at noon and it still hadn't rained so she asked me if I wanted to go for a hike.  I said yes and when she asked me if I wanted to go hike Yellow Trail I started barking and following her around telling her to hurry up.  So, Mommy got everything together and we got in the car and drove the half hour to Yellow Trail.  I got out of the car and whined at Mommy to hurry up and when we got to the trail head, I suddenly announced that I didn't want to hike Yellow Trail, I wanted to hike Pink Trail.  Pink trail is a half mile long and you never are out of sight of the parking lot.  It was an add-on trail that Mommy would let me do when we did longer hikes down to this preserve.  Mommy said, "No, we can do Blue Trail to Yellow." I insisted on Pink. Mommy said, "Okay, let's do Red to Yellow instead and then we can do Pink after." I walked up Red because it leads to Pink and when we got to Pink I insisted on turning onto Pink. Mommy gave in and said, "Fine, we'll do Pink to White and White to Yellow."

 Pink Trail looking at the parking lot

 Pink trail goes around a lake. These rocks really show low the water level is because of the drought.

When we got to White Trail Mommy went up it and I did this:

Mommy calls this my stubborn mule pose. I have the brakes on and you are not going to move me.  If you pull on my leash any more I will lie down.

So Mommy gave in and we did the whole Pick loop then Mommy cut through the parking lot and took me to where Red and Blue meet and said, "Which way? Red to Yellow or Blue to Yellow?" and I said I wanted to go back to the car.  Mommy said, "We are not going home after only walking Pink.  Red Loop or Blue Loop?" I said car.  Mommy said, "Fine. Blue Loop." and DRAGGED me down the start of Blue Loop.  This was dog abuse if you ask me.  After it became clear that the car was not an option I hiked along just fine.

Blue is a nice hike through the woods.

I took a picture too

We hiked Blue to where it merges with Yellow where I met up with a French bulldog puppy who could smell that Mommy had treats and kept jumping on her begging for one.  Mommy asked if it was alright to give him one and his daddy said yes, so he got a bit of milkbone.  When we left him I told Mommy I needed a treat too so she reached in her bag and pulled out a piece of kibble.  I gave her my "you must be joking" look and refused to take it.  She got me a bit of milkbone out of the bag and I ate that right up.  We then followed Yellow to where it connects to Red and then we took Red back to the car.

 Hooray the car!

The hike only came out to 1.7 miles even though we walked on every trail except one (White) in the park, so it was too short to count for our wild card in the County Hiking Challenge.