Sunday, September 29, 2013

County Challenge Hike 6/9

I realized I mislabeled last week's hike. It should have been Hike 5/7 because it was a double hike. It also meant that technically we have finished the challenge as we have hiked 7 hikes, but, as you know, we try to hike all the hikes I am allowed to take each year.  So today we did hike 6, another double hike, so it could also be hike 9 depending on how you are counting.

This was a woods hike.  Mommy doesn't take me to this place very often because the parking lot is very small for an area that gets a lot of visitors. We've come down here in the past and have been unable to get a parking space. Plus, some of the people who use this preserve are rude and Mommy says I tend to develop an attitude on the trails here too because either there are female coyotes in the area or people walk bitches in heat on these trails an awful lot. The official trail goes through the woods and was 2.7 miles long.

We had just started on our hike and I was behind Mommy sniffing a tree and Mommy was picking up our water jug which had fallen over in the stroller, when a woman jogged past Mommy.  Mommy heard me go "Oof!" and turned around to find me sprawled out on the ground next to the tree. She said, "What happened?" and I looked over my shoulder at the woman jogging. Mommy isn't sure, but she suspects that the jogger kicked or shoved me for some reason as she ran past me, which, catching me off guard, since I was concentrating on the tree, and with my bad hind end, would easily topple me over.  Mommy helped me to my feet and brushed me off and we continued hiking.

 Wooded trail

We walked the official hike until it met up with the river trail (at a quarter mile).  Then I decided I wanted to ride in my stroller and Mommy decided she wanted to take the river trail for a bit.  We hiked the river trail until we got to the next trail head and then we turned around and went back to the  official hike. We hiked along that trail for a while and then I barked that I wanted to get out of the stroller and hike again. I hiked for another 3/4 of a mile and then I told Mommy I wanted back in the stroller.

I picked up a whole lot of burs as I hiked.
Mommy says I'm made of Teflon because she can always just pluck burs right off me with no trouble.

As Mommy was helping me into my stroller again a couple who were hiking the other way stopped to talk to Mommy about me and my stroller.  Mommy explained that I've been her Sunday hiking companion for 12 1/2 years and she was NOT going to leave me behind now.  They said they thought it was wonderful that she would consider me like that.  I rode for a bit more and then decided I wanted to walk for the last half mile.  Mommy let me out after warning me that I was going to have to walk the whole way back to the car, and I did.

Mommy complained that I had to sniff EVERY SINGLE **bleeping** tree as I hiked.
Well, yeah. There are lots of messages in these woods!
(And it is a sneaky way to take a rest.)

Total miles walked by me: 1.5. Total miles riding in my stroller: 2.7. Total miles hiked: 4.2.

2 comments:

Backcountry Brodie said...

Wow, Merlin, you sure is making good use of that stroller and you seem to has your mom well-trained in stroller vocabulary so she knows when to let you and and when to put you back in. Sounds like you has a system that rilly werks!

KB said...

I'm so glad that the stroller is making it possible for you and your mom to still have your hiking adventures together. I'm happy for both of you.

I have to say that I was downright angry at the vision of some jerk knocking you over. I'm glad that you have such a great attitude that it didn't ruin your hike!