County Challenge Hike 8/11

Mommy had a three day migraine last week and then on Friday she woke up with a really bad arthritis attack in her bad knee and in the foot that she broke/dislocated the bones of in a climbing accident many many years ago and it stayed bad all day and into the night which made falling asleep that night really hard.  Then, at 2 am on Saturday, about three hours after Mommy finally fell asleep, we got woken up by the neighbor's having company come roaring and banging in and then again at 6 am when the company and the neighbors went roaring and banging out again.

I was a good boy last night and let Mommy go to bed at 8:30 didn't wake her up even once, so she got an unprecedented 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep!  You'd think I'd get rewarded for that, but no. Mommy announced that we were going to stay in and relax today and not go hiking!!  Well, that's what she thought.  I let her do the laundry and get it hung up to dry and then I started barking at her.  I followed her from the clothesline into the house barking at her.  Then I followed her all around the house barking at her.  She gave me a treat and I ate it then barked at her. She gave me more breakfast and I ate it then barked at her. She sat down on the couch to watch some tv and sat next to her and barked at her. She told me to go to my bed and I lay down in it and stared at her and whined non-stop for a half hour until she FINALLY gave in and said, "OK! I get it! We'll go for a hike!" and got up to gather our stuff.

We went to do the hike at one of the forest preserves Mommy and I went to a lot when I was recovering from my toe amputation because it isn't too far from our house and the main trail is only 1.4 miles long. It goes through a combination of woods and wetlands and has some hills and a lake.  The official trail was 1.8 miles long because it included the little mowed-trail meditative hike through some thicker woods where you often see lots of crows.

This trail is a meditative trail for parents who have lost a child. There is another rock with the names of deceased children on them and there are benches in the woods which have little sayings on them about grief and loss.

 Into the woods

Mommy and I kept hearing people talking and laughing in the woods as they walked down the trail and then they would see us and go suddenly silent and look guilty and sad.  This happened three times before Mommy realized what we must have looked like hiking down what is marked as a meditative trail for parents mourning the loss of a child with Mommy pushing a big empty stroller! We think we might be the topic of some interesting conversations tonight.

 At one point on the meditative trail you can see the lake

After the meditative trail you go down a hill and at the bottom is the lake.  There are two fishing piers on the lake and we went out on both.

 Pretty lake

I also walked along the shore a bit and waded in the water looking for fish.

 Found one!

We continued along the trail to a lake overlook, but we liked the view from the docks better.  At the overlook I decided I wanted to ride in the stroller.  I'd gone 1.1 miles at that point.

 Mommy realized I was casting a cute shaddow

We got to a side trail that hadn't been there when we were doing all the post amputation walks so Mommy decided to take it and see where it went.

It went through a bunch of farmland. 

Most of the fields were turned under, but one still had soybeans in it. Even though most of the fields were just dirt Mommy thought it looked nice and I thought it smelled interesting so when we got to the end of the trail I barked to get out so I could hike it and sniff everything.

The end of the line

I hiked all the way back to the main trail which was .9 more miles and then I decided I wanted to ride again.  I got back in the stroller and rode for another quarter mile and then, when we got to where there was usually a small lake, but was now just a large mud hole, I barked to get out again and I hiked all the way back to the car.  Right before we got to the parking lot I found a dead thing and swallowed it whole before Mommy could stop me.  Now I'm farting really stinky farts so I don't think Mommy is going to get an uninterrupted night's sleep again tonight!

Total miles hiked by me: 2.3!!! Total miles in the stroller: 1.1. Total miles of trails taken: 3.4.