Not a Challenge Hike

Yesterday I took Mommy for a three mile morning walk.  We haven't done that walk in a long time, but I really wanted to do it so Mommy said okay.  Then, after the walk I stayed outside with Mommy supervising while she raked leaves and dug in the garden for winter. I had to make sure that the squirrels stayed in the trees and the feral cats stayed away from our yard too so I was very busy.  This morning I woke up with a very draggy left hind leg. My toes kept curling under and making me stumble so I went out to pee and then went back to bed. Then a few hours later I got up and ate breakfast and went back to bed. Then a hour or so after that I took a short walk with Mommy and went back to bed.  Mommy washed my sheets and went grocery shopping and cleaned the house a little and changed my Cafe Press shop a bit and did other little chores while I slept. Then I woke up at 3:00 and realized it was Sunday and we hadn't hiked!! I went to find Mommy and I barked and barked at her. She said it was late and I was tired and sore and wouldn't I rather NOT hike? But I said NO!! We HAD TO HIKE because it was SUNDAY!! So, even though we only had enough time before sunset for me to hike about a mile Mommy packed up my stroller just in case I decided I couldn't finish a short hike and we went to the preserve closest to our house.

I wanted to sniff everything around the parking lot but Mommy said if I wanted to hike the pond loop, which is one mile, I needed to get on the trail.  Otherwise sunset would come along and we'd run out of time. So we got out onto the trail and headed for the pond loop.

This was new.

It is a straight line of mowed prairie starting at the parking lot and following an underground gas pipeline all the way through the preserve. We aren't sure what is going on, but it sure was ugly.

After the ugly mowed scar we hiked to the little ponds. There are still some waterfowl hanging out in the ponds, but I didn't see any sign of Mr. Muskrat.

 Waterfowl

We're pretty sure the duck on the right is a female mallard, but we don't know what the duck on the left is.  We think it might be a female blue winged teal.  Here she is bigified:

Not a mallard

After the ponds you loop back onto the regular trail and then we had to head back to the car because our time was running out. The rangers drive around and lock up the parking lots around sunset and you don't know which park is going to be first and which is last.  

 Some color is starting to appear in the west

The ranger wasn't in the lot and the sky wasn't pink yet so Mommy suggested we hike five minutes the other way and then turn around, but I decided I was tired and wanted to go back to the car. So we ended the hike there.

Miles hiked by me: 1. Miles riding in stroller: 0. Total miles: 1.