Thanksgiving Hike

Mommy was trying to remember when we got to do a Thanksgiving hike last. We think it was back in 2009.  See, Thanksgiving hikes used to be our tradition because Grandma and Grandpa would go have Thanksgiving with Mommy's grumpy oldest brother and his family and Missy's family would go to Missy's mommy's family and Mommy and I would be happily left all alone for Thanksgiving.  Since Mommy had a whole day off Mommy would put a turkey in the oven and we would go out to the state park and take an all day 15 mile hike and then we'd swing by Mommy's friend from work's family gathering at dusk and have pie and then we'd go home and eat turkey.  Then Grandma and Grandpa stopped going to Mommy's grumpy oldest brother's house for Thanksgiving and instead had Grandpa's college roommate and his wife over to their house and Mommy and I would go down there for Thanksgiving.  But this summer Grandpa's roommate died and Mommy's grumpy oldest brother and his new wife decided to go to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving and Grandma and Grandpa went up to join them.  So Mommy and I decided to go to the state park for our Thanksgiving hike. Mommy changed the tradition a bit though and, since she had Thanksgiving Eve off work, she made turkey yesterday and we brought a turkey sandwich on our hike.  Also, since it was only 24 degrees when we woke up this morning Mommy and I decided an all day hike wasn't going to happen and instead we opted for a shorter 1/2 day hike and let the temperatures warm up to 30 degrees before we left.

Deer hunting is allowed in the state park, but not on Thanksgiving week. Just to be safe Mommy had me wear a red bandana (she realized she had brought all our blaze orange equipment up to Wisconsin when we stopped our Thanksgiving hikes).  Mommy wore a red hat, red scarf and red gloves, although she said that, what with her pushing a red stroller if anyone shot us because we weren't wearing red or orange they would have to be aiming for us.

Mommy had planned to hike one way which would have been a 6 mile hike, but when we got out of the car I decided I wanted to hike my favorite trail because I had a whole lot of pee mail to catch up on.  Mommy tried hard to get me to go towards the other trail, but I refused, so we did my trail.

There was snow on the trail, but not enough to impede the stroller.  Everywhere there was snow there were these strange markings.  Mommy figures it had to be something pulled by or under a truck, but can't figure out what it could be.

Mommy has always liked this spot. No matter the season, she always wants to stop and take a picture of it. We must have 30 different versions of this picture.

Normally, this is a small lake or large pond. Today it was dry and full of red vegetation. We don't know what that was about. Did it dry up on its own, or did the DNR drain it?

Mommy was shocked to see a house at the 1.5 mile point. There didn't used to be a house there. You could also see a small barn a garage and another large building that may have been another house or may have been some kind of large outbuilding. The house is on state park land, so the only thing Mommy and I can figure is that maybe a ranger lives there full time now.  We can't imagine that some developer had the guts to put up a house on public land, but around here anything can happen.

Around this point Mommy asked me if I wanted to ride in my stroller. I told her I did not.  We kept hiking and around the 2.5 mile point we stopped and ate our turkey sandwich.  Mommy asked me if I wanted to ride, but I said no.  When we got to Lake Defiance we went down the boardwalk (Mommy and her boardwalks) and at the loop back I wanted to go back to the trail and back to the car, but Mommy said no, we were going to do the whole boardwalk because she wanted to see her favorite part of the lake.

 Here it is. All frozen and no ducks or fish to be found

After the lake we got to the ranger station and the temperature suddenly dropped about 5 degrees.  Mommy suggested that since my trail and her trail meet up at the ranger station we should walk down part of her trail, but I refused to walk it with her. I also refused to get in the stroller. Mommy said I was lucky the temperatures had dropped or she would have argued longer. Instead she agreed to head back to the car.  I was very tired and fell asleep almost immediately upon getting in.

You can see I'm about to nod off.

Mommy and I drove to Mommy's friend's Thanksgiving and I was sound asleep when we arrived so Mommy left me in the car.  She ate some food and pie and talked to some folks for about an hour and I slept the whole time. I woke up when she got back in the car and started it up. So I got no pie, but I did get two milkbones when I got home.

Total miles hiked by me 3.6!!!! Total miles riding in stroller: 0!!!!  Mommy says she is predicting total days spent sleeping after this: 3.