Today's blog post is about amazing trailblazing skills and the discovery of new and exciting wildlife creatures.
Ok, maybe I built that up a little too much. We took the wrong trail and the exciting new discovery wasn't even ours. We took the pup out for her first hike, and she discovered horses.
There are upsides to taking the wrong route, however. The hike we planned was supposed to be only about a mile, and therefore easier on our somewhat out-of-shape bodies (it's winter, okay?). Instead we wound up going about three miles. So we found out that we were in better shape than we thought. Good news, since we plan on increasing the amount of hikes we take. When spring gets here. When it really gets here, I mean.
I seem to be going in all sorts of wrong directions lately. To get back on track, the hike we took led us around one of Hogan Reservoir's day use areas. We left off from the parking lot on one of the two trailheads at the end of the parking lot, just like the directions in the book said. They also said to take the left trailhead, but we neglected to read that part.
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| Ohh. THAT trail. Whoops. |
Our trail wound around the low hills, through rocky paths and old gnarled oak trees. Nora, the pup, was going crazy over the plethora of smells and sights. She didn't know what to do with herself and wound up doing everything, only for a very short time. First she tried to eat the unfamiliar plants, then she sniffed something, and next she looked at the scenery. Finally, she started it all over again.
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| This. Is. AWESOME. -Nora |
We enjoyed ourselves, too. It was nice to get a little sun for a change, because despite the relatively mild winter we have been staying indoors quite a bit.
After a while, the trail turned up another little hill, and the dam came into view. Behind us we could see some buildings, homes in Valley Springs that we had driven past on the way there. We continued on past the dam, and then turned. The trail took us up a steep hill, and when we reached the top, we could see the reservoir. We turned toward the water and as we kept going, we realized we had gone more than a mile and that we must have taken the wrong trail. Again.
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| Are we...supposed to go...AROUND the lake? |
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| Nope. |
So we turned back. After going back down the steep hill and around the turn, we heard a group approaching behind us. Since Nora had gotten herself tangled around a signpost, it seemed like a good idea for us to let them pass. The idea began to seem even better when we saw that "they" were a group of two people on horseback with three dogs trotting alongside.
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| Hehehe. What? |
As the group came into view from behind a tree, Nora lost it. She pulled on her leash for all she was worth and tried her hardest to run to what she surely thought were two big soon-to-be best friends. The group passed by but Nora had forgotten all of her new surroundings, her attention captured by these new giants.
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| Racing ahead. Well, trying to at least. |
We set out down the trail again, but it was not the leisurely walk that we had been on just moments before. Instead it was a battle between man and beast, as one pulled the other, one trying to speed up, the other trying to slow down. Instead of listening to the sounds of nature, the wind blowing the grasses, birds chirping and gravel crunching under our feet, we heard Nora whining as she charged ahead toward her discovery.
She pressed her nose to the ground to be sure that she was still on the right track, and sat only briefly when commanded so as to be ready to move again when we were ready to continue. Soon enough, we were back to the parking lot, where her new friends were being loaded into a trailer and heading for home. However, her pursuit wasn't entirely in vain. As we entered the parking lot, another hiker had just arrived to start her excursion, and she had a dog. So we let them play a bit before we, too, headed for home.
And a nap.
