By CTRLeave a Comment on Hiking

I went out hiking on the trails again today. Now I am possession of a printout of the arial photos of the park so I can mark the trails that I’m walking on. The trail I did today was really easy. Nice and wide with no sudden drop-offs.

I saw two deer out grazing near the trail. They bounded off straight through the woods. Eventually I caught up to them again so they took off again. This happened several times and I could tell they were starting to get irritated. I lost sight of them for a while until I turned around to head back to the car. When I met up with them this time there was no mistaking the look of disgust they gave me as they had their lunch disturbed yet again.

I also saw a garter snake. I have a severe wild snake phobia. Yes, in my job I occasionally handle boa constrictors, pythons, and anacondas but a garter snake will seriously freak me out. I think it is because they slither and they surprise you. Big snakes don’t slither much and in the office you generally don’t come upon them unaware. I was very proud of myself though. I jumped to the side of the trail and let loose with some bad language but kept going down the trail. I also had to walk back up that trail and I did that by never looking down in that area. That is terribly mature and rational behavior for me in the face of a known area of snake activity.

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By CTR3 Comments on Hiking

Went walking about again today on the trails. The section I did today was a mess. It is the loop pointed out to me by the endurance riders that I met last time. They estimated it at 4 miles. I took my map with me to mark it appropriately because for some reason this loop does not show up at all on the official map given out by the park.

I set off and was horrified by the condition of the trail. There was garbage all over it. There was also limbs down everywhere. I spent some time pulling limbs off the trail to try to clear it. It ended up being about 3 miles by the notations on the park’s markers. The garbage lessened as I got farther away from the start of the trail. Now I have to figure out how to get it mapped more accurately. Lucky for me I had the foresight to marry a mapmaker but he’s not terribly thrilled about making maps for horses.

3 Replies to “Hiking”

  2. I just read your 100 things list. Wow. We have more in common that I suspected at first. I must recommend to you a book I just finished reading–Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss. The first section is on the use of the apostrophe. The second section is on the use of the comma (as exemplified by the title–take out the first comma). The book is very funny as well as being a very nice review of punctuation.

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  3. Just came across your blog and I very much enjoyed reading your last few entries. The entry supposedly written by your horse was funny, too. I hope I eventually figure out who is who. I don’t have a horse any more, but I have cats and a dog and I, too, love to read.

    Maybe we can share tips on good stuff to read.

    Ummm, I should warn you that I’m a bit of a feminist and a strongly liberal person, always rooting for the underdog. Especially the one which is half Shepherd, half Golden Retriever. She is a sweetie.

    And I’m probably old enough to be your mother. Definitely old enough to be your friend.

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By CTRLeave a Comment on Hiking

I went hiking today at the site of the competitive trail ride I’m running in July. I ended up hiking about 5 miles down the trail that is labelled ‘for advanced riders.’ I’m not sure why it is considered advanced. On foot at least it doesn’t seem scary at all. I didn’t mean to hike that far today but I got carried away. I wasn’t wearing the best footwear for that so I’m going to have blisters on top of blisters by tomorrow. My quads are sore. This could be a good workout for this summer as I hike around the trails to learn about it.

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