A map of our Walks

Took the time to pick up the map that is available for our walk in the woods. I can't emphasize how much enjoyment we get out of this green cathedral as K calls it. He lets Lucy off her lead as soon as we hit the woods unless there are other people around. I do the same for Dusty after we get into the second section of the woods further away from the highway. Lucy probably puts on twice as much mileage as we do from all her toing and froing. Poor Dusty probably feels like she has done 10x as much as her poor legs are only 3 inches long!

The next time we walk the creek won't be so dry. We got some rain today for the first since Memorial Day. Probably not even an inch but even a bit helps. When you walk past established shrubs and their leaves are hanging and limp you know it is dry.

Tomorrow is the concert in the Park again. Kent will miss the 5K for the first time in 10 years, but J will take his place. J is running Cross-Country this fall and this is one of their training events.

K is heading to Boston with Brother Paul to help Wayne build a deck. J and I will join them Thursday. I will head back the soonest and J will stay with K until he comes home.

A Walk in the Woods

Lately whenever K is home and it hasn't rained we take a walk through our local woods. About 10 years ago a local woman died and left her land to the city, "for the benefit of its citizen's." Our local govt decided to put the land to use as walking, biking, and horse riding trails instead of turning it into soccer fields like one person suggested. Note aside: There are plenty of corn fields just on the edges of town which would make great soccer fields and in fact have become such on the other side of the park and reservoir. I still can't believe a person I respect would have leveled these great woods for SOCCER.

We think our path is about 3.5 miles. We start at home, meander to the park and hope the doggies do their thing there so we have trash cans to throw away their product. Then its several blocks along a winding street to the edge of Lena's woods. Funny thing is that on that winding block is a recalcitrant dog with a wireless fence. That particular dog requires a collar and a belt equipped with the shocking device. Did I mention that the dog is male? When he gets too close to the wire he does a forward pawstand trying to get away from it. We referred to him one time and the person we were conversing with started laughing and said I thought that dog had a hernia!

The first part of the woods is for walkers. The path is wide, level and mulched. It pops out into a meadow where Lena's house used to be. We cross the highway then into a bigger woods where the path is really meant for bikers and hikers not walkers. The path is maintained somewhat. Where water lays after a rain, gravel has been added. But the path is much narrower, twisty and hilly. It is a wonderful place to walk on a warm mid-June day. After looping through this wood which is bordered by a farm and a sub-division, we again cross a road and head towards home. The path here is also twisty and windy, crossing a creek at one point. Lucy usually is in the creek off and on from the first time we cross it til it disappears into a culvert. It has been so dry (about 1 inch of rain in May and NONE so far in June) that we were almost through the third woods before she had water to splash in. Of course if she does find water she finds mud and that means a shower when we get home!

We walk these woods during all seasons except when there is snow and ice. We've seen deer, bluebirds, woodpeckers by the dozens, even the pilated ones. The last time we walked the honeysuckle was blooming. You could smell it well before you saw it. Today there were primroses and some swrivled black caps. What a wonderful gift Lena left to us!