Monday, April 16, 2012

Always Stretch After a Hike!

Several weeks ago, during one of our rare sunny weather breaks, I took the boys on a hiking adventure. We hadn't been out in the woods on a "real" trail for several months. We've been around Greenlake and done a couple of urban trails, but this adventure took us out to Snohomish County near Monroe - Lord Hill Regional Park. It's close to where Janis (Lindsay's mom) lives, so we drove out to meet her, Tag, and Amber and head to the park in a convoy. We met Jessica, Chester, and Gretel at the park.

As I mentioned before, the weather was perfect. It was early February, but we always get gorgeous weather for about a week or so, and we picked the right weekend. It was sunny but not hot. The dogs wore coats but we weren't too worried about them getting overheated or too cold.

Showing off their coats and sweaters!

Well, hello, there, Kool! Are you ready to go hiking?

We took a lot of pictures. Chester and Gretel are so used to Jessica taking pictures, they just stand patiently and wait for her.

"Okay, mom. Whenever you're done, I'm ready to go."



The scenery and view were great. I thought these trees were pretty cool. I loved all the moss hanging off the branches. It was nice to go on a hike to a new park where we hadn't been before. 

The trail map was a little confusing (even for expert adventurer Jessica), so I'm not quite sure which trail we took. I do believe this is Beaver Lake, though. Unfortunately, we didn't see any beavers. I'm not sure what the dogs would have done if we had!

Beaver Lake


I really love my boys. I love watching them hike. They're just so cute in their matching red sweaters. They are great hikers, but we do have some problems working with the leash doubler. I keep saying I need to get a longer one, but I haven't yet. It might also be nice to get one where you can adjust the length of each side. Swift always pulls Kool along. Although in this picture, it looks like Kool is the one in charge!

"Come on, Swift! Doesn't that look like a beaver to you?!"


At first, I thought this water was part of the lake we saw earlier, but looking at the trail map, I'm pretty sure these pictures are of Temple Pond. So beautiful.





When all was said and done, we probably hiked 4 miles. As I mentioned in the title, you should always stretch after a hike. Did we? No. I just got in the car and drove home. I stopped to grab a pizza on the way home, and my legs were so stiff that I could barely get out of the car. Obviously, I hadn't been hiking in a while. For almost two weeks after that hike, I had trouble sitting down and getting up and walking up and down stairs. Man, am I getting old! It is now my responsibility to make sure everyone stretches after our adventureweiner meetups.



7 comments:

  1. Well doesn't that look like the best outing! I love the red sweaters too! Apparently I wasn't following you! I thought I was. I guess that would explain what I've missed. duh! Well no fear I am up to date and following now.:)

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  2. .,oh sounds cool., that was a great outing., I bet you guys had lot of fun..

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  3. Yes your boys are super cute as always! Love your photos, and just remember to stretch next time :)

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  4. Hi Y'all,

    Just stopped by to say "hi" and see how y'all are doing. Looks like y'all are havin' great fun!

    Hope y'all are having a great week!

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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  5. Look at all the doggiessss!!! :)

    Woofs & hugs! <3

    ~Bailey (Yep, I'm a girl!)

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  6. Beautiful hike! Now that the weather is warming up we need to do some of this hiking stuff. Clinton Lake in Kansas is close by. Do you worry about predators with your Doxies? In Kansas, we have to watch out for hawks which swoop down and snatch little dogs. My dogs are big so I don't have to worry, but we seldom see little dogs visit Clinton Lake because of these hawks.

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    1. Dawn, I never thought about predators on hikes. We do have mountain lions and coyotes and bears sometimes due to urban sprawl, but we have yet to run into any. That's a good question to pose to my "expert," Adventureweiner founder, Jessica, over at www.youdidwhatwithyourweiner.com. She's much more knowledgeable about backwoods safety.

      I used to live near a wooded area that had coyotes. I never walked the dogs after dusk except for right outside my building.

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