Mama's Hike

Earlier this week I had the day off work but already had daycare lined up, so from about 10 to 4 I had the day entirely to myself. I did a bit of writing in the morning, and a bit of electrical work on the house in the afternoon (switching out electrical outlets), but in between I went on a rambling walk with the dogs.

Well, perhaps rambling isn't quite the word to describe my walk, actually, because it definitely involved a straight-up-the-hillside scramble to get to a trail that wraps along the hillside going east from our house. The scramble was greatly aided by wearing my boot chains, because although at that time we had only a little layer of hard packed crusty snow, that hillside is hard to climb even when the temperatures are warm and the soil is dry.

The dogs had a lot of fun, and so did I. It has been many many months since I was out in the woods with only the dogs as company. Far too long! I do enjoy my weekly hikes around with Little M on my back, but there are things that I just can't do with her on my back, and this long scramble up the hillside was one of them!

The dogs and I enjoyed our hike, and at the turn around point we came to a very pretty little knob where I could see out down our valley, and up a little side valley. It was very pretty, and there were a couple ravens there who were calling inquisitively at us as the circled around. I grew up in the woods, albeit woods a long long way from here, and am most comfortable when surrounded by tree trunks blowing in the wind, leaves crinkling under my feet, and fresh open air in my lungs. I'm lucky to live out in the country now rather like I lived then, although this is definitely one of the times in my life that I end up outside the least. Still, its so nice to know that this sense of peace and adventure is merely out my back door.