More hiking!

It's so great having nice weather again. Mum loves it, I love it, Gracie loves it - so we went hiking again, yesterday.

And we got to experience something new. We rode in the back seat of the Rover! Mum never lets us do this, but the park where we started our hike is only about 1/2 mile away from home, and there is very little traffic. Mum drove 20 miles an hour on the road to get there, because she was nervous about us being loose in the car, she is so funny!

We got there and left the Rover parked in the lot. Mum put on her hiking shoes and then ventured down the path to the river. It's the White River.

According to Wikipedia: The White River is a two-forked river that flows through central and southern Indiana and is the main tributary to the Wabash River. The west fork is the longest fork of the river. It starts in rural Winchester in Randolph County, winds through Muncie, Anderson and Indianapolis before joining the east fork in the triad of Daviess, Knox and Pike Counties.

The combined White River then flows another 72 kilometers (45 miles) before draining into the Wabash river at the Indiana-Illinois border next to Mount Carmel, Illinois.

In 1997, the White River was listed as one of the United States' most threatened rivers. (So we don't get to go in it). Pesticides (herbicides and insecticides) are used extensively in the White River basin. Application of herbicides to corn and soybeans accounts for most of the use. Very sad...

After checking some pee mails, we walked down the path to the river. We could hardly wait to get there (like we can hardly wait to get anywhere, BOL). When we got to the river, Mum made us sit for a little pic. But we were so anxious, we were hardly paying any attention to her.

Then it was off for our hike in the woods. Mum giggles sometimes because we like the woods just as much as she does. The smells, sometimes good, sometimes bad, yuck! But the smell of the earth yesterday was just amazing.

We walked for a while, then I stopped dead in my tracks. A squirrel, oh my dog! I really wanted that little wacky thing. And Mum had a hard time getting my mind off of it. I yelped, I screamed, I barked, I pulled...I wanted it and I wanted it bad! So Mum let us go up to the tree and investigate a little. Couldn't find the little guy. So we moved on.

We stayed mainly on the little path that's been created by others walking down there. We saw some really cool wildflowers in bloom. (You can see them on the vid.) We saw some Johnny Jumpup's, wild violas, and more!

We stopped a couple of times to appreciate the water, and then we kept on the path until some downed trees wouldn't let us go any further. Then we headed back on the same trail. Until we got about 2/3 of the way back and Mum wanted me to get in a little hill climbing, good workout for my backend. Mum had to tell me easy a few times so I wouldn't pull her down, come on Mum!

As we reached the top of the hill, which comes out at the walking path lining the woods, we saw two off leash chocolate Labs coming very near us. So Mum picked me up, we don't need any encounters.

The people with the pups started yelling at Mum to move when the one of the Labs started smelling Gracie's butt. Well, that was kind of difficult with me in her arms and Gracie pulling on lead. Finally they hooked up their pups and we both went our separate ways. Mum looked back and what did the folks do when they got further down the path? Yep, unhooked their pups.

Now, what if we had been little kids? Those nice, but extremely huge Labs where big enough to knock anyone down the 40 foot hill. It can be very dangerous! Silly humans. (Guess, Mum got her pay back for letting me off lead the other day, huh?)

After that we walked on the path for a while, we headed back to the car, dropped off our poo, got some water and headed home.

What a fun, fun day! Hope you all have a great weekend!