A few more walks ...

My last post was about my spontaneous trip last Saturday to the dyke at Port Williams.

Sunday found us at Sandy Lake.

This fall has been even milder than usual which has made for some lovely late fall walks.  Sandy Lake park is only 10 minutes from my home and is a combination of wide open trails and up and down woodsy walks.

I cannot resist gently turning over rotten wet logs looking for Salamanders.  I'm loopy for Salamanders !

I found eleven of the little darlings and was thrilled to find three under one log.  These are red backed Salamanders and must be handled with great care as they partially breathe through their skin.   BTW I always roll the log gently back leaving them as I found them.

Sadly I also found lots of garbage in the form of empty beer cans.  I flattened them down and stuffed as many as I could into my small back pack.

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Monday was a nasty wet day with driving winds so I took the dogs to Shubie which is sheltered more than most places we go to and has easy wide trails.  Shubie is a well-tended park with an off leash section.

The rain was sheeting down and I soon learned that an above-knee raincoat guarantees that one's legs will be soaked from the knees down; and I was.

Looking a tad bedraggled.

In spite of her lovely, lined raincoat Sooki wasn't impressed.  It certainly was one of our shortest walks.

I think Sooki would have passed on the walk if she'd known it was going to be so wet.

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The next day was milder and dryer so we headed to the Jack Lake Trails.  These trails are longer and more adventurous than the Sandy Lake ones.  This is the area where I got badly lost a couple of weeks back.

Do NOT fret.  I have loaded a hiking Geo Tracker app onto my cell phone.  When I get out of my car I turn it on and always have an idea of my direction and more importantly how to get back to my starting point. 

The dogs love bombing around in the woods but are rarely more than fifty feet away.   

They like to stay close because they know I carry high quality treats.

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November 1st found us back on the Barrett Lumber trails.  I'd been there once before.  They're wide open roads that lead for several kilometres.

Along the way we found some abandoned cars.

An old window crank mechanism

An old speedometer -- not in kilometres.

After walking two kilometres this is what confronted us.   Hmmmmm.   Decisions, decisions.

Actually the decision wasn't a hard one when I consulted the Geo Tracker app on my phone and was surprised to see these trails marked.  That lead me to continue on the main trail.  All three trails were dead ends.  The centre one was the longer trail.  I took it but didn't go to the end as I kept reminding myself that if I walked three kilometres outbound then I'd have to do that same amount back again.

After the almost 6 km. walk Sooki fell asleep sitting up in the car.

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I end up at Shubie a couple of times a week.  We went back there today.

   

Thanks to a couple of blowy days most of the colourful leaves have been ripped from the trees.  Still there is a lingering beauty even in the bareness.

I took the opportunity to put the dog's through some obedience practice.  

I suspect if it wasn't for these dogs I wouldn't get half the exercise I do and let's not discount the marvellous therapeutic effects of time spent in nature.