An Afternoon Constitutional

Hey gang.

We had some decent weather today - sunny and in the low 50s - so, seeing how we weren't really doing much of anything around the house, Kris and I decided to take the dogs for a walk up at Midland City Forest.  I've been walking with a 20-lb weighted vest for about an hour a day lately, and I've been wanting to try it out on rugged terrain (I have a tentative hiking trip planned with the guys next month, so it's good training.)

Abby and her BFF, Ella, came along with us at the last minute, and we spent about two hours walking the wooded trails.  The dogs got absolutely filthy, and everyone was exhausted by the time we came home, but it made for a solid afternoon.

Check it out. . . 

Prior to taking the dogs out for their afternoon constitutional, Kris wanted to trim their nails.  It's never an issue with Watson, but we have to go through an entire song-and-dance routine with Samson (shown here, not happy with what's going on.)  We clip his nails outside, so he's somewhat distracted by the outdoor stimuli, and I have to hold him the entire time, with Kris swooping in outside of his line of vision in order to clip as many as his toenails as she can while he continuously jerks his paws away.  We only ever get like 75% of them at a time (on a good day.)

Arriving at Midland City Forest.  This is a perfect place to walk dogs - there provide poop bags and trash receptacles spread out through the trails to prevent assholes from leaving their dog's crap (or trash) throughout the woods.

After passing by the ol' Sledding Hill, we took the center trail back towards the heart of the woods (we let the girls walk the dogs, they were all about it.)

Awesome weather for today - had it been about ten degrees warmer it would have been perfect.

The forest hasn't sprung to live quite yet, at this time of year it still looks like the outskirts of Mordor (Ithilion, for you non-nerds out there.)

We veered off the main trails pretty early on, sticking to these more intense 'bike trails' for the majority of our time there.  They're more hilly, and wind up and down hills much more.

This was ideal practice for my upcoming hiking trip with Ryan and Mitch (tentatively slotted for April 28th) - tackling these inclines in a weighted vest was great conditioning.

The girls love this rippling plankway (whatever the hell it is.) They ran the dogs back and forth across it a few times.

Watson wasn't a big fan, but Samson loved it.

Consulting the trail guide, attempting to find our way back to the front entrance - we were miles in at this point.

Back on the main trail, headed for the front entrance.

We took a wrong turn at one point and ended up in a low-lying area that was totally submerged.  We lost the trail and had to double back to our starting point, losing about twenty minutes.

Fortunately no one but the two dogs got wet.

After a couple more miles, we made it back to the front entrance, where the girls sprinted the dogs down the still-snowy-in-spots Sledding Hill. 

Later in the evening, while watching a movie, it was clearly evident that the afternoon and wore out the dogs.  He never falls asleep like this.

- Brian