January comes to a close

Hello and happy Sunday.  It is hard to believe that it is the end of January and we are 1/12 of the way through the year already.  Before we know it Spring will be here with it's warmer weather and longer days.  But for now, we are in the heart of Winter and have finally been experiencing some more typical Winter weather.  The last week the temperatures have been the coldest of this Winter so far and we've actually gotten some snow on a couple of occasions, including a nice fresh layer over night.  Thankfully, the Winter still hasn't been that bad and the girls and I have been able to get out and enjoy some nice walks every day.  

Peaches and I have had a little more one on one time over the last couple of weeks as I concentrate on making sure we are both getting out and getting some good walks.  Each day Maddie still joins us, but the amount of time and the length of the walk she takes depends completely on her mood for the day.  So some days she's with us for a mile or more, and others, she is with us for less.  She is still excited about loading up in the car and going for an adventure, but she is also happy to hang out in the car and wait while Peaches and I take a little extra time on the trail.   Thankfully the weather is allowing us to do this for now and we'll adjust as we need to do so.

We also have made the most of Maddie's appointments for laser therapy.  As soon as Maddie goes into the building for her appointment, I put Peaches on her long leash and we spend the entire appointment time with Peaches running and exploring.  This week she especially enjoyed her time since she saw several horses at the boarding facilities attached to the vet's office, she chased a bunny from under a pile of brush, and she got to say hello and got a treat from the Fedex guy.  Plus she zoomed around in the fresh snow.  It was a great use of the 30 minutes that I'd normally spend just sitting in the car.

We have especially been enjoying our trips to Fenner Nature Center, especially since it is staying light later and, therefore, giving us more time to explore.  The Winter landscape is so beautiful and there are several trails to choose from so no two days are the same.  

Peaches' favorite trail in the park is in the grasslands so we make a point to walk that portion of the trail most days and since most days we are walking at dusk, we often have wildlife sightings.  There are so many deer and they drive Peaches crazy!  

Thursday night we decided to make a visit to McNamara Landing which has some great trails.  I wasn't sure what condition they would be in given our recent snow, plus I wasn't sure how far we'd be able to go since some of the trails are closed to dogs this time of year, due to the fact that they are groomed for cross country skiing, but I knew we'd have fun no matter what, and it was bitter cold, so I knew we wouldn't go far anyway.

We did a small loop around one portion of the trails before reaching the groomed trails and discovered some cute little fairy doors along the way.  Peaches was having the best time with all of the new smells and we really enjoyed our time.

Maddie also enjoyed exploring somewhere different, but she was not that excited when I tried to take her picture.  

Friday was a crazy day.  Maddie woke up shortly after 4am for a mid-night potty break after which, I couldn't fall asleep.  Try as I might, all I did was lay there wide awake.  So eventually I decided I may as well get up and get some work done.  I got two quiet hours of work in before 8am.  The rest of my work day was busy and I barely had time to take a break.  Finally, after a busy day,  I stopped working at 4pm to take the girls out for an adventure.

After a lot of debate and a little driving around, I decided to head to Holt.  Our first stop was Veteran's Memorial Park so that Maddie could join us for a quick walk around the park.  Peaches was extremely curious about the strange birds she found.

It was a beautiful, sunny walk around a pretty little park and I enjoyed the time here, but Maddie was ready to go back to the car and Peaches and I had plans for a longer walk on some of the trails through the area.  We had a nice walk and ended at Esker Landing as the sun was beginning to set.  It was a beautiful end to a very long day.  

Saturday we  met up with Vanessa once again to continue our journey toward 100 miles on the North Country trail.  Ultimately, our goal this year is to hike every mile of trail in Calhoun, Kalamazoo, and Barry counties and we are making great progress in Calhoun county. 

We had a long stretch of road walk to complete this week, so we parked a car at each end of the stretch, left Maddie behind with her comfy bed, cozy blanket, and a Kong stuffed with peanut butter for her to enjoy while she waited for us to return.  

This stretch of road was long, but luckily it wasn't too busy, and we made good time.  Peaches isn't the best road walker ever, but she gets better the farther we go and she really enjoys being out with us.  And honestly, I always feel a big sense of accomplishment when I get to the end of a long stretch like this.  

We walked approximately 7 miles along farm fields an wooded areas with a river crossing and some other nice scenery along the way and finally made it back to the car to get Maddie out to join us.  After moving cars around to stage them appropriately at the end of our walk so we could not have to double back, we got out and started down the last bit of road walk toward the Marshall Riverwalk.  

We got less than a quarter mile with Maddie turning and looking back toward the car the whole time and decided that she just wasn't up to a walk for the day, so we turned back and put her in the car to wait for us to finish our final 1 1/2 miles.  While I would have loved for her to join us for more of our hike, she really wasn't interested and I just want to keep her happy.

Once Maddie was back in the car, we continued on our way to the Marshall Riverwalk.  It is a very short section, but we've always enjoyed hiking this scenic little path with river views.  It was also great to be off the road for a bit and enjoying nature.

We finally reached the end of our 8.5 miles of hiking for the day.  We all were happy with our hike for the day and it had been another nice day spent outside enjoying some fresh air.  I was most happy to know that we are only 10 miles away from reaching Battle Creek and some nice portions of the trail in that area.  We finished the month of January having completed 31.5 miles in Calhoun County and only 27 miles away from reaching Kalamazoo County.  I am completely enjoying this year's challenge and I am excited for our next hike.

After a busy day of hiking, Peaches was happy to get home, eat dinner, and then crash on the couch for the night.  Maddie spent much of the night happily snoring away as well...except when I sat down to eat some pizza for dinner!  She's a pretty cute little beggar...and she may have gotten a bite of breadstick. 

With all of the fun we had this week, it was nice to have a quiet Sunday at home.  It was another good week for us and I'm looking forward to seeing what fun adventures we can find in the coming week.  Welcome February!  

Winter walks and weekend hikes

We've had a rollercoaster of Winter weather this week with temperatures as low as single digits and as high as 40 degrees.  The variety of temperatures has been combined with days that have been blustery and gray, sunny and frigid, and even a day that was almost Spring-like.  Honestly, I don't think any two days this week were quite the same.  With the mild weather we've had for most of this Winter, I wasn't sure I'd be ready for the colder temperatures when they arrived, but they certainly arrived this week and, despite the cold, we were still able to get out for some Winter adventures.

Monday I had the day off from work for the MLK Day holiday and spent much of the day at home catching up on some things I needed to get done around the house.  After spending the morning writing last week's blog, I did some cleaning, prepping veggies, and making a fresh batch of veggie broth.  I wanted to take full advantage of the day off, and after a busy day around the house, we headed out for a walk.  I did a little research and decided to visit Mt. Hope Park, a newer park in the area, and one we hadn't visited previously.  There isn't much to the park, a couple of soccer fields, a couple softball fields, and a paved path in the middle of a wide open field, but it was previously unexplored by us so it was a good place for a walk with the girls.  As bonus, there was a geocache located at the park too, so in addition to our walk we could pick up a geocache for the day.  

When we arrived at the park, there was only one other car there, but they were preparing to leave, so for most of our time there, we had the whole park to ourselves.  We started out on a slow stroll at Maddie's pace and I was thankful that the paved paths were clear and dry.  For a portion of our walk, we walked through one of the grassy areas and both girls really enjoyed all of the smells.   After a slow mile of exploration, Maddie was ready to head back to the car, so we took her back and got her settled in before continuing on with Peaches.  Since we were the only one's at the park, I hooked Peaches up to her long lead so she could explore a little more.  As we walked, the wind picked up and it started to snow, plus it was getting dark quickly, so after a quick couple of miles, we headed home.  

Tuesday's walk took us to Hartrick park. This park has a small set of hiking trails through the woods and is someplace we've visited a handful of times over the last year.  For the Winter Season, they close down the larger parking lot and leave only a few parking spots available at the front of the park.  This keeps the park much quieter because the main visitor are those who live in the area.  This generally means that the park is empty and quiet and gives us a nice quiet place to explore.  

I love the walk through the woods and because there isn't a lot of foot traffic through the park, the paths aren't icy like they are in some other of the area parks.  It was a nice day for a walk in the woods and the girls were intently, and happily, sniffing everywhere.  It was an excellent spot for a sniffy walk and the perfect day for it because Maddie was slow moving, but we were all happy to be outside.

Wednesday arrived and with it Maddie's second laser therapy treatment for her arthritis.  We had gotten a good snowfall the night before and while the roads were a bit slushy, the snow always makes for some beautiful scenery.  We left home for Maddie's appointment over my lunch and I decided to bring Peaches along for the ride.  The rest of my day would be filled with conference calls for work, so I wanted to take advantage of the time when Maddie was with the Vet to get Peaches out of the house to enjoy a little walk.  

The vet office is on a pretty quiet country road, so we were able to walk up and down the road and then Peaches spent some time sniffing around the parking area.  While it wasn't a big adventure, it was a good use of the time, since I would have just been sitting in the car waiting for Maddie to get done.  The rest of my Wednesday was busy with work, but we were able to get out for a quick walk around the block with Maddie during a late afternoon break and then had a nice relaxing evening after a very busy day.

Thursday's weather was beautiful.  It was sunny and 40 degrees and gave me thoughts of Spring.  Based on the nicer weather, I decided we'd take our walk at Fenner Nature Center after work.  During colder days, the trails there tend to be a bit more icy due to the amount of foot traffic they get, but I hoped that the trails wouldn't be quite as bad on Thursday.   Thankfully I was right.  The warmer weather had softened the snow and made walking much easier.  We had a nice walk through the grasslands at dusk and Peaches was on high alert with the presence of lots of deer throughout the park.  We didn't have a lot of time for our walk before darkness set in, but it had been a nice walk on a beautiful night.  

Overnight the temperatures dropped drastically and brought in some frigid air.  With temperatures in the upper teens and low 20s on Friday, we were experiencing some cold we haven't really had to deal with much this Winter.  But cold weather wasn't going to stop us from getting out for our Friday walk.  We had so much fun on our walk at Fenner the day before that I decided we'd head back there for our Friday walk too.  Maddie was feeling pretty good and did great on our walk so we were able to go a bit faster, and therefore, farther, that evening.  

The girls were dressed in their Winter coats and I decided to get into some of the wooded trails at Fenner to avoid the wind.  Despite the cold temperatures, we were all warm in the woods and really had a great walk down some of the trails we haven't explored in awhile.  Oddly, it seemed to stay light later on Friday night and we had a great walk and left the park before it was too dark.  It had been a busy work week, and I was looking forward to a quiet Friday evening at home.

Saturday morning arrived, and just like the previous Saturdays this month, we had plans to do some hiking on the North Country Trail with Vanessa.  It was single digit temperatures when we woke up, but the sun was shining and I knew it was going to be a good day for a hike.  

We had a short hike of 6 miles planned and most of it was through Albion on part of the trail that we are very familiar with, so I was looking forward to the easy day.  We started out with a short road walk section before reaching the Riverwalk through town and then continued on into Victory Park.  We left Maddie in the car for the beginning of our hike, but she joined us for the end and she was happy to be out with us.  Because we had her with us for our last 1 1/4 mile, it went much slower than our first 5 miles, but the whole hike seemed to go pretty quickly and we stayed warm the whole way despite the cold.  It is amazing the difference a little sunshine can make.  

We have completed 23 miles on the trail this year so far, all through Calhoun County, and are moving along pretty well.  We are planning another hike next week between Albion and Marshall as we continue on our way to completing all of the North Country Trail miles in Calhoun county.  We have 35 miles until we complete Calhoun County and if we can keep up a good pace, we should complete it by early March.  While a lot of the trail in this area is road walk, it hasn't been bad and we are enjoying getting out in the fresh air.   It's a great to have a goal to keep us going and nothing shows better than Maddie's happy face just how much fun we're having! 

After a really busy week between work, getting the girls out every day, and other obligations, we have big plans for a do nothing Sunday.  I do have to run a few quick errands and I will get the girls out for a small walk, but most of the day will be spent quietly at home watching silly Hallmark movies, reading, and doing some word search puzzles.  I hope you have some time to relax and enjoy a peaceful Sunday as well.

Welcome to 2021

We officially made it through 2020 and, surprisingly quickly, we are already half way through the month of January.  While the world is still going crazy, personally things are going well to start the year-or at least as well as can be expected. 

January is always a tough month and is definitely one of my least favorite months of the year.  It's cold and gray, and after the beauty and sparkle of the holiday season, it is just dark, dreary, and unmotivating.  I'm always sad to see the end of the holiday season arrive, but never as much as I was this year.  At my house, the Christmas tree and outdoor lights stay up and on until January 6th-the official ending of the Christmas season.  However, this year January 6th came and I just couldn't bring myself to take the tree down...so I didn't.  I decided it would stay up through the weekend instead, but I still couldn't take it down that Sunday, so it remained up several days longer.  It is officially down now, and while I was still sad to see it go, I know that it was time.  After all of the holiday decorations are down and safely put away until next year, the sad reality of the month of January becomes much more apparent, so I am glad I left things up longer this year.  I know I'm not the only one and I am still seeing trees and lights up around town, although they appear less every day.  I just think we all needed a little more joy in our lives this year and keeping the Christmas spirit alive a little longer certainly helped.

I'm hoping to keep a little sparkle alive by decorating the second tree, which is in my office, with some different holiday themes over the next few months.  First up, I'll be decorating for Valentine's Day.  I'm excited to see how that turns out for me and hoping that they fun theme will keep things a little brighter during the long months of Winter. 

 

One positive this Winter is that we have had milder than normal temperatures.  The girls and I have been trying to make the most of these milder days by getting outside and doing some exploring.  It certainly makes Winter easier to tolerate when I can get out for walks without freezing!  

We haven't had a significant amount of snow this year, but we were lucky to get a few snowy days.  One of my favorite recent walks was through a snowy Winter wonderland at Hartrick Park.  The paths were snowy, but not icy, and the beauty of the snow on the trees was exceptional.  We thoroughly enjoyed our walk.  There is something special about the woods covered in a snowy coat.

We have been adjusting our recent adventures to help accommodate Maddie's slower pace.  While she still wants to join us on all of our adventures, she is slow and unable to go as far as Peaches.  Just because she can't keep up is no reason to leave her behind though, and I know she wouldn't be happy if she didn't get to go on some regular adventures.  Most of our walks begin with a slow meander with Maddie until she lets me know she is done, and then she gets to snuggle up with her cozy cave and a blanket in the car while Peaches and I continue the fun.  It has been working well and keeping everyone happy.

Most of our adventures during the week include a little geocaching which helps me find new places to walk.  After my busy work days lately, it is nice to get out of the house and find some places away from home to explore.   It is nice to find areas that we previously had not discovered.  We have found new parks and new areas around the city as well as some areas in nearby small towns...and we've even rediscovered some area we haven't visited in a while.  

We have also enjoyed some of our favorite, regular spots.  When the sidewalks get icy in the neighborhood, I always enjoy taking the girls downtown around the capitol where it is always well-lit with clean sidewalks.  It is a great place to take a Winter walk and it one of the things that has been a regular part of our Winter routine for years.

One Friday night, we jumped in the car and headed to Pinckney for an event at a local lavender farm.  Before the event, we had a chance to walk around town and explore a bit.  I loved the quaint little town with the community ice rink.  A really great way to keep Peaches happy while involving Maddie in our adventures is to explore new areas. Even a short walk in a new town can keep Peaches very content.  With all of the new smells, she spends lots of time sniffing while Maddie plods along with us at her own pace.  

While the event at the lavender farm was not quite what I had expected it to be, I was glad it was dog-friendly and the girls were happy about that too.  We walked the short lighted path at the farm with both of them sniffing away and then stopped by the bonfire for a bit to enjoy the fire.  Afterward, we drove back into town to purchase take-out from one of the local restaurants.  It was a nice night and I was happy to do my small part to support some small businesses during the current economic situation.  

For the sixth year, I have signed up to complete the North Country Trail Hike 100 Challenge.  For the past five years, I have been joined by Maddie on this challenge and I've always wanted to include her, but the reality this year is that we would never be able to complete the challenge with her. So I have let go of the need for her to join us for every mile.  She will still get out on the trail with us for some short sections and I will be happy to have her with us for any of the miles she is able to join.  Peaches, on the other hand, will be completing the challenge with me again this year.  It will be her fourth year out on the trail with me and we are excited to see where the trail takes us this year!

We started earlier this month and Maddie joined us for our first 1.25 miles.  The girls were very interested in all of the new smells as we started this year's journey.  

This year we are excited to have Vanessa join us for the challenge too!  With her along for the journey, it makes life a lot easier  because we can each take a dog, and Maddie loves having a person all to herself!  Another advantage is that we can stage cars to walk longer stretches of the trail without having to cover any section of the trail twice.  Plus it's nice to have some company out on the long stretches of the trail.  Our first walk on the trail covered 7 1/4 miles, mostly road walk, in Calhoun County South of Homer.  It was the mid-30s and sunny with almost no wind, the perfect day for a hike and the perfect start toward our 100 miles.

Last week, Maddie started acupuncture and cold laser therapy for her arthritis  I am hoping it will help reduce inflammation and pain so that she may be able to join us for some longer adventures.  I didn't see a lot of change after the first treatment, but she is scheduled for a second round of laser therapy this week, and I am hoping to see more improvement.  Even if she can't join us for longer walks, if it helps her feel better that will make me happy.  She is my special adventure dog and I want to make sure she can happily and comfortably continue to adventure for as long as she wants to join us.

As I began writing today, I realized that I don't have many pictures of our weekday adventures since most of them happen at dusk or after dark, but I am going to try to be better at getting some pictures on some of them over the next week.  I did get a picture of Peaches as we explored Old Town on Friday.  Despite several distractions, she sat pretty nicely for this and I was pretty proud of her.

On Saturday, we continued our journey on the North Country Trail, starting in Homer.  In addition to the normal 100 mile challenge, this year Vanessa and I have signed up for the Chief Noonday Chapter "Hike the County" Challenge.  This challenge requires us to complete all of the miles in each of the three counties in the chapter-Calhoun, Kalamazoo, and Barry.   There is a total of 119 miles across the three counties so we will be able to complete our 100 miles while working on this challenge too.  There is a special patch for the challenge with an additional patch for each county completed.  I'm pretty excited for this additional challenge which will get us out on some portions of the trail that we have never hiked.  Seeing new places was one of the main reasons I signed up for the challenge the first year, and I'm excited to continue finding new places to explore in this beautiful state.

The previous weekend we had started at the Calhoun/Hillsdale County Line to begin our hike North and West toward Kalamazoo County.  The Calhoun county section is 58 miles which will take us on dirt and paved roads, on paved trails and sidewalks through Homer, Albion, Marshall, and Battle Creek, and even through some small parks and wooded areas.  This is definitely different than some of the hiking we've done in the past, but we will also revisit some of our favorite areas of the trail.  It should be a great adventure!

On Saturday, we started in downtown Homer, right where we had left off the previous week.  Maddie joined us for the portion of the trail that ran through town before we left her in the car to continue a 3.5 mile road walk section.  We completed the first section of our hike and took a quick break for snacks, to move cars around, and to get Maddie out for another short walk before we continued on another long road walk section  We even passed another hiker out enjoying the trail and had a nice chat.  

While the road walk sections may not be the most interesting sections of the trail, they still offer some interesting views.   It was another day with temperatures in the low to mid-30s, and while it was gray, it was not a bad day for a hike.  In total we hiked 9.5 miles for the day and are making great progress in our first month.  Only 83.25 miles until we reach 100 and 102.25 miles until we complete all three counties.  

We're hoping to keep up a good pace and complete the challenges before the heat of Summer arrives so that we can continue to have Maddie join us for portions.  Because no one wants to leave an adventure dog at home!  

Now it's time to take advantage of my day off and get the girls out for a little daylight adventure for today before our busy work week starts again.  I hope you are having a good start to your year and that you all have a great week!