Walking Outside After Many Rainy Days

After lots of gray weather and pouring rain it was such a pleasure to get out and walk this weekend outdoors. In fact, it was so great, I took extra walks just to enjoy the weather.

I had a couple great bonuses, besides the exercise and clean air. On Saturday a couple friends joined me and we went over to visit with the horses nearby. Their people had started to take them to higher pasture earlier this month but the weather put a stop to that...so there were still 9 horses left. We got a lot of good horse luvin' in!

On Sunday my walking buddy and I went to one of our favorite spots...called Devil's Backbone...named for the main rock feature that runs through the open space like...well, like a giant spine. It was a great day and wonderful walk.

One of the things I like about walking on trails is that because the surface is not perfectly level I work more and different muscles then if I were to walk the same distance on flat pavement...and even pavement on a hill. Plus, I like that the trail has less impact on my joints than sidewalks do.

After reaching the point where we decided to turn around (this particular trail goes for 17 miles...so you get to decide how far or short you want your trip to be), we were walking back down and a couple informed us they had seen rattlesnakes! So we were extra cautious, being sure to talk so we would not startle them, and to keep our eyes peeled.

Well, we stopped at one point having not seen hide nor hair of them (I guess since snakes have neither hide nor hair!) and of course, as soon as we stop, I hear them. Never saw them but could tell they were off to our right, not on the trail, so we started talking again quietly and slowly moved on down the trail.

I'm a nature lover, but I really don't want to encounter rattlesnakes any closer than that!

Of course we passed on the warning to others coming up the trail.

On a gentler note...when we were driving home we saw a herd of elk...quite a large herd, which was fun. Then as we were almost home we saw yet another herd! I don't think I've seen 2 large herds here in town before. Very exciting! The 2nd herd was right on the edge of the golf course near my home and made quite a lovely picture.

Guess I'd better start carrying a camera!