Finally, a Walk

Something strange occurred this morning; the sun came out. The air was crisp and clear, the sun was shining so brightly that everything that was green seemed to glow. Patches was ready to take a good walk and so was I. As we wandered up the rear of some of the camp sites, trying to find the least muddy areas to walk I came upon a sign indicating a nature trail. Since the devil hates a coward, as Denny always says, Patches and I decided to give it a try. After our first downhill segment, the only thing running through my mind was this:

It was no easy task to hang onto my camera, watch my footing and keep track of Patches AND her leash as she ducked under this tree and that tree. There is no fallen tree or log that does not need to be traversed by Patches the Explorer.
As we walked we saw trillium and violets and wild phlox, we startled a few deer and at one point we both sat on a big fallen tree and simply basked in the sunshine while listening to the birds and the sound of the wind in the woods.

We discovered a tiny waterfall way back up the creek (my photograph doesn't show the double fall very well.)
And we crossed a couple of foot bridges as we made our way around the trail.
But now Patches was crying because not only had we startled the deer, but the deer had frightened her and her paws were by now cold, wet and muddy and she was ready to be home. We still had a ways to go before we got off the nature trail and onto one of the gravel driveways that would lead us back to The Beast and I had to coax her most of the way until she got to a section of the roadway that she recognized. Talk about a happy camper! We were almost home!
Patches and I both were glad to get out of the mud although we did have a bit of a disagreement when it came time to wash her muddy paws off. She thought she could do it but I prevailed with the wet towel while Patches growled during the whole procedure. And now she's ready to do it all over again.

See ya--we're out of here for our final walk of the day before it starts to thunderstorm again as predicted for this evening. *sigh*