Today is the last day of vacation for me. I have to go back to work Monday. I had a great time this week out in nature (such as it was) with the beagle. One of the better vacations I have had in a while. I think the beagle had a good time too.
This is Wilma's new leash I got her yesterday. Note the lanyard I added to secure around my wrist just in case I let go. It worked well. Took some getting used to as it works slightly differently then similar retractable leashes I have used in the past. It works a lot better than the short leash I had been using. She gets to move around a lot more without ending up at the end of the leash and tugging on me. She can take a quick leak or a sniff without me having to stop.
This is the route we followed (in pink). It was the route I intended to do previously when Wilma became distressed from the heat. It was in the low 70s today and she showed no signs of heat distress at all. Its about 4 miles if the pedometer on my cell phone can be believed. It took us just over 2 hours, and we normally do about 2 mph, so 4 miles is about right.
We started on the Willow Creek bike path at the trail head near the Pierce Lake dam.
This is pretty much what the bike path looks like until you get to Perryville Road. It meanders a lot so you can't really see very far down the trail.
We stop for some creek time.
Wilma investigating what is going on under a bridge.
Investigating the creek under the same bridge.
Note sure what this little road is for. Sometime we will go take a look.
Now we are at the west edge of the park where the Willow Creek bike path meets the Perryville bike path.
But before we turn north, Wilma needed some more creek time on the other side of the Perryville Road underpass. This sure would be a nice place for a couple of benches. Nice and cool under the road and out of the weather. And accessible from both bike paths. Maybe I will call someone and suggest it.
We turn onto the Perryville bike path. The fork to the left goes south over the underpass. To the right is north.
A mile marker just up the path from where we went onto the north run of Perryville bike path. Not sure if it is the first marker or not.
It starts out in the trees. Nice shade. Pretty steady uphill grade. Maybe ten degrees.
This is looking south (back) after we came out of the trees near the top of the grade. Perryville Road is in the background.
Almost to the top of the grade.
Some nice flowers along the path. I think the bigger ones are called prairie sunflowers, but are not really in the sunflower family. To the east of the path at this point is a fence and then a large prairie area. Not sure what the fence is for. Maybe to keep people out of the prairie area.
A flowering vine of some kind growing up one of the native prairie weeds they are so proud of.
The marker just before Hart Road, which is the end of the Perryville bike path.
We turned east onto Hart Road which is access to the Equestrian area. I am not sure what the hand painted "6" on the road is for. I saw another one later down the road that said "7". Hart Road is another uphill grade at this point.
Milkweed along side Hart Road.
Wilma taking a bit of a breather. The gravel driveway to the right leads into a small parking lot. I guess for the horse people.
And look what I see in the parking lot. I think I have seen banner ads for them on Illinoiscarry.com. Maybe someday we can get the laws fixed so what is asterisked can be removed.
Entrance to the equestrian area. I meant to take a picture showing some of the facilities in the background but somehow missed them. There are toilets and water 75 or 100 yards in from this sign. Probably some place to sit and eat lunch too. I don't know if the horse people would appreciate non-horse people coming into "their" area though. I did not bring a lunch and neither of us was looking for a place to take a break so we just kept going.
Marker 12. You can see a street light up ahead. There are a couple maintenance buildings and a house or two along Hart Road. If you look closely you can see gates on the road ahead where the road connects with a road inside the park.
Just past the gates we took the trail back into the forest going south. It pretty much parallels the road that goes back to the dam. I doubt it is ever more than 100 yards away from the road. Pretty innocent looking.
This trail is constantly changing elevations. Most of it is pretty rough dirt, but some of it has gravel on it, and some of it is pretty nice dirt.
The trail leads back to the Willow Creek bike path. The small trail in the foreground seemed interesting to Wilma so she asked if we could go that way. I obliged her. It is after all, her walk too.
The trail is pretty steep going up and then down. I would not have attempted it without a stick.
I see a dam. What a surprise that Wilma would want to go have some more creek time before we went home.
There are some rocks across the creek. Not really an "official" ford, but I suppose it would make do. I went across once with a previous beagle 4 or 5 years ago. The rocks were mostly submerged then because the water was a bit higher and they were kind of treacherous. Not a problem if you don't bother to try and walk on the rocks.
Wilma decides it would be fun to follow this foot path along the creek headed downstream.
The path stops at this fork in the creek. There is water flowing through both sides, but for some reason the right hand fork is full of plant material of some kind.
I guess someone dropped something over the dam.
Wilma would have been quite happy to ford the creek here. We have been on the other side at this point a few months ago. We went down about a 45 degree hill to get there and then walked up along side the dam back to the road - another steep climb. Have I mentioned that it is good to have a stick? The long leash lets her explore the creek while I can stay on the bank.
Wilma getting some back scratching done in the grass as we walk back to the car at the trail head.
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