Saturday at Walnut Creek Park

I had walked eight days in a row so I took Friday off. It was cold and windy anyway, and my body needed a rest. Saturday started off chilly, but the sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing like it had been the day before. I loaded up Maya and Theo and headed to Walnut Creek Park.

Theo at one of the standing chimneys on an
old homesite at Walnut Creek Park.

I had been there once before, with just Maya, last summer and there are some nice trails. This is also a disk golf course (frisbee) at the park and there was a tournament there this morning. I was near the tail end of it, but picked a route that took me out of their way as much as possible. There were some mountain bikers on the trails too, and a few other hikers, some with dogs and some without.

The trees have not leafed out yet, so the blooming redbuds
look like splashes of paint throughout the forest.

I was planning to do a long hike so I brought Theo instead of TJ. We went over 10 miles and I think that would have been hard on TJ, although I expect he would have made it. Theo is people-friendly and basically ok with dogs so he was a good choice for today's hike. I put the harness on Theo instead of the martingale collar I had been using on our walks. He pulls more with the harness and I thought I might need that. This is a very hilly hiking route and I didn't discourage him when he wanted to pull me, at least when we were going uphill.

Theo checking out the lake.

Theo at one of our few rest breaks. This was the only one that
I actually sat down at, and both dogs joined me.

Maya at our "sit down" rest stop.

This was the most welcome water crossing, coming after a
long and mostly uphill stretch of trail.

The harness makes it easy for Theo to pull some extra weight.

This old house still stands, but just barely. We walked around
the outside and discovered a very active bee hive living in one
corner of the house. 

Walking around the back of the house we startled
this turkey buzzard that had been sitting in an
open doorway just a couple feet off the ground.
He flew up to the nearest tree, startling both me
and the dogs. The buzzard then sat there and made
nasty sounds at us, clearly unhappy about being
disturbed. We left as soon as I got the picture.

There were still more trails, but we did 10+
miles and will leave the rest for another day.