Della's Solo

Head down, maybe she was checking scent in
case she had to find our way back. They never
quite seem to trust that I know the way out there.

I was wanting a longer and faster walk today, with more emphasis on cardio exercise and less stress on my back. That meant taking one dog instead of two or more, and it meant taking Della rather than Serena, who can be tough on my back.

Head up now, but still looking uncertain.

I haven't walked Della by herself very much and she's still relatively new to the trails. She started out acting a bit reticent, hanging back, head down and sniffing as opposed to head up scanning the woods. We hadn't gone even half a mile when we spotted the first deer. I saw a couple and I'm not sure if she saw them or just heard them, but it definitely piqued her interest. Not long after that a grey squirrel crossed our path and her pace quickened. She was now out front and leading the way. Then we came upon five or six deer and chased them up out of a draw. The shy girl had been replaced by Della the Rabbit Slayer now, and it appeared that she was considering going for the title of Deer Slayer as well.

She still didn't really pull that much though, not like Maya or Serena would have, or like she would have with one of those other girls. We had a pretty good pace going by then and I decided to push on and try to get in four miles before dark. We came back via a route that was more familiar to her and then popped up out of the woods behind the pole barn. We had done about three miles at that point and I knew that the distance from the pole barn over to the baseball fields was another mile. We were out of the woods and along the open roadway in the park but we were still very much alone out there. Two lone runners were the only people we saw, which surprised me because it was a nice evening and we've seen more folks up there on previous evenings. But it was nice and at least there were no cars blowing up dust on the road.

When we made it over to the baseball fields we were just shy of four miles but I knew that the route downhill to the trail head at the back side of the library would put us over the mark. That last stretch was back in the woods and the sun was down at that point so we picked up the pace a little more. When we made it back to the van I checked the distance, 4.4 miles and the pace, 20 minutes/mile, which was longer and faster than I've done in a while. It felt good.

Deer have been spotted.

Now she's just wondering why I keep
sticking that camera in her face.

Half moon over the farm heritage museum.

4.4 miles