River Hike

Since it was such beautiful weather this past weekend, we took some time out to do a river hike.  We ended up not having to hike far at all before we found a great little spot to hang out at.  Cayenne swam and played in the water the whole time, Mark fished, I took pictures, and the kids played in the river.

At first Nina and Lyla started by just getting their feet and legs wet, then the more time we were there, the more wet they became.  Eventually, they just asked if they could float around in the river with their clothes on.  We didn’t have any dry clothes for them to change into, but if you ask them, they’ll say they’re “river girls” so things like dry clothes just aren’t a problem.

  

Cayenne absolutely loves the water.  She is such a good swimmer now, and she figured out the spots where there was some light current to swim against, little eddies for finding minnows, and shallow parts for just running through the water. 

We stopped right under a cool, old bridge that still had the wide boards for the “road”. 

    

After our time at the river, we started our relatively short hike back to the car.  We had to go less than a mile, but a portion of the walk back to the car was through the thick part of the woods on a narrow path.  The path was only wide enough to walk in a single file line.  So, I was walking in front with Cayenne on the leash about three or four feet in front of me, the kids were behind me, and Mark was in the back.  All of a sudden, Cayenne stops right in front of me, and I see her jam her nose right into the face of a skunk!

I jumped back, pulled Cayenne back, and we all froze and hoped the skunk didn’t spray us.  Thankfully the skunk didn’t spray us or some toward us, but he/she wasn’t moving off the path, and there was no way we could get back to our car unless we passed by on the path.  Mark tried throwing some rocks in it’s direction to see if it would move off the side of the path, but it didn’t.  I tried creeping toward it, and it then turned and walked back into the woods.  I kept an eye on it (and took a picture of it) while Mark got the kids and the dog through, and we very thankfully made it back to the car  without getting sprayed!!!