A-Hiking We Will Go!

So last friday, Black Friday , I had no intention of going shopping! There's plenty of time to get my Christmas shopping done, so I didn't have to do it on a day of extra crowded, extra frenzied shopping. I decided to take the boys to a regional park I had not visited before. It is only a few miles away, but first I had to get past the traffic backup going to the outlet mall near my house. Fortunately, I knew a side road to cut around the worst of it.

The park was situated along the Potomac River, but several miles further north than our usual park where we take the jetski and the boys to swim. As a result, the park was on a bluff overlooking the river. It had many well-marked hiking trails. The parking lot was no where near the river, but the second Wilson was out of the car, he tried bee-lining for the water. He was positive we had come to swim! So what if it was November! We started walking and he kept up a very swift pace, pretty much dragging me, first up to the bluff and then rapidly downhill to the river. He's never been to this park before, but he sure knew what trail to take to reach his preferred destination! Smart boy and a good nose, I guess.

Both boys were straining on their leashes to get in that water! Silly boys! The park had a good many hikers wondering around, probably people wanting to counteract their large Thanksgiving dinners, so there was  no chance of letting the boys off-leash. But mainly, without leashes, I would have lost them to the river and had to come home with mud-balls. That wasn't going to happen!

Here are a few miscellaneous shots from the day....

The terrain was quite hilly, and it was a good climb to get back up from the river. Despite my usual two to three mile walks each day with the boys, I was actually a bit stiff the next day from this hike! I think I'll try going there more often to see if I can get in better shape!