One Hiking Dog in Training


This weekend Jason and I headed out to our favorite hiking spot for a new challenge, our longest hike yet. We decided to get up really early Saturday morning and attempt the 7.2 mile hike around the falls trail at Ricketts Glen State Park. Along for the ride was our veteran hiking dog Kenzie and our hiking dog in training, Taylor. Now most of you do not know I've been having problems with my hips lately but I still told Jason I wanted to try it out. It's the most difficult trail at the park and has around 30+ waterfalls. We started out at 9:20am, not too early. It was going to be a fabulous day with sunny skies and a high of 70. Things had changed a bit since our last hike at Ricketts. NO SNOW! So I was able to see a lot of the ground and the flowers, etc starting to bloom. Jason took his camera and we planned on taking tons of photos. When we arrived at the second set of falls it totally looked different from the last time we saw it. Here's the falls back in March.Here's a photo of the same falls today:

When we reached where the two rivers meet we had to decide which direction to head. Since we're both left handed of course we chose to go left :-). The falls were stunning and the rivers were running quite quickly. Actually Taylor got into the water at one point, slipped and started to get carried away. So she thought, we had her on leash :-). Here's some photos of some of the other falls:

While sitting on a rock at the falls directly above I was able to shoot my favorite photo of Jason.....I was so excited and it turned out perfect and not blurry (which is one of my photo taking problems). Aren't they so cute?
Now by the time we reached the 3rd trail at the ridge line poor Taylor was starting to slow down. The ridgeline hike was 1.2 miles and totally welcoming. I say welcoming because the falls trail is straight up jagged slippery rocks the WHOLE way. So we was able to hike on somewhat level ground. Once we reached the second branch of the falls trail we started our way down. By this point the trails were crowded and not that enjoyable. We still enjoyed seeing the falls though. After about 5 miles it was time to find a shady spot to have lunch at and rest. I pulled out my butterfinger granola bars and Jason his trail mix. Both Tay and Kenzie was treated to some doggie bones and we just laid back and relaxed. Taylor was so tired I was able to shoot this cute picture. (the photo was blurry but still cute)
Finally at 2:30 we reached the car. My legs were jelly and the kids were exhausted. What a wonderful day hike though. BEAUTIFUL! It's so hard to believe that we live here.

Anyway, I'm leaving you with one last photo. It's called BUDDIES