Day Hike

It has been way too long since Morris and I took a long hike through our woods and through the neighbor's woods.

Yesterday afternoon I grabbed some water, my pistol [hubby had watched a coyote run through our pasture yesterday morning, ... thus the pistol], Morris, his leash, and my camera back pack.

I took along my micro/macro lens, and the 35mm lens. Now one would say those two lenses are too close to do me any good but, I ended up making good use of each lens.

My trusted camera assistant was able to find our trails even though they were hidden by fallen leaves and a bit overgrown.
Of course he has travelled these trails with me since he was a pup.  Good Morris, you are a fabulous navigator.

One of the first very cool things we found was several trees that were surrounded by fungi!  I kept expecting a woodland faerie to appear.

Silly me, I didn't check to see if the dead trees were all the same kind of trees.

Anyway, we finally made onto the ridge on PeeWee's Land.  This area has been not been pastured now for 10 years and it is becoming quite the chore to get through certain areas.

But the view of the East hillside was pretty beautiful.  I used a polarized lens in this shot to bring out the color and to keep the sky from washing out.

The meadow was so overgrown that Morris and I had to fight our way through the weeds on what used to be an old cow trail.  
The area is now choked with Wild Parsnip and the Golden Rod is taller than I am.

We used the snow mobile trail to get around because cutting through the woods is no longer possible.

The creek crossing was hidden in lush weeds.

I heard Morris plop into the water and take a long cool drink.

Eventually we made it out of the woods and onto the crop land.  The walking was easier.  I can see by this corn, it looks ready to harvest.

Morris and I made it back home after hiking about 2 1/2 miles of hills.  I was tired and so was Morris.
He went into his crate and literally looked as though he were dripping out of it.

Today is our rest day, tomorrow Morris visits the vet to get a shot and check up.  I think he needs his teeth cleaned also...his breath is pretty foul.

After our appointment Morris and I are going to head over to Duck Egg Park and see if we can't get some shots of the dam and the Bad Axe River.

So today, we rest.