Walking the Preserve

Our local college has a 189-acre Nature Preserve adjacent to it. It is a delightful place to go for a walk if you have the time to wander about and get totally lost and then find your way out again, which is all you can do, in my experience, is get lost and then find your way out again.

Yesterday was a lovely day with temps well below 90 degrees. Tiring of my same old trek around the neighborhood, I invited LO to accompany me on a hike at the Preserve.

"I don't like to hike."

"OK, let's walk then. We won't hike."

"I don't want to walk, either."

So at this point DH intervened and said, "Isn't Sonic on the way back? Maybe you can get one of those banana splits you have seen on TV."

So. We bribed her to go hiking, er, walking with me, with a doggone banana split.

She reluctantly agreed.

We hiked for an hour. There is a lovely diversity of environs there, woods, fields, marshes, and we even happened on a pond.

At one point, I struck out my arm to stop LO. We froze in our tracks. Across the way was a family of deer sipping water from a slough.

Unfortunately I can't see the image finder on my camera in bright sunlight so I have to point and click, blindly. I was afraid the beep-beep sound of the cam would send them running, but it did not. Our next step on the trail did, however, and we did not see them again on our hike.

At another point, LO put her arm out to stop me. There, microns ahead of me, was a beautiful and elaborate spider web, spanning the 5 foot wide trail. I froze. LO studied the web and advised me to go under it on hands-and-knees to the right side. She watched the web carefully as I obeyed. It did not move-- so she followed in the same manner. We came upon 2 or 3 more webs in similar fashion and each time she saw it first and advised me how to proceed.

The first half-hour of the hike was pure misery as she was reluctant and resentful. When we reached the first fork in the path, I offered her to pick which way first, and we could take turns. "I don't want to," she pouted. Finally, I asked if she had a coin in her pocket. She did. So for the first several forks, we flipped: Heads, left; tails, right.

After the spider web incident, she told me some interesting facts about spiders and I remarked she was getting a much better education than I had. This seemed to please her and after this point she loosened up. The second half hour went much better. She chatted about this or that and even, remarkably, began to appreciate the beauty that surrounded us. As we approached forks in the path, she easily chose one way or the other.

Toward the end of the hour, she got cranky again and I recognized she was tired. We were good and lost at this point. She was afraid we might get bitten by a snake and medics would not be able to find us. I reminded her that last week the GPS on my cell phone had told us we were not on a road (we weren't at the time) and it seemed to be able to pinpoint us with great accuracy. I explained that 911 would be able to locate us precisely with my cell phone.

She was still tired and cranky. Thankfully we began to see landmarks we had seen on the way in and found our way out.

It was a grand experience and I hope she will go again, without a banana split, to share it with me.