The story of our adventure at Waid Park...sorry it's not well-written...I'm exhausted and just wanted to get it written down before bed.
"It's a beautiful day!" Tom said while we were grocery shopping after church. "We should go on a bike ride."
"Or a hike...so that the puppies can get out of the house," I suggested.
Later, after we put groceries away and took a nap, we left to go to Waid Park for what would be an unexpected 2-hour adventure.
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| Wally (back) and Crumpet (front) BEFORE our hike |
First walking around the long track at the bottom of the park and unable to let the puppies loose in the soccer fields, the puppies eagerly pulled us forward, ready to explore.
Tom suggested we take a shorter trail off to the left that we had taken before; I suggested we take a trail to the right that we had only traversed part of before. In order to take that trail, however, we had to walk over a small trickle of a stream and through some muddy areas. I walked ahead first to see how bad it was and then came back to report that I thought it would be okay. We picked the dogs up and carried them over the wet areas so that they didn't get all muddy. We got to a wider part of the stream and picked them up again to cross it. Thankfully, we were able to step on stones and clumps of grass to cross.
Well past the pristine soccer fields, we let the dogs off the leashes. We crossed what used to be a corn field and followed a long, grassy trail that led up a high hill. We walked through tall grasses and soft, spongy grasses, as we avoided cow pies and horse dumps. We finally reached the top and the trail entered the woods, which was markedly darker than where we'd come from because the sun was setting earlier than we thought it would. Once in the woods, the trail led down a long, rocky and slightly treacherous embankment. At the bottom, we lifted the dogs to cross a third small stream and then started heading up an even longer, rocky embankment. All the while, we were hollering ahead to tell Crumpet to stay with us.
Shortly after we reached the top of the hill, Crumpet took off chasing something through the woods, leaping and bounding over logs and through bushes until we couldn't see her anymore. Hollering after her for a good minute and completely disturbing all peace in the woods, we waited for her to return. Finally, she did return and was immediately put back on the leash. We continued walking along the ridge of this large wooded hill, hoping the trail would soon lead back to the main part of the park.
With all the tree canopy coverage, the woods were getting quite a bit darker, so it became more difficult to see. Just ahead of us and unbeknownst to us, Wally disturbed a nest of yellow jackets. All in about a matter of seconds, he came running back to us shaking his head (he'd gotten stung), and then Crumpet jumped and started flipping out (because she'd gotten stung) and then we see a couple of dark blobs in the air around us.
"Yellow jackets! RUN!" Tom cried.
Before I had time to see what he was talking about, we were sprinting down the trail as fast as we could go, calling Wally to follow us quickly. My heart was racing and adrenaline rushing. I'd never had to run from bees like that before. Tom finally stopped running and saw that the bees weren't following us, praise the Lord! Wally kept shaking his head and from that moment on, acted extremely pitiful, upset and not wanting to walk anymore. Crumpet kept moving, but also had to keep itching the bee sting on her back. Tom and I were amazed that neither of us got stung at all. Tom proceeded to tell me all about yellow jackets as the trail finally went back down the hill and turned back into a partially over-grown grassy trail next to another corn field.
Then, we came to what we'd been hoping we could avoid: the part of a trail where the Pigg River is much wider than the piddling little streams we'd crossed earlier. Tom remembered that there used to be a bridge that crossed the creek there, but it apparently hasn't been there for a long time. There was no where to go except across the creek, not knowing where it would lead us, or go back the way we'd come. We weighed our options. I had never crossed a creek that large before, much less barefoot. We had two dogs who don't like baths, one of whom didn't really want to move much at all. If we went back the way we came, we'd have to climb all of those huge hills again and pass the yellow jackets again. Suddenly, I was more interested in crossing the river!
We removed our socks and shoes and rolled our pants up (thankfully, I had capris on, but Tom had jeans on!). I crossed first, and BOY, was it rough on my tender feet! I guess that's a good reason to have calluses on your feet. The water was cool, but thankfully, not frigid! I almost slipped a couple times on the algae-covered rocks, but caught myself and eventually made it across. Tom started across, carrying his shoes and holding the dog leashes as the dogs swam across. We crossed right at a place where there were some small rapids, so I watched anxiously as my little Wally Bear struggled against the current. Crumpet made it across first, followed by Wally and Tom. Wally immediately cowered down on the rocks like he wasn't about to move one foot more! He was able to rest a minute while Tom and I wiped our feet off a bit and put our socks and shoes back on.
We tried to hurry on as dusk fast approached, but it was a little slow-going since poor Wally kept taking several steps and then stopping and hunching down to the ground. Poor little boy! We hoped and prayed that the trail would lead us back to the main part of the park because we were tired and concerned that our car might be ticketed or towed for being in the park after dusk (when the park closes). Or at the very least, they might close the gate and we'd be stuck in the park! The trail eventually led back to a gravel road that we remembered walking on another day and that is located on one far end of the park. We took the gravel road up another hill and had to decide to either take the very dark, wooded trail without any flashlights, or to go left on a continued gravel road that we guessed would lead out to the main road.
We decided to continue on the gravel road at a rapid pace to try to get back to our car as soon as possible, but much to my dismay, we were heading even further in the opposite direction of our car. We slipped around a locked gate, discovering that we'd been on private property (Oops!), and finally made it back to the very busy and dark Six Mile Post Road at the bottom of a hill that cars always fly up and down. We were not done walking up hills. As we walked on the shoulder of the busy road, this hill seemed to last forEVER! We kept hoping someone would come by and give us a ride! We finally made it to the top of the hill and entered back into Waid park (on foot) and started down the quarter mile or so road that leads down to the bottom of the park where our car was parked.Thankfully, the gate was still open!
We were slightly encouraged that other cars were still leaving as we headed down this road, so we were hopeful that all would be okay. Quite low on energy, the puppies trudged alongside us down the hill (finally DOWN a hill!). We still kept hoping that a ranger or someone would come by to ask people to leave the park and maybe give us a ride back down to the car. We finally reached the bottom and were about to cross the parking lot when a park official finally drove up to us and said he was closing the park.
"Yes, I know, we've been trying to get back to our car for the past half hour or so," Tom told him.
We finally got back to our car and collapsed into it! Back at home, Wally threw up on the floor, poor little guy and Crumpet was still itching at her sting. So, I took a shower and bathed them at the same time so that they could finally be comfortable and bed down.
Overall, it was a great 2-hour adventure, a surprise at every turn! :) Thanks for reading - sorry if it was boring! It definitely wasn't boring for us! :) Afterward, I pretty much just collapsed in bed!
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