Labor Day Weekend, 2017…Ashley decided to head down to Hollywood, Florida to visit with Austin so Cooper the grandpup was spending the weekend with us. Flagler College doesn’t take Labor Day off so Jenna didn’t come home for the weekend.
What to do, what to do?
ConnieLou has had a bum knee lately so I was a bit surprised when she said let’s take the dogs hiking somewhere. I knew we’d need a relatively flat trail, a trail that would be fairly easy to navigate with the dogs, and one that’s not too far from home. Fortunately I knew the perfect trail. We threw a couple of bottles of water in my daypack, loaded up the pups, and headed for Chattahoochee Bend State Park to take a walk the Riverside Trail.
Once in the park we got the pups leashed up and headed up the trail toward the observation tower about a mile upriver…
I try to walk the Riverside Trail from the day use area to the observation tower at least a couple of times a year and I can always pick out some change since the previous trip. This time around a creek that winds its way through the park had claimed a large tree…
As we walked along I was happy to see lots of stick tracks…
What’s a stick track? Simple, a stick track is the line in the trail surface left by a little kid dragging the end of his or her walking stick in the dirt. Sometimes that walking stick may be polished walking stick purchased in a park’s campground store but more often than not it’s simply an unrefined stick found trailside and repurposed as a walking stick. Why am I happy to see stick tracks? Because it tells me that someone thought it would be a better idea to take their little one outside for a walk in the woods instead of staying inside to watch TV or play video games.
We made it to the tower, gave the pups some water and took a few minutes to look around before heading to the car…
I’ve got to give ConnieLou a lot of credit, there were a few times that I could tell that her knee was not very happy but when I would suggest turning back she would say no through gritted teeth and push on. Tough one she is…
Get Out! 
ConnieLou sounds like my wife Cathy. She’s earned her trail name, “Adam Ant” because she is ADAMANT that we will finish any given hike regardless of her aches and pains.
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