My First Hike!!

Since the weather has been getting so nice down here, Dad has finally decided that I was old enough to follow through on something he has talked about for awhile now: Taking me on my first hike! We drove to a place nearby in Rock Creek Park, a HUGE wooded area that runs through Washington, DC. The Zoo is part of it, and Dad bikes through it a lot. It is a gorgeous place! As you can see from the picture above, I'm ready for adventure.

We walked along a path, and went under a bridge. There was a nice footpath alongside a river. I stopped here to talk to Dad about the bridge and how nice it all looked.

Along the trail we saw a disturbingly large amount of poop. Dad told me that this came from horses that people walk on the trail with, and I couldn't really understand why you are made to clean up after your dogs and not your horses, when horses leave about 50 pounds more poop per bowel movement than dogs...I think we're not focusing on the right animal here, people.

Seriously...there was a lot of poop on the trails.

We came upon a lot of bridges that crossed over the water, so we had a perfect view of the creek as it wound through the woods. On a few occasions, we saw dogs playing in the water with their owners. They were having a lot of fun, and I had a lot of fun watching them! (At a distance, of course!)

Dad took this neat picture of our shadows as we hiked. He had  a diaper bag, and I, of course, had my trusty stick. It's always nice to have a stick while you're out walking around in the woods. You can use it as a walking stick, to clear some brush, or hit a tree if you feel like it. A very versatile thing, those sticks...

On the way out of the woods, we stopped so I could play in the sand on the footpath that we saw on our way into the woods at the start of our hike. I hung out there for awhile under the bridge, and made lots of of shapes with the sand. It was pretty fun.

Here, you can see my finished sand castle. It doesn't have the exquisite detail that many sand castles have, because the sand was dry, but I think it showed my skill as a designer, and looked exactly how I had hoped it would.

And yes. Dad made me wash my hands afterwards.