We had beautiful weather here today and as usual, such weather put us in the mood for a lovely walk in the woods with Riley. It’s been a long time since we walked up the hill from the Wilson Mills trailhead to the Forest Picnic Area, so that’s where we headed. We figured that once we reached the top of the hill we’d stop, give Riley some water, then head back down via the bridle path that more or less parallels the paved trail. I’ve included a handy map below.

So we had a lovely walk up the hill. Riley’s still in training, so we shoved a teeny smidgen of chicken-like product in his mouth around every fourth step. We passed quite a few other people walking their dogs or riding bikes. When Riley managed to ignore the distractions, he got a treat. We even passed some guy on his horse, looking all jaunty in his boots and goofy hat. He caused Riley to go eleven and a half seconds without a treat. Then the danger was past. And Riley got a treat. We reached the top in around a half hour, and after Riley had his water and even more treats, we headed into the woods to start down. This is when we seem to have taken a wrong turn.

We passed a family walking their overexcited mutt as we entered the woods. This took our mind off paying attention to trail signs and onto Riley’s behavior, and our first bad decision was made. We meandered off in the general direction of Chardon Road.

As we continued down what we believed to be the correct path, it felt to me like we were headed a little too far north, but no big deal. We’d end up where we needed to be. Or, you know. Not.

When we broke out of the woods at Oxbow Lane, I knew we had a hike on our hands.

Notice the aborted attempt to correct our mistake by following what is apparently a little-used bridle trail into a swamp. We made it to about where the little horsey sign is before we got tired of slogging through mud and underbrush, turned around, and headed back out towards Chagrin River Rd.

Then we took another detour. We decided that, rather than walk in traffic through the twisties (not shown on this map, but trust me, they’re there), we’d walk the loop through Riverview Rd. A pleasant diversion that added another mile to our trek.

We finally made it back to the car, where Riley drank most of a bottle of water and we laughed at ourselves for managing to get “lost” in a Metropark. And that’s how we turned a 4 mile walk into a 7 mile odyssey.

Oh, and…

We have a new banner. The increasingly inaccurate “freezing our asses off” banner was starting to get on my nerves. Problem is, all my Joe-n-Dave pics are here at home and every time I thought about making up a new banner I was at my office. Figured I’d throw in a few color tweaks while I was at it. Makes me feel like I know what I’m doing after spending five hours today not getting other web-ish to work.

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