Birthday hike

It was a beautiful day today, so my friend Diane took the day off of work and called to see if I'd want to do something outdoorsy. We decided to go on the same hike I did - and failed at - on Tuesday. This time I had reinforcements to judge whether the directions were correct, and we had a lot of fun.

We didn't see any deer today, but right off the bat, Rob found a snake - a "very well behaved snake," as he put it. After that we saw plenty of birds and squirrels.

It was a pretty sunny, beautiful day - the first one to reach the 70s all year. I could have used some sun screen, but oh well. I have a birthday burn now.

The thing I missed on my first run through - the glacial esker - we were able to find this time. I'm not going to say it was easy, but we found it. Basically you hike on a raised ridge that falls 30-50 feet on each side. You can't really see it here, but here's me and Diane on the esker.


The esker was pretty cool; it gave you a very raised-up view of the surrounding forest, so you could really see lots of birds. We saw cardinals, bluejays, robins, red-wing black birds, and others.

I got really mad after we finished hiking the esker, because we came to an intersection that I had actually found on Tuesday when I was trying to get back to the trail, but there were no markers, so I just abandoned it and went back to the road. Sighhhhh. Anyway, today we found our way just fine.

After the esker, you go through a low area, and it must have more moisture than the rest of the hike, because we found tons of new growth on the forest floor, as well as these amazing mosses.


I've never seen moss that big!

There was also a cute little creek that you cross at the end, and I'm sure if it had been a hotter day, we'd have wanted to dunk our heads in.


There are other hikes in the area, but we did the full 4.75 miles of this one and decided to call it a day; plus, Rob had to close at Walgreens. However, these days, simply driving around is a pleasure for Rob, as he finally gets to bust out his bike again.


Yes, I took this picture while driving! Oh well, I thought it was a good shot, and we were approaching an intersection, so we weren't going very fast.

Diane and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Young Catherine (a.k.a. Gregory Orlov Fest) and cutting up plastic bags that I am using to crochet into a bigger grocery tote. I'm using a pattern from the cover of my purse book, and I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. I will probably finish it just in time for Earth Day!

We're planning on doing another hike in the west suburbs tomorrow, as I am still off work and so is Diane. However, I think I will make sure to use sun screen this time...