I think I may have overdone it...

Noni has gotten used to going for a walk when I am home all day, like on the weekends. She expects it now, so when she doesn't get it, she usually whines and growls at me until we do...

Today was so nice. It was cold, below freezing, so the ground wasn't muddy. I decided that we would go on a trail that we've never been on before. The trail-head is just up the road from where we live, so we headed out.

It was a lovely walk. The trail was paved, but there were side trails that were not, like for horses and stuff. On the paved part, dogs are required to be on a leash, but not on the regular trail. Noni doesn't get to go off leash too often, mainly because she gets distracted easily and doesn't respond to commands. We walked out to the end of the trail on the paved part, which just so happened to be another trail-head. On the way back, we kept to the side trails and she got to go around off leash. She loves it and it makes my shoulders feel better (with her dog-sled breeding, she PULLS and no amount of training so far has gotten her to stop pulling...) She usually goes up a little way, stops and turns around to make sure that I'm coming, and then goes some more. She is doing better, and it was good that there weren't too many people using the trail today.

There is a trail that t's off the main trail that goes to Dimond Park, so we came home on that trail. I figured it would go on the other side of the river (which it did) but it also put us out in front of the new high-school, so we came home through the neighborhoods.

Man, were we tired when we got back... Based on my average walking speed of 3 miles an hour, we were gone for a little over 2 hours. (You do the math...) My feet and legs were so tired that I had to crawl up my stairs to lay down. Noni is currently flopped over on her side. She gets up when I do, then flops over again. I can only move now because I soaked in a nice hot bathtub with epsom salts. Oh, and the handful of ibuprofen I took.

This whole walking thing is good, but I think I'll try to keep it to 3-4 miles total for a while.

I wish I had batteries in my camera today to take pictures to post. The trees were all frost covered and the winter sun stayed low and golden over everything. Besides being tired, the walk was beautiful. It makes me thankful to live in such a wonderful place (and that the bears are going to sleep...)