A walk in the woods

Older Daughter came up for the day so we could all go for a walk in the woods.

There is so much woods around us, but because we're off the beaten path, there aren't any official hiking trails. Instead we loaded up Mr. Darcy and went to where we knew a well-established logging road snaked into the forest. We found a spot to park and went walking.

We didn't go terribly far – maybe 2.5 miles altogether – and it was nice and easy. But we enjoyed it so much that Don and I intend to walk parts of this road a lot more often.

One funny thing happened. We saw a rustle of a black-furred animal hidden among some brush, and I yanked out my camera. "I think it's a young moose!"

Well, um, it wasn't a moose.

It was the funniest thing in the world to be walking along what seemed to be a remote logging road, only to have a llama follow us long a fence line.

It was obviously a defense animal and it glared at us, spittin' mad (literally), so we stayed well away from him. He was not an animal I'd care to meet in a dark ally. But it sparked a lot of "What? A llama? He's supposed to be dead!" jokes as we passed him by.

 

We passed a nice outcrop of mica schist, otherwise known as flagstone. Don made a mental note of this, as he's always wanted a flagstone walkway.

We also spotted this furry little woollybear caterpillar.

As we headed back to the car, we spotted a rare Freezerus deepchestius. These, thankfully, are hard to spot in the wild.

All in all, it was a very nice early-spring amble. It felt good to stretch our legs, though Mr. Darcy came home pooped.

It's a good thing we took our walk when we did. The weather hit a balmy 70F today, but the wind is kicking up and the temperatures are plunging overnight.

Winter is slowly loosening its grip, but it's not gone yet.