22 November 2019 Sad Trip

The Niagara Falls area has been a work travel destination for over half my life.  This was not a trip I wanted to make.  Early in my career, I turned down a chance to relocate here.  After that, a really talented person was hired for the position I had passed by.  Through years of working together, he was also a friend.  He retired not long ago.  Today I joined his family, friends, and other colleagues to pay my respects.  Sometimes life isn't fair.  I am not here often anymore.  On the way back home, I stopped for a walk before my drive.

16 November 2019 Harborcreek

We were in Pennsylvania with the first snow.  Since it was hunting season and we wanted to cache, we made a visit to Harborcreek and the town park.  We found a few caches before deciding the sharp wind was too much.  The blue sky and snow made for a scenic walk in the park.

9 November 2019 Mosquito Creek State Park

We took a quiet walk with the dogs through the woods at Mosquito.  The trail led us to a peaceful pond with a few mallards.

2 November 2019 The Wilderness Center

Half of the trails at The Wilderness Center in Wilmot are open to dogs.  Since I had been traveling for the week, we had the dogs with us to visit the dog-friendly trails.  The center has recently completed trail work on the dog side which opened areas we hadn't been able to hike in years.  It was a perfect place to spend a late fall afternoon.

Lizzie joins the geocache search.

1 November 2019 Walking In Rocky River

It was a short trip to Mexico.  The weather was nice on my late afternoon return to Ohio so we enjoyed a walk in Rocky River Reservation to enjoy the fall colors.

30 October 2019 Snow? De-icing?

I was on my way to Mexico with a stop in Chicago.  The weather at Cleveland Airport was in the 50's.  I wasn't expecting snow when we landed.  Before leaving for Monterrey, the plane was de-iced. Some years, I am many flights needing de-icing.  This would be my first and last of the season in what would become the strangest year of my career.

Ewwww, slime.

Our green-winged bird was ready.  It was time to head to Monterrey.  The weather there would be the coldest I have experienced yet on one of these trips.

28 October 2019 Visiting ASP

You can't pick the weather on a day off, but occasionally you get really lucky.  We decided to take a day and visit Allegany State Park for a last walk on the trails before cold and snow arrived.  It was a blue sky day as we started with a visit to Mount Tuscarora Fire Tower.

Two very happy dogs

27 October 2019 Special Day

We were out for a walk in the Allegheny National Forest.  It may not have been the way most people spend their 30th annivesary, but it worked for us.  We spent a quiet afternoon on the trail with the dogs.  It was the same way we have spent so many of our days and hopefully will spend so many more.

20 October 2019 A Walk Along the Allegheny

I had big hopes for this bird house when I installed it.  Within a week someone started building a nest in it.  They never finished.  Maybe next spring.

After completing fall chores on the property we took a fall walk in the Allegheny National Forest along the Allegheny River.

We spotted a number of turtles enjoying the fall sun on a few logs.

19 October 2019 Back on the Trail Slowly

I had been on supermeds for a week and a half.  Somehow I had only missed one day of work.  I was still weak and wobbly, but determined to get back to a normal life if possible.  We were making a first visit in a long time to our Pennsylvania home.  SGL190 was on the way.  It's a fairly gentle gamelands so this was a good place to try.

It felt really good to be with Ali and the dogs when we visited the first cache.

One down.  Eight more to go.

Lizzie was happy.  She's usually in motion unless we are signing a log book.  Then she's often pulling leaves into a dog bed.  Today she was excited to be back on the trail after over a month of down time.

It was a mostly uneventful, fall walk through pleasant woods.

Until we reached the second last cache.  We had crossed a stream and climbed a very steep hill to reach the cache.  Ali found the cache and we were ready to go...  down.

Normally trails like this are fun, but I was exhausted.  I still didn't have my balance back, and I had to take a dog with me.  The path down was too steep to give Ali both dogs while I made my way down.

I made it down!  I can't remember which dog came with me.  I had survived my first day back on the trail.