Lick Creek

Melanie and I went on a grand adventure to Lick Creek, a natural preserve park here in town. We set off with a camera, water bottle and lots of energy. We hiked on a main trail for a while and I met a few people. Then we took a side trail that looked much smaller but promising (and it was on the map). As we hiked along it was great to smell all these weird smells and breath in all the fresh air. At one point, a runner came up behind us and it scared me a little cause I didn't hear him approaching.

Anyway, after hiking for a REALLY LONG time we got to this place where a bridge should have been. Fearing nothing I leaped down, jumped the little bit of water, and bounced up the far bank. Melanie took it a little slower, but she made it too. That's when the trail just disappeared! But just before this Melanie had noticed that red flags were marking the trail, so she decided we should just follow those. We did this for a while, bushwhacking our own trail. We figured that the runner hadn't come back past us so he must have blazed the trail too! But then we were surrounded suddenly by a herd of cows. They were really loud and mooing and scary! Melanie freaked out (okay, in all honesty I freaked out and she rescued me calmly). So we retreated a bit but they kept following us. By this point Melanie was concerned that we were NOT on a trail and perhaps lost. I just wanted to get away from the cows! So as a brave hiker, Melanie turned us around and we went back the way we came eventually crossing over that creek/water again and following the path home.

I got really tired and started to drag behind Melanie well before we made it back to the car, but she refused to pick me up and carry me. I figure we were hiking for about 1.5 hours or so and a slow steady pace. At the entrance, Melanie checked the map again but she is still puzzled about the cows. If it weren't for them we probably would have completed the loop and earned our trail blazer badges.