Another New Trail?!?!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags.  Today we found another new-to-us trail!  It was so awesome!

We thought we were going on one of our regular routes - behind the fire house, up into Colbert Hills, into BelleRagnar, behind the apartments in Meridan to check the view -- a simple 4-5 mile route.  But ... there we were, behind the apartments ...

"Look at how pretty the hills look today!"
"Yeah, BelleRagnar was fun, but I like the wide open prairie better than housing areas!"

I thought we were going to get back on the big street and head right - back toward Ao4 Headquarters - but Dad said we should go left!  And something about "trying it today" and "if it's not too muddy" and ... basically that's all I heard.  Let's GO!!!

It was just like one of our normal routes, but then at the church, Mom and Dad said to turn again!  We've never turned at the church!

"Best behavior, Ragnar; God's watching."
"I thought He was always watching ..."

He had a point there!  Anyway, we had seen sort of narrow trails from down below, and Dad proposed that we go behind the church and find where they start -- see if we could go exploring!  What a great idea, huh?!?

We found a little entry point, and Ragnar and Mom led the way.

"It's mud, but frozen mud, Mom!  Ooh!  Rock!  Don't trip!"
"Thanks, Ragnar!"

It was in the 20s when we left the house, so the ground was still nice and frozen.  Mom and Dad thought it was the perfect day to go exploring.  Did I agree?  Here's my answer:

"THIS IS SO FUN!!!!"

Seriously.  I can't even tell you how exciting it was up there!  So many smells, so much climbing -- it was awesome!

Let's see how Raggi's doing:

"I'm having a blast, too, Mags!"

It wasn't really a trail, per se, more like someone had driven a truck or a 4-wheeler over the prairie and smooshed the grasses down.  Plus, there were deer trails.  THAT was mighty exciting, too!  Anyway, Mom's calling this the "Colbert Hills Ridge Trail".  I call it FUN!!!

Mom loves this shot of me:

It warmed up quickly out there - it may have hit 40 before we got home.  Mom and Dad were peeling off hats and gloves!

Here's one last look at us out on the trail:

"This is the best, Raggi!"
"Absolute best, Mags!"

It ended up being 7 miles, almost right on the nose.  Longer than we'd planned on, but not bad! 

If you'd like to see some of the landscape shots Mom took, please click here to visit an album on FlickR.  Thanks for joining us!!!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher