Gotta Hike

This morning I knew that since I did not have a substitute job I HAD to go for a hike and take advantage of this gorgeous day that God gave us.

I looked through my hike book and knew that I did not want to drive too far for it, and also not go on a hugely strenuous hike. No South Sister hiking for me. I found Benham Falls to be perfect.




Pixar and I got stuff ready and headed out around 9ish to head toward Lava Butte and Benham. It was a great day for this.  We started at the Picnic area and walked to the Veiwing Area. After that we started down to the Slouth hiking trail. There was no one in our way the whole way out to where we stopped. We saw no other hiker/bikers. But, then on the way back we saw a few parties heading the other way.

Pixar did really well with this hike. He pulled like crazy because of being so excited at first, but after we got to where no one was, I let him free and he ran and ran and ran. He would occasionally look back to make sure that I was still on the trail, especially at trail splits. He might go off on the wrong trail and then look back and make sure he was still going the right way. It was so cute.


At one point I knew he would look back and so I froze and hid from him and he was looking around for me for a bit, then I started walking again, he saw me and ran to where I was. Its fun to trick my pup.

Afterwards, he was tired. When we got back to the car, there were many groups just getting out and getting ready for their hike. I was glad that I went nice and early. Close to the start of the hike is a device that is a person-cable-tether-device that goes from one side of the river to the other. It is marked clearly "Please, keep off" but as I was driving out, there were some high schoolers on the device. It makes me upset when people don't follow directions/rules.


I thought about what I would do if I was hiking with youngsters. What would they think? What would I say? I might stop and ask the kids I was with if they could read the sign and when they read- "Please keep off" I would discuss with them loud enough that we need to follow directions/rules and stay off things like that.
Also, I found that many people do not pay the fee to park there. I enjoy getting the one-year pass that covers me, but others just park and start walking. That makes me upset as well.


I hope that if you go to a hiking trail that asks you to pay a fee to use the trail that you do.