Day 8, Thursday July 15th
I woke up to a gentle rain at 0645. I had a hiking date with Ethan at noon and needed to get the pups walked a few additional miles to calm them down. I figured walking a few miles on the Prairie-Dunesland trail in Chesterton, a paved 10' trail far enough away from wet grass and ticks, would be ideal. I've biked that 11-mile trail from end to end years ago and I remember some very scenic sections.
I waited out several downpours before venturing out, watching the rain pound my Honda's windshield. Rain was in the forecast all day, with intermittent dry spells.
The problem is, I didn't get to the trail. I parked in Porter, IN at the Hawthorne Community Park, but the paved trail there did not take me to the actual greenway. So I made it a neighborhood walk around Porter, amassing four miles. At one point the trail took us over the busy I-94/I-80 interstate. I turned around shortly after reaching the north end of the trail that ended there.
I'll walk the Prairie Duneland trail another time, when I'm not pressed for time.
The skies were slowly easing up. It was 10am and I had time to check out the Moraine Nature Preserve, another new tract of land I've yet to discover.
Finding this place took using Google Maps as there are no directional signs off IN49 to this place. This preserve looks like property that was sold back to the county because of its flooding capabilities. It's geologically the dried portions of Lake Michigan. Millions of years ago Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes were much larger, but have receded over time.
Trails are on old, potholes roads as well as mowed prairie paths and are not marked. Alltrails list this area's trails as 2.5 miles. Bee balm, purple coneflowers and sunflowers are the dominant summer flowers. These are all flowers that make me think of the Indiana prairie and marshlands.
There was no one else around. Even the biting bugs were absent. Perhaps they all drowned overnight. Despite signs to keep dogs on leash, I let them run free. They enjoyed chasing each other up and down the grassy paths, frolicking in the wet grass and stopping to sniff the flowers. They were dogs having fun.
We ended up racking up another two miles before I had to pack them back into the Honda and head out to pick up Ethan at noon. His other grammy Annette and her son Daniel were already in the home babysitting the two younger boys. We chatted a bit before I took Ethan for yet another walk around Coffee Creek Preserve, his favorite place to sit and/or wade in the cool, clear water.
This wasn't a long hike, but now the dogs were enjoying splashing in the water. Sheba took to Ethan well. Both dogs followed him into the water while I stayed on the banks. We were just inside the closed-off boardwalk and didn't want to draw attention to ourselves. Despite the rains this area has gotten in the past weeks, the paths weren't too muddy.
We didn't hike the three miles Ethan had told me we would (I wasn't expecting us to). It was more like 1.8 miles. The dogs now had hiked almost eight miles today; they surely wanted a break! Sahne rolled around in mud all morning and her fur was getting grey.
We finished the day with a stop at Culver's for custard. The pups each got a pup scoop.
More rain was forecasted for the late afternoon, but that never came. We had cool overcast skies the rest of the day.
I was ready to put both Sheba and Sahne in the Honda to calm down once evening came. They had been barking at the other dogs who they had been watching run around in the back yard. But as I walked past the neighbor's Black Lab puppy Thor with Sahne on her leash, Sahne didn't bark. She wanted to play! So I took her off leash and the two dogs chased each other and wrestled. Sheba saw the fun so she was let off-leash as well. Before the evening was over, Macks and Sheba and Sahne and Thor were running in the back yard. Yay for progress! Having dogs get alone without anxious barking is a step forward.
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