Be Prepared

While still waiting on my furniture a couple of weeks ago, Zoe and I found the Sac River Trail. Now, I grew up with a father and brother involved in the Boy Scouts and I was a Girl Scout for a time. I have gone on lots of hikes and camped a decent amount in my lifetime. I am very aware of the Scout Motto: Be Prepared. However, as I got out of the car at the trail head, I realized I arrived without a trail guide, without a hat, without bug repellent, and in my "good" running shoes. Did this stop me from continuing? Hell no. We got out of the car and set off, Zoe leading the way off leash and thrilled to be exploring. We started on a trail that followed the river (or at least a tributary of it?) and I decided that would be how we would keep track of where we were . . . just follow the river. The problem arose when we CROSSED the river and then before I knew it the river was completely gone. I figured, okay, just keep following the dog and we'll be fine.

It was fun tramping along. The trails were oddly quiet and Zoe was clearly in her element so I just kept going. But then it got hot. And buggy. And it had been raining like CRAZY the day before we went so places along the trail were all mud.

Time passed . . . and passed . . . and I finally decided we needed to find our way back to the car as it was no longer really fun and I was getting hungry. So I figured out which way was south (we were heading north when we started our journey) and believed eventually we would find the route out.

Sure enough, we stumbled along the river again. WHEW. But then I hit a nasty patch of mud and fell INTO it. UGH. I was covered in mud and my shoes nearly disappeared in it. Well, that's no big deal, right? It's wasn't until I felt a tickle on my wrist and noticed a tick planning on a meal there that it became a big deal. It was very small, but clearly a tick and I managed to pull it off me before it became embedded.

When we passed a little tributary, I rinsed much of the mud off my leg and finally encountered some folks on the trail. They were, of course, in long pants, wearing hats and carrying water, and suggested to me that I get a walking stick as the rocks can be slippery. Well, after one fall in the mud, what's a little water? But surely they were better prepared than I was in every way.

As we worked our way out of the woods and into the full sunlight, I looked down at my legs and saw lots of little "spots" - it looked like mud splatter but having just pulled a tick off me, I knew better. Sure enough, those spatters were all ticks - I was COVERED in itty-bitty ticks (upon further research, they would have been in the larval stage - the one on my wrist was probably nymph stage). UGH. So I began removing them before they could really get a strong hold.

Fortunately, Zoe gets her monthly flea & tick treatment so she was all set.

Eventually, I believed I had gotten all of them and Zoe and I climbed back in the car. Along the way home, I stopped at a Panera Bread for breakfast and checked myself again in the bathroom . . . naturally I removed a few more I had missed. Oh dear.

Of course, when I got home, I did a full inspection and was tick-free. But my shoes were TRASHED and I was stinky from the mud, water, and sweat. The trail had licked me. THIS TIME.

I'm sure Zoe and I will return to the trail. Only next time, I'm going to be prepared.