As the weather gets cooler I want to get out more. The whole summer consisted with Love rushing to my house and us dashing to a cafe for some AC and iced tea. You can guess that that got rather dull rather quickly. So when the sticky SoCal heat mellowed out a bit, I've been running a muck outdoors as much as possible. I've also been dreaming about tranquil scenery with my stressful career; rolling hills and sweet strolls through greenery and fresh natural scents.
My puppies were getting cabin fever; it's been almost 3 months without a good run. I've been feeling guilty about it but there's not much you can do when it was constantly 100 degrees outside. I wanted to make it up to them so I made sure to pull out all the stops.
I brought my pups to Eaton Canyon, which is nestled at the foot of the hills of Sierra Madre. I remembered hiking to the giant fountain and back when I was younger, and I never took Love through there. With the fog and light rain, we were guaranteed that there would be no sticky unpleasant sweat and heat to bother us. When we got there I was so surprised at how packed it was! We barely found parking, and when we did we were surrounded by groups of hikers. There was no way that we were going to have a tranquil walk with that crowd, so we opted for the next best thing and took a light stroll near the nature center.
It did the trick! I was welcomed by the sweet smell of wet earth mixed with buckwheat and sage blossoms. That smell is so heavenly to me and marks a huge chuck of my childhood. I enjoyed the sound of wildlife and the light stroll through the picnic areas and little trails. I also got to give the pups a little extra time to stroll about and sniff things without such a big crowd around us.
The trail was short so we took our time, we made sure to take every little route. One thing that was memorable was the Outdoor Classroom which was basically a small amphitheater with a fire pit. We dreamed of using it for outdoor plays in the Spring; something we will definitely look into. The thought of it was an adventure in itself. Love saw his first look at California Quails as they flew over his head and started to run in a line. A little fact is that I LOVE Quails, I think they're one of my most cherished animals. It was so wonderful to hear their little beeping noises again and share it with him.
At the end of the day the pups were completely wiped out and slept early. I hope to bring them out more to outing like this. Next time we'll take the hike to Waterfall for sure! It was just the right bit of tranquility that I needed.
-Stef
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