365 True Things: 284/Walking

After several blessed days of rain rain rain, today was bright and beautiful and perfect for a long walk. Milo and I did a big loop, up into the BLM hills. We were treated to meadowlarks and western bluebirds; a shepherd working his border collie by whistles (he finally whistled the dog to him and many hugs ensued); a big flock of not sheep but goats, keeping the growing grass in check. It felt great to stretch my legs, and Milo clearly enjoyed drinking from pritnear every puddle he came across.

As we arrived in back of the housing estate that abuts the parking lot we'd set off from, I heard children squealing and splashing. Uh oh. Splashing. I'd completely forgotten about Toro Creek. And what rain can do to a dry creekbed.

When I got to the crossing, sure enough, the creek was flowing. A half dozen kids were on the other side, some on bikes, accompanied by a woman, also on a bike. A boy, maybe nine years old, was wading as sloppily as he possibly could in black rubber Wellies. The woman warned him, "Don't let the water in your boots!" He just laughed. He was having a great time.

Me, I didn't feel like sitting down and taking off my shoes, rolling up my pants, with an audience. But I knew of another crossing, back a ways; a narrower section that might just be jumpable. So off we went. When I got there, there was a woman with two little boys, one of whom was collecting rocks. Just ordinary rocks, maybe quarter sized. But he was totally engrossed. The woman, meanwhile, sounded peeved, like she'd been nagging at him that they needed to get going for a while already. He calmly announced that he'd counted and he had twenty-nine rocks.

Alas, the stream was too wide to jump. So it was off with the shoes and socks anyway. My potential audience seemed to ignore me. (I think: I ignored them, so who knows?) And then I waded across. The water was only lower-calf deep. Nice and cold. Refreshing.

As I redonned my footwear, the woman asked, "Were you expecting to have to cross the creek?" I said no, I'd completely forgotten about that part of my walk. She said, "I've lived here three years, and it's the first time I've ever seen water in it." We agreed it was a very nice sight.

That detour probably added a mile to my hike. So yeah: I made up for the last few days with little exercise: I just checked my walk-o-meter, and it says I've gone 14,913 steps today. Feels good!