Okay, so I’ve only been twice now, three times if you count our first geocaching trip, but…I think I actually have a craving to go hiking now! And considering how completely non-outdoorsy I am, that’s a very strange new thing for me. Chris and I kicked off the New Year with a trip to Prince William Forest Park to do a 3-mile hike, but we haven’t been able to go since then (I was working on getting rid of some kind of cough for a little while). Prince William Forest Park on New Year’s Day was great – we only saw one other pair of hikers for the entire time we were there, and it was just really peaceful. Of course I brought my little point-and-shoot along to show you some visual goodies.
The hike was recommended in our guidebook, and one of the things the trail description mentioned was that this was a good place to see “beaver activity.” When we read that, we had absolutely no idea what to expect (beavers just chillin’ and hanging out? beaver parties or games?), but we got about half-way through the hike and saw this down by a stream – huge mature trees, with tons of little teeth-marks! Some of the trees were still being worked on (above), but some were completely knocked over by the power of these animals (below). I hadn’t ever seen anything like this before. It’s an easy hike, probably easy enough for smaller kids – it was certainly educational for us so I imagine it would be neat for the kiddos to see.
We’re hoping to be able to go hiking again soon, assuming the weather isn’t nutty. The plan is to try each of the trails in our guidebook, and I’m assuming that once the weather gets warmer and the bugs start coming out, I won’t want to go anymore (I know, I know…most people like to hike in nice weather).
