Winter Farm Walk About 1/17/23

Picture by Kathy O'

Our 1/17/2023 farm walk-about turned into a day filled with below listed surprises and “firsts” for the Tuesday Group.

1. We had no rain although all “official” weather reports up to that day kept reporting a 40 to 70% chance

(Truth: We ended up having a tiny, off and on, light sprinkle toward very end of hike with a slightly heavier sprinkle as we walked past the mail box toward our cars.)

2. We had the lowest number of participants ever for a Farm Walk-about, down to 5 from an original count of 16 signed up.

(Reasons: The lower number of participants was expected because many TG regulars, who knew and loved Christine Morgan as a friend and former TG participant, planned to attend her funeral service that day.

I even was not too surprised when those already signed up started cancelling because of the day’s expected heavy rains.. As those cancellations rolled in, I began to plan the route my two dogs and I would take that morning should no one show up at the club house.

Then, as first Carl, then Bill, Kathy, and Boston, followed by Terry, drove in, I not only was pleased to have other TG’ers join Harley, Duchess and I on a hike, but also relieved at the number and mix of those showing up.

If no one had shown up, I planned to take a route I’d never led on a TG farm hike. With many participants, I didn’t feel it would be the best hike for everyone.

However, as those five exited their cars, I felt none would mind following me on a little expedition hike/search I’d been thinking about making for months. It would involve trying to find a “hidden entrance” through some woods before reaching an interesting area and site where, months ago, I’d accidently stumbled upon and where I got “lost” for way close to two hours, thankfully with my dogs, while on a solo farm walk. This “entrance” we’d be looking for was from where I finally was able to “escape” that area’s too-long entrapment of me those many months ago.

3. We hiked the entire distance without putting one foot on my farm’s property, something never done before on a TG farm walk-about.

(Fact: Once everyone gathered, and agreed it would be OK with them to “go searching for a “hidden entrance”, we left the club house, turned right on the road, and never glimpsed the farm’s property again until we returned.)

4. Our 6.4 +/- mile hike was the longest distance ever hiked on a TG farm walk-about.

5. No TG leader has ever gotten their participants so completely “lost” or, maybe the truer word would be “ disoriented”, as did I on Tuesday’s adventure.

(Facts: Once we found the “hidden entrance” and pushed through its woods a short distance, it was interesting for the day’s participants to learn we then were walking on a dirt road that formerly circled around inside a huge former Foxhound/Fox training encampment/prison. Even though the Government closed the facility years ago, one still can see along the entire side of that road hundreds of feet and yards of rolled up rusting wire and electric equipment once used to keep the animals within those then “training killing grounds. However then, , once we thought about exiting the now abandoned facility at the spot we entered, , I made the “bright suggestion?” we pass it and look for the spot where I first entered the area those many months ago.

OK, that was a big mistake. Before long we all realized while we really did not want to make the long return walk on that road to our original point of entry, none of us knew which would be the best trail, distance wise, to take back to the hunt club. At that point we stopped to consider which of two trails we came upon would be the best one to take back to the hunt club.

Thank goodness then for the day’s second leader. Carl stepped forward with his GPS and, thankfully, took the lead.

Had we followed either of the two trails we were discussing as being the fastest one “back home”, neither would have been good. One would have put us out on Booth Road and the other on Sadler, and both would have had us walking along those main paved country roads for too many more miles to count before reaching the cars ☹!!

Even then I did not realize how far beyond the hunt club we’d gone. Carl’s experienced lead immediately took us in a totally different direction and had us breaking our own trail through the woods for about a mile, sharing walking poles for crossing a long log over a stream, hiking uphill, and passing strange fields to me and ones not seen from any road, before we came out on Freeman’s road way before the next door farmer’s mail box!!

6. First time ever that no ice cream social followed a farm walk-about.

(Reason: Hosting an ice cream “party” on the day of Christine’s funeral service, in my opinion, would have been disrespectful. But, hosting one on the next farm walk-about in celebration of Christine’s life, friendship and association with the TG should be a heartwarming treat for all who remember or knew her.

Count on it just as you can count on my not getting anyone lost or disoriented on the next farm walk-about.

All in all, the entire day was a fun, interesting, different and great experience for this leader, as I truly believe the others also found it to be, at least I hope so

For sure it only more firmly cemented my belief in TG’ers being the best ever when it comes to accepting, without complaints, any and all activity changes and adventures with humor, ease and grace.

Thank you all.

Sandra Canepa, leader for the January 17, 2023, TG hike..