Stoneridge Trail
We began at the west end of Stoneridge Trail. This brought back memories of Amber, who first introduced me to this trail and which is one of my favorites. We made it almost to the open area to the east when we met a lady with a German Shepard and a Golden Retriever. She had stopped on the trail constricted with two fences and I signaled that we would move off the trail in an open area while they passed. She insisted that we proceed, which we did. Suddenly, she was being pulled by her dogs toward us and unable to stop them. I don’t believe that she could have stopped even one of them from pulling her as these dogs were big. I was concerned that Brandy might snarl and start a fight, even though the dogs seemed friendly. Fortunately, she, the dogs and I milled around for a moment and then Brandy and I were able to pass with no snipping or snarling.
We went past the houses, hiked a few minutes in the open space and came to a small trail that led toward the creek. We thought we’d take the small trail and a couple of minutes later Brandy stopped and placed her body across my path. I stopped and moved slowly ahead. She gave a little but still kept her body crosswise to the path. I thought that maybe she sensed something ahead so deferred to her, returning to the main trail.
Shortly we came to Sycamore Creek and met up with Old Coach Trail. We took it to the left, toward Highland Valley Road. After a climb up the steep hill, we took a spur that was used to reset the power poles and then returned to the main trail. Once again Brandy put her body across my path. I moved away from her back the way we had come and she quickly moved ahead of me. I thought I’d reverse direction and once again she moved in front of me and blocked me. Once again, I deferred to her and we continued back across Sycamore Creek.
When we started up back up the hill we saw a smaller trail off to the left and took that. It was a pleasant walk along the creek and then back up the hill but at a more gentle slope. This trail was the same one that we had previously started on that from the main trail; it was just a bypass. Brandy didn’t seem to have a problem with using it from the other end.
We came upon some shrubs with white bumps and no leaves. Upon closer inspection, the white bumps were flower buds just beginning to open. I think we’ll come back in a week or so and enjoy the flowers!
We uneventfully completed the hike.