#this was fun tho! sometimes (often) its worth convincing yourself to leave the house

[six-of-ravens]

Went for a walk in the park this morning! Decided to go a different way than usual (usually I go to this really foresty part and just wander amongst the trees, but this time I figured I'd shake it up) which was kind of a bad idea bc the sun was in my eyes almost the whole time, but I also ended up walking a lot further from the parking lot than usual!

Discovered the memorial forest I always see while driving but haven't actually been in. Apparently there's a tree there for my mom's friend who died of cancer a long time ago, but I don't know her full name so I couldn't find her on the memorial.

Saw some gorgeous fall colours on the way back! And then I couldn't figure out which way to go so I passed this couple with a rowdy dog (they were trying to teach it not to react to pedestrians but it was clearly still learning lol) and went up a hill....and discovered that was the wrong way to go, but didn't want to trouble the couple again so instead of going back down the hill I decided to take this extremely sketchy bike path instead:

My calves are not happy but I didn't fall on my ass so that's a victory!

Then the path disappeared and I was basically stuck on the wrong side of the river. At least I found some pretty moss and a wasp nest (?)

Eventually I realized I was on the opposite side of the river I always walk past when I go through the foresty part of the park, have always wondered what was on the other side lmao. The answer is a dead-end probably decommissioned bike path and some very thick underbrush (will have to do a really thorough tick check). Couldn't find a bridge (and didn't want to crash through the brush any more than I had to) so I found this improvised stepping stone path and somehow made it across without dunking myself:

Annnnd eventually made it back to the parking lot!

Can't believe I walked that far in like an hour round-trip, if I walked along the proper sidewalks it would take over an hour. Apparently Fish Creek Park is the secret shortcut to cover large distances through the city lmao.