We hadn’t decided what to do this weekend as it was approaching, until the Mineral Wells State Park staff announced on their Facebook page that they were doing a “Wild Walk” on Saturday. What caught my attention was the picture, of kids walking through a low-ceiling shallow cave, using their hiking staves to keep balance. This reminded me so much of hiking the Woods (as we called it) when I was a teenager that I decided we had to go check it out. As a bonus, it didn’t start until 2pm, which meant we could sleep normally and still get there, given that we weren’t camping at the park (most of these things seem to start between 8 and 10am, and we’re an hour and a half drive away).
We’d hoped to kill an hour beforehand by looking for the TPWD official geocache, but the trails, unfortunately, were closed due to wet conditions. No big deal, we just walked them around the loop by the hike’s starting point until everyone else showed up. By the time the ranger and other attendees arrived and we were ready to go, we had learned two things. First, we’ve been bad about regular walks with the dogs…they were being a little less obedient about heeling than normal. Second, Huyana needs much more socialization time…there was a family with a tiny poodle that they appeared to treat as a toy for their toddler daughter. Huyana barked and whined and pulled — she desperately wanted to play with it…or at least chase it. Given the situation, the best I could manage for the hike was to keep our distance and try to avoid letting Huyana focus on the other puppy. It helped a bit that the owners carried it for just about the entire hike…I forsee issues with small dog syndrome in that family.
We started off down a steep slope, then around behind a boulder to begin our adventure. They really drove home the warning about the walk’s difficulty right away, since the next thing we know, we’re crawling on our hands and knees through a tunnel of stone. And that was how the rest of the hike went….through tunnels, over boulders, up and around the lip of a cave, across creeks, and through many brambles and briars.
We were both quite thankful for the hands-free leashes. The dogs calmly followed us through all of it. Several times, people tried to help Vaquita over things, but Brandy kept telling them that to be patient and let her figure it out. Every time, Vaquita managed her own way through or over the obstacle. We were so proud of our little problem-solver.
Another particularly amusing moment came when I attempted “The Squeeze.” This was a thin tunnel between two 30-foot high rock walls. At one point, a ridge of rock juts out, that kids have no problem with, but almost all adults can’t get past. I gave it a shot, but while it didn’t catch my gut, my ribcage was another matter. Oh well, but when I started back, I was so proud of Huyana — she backed up one step at a time, keeping pace with me until the tunnel widened enough that she could slip past me back to the heel position.
And after all that, we climbed the stairs, finishing the hike with a gorgeous view of the lake, as the sun was getting low in the sky. It was a perfect day, and we look forward to doing it again soon!
