Yesterday we drove north to Interstate State Park, on the Wisconsin side of the St. Croix river, for some slow hiking to accommodate birdwatching. We followed the upland path out to an old farmstead which has a spring that feeds a small wetland, which then spills over a waterfall into the valley below.
Some of the streams we crossed to get there were a bit dodgy (draining farmland above) so it was nice to have crystal clear water for the pups to clean off in!
Zeena has perfect timing!
The original plan was just to get some ambient video of spring water rippling over the shallow pebble streambed.
A bit further down past the spring you enter a pine forest that passes by the edge of a steep ravine. Tonttu was VERY interested in something down below, and attempted to descend the near-vertical slope to get at whatever was down there.
Fortunately, his harness and lead prevented him from taking a tumble! It's hard to say whether he was trusting us to not let him fall, or whether he was so focused on what was below to even care about the danger.
Here's video of Tonttu speeding up natural geological processes.
Crawling backwards up a steep slope is not easy to do on four legs (or two)!
We never did see what Tonttu was so interested in down there.
A bit of spring action for #SilentSunday
This is the spring that Zeena is standing in, in a previous photo. Video by @twitchydog 's phone-on-a-stick.
Paws to Trail