New Shoes!! Let's break 'em in! 7-15-2011

Since we are so keen on getting into the woods and doing long hikes, yet we both have painful, crappy feet, we decided to take the plunge and get some actual hiking shoes. God help me, we went into an LL Bean and spent some money! Take away my lifelong punk credentials right now!

Before heading out on a long walk and risking new-shoe-blisters, we decided on a short break-in hike through Allendale Woods. I picked Andrea up from the train station after work and we headed over, getting there by about 5:45 PM.

The shoes felt OK and the woods were cool and pleasant. We found this dragonfly molt in pretty good condition...


We didn't expect to see any snakes, though we did some flippin'. To our surprise, this chubby little Garter Snake was still out and about, probably looking to stuff a few more tiny toads into it's gullet!

It's hard to guess how many toads this might be in his belly, but this is a satisfied snake, for sure!


One of the American Toads he missed was hopping nearby...


The early evening is always a good time to hear and see Bullfrogs, and the pond was active!


This guy was great... first he just looked hilarious...

Then he climbed out of the water a bit to try to look threatening to Andrea, puffing himself up and looking formidable!


Along the path, we found this massive brute!


And this lovable American Toad who was lumbering along gracelessly!


I tried to film his sloppy hopping, but it didn't come out very good. The picture of my attempt is, however, hilarious!


So, the shoes seem OK and we saw some herps in a whirlwind quickie of a hike (under 2 hours!!)... and saw what we considered to be a "bonus snake"!

Luckily, we enjoyed ourselves for that brief hike on a Friday evening, because it proved to be our only hike for that very busy weekend!