Walks with Gibson

On our way home from the Bruce Peninsula, we stopped and brought home Gibson, an eight-week-old Chocolate Lab. That was at the end of July, and I greeted August with some understanding that the itinerant days of summer had passed, and the dog days were ahead. It's true that it's not a good time to travel very far, but we are getting out for short adventures with Gibson near home. Last Saturday, Tommy and I took him to Lake Lansing Park North. Gibson trotted cheerfully along the longer loop trail and rested, occasionally, when we stopped to find a letterbox. On Wednesday we walked through the meadows and woods of Woldumar Nature Center with our friend Julie and her kids. Yesterday we took Gibson for a long walk on campus, and today we took him to The Ledges at Fitzgerald Park and to Hawk Meadow Park along Delta River Drive. He's a good woods walker, and his little legs go like a wind-up toy. We've letterboxed nearly everywhere we've gone. The stamps hidden at the Ledges are impressive: intricate, hand-carved, and relevant to local history. The first stamp we found at Hawk Meadow was not homemade, and though it was fun to find we did not bother stamping it into our book.

Here's a stamp from the Ledges:

J.S. Mudge built his folly in the late 1800's on one of the small islands in Grand Ledge. He designed the tower to have rotating levels topped by a centrifugal swing out over the river. A flood damaged it in 1893 and it was never completed.

Here is Tommy retrieving a hidden letterbox:



It was a fun walk. I have not been out there since I was a girl, and it is still fascinating to see those rocky outcroppings along the banks of the Grand River.