Hiking, with dogs

I don't get out enough. People are always talking about places around here I've never been. I am always either at work or working on my house. So last weekend, we packed up all the dogs and the 4 of us met some friends to go hiking in the woods. We met out at my house first then drove from there. It was a beautiful hiking trail and only about 5 miles from my house! It had lots of water that the dogs could go in. We all kind of hiked at our own pace, me at Crue's pace. Seth and Mike were in the fast group and Crue was determined he was not going to be left behind. But alas his walker, me, was just not in shape enough to keep up with the younger set. I was in the middle with Jenna and 2 of the friends behind me. After awhile of being pulled I decided to wait up till Jenna caught up with me. She had Reign with her and that made Crue feel better. I also had Meg with me who doesn't pull at all but I guess Crue wanted to hike with the guys and not the girls. Most of the time I was by myself though and Meg really did a good job of following the trail which was completely hidden by all the leaves. I just let the dogs lead the way and when we came to a fork in the road I let Meg decide which way to go. I just told her "go find Seth". My friend later asked why I said go find Seth instead of go find Mike. I said mainly because Meg probably wouldn't want to find Mike..LOL Mike is kind of the "special" dog in our pack.  We had a lot of fun and it was an absolutely beautiful day for a hike in the woods. We saw deer, raccoon and probably fox prints at the water's edge. All in all we hiked about 5 miles. I figure Crue worked the hardest though. It was nice being pulled up the hills, I'd let him go on the downhill sometimes so he wouldn't pull me down with him. I guess I could teach him to walk properly on a leash, but my dogs are so seldom on a leash and I liked the extra help walking up the hills. So it was nice getting out of our routine and comuning with nature.
As usual, only a couple pictures even though we did have the camera with us. So here is part of our group. We never did meet up with Jill, Carl, Jim and the dogs, Seth, Mike and their dog, Lucky (a big black Lab). Jill says they had a great time and Mike was the perfect dog, Seth was the jerk. Figures. If I'm not there Seth thinks he's in charge.