Starting 2022 Mud Hiking

I had laugh as I made my first edit, still writing 2021. Maybe by mid January writing 2022 will be natural.

I started my New Year, after getting the first good New Year’s Eve sleep in years, with a nature hike.

I have enjoyed these trails on other summer visits to the Weerribben National Park so I was excited to see what I would experience in the winter. There is a fair number of wild animals that call the National Park home but mostly they remain hidden in the thick brush and reeds.

I was prepared for this hike with my new Muck boots. Thanks to my friend Janet in Canada who held onto these beautiful boots for a year and half. Finally, we realized this COVID thing wasn’t going to end anytime soon, she sent them to Minnesota. Yes, it would have been cheaper just to purchase them at a farm store in Minnesota but we didn’t know that a virus was going to delay her plans for coming to Europe. Anyway, thanks Janet, I love these boots for walking muddy Dutch trails.

This hiking trail goes through some marsh like woods. I was heading to a location I hadn’t explored before close to number 19 canoe site.

A small bridge goes over the canal and into the woods. I had never explored it much from the canoe site.

I started seeing signs of wildlife. Trails going across the landscape, feathers hanging on the grasses next to the trail.

Then my hike was halted by a gate. This trail was not a trail but a path to a private property. Disappointing!

Turning around and heading back to the main trail I continued for a few more kilometers. Hiking along the muddy trail in the isolated quiet of the National Park. The only other people I met were a couple who were trail running. They caught me hugging a tree. I had to laugh as I really thought I was alone in the woods.

That is the thing about the wilderness in The Netherlands you are almost never very far from people.

Hope that each of our readers gets out to your nearest wilderness in 2022.

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