The Dog & Garden Walk

The First Annual Dog & Garden Walk was held last Sunday.  We started at the Shelton Dog Park, hiked out to the Eklund Native Species Garden and back along Hope Lake to the RecPath.  The native flowers at Eklund in the above photo were doing great.

There were almost as many 4-footed participants as there were 2-footed walkers.  The Dog Park on the corner of Nells Rock Road and Rt. 108 was pretty busy too.  It was even busier when we returned.  We started at the Dog Walk trailhead on the west end of the parking lot.  The trail is blazed with little paw prints on the trees.

We turned right when we hit the Shelton Lakes Recreation Path in the spruce grove and followed it south to Oak Valley Trail near Oak Valley Road.  We followed the new red flower blazes to Eklund Native Species Garden.

Giant Hyssops at Eklund

The flowers at Eklund were blooming well.  We took a little time to walk up to the top along the Heath Walk and enjoy the view down into the garden.  The Huntington Herald did a fine article on the garden this week.  Now is a good time to see it, and the parking area at 10 Oak Valley Lane was just improved by Pruzinsky and Sons.

The return walk followed a portion of the new Paugussett Trail (blazed blue) along the west side of Hope Lake.  There were several groups of people siting or fishing along the lake enjoying a Sunday afternoon.

We then came back along the Recreation Path to the Dog Park and RecPath Trailhead.  Ethan Fry did an in-depth article on the history of the RecPath in this week's Valley Sentinel that's really worth reading.

The new flower garden (aka "The Mayor's Garden") was doing well - a big green thumb award to Allison, Sharna, Lynn and anyone else who has been helping out with the garden.  It really dresses up the corner now that the White House is gone.

Zinnia Garden at the Dog Park

So we enjoyed two gardens, a dog park, woodland hiking trails, a lake, and a handicapped-accessible bike path;  all in one short 1.75 mile loop.  Not bad for a Sunday Stroll.