I had promised the dogs to go to Mineola Nature Preserves for a walk. I had only been there once and that was on a call so I didn’t know much about it really. I had done some research online but maybe not as much as I should have in regards to trails and distances. You know the words “Everything is bigger in Texas”… yeah, that wasn’t said as a joke… But off we went.

Twix still gets carsick very easy. Usually he throws up on the way back but the drive to Mineola is 45 minutes and that was just enough for him to get the little breakfast he was given up just when we came to the parking lot. I was a little worried that it would affect him but, ha… not this little energyboy! As soon as he was out of the car it was like nothing happened and off he went!

The first signs you see when you get to the trails are kind of worrying for someone like me, lived most of her life in Sweden… we don’t have this kind of things there…

I honestly have to say that I stopped and thought what the heck do I do if I see one? Run? Play dead? Slowly walk backwards and pray to God there ain’t one behind me?

One thing I know about snakes is that if you don’t bother them they won’t bother you but it was a good reminder since Twix has no clue what a snake can do. We didn’t see any either for that matter.

So off we went walking and I walked the same path that we went when we had the call there a couple of months ago, straight down to Dr. John Thomas Bridge. Twix was in front of me and Bam Bam the entire time. We all just enjoyed the nature

I made up my mind that I would pass the bridge and try to find the River Bottom Trail and take that around to Buster Trail and back. Have in mind here, I had not paid any attention to the distance on this, it was just an idea I got while I was walking… So we made it to the bridge

And neither BamBam or Twix hesitated to walk on it despite it being a little different with the view on both sides. There was also a big sign about the history of the bridge and the doctor. Nope I didn’t take the time to read it all but I have plenty of time to do that later since I took a picture of it!

Right after the bridge I finally found the trail I was looking for. At this point we had already walked for 30 minutes and I had passed the Walking Trail that seemed to have been more appropriate maybe but I was more inclined to go for a challenge today. Twix was so alert still so I was not worried about him at all. BamBam was also doing fine, he usually tho gets quite bored. So I decided to turn into River Bottom Trail…

And we walked and we walked and we walked. It felt like it never ended. But we all were doing fine. Some places was hard to find, there wasn’t much signage of where to go but I found some ribbons in blue and pink that I didn’t really know the meaning of but I figured that if I see them and I follow them together with the horse tracks I would in one way or the other find my way to a bigger trail or path sooner or later.

And I was correct but it took much longer than I anticipated. Remember, I didn’t study the map thoroughly and it wasn’t until I had probably walked 50% of this trail that I saw on the map that it was 2.29 mile long! Ooops… Well well, at this point it was just to keep on going. The dogs and I are all used to walk so no biggie.

This trail goes next to the river. It didn’t have much water in it. As we were walking there I suddenly here a big splash not too far away. I couldn’t see the river really because of trees and terrain but I could see that there would not be any human being dumb enough to take a splash in that muddy water. And that sound was not a small splash. Nor did I hear any voices or words either. The sign of alligators hit my mind. Tried to see if I could see anything but it was just a little too far and I didn’t have my glasses on. I figured that any further investigation of what this sound really was, was not necessary at this time. I was not in the mood of delaying our walk more and certainly not in the mood of exploring my thought of what to do if I see an alligator. So we just stepped it up a little bit more…Twix was in the lead and BamBam was super bored and started walking slower and slower.

Then finally we came to a crosspoint with another trail! Wohoooo! That was a relief! At least now I knew that we were on the way towards the parkinglot even if it was probably a 45 minute walk still. I did not tell the dogs about that!

Busters Route… wohooo! I knew this would lead me back to the main trail that we came from. But what I didn’t know was that this was a very muddy part of the walk as well. Me and BamBam wasn’t really in the mood to try what the preserve had to offer when it came to mud baths but Twix on the other hand did not hesitate to figure that out as he ran straight into every and any muddy water he could find!

As we are trying to get around all this mud we suddenly hear something like a cat calling for attention. Ehhh. This did not sound like a sweet little kitty that you could cuddle with and considering that we were in the middle of the woods, all alone I figured it was not really what I wanted to see either. The sound was also more like a “know that I am here but leave me alone” mjau than “come and help me” mjau. Nope. I was not in the mood to see any kind of wild feline animal either. I didn’t have a gun, nor pepper spray or anything for that matter to defend myself with… (so typical me) and but I did turn around a couple of times after that sound to make sure we didn’t have anyone following us from behind. The first sound was far enough away for us to be safe and even though alligators are fast I wasn’t really afraid of it. Any kind of cat animal can outrun me in a heartbeat. My dogs would certainly not understand the danger in the situation, add to that BamBam’s deafness that I couldn’t even give him commands. Oh Lord what a mess it could have been. But no drama… until…

Suddenly Twix stopps. We all see something in the distance. I didn’t have my glasses but it looked like a biker to me. What the heck? This was a horse trail and we had just made it through a lot of mud. Did he think he could bike here? Sure enough, he came closer and we stopped to let him through. Said to him that he was about to be wet. He was very smart and listened to my advise and he turned around.

We finally came back on the trail we started on. Good Lord. We had now been walking for 1 hour and 32 minutes. I estimated it to be approximately 15 minutes left. But even BamBam recognized where we were and suddenly he wasn’t as “tired” (bored) anymore and he started to walk as fast as Twix did!

And after 2 hours of walking we made it back to the car. Just as I came to the car the watch showed us to have walked exactly 6 miles! That was kind of amazing!

All three of us was so done with walking for today. Twix doesn’t like cars of course, knowing that he would be nauseous again. But at least he didn’t throw up on the way home. But needless to day, he wasn’t feeling very well…

But the rest of the afternoon was very relaxed in the Wichmann household. Both Twix and BamBam didn’t do much noise at all. I am not going to tell them that we will go back to the preserve on Saturday again, but then we will meet up some friends and probably not walk for this long. But it will certainly not be the last time I take them there. We have so many other trails to explore! And maybe Twix will get used to car rides as well…

I took a bunch of more pictures along the route, here are some of them in a random order…

If you have the opportunity to visit Mineola Nature Preserve, either by foot or horse then do it! I have a dream to one day be able to ride there! It is so beautiful and peaceful. Yes we all were tired the rest of the afternoon but the joy and peace in my soul was awesome. Being able to be close to nature like that is something I really miss living in a town. It is so worth the 45 minute drive!