April fools day trip

Ouch! My legs are so sore :S I walked 8 kilometers yesterday. It would be no problem to do that except the surface I walked on was just awful. Me and my friend decided to go to a bog. It's a big nature reserve with lots of bogs and forests in between. I had never been there, he had. But we decided to go to the upper corner of the reserve so it was a new country for both of us. We don't have any snow here at the city anymore but there was lots of it in the forest. I couldn't make up my mind whether I should bring a pair of wellies with me or not. And because of a bad decision I suffered :( There was so much snow and water that at first we got stuck with the car, luckily I had said just few minutes before that I am not pushing the car out :) so I was sent to the wheel and we managed to get the car out. Then we started walking, me and my winter boots that don't like water. As I said there was lots of water and snow and after some time it was starting to feel damp inside my boots, after damp came wet...so it was a bit uncomfortable trip for me. But I liked it anyway because the nature was great, the sun was shining, birds singing and good company as well.

I have to tell you in advance that we didn't see any animals and that made us a little sad since it was a photo trip but we saw lots of interesting footprints. We are definitely going back there because there were so many elk footprints and also very fresh footprints that I think belong to a wolf because of the way he had stepped onto his own prints. After a few kilometers we saw a female grouse, sadly no pics because she was in a bushy area. The road led to a small bridge with a frozen river and after that started a weird country for us. This kind of hilly countryside with no trees is not common at all in Estonia but there it was right in front of us and it was big. The view from the top was amazing and we imagined what it would look like in the summer. There was quite a big wind on top of the hills but luckily the one thing that I had done correctly that day was my clothing, it didn't feel cold at all.

After the vast strange country begun the pine tree forests. The hills became bigger and more steep so it was a bit difficult for us to climb up a hill and descend another with the camera gear and try not to slip on the wet snow. The forest was beautiful, my kind of forest. I wouldn't mind living there...as long as someone would bring me food :) I think I couldn't survive on berries LOL.
There were two small lakes and camping area next to one. The map showed another 4 kilometers to the bog and the first tower but I was starting to feel bad about my wet feet and also little bit tired so we turned around and headed back. It will be a much more easier trip when the snow will melt. On our way back we saw one eagle high in the sky and also a common crane couple. They are back already!

The only thing that still bugs me a bit are the elk footprints in the snow. Because the snow had melted even more when we headed back it was obvious that this elk had crossed the road just recently. And it was enormous! I have never seen such big elk footprints. Where are the pics you say? Well, I hope you understand if I tell you that at that point I was already very tired and I had my telephoto lens in front of my camera and the wide angle in my backpack. I would have wasted valuable energy to change the lenses...so sorry about that.
I don't remember the last time I was this tired. It's natural that when you get tired you stop and recharge but since I had the wet feet syndrome I wanted to get back to the car ASAP. My friend asked me if I was on an autopilot and he was right LOL. When we finally reached the car I felt like I couldn't step another step if I had to. It is so strange to me because last year I went hiking in the mountains (not hills like here) of Norway and I did a 20 km trip all by myself. Of course I felt tired after that but not like yesterday. A voice in my head tells me to get up from the computer and exercise more :)
Enjoy the photos!

I just had to post this :) Looks like a bird doesn't it? Well...... it's a tree.