I took the dogs for a very long walk in the woods this morning because I had to take my husband to a doctor’s appointment for a procedure. (More like I needed to be there to drive him home.) He was tired so I figured I’d get the dogs out of the house and tucker them out so he could have a restful day. We went down into the ravine by the creek and were walking along when both of the dogs took off for the trees to my right, near one of the sheer cliffs that were formed hundreds of years ago when the creek was much deeper and wilder. There were two young guys standing over there, and the dogs were prancing back and forth, as though they were unable to make up their minds whether or not these were people were safe.

I walked over to get the dogs but kept somewhat of a safe distance. I love nature but I’m enough of an urbanite to know that any wild animals I might encounter in these woods aren’t as potentially dangerous to me as two random young males might be. The dogs seemed to like them okay, which was a good sign. Then I noticed that the shorter of the two, the one with the thick silver ring and spikey hipster hair was crouched down, taking pictures with his camera phone. The taller, bulkier guy looked like he could be a reformed frat boy, but seemed friendly enough. It turns out they had been on the park side of the creek and waded across because they saw a duckling separated from its parents and wanted to find it. And they were genuinely geeking out about the woods in which we were standing. It is an unexpected bit of wilderness in the middle of a couple of inner-ring suburbs. They walked with me and the dogs along the deer path that goes by the creek. As they tried to figure out where they had seen the duckling and spotted the parent ducks, I stopped worrying that they were walking behind me or that I was about to be the victim of random violence and enjoyed talking to them about how much all three of us loved nature and walking in the woods.

I told them they had to go to the top of the cliff, which looks out over the tops of the trees on the other side of
>the creek and is a view worth climbing for. They were stunned. More camera phone pictures, more geeking out over the beauty of it all. They ended up walking halfway home with me because they wanted to see the neighborhood that pretty much has all this in its backyard. We only parted because they realized they had a long long walk back to their car and I had to get home to get cleaned up and take the husband to his appointment.

It was delightful to meet a couple other nature lovers. I know you aren’t supposed to talk to strangers, but I also think you need to trust your instincts. And your dogs.