Gratuitous nature picture.

Case Mountain

Happy dog booties.

 Singer, Bo and their friend Lee went for a hike this Saturday.  Lots of romping, scary stream crossings, and a chance encounter with an old professor!  Life is good.

Prancing.

Lee.

Airborne.

Fancy footwork.

I am a rock.  I am an island.

New friends.

Old friends.

Tree jewelry.

More Hiking

Blur of sniffery.

Hiking is an activity I've always had a love-hate relationship with.  It's something that has to be done to get to a crag, but it's always the worst part of the climbing process for me.  I'm no good at it, I lack the balance, sure-footedness and stamina to really enjoy it.  Also, half the time, it involves some reverse approach in the fading daylight, in addition to the general lack of skill. That said, Singer can't get enough of it, and for her, I am willing to get a bit, or a lot, uncomfortable.

Serendipitously matching hat and backpack.  

On Saturday, we took a short hike in Terryville, replete with a few scrambles and some trail running.  Cue fading daylight.  On Sunday, we met up with the dog hiking group for her second big girl hike with the other dogs.  This time, instead of being 15 minutes late, we were a solid 30-45 minutes late.  (Fence mayhem.)  This meant that by the time we got there, we were sprinting (okay, sprinting then walking, sprinting, then walking) up the trail, trying to catch the rest of the pack.  Singer didn't mind one bit.  At one point, before the summit, we spotted them descending, so we cut through another path and caught up in time for Singer to run around with Avery and a little beagle for the last mile or so.  We ended up doing a variation of the loop again, to let Singer run around and to check out the frozen pond

I think I've done more hiking in the past two weeks than I've done during the past 12 months, but at least my boots are getting some use.

Happy New Year!

Singer's 2011 was capped off with her first group hike!  We met up with a local dog hiking group for a 1.5 hour off-leash hike on Saturday morning.  Of course, we were late, and by the time we got onto the trail, we ran into a woman who had already lost her Husky dog.  Not an auspicious way to start the hike!  (The Husky was eventually found, twice, in fact.)

Singer, following the elusive Kenai.

Fifteen minutes later, we finally caught up with the lead group, and met the other hikers and dogs.  There were probably about 30 dogs, from Dachshunds to Dobermans.  Singer was the only Singer in attendance though.  Although she was a bit timid at first, she made fast friends with a mix named Avery and a big wire coated giant Schnauzer named Demetrius.  A giant black Russian Terrier was a part of the mix too, but she was a little more than Singer could handle.  The dogs all ran circles around each other, racing up and down the trail, barking and play bowing.

Singer looked so thrilled to be running around with the other dogs.  For every mile of the trail, she probably ran 3 miles.  The hike was 3.6 miles in total... Singer just about did a half marathon!  She's made so much progress in just a year.  This time last year, she was running behind me at the sight of puppies across the street.  Yesterday, she was letting other dogs sniff her, engaging dogs in play and chasing and being chased, like a "real" doggie.  Happy New Year!