If you’ve ever walked with an off leash dog, you know that they will go at least twice and probably three times, as far as you. They need to run up there and sniff something and then check in before heading in the other direction to sniff something else. And on and on it goes. Willow is pretty good at checking in and not getting too far away. However, if she finds something to eat, she becomes unresponsive. I don’t know how to solve that training issue.
We were invited to join two friends on an eleven mile hike, up and over a mountain pass with 2000′ of elevation gain. It’s a great hike to do with two cars so you can start at one trailhead and end at the other one. It was a cool and cloudy morning with a forecast that included sunshine and no rain. Hmmm, those forecasts.
There’s been a fair amount of rain recently and we saw many mushrooms of various kinds. Nothing that we wanted to pick and eat. The fall colors were just getting started with a few subalpine larch showing lighter green or yellow. The huckleberry and mountain ash were in full fall color.
When we were about eight miles into the hike, Willow actually sat down on the trail when we stopped. That may be a first – her showing any sign of being tired. But shortly after that, we approached a lake we have visited before and suddenly she was full of energy and anxious to get in the water. After that she knew where we were going and how to find the car. She probably walked/trotted/ran thirty miles or more. We had few sun breaks and even a little bit of rain. So much for weather forecasts.
It was a good day.
My Everyday Photos 