mountain lake | My Everyday Photos

Sky and I got an early start at a popular hiking trail last week, beating most of the swarms of hikers. We even got a great seat on the rock overlooking the lake and had it all to ourselves. And Sky did her traditional jump into an icy cold lake. Really icy. Most of it was still covered with ice! Much of the trail was snow covered or muddy too. Starting early, we avoided most of the swarms of the mosquitoes too. They were thick when we returned to the overflowing parking lot at midday.

It’s nice that more people are enjoying the outdoors but I wish they’d take better care of it and pick up their messes. And I wish the Forest Service had more money to maintain the popular sites.

I had told MA that we needed a dock to see if Sky would ‘dock dive’. It seems a bit lofty to think of an eight month old puppy being ready to take on the big world of dock diving but her enthusiasm for swimming seems to be boundless. MA said she knew where there was a dock but the lake might still be frozen. She likes to go there before spring really arrives and other folks are fishing up there. So we loaded the dogs and headed into the mountains. Sure enough, we hit snow on a shady part and I fretted about going through it without snow tires but when I saw how much farther we had to go, I bucked up and drove my subaru through it without any problem. There was some snow that was pretty soft and squishy but we got through that too. Finally made it to the top and then had a reasonably short walk to the lake. Most of it was still ice-covered but not around the dock. And sure enough, Sky was happy to jump off the dock and swim for a stick or the tennis ball that she found in the campground. Luna was happy to watch. Frida jumped a couple of times too. After a while the dogs and I went for a walk and left MA to her fishing and when she was done with her worms, she had five nice trout for supper! On the way home, we saw a Dusky Grouse and he must have seen something he liked about us or my car because he soon puffed up in all of his courtship finery.