Hammer Hiking with my Hound!

After finishing up the final indoor jobs of the day, Mike headed downstairs to do "his thing" (which happened to be inside for a change), and I loaded up the small hound and headed to Camden for a "girl day in the park". Hiking with Sydney is fun---especially here, where she can go freely off the leash. It was very foggy and icy out on the roads out of town. No sunlight anywhere.

I carefully headed down to the Southern entrance parking lot (no fish-tailing for this Taylor)...grabbed a snack for my pocket, and cried "mush", and off we went through the trees and mist. There was NO ONE anywhere. Sydney has a good memory though and at first she headed towards the ski trails...but once she saw I was going someplace else...she lead the way over the bridge and up and out of the river valley.

She trots at a pretty good clip and by the top of the hill, I was warmed up. She could hear the snowmobiles in the distance...and they worried her enough such that she stayed right by me. I'm sure they're fun...but these snowmobiles are like loud smelly cars if you're out hiking, making the lovely woods feel more like a car-road...but I guess to each his own, and I am sure that this lone "walker in the woods" is annoying to them as well since they have to slow down to pass me

After the three machines passed us, Syd relaxed and we both "trotted" in the crunchy snow. She's become quite a hunter though---and she was hunting pheasants! I didn't know it until she nosed a big beautiful rooster in the air...and as it took off for the sky, Syd followed at full speed ahead! From then on she was on a serious "bird" mission...she loves the game (she learned from her grandpa's champ dog Molly)!

Sigh...More snowmobile traffic, but when she hears them coming she gets scared and is right at my heel, before I can even say, "heel!" We covered more ground in less time than I've ever done. She's a hammer-hound, like her Dad! We hiked an extra mile or so to avoid having to walk on the super slick and icy road...I was up to my knees in the deep snow and Sydney was up to her neck. She spied some big white tailed deer and she was hopping through the snow after them...(she's also a hopping hound---just so talented!) We arrived back to the car (maybe 7 miles later) tired and hungry and feeling good about being outside. It's the outside part that I think keeps you sane...

We've been experiencing this eery, icy mist and it makes walking, driving and certainly bike riding a bit treacherous. Thankfully, I have Camden. I just got a horrible email from a friend in California telling me about a fellow cyclist [I knew...a customer and a bike racer] who was out on a rainy/windy ride and a tree fell on him and he was killed. He was riding my familiar routes. Sounds like bad weather all over the place.

In any case---stay safe out there...but stay "out" there! Happy Tuesday!