Is It Finally a Spring Hike?

The temperatures almost got into the 60s today so Mommy and I had to do a long hike. We decided to hit the river trail because it is very long and so you can hike for as long as you have time.

How do you know it is spring and not fall? The deep ruts from the bikes give it away.

 I hiked the first mile while Mommy pushed the stroller then I got in to ride.

Mommy had a laugh when she spotted a group of 10 year old boys running around without shirts on while their parents sat and talked. She said only in the upper midwest would parents say, "It is in the mid fifties today. Sure, go ahead and run around half naked outside. It is a great day for it."

Usually at this part of the river we see turtles sunning on the logs. 

Today we saw carp sunning on the logs.

Just kidding. Mommy knew this winter was going to be really rough on the fish in the lakes and ponds because the ice was so think and opaque and covered with over three feet of snow.  When that happens the lakes and ponds become deprived of oxygen and a lot of the fish die.  We didn't think the same thing would happen with the river since the water moves under the ice, but it must have barely moved in some of the shallower sections and a lot of carp lost their lives.

After the dead fish we came to the great blue heron rookery. 

We've never seen so many of the nests occupied before. We are betting they were attracted to the dead fish. Should be a good year for herons.

 Here is a closeup of the herons

After the herons I was ready get out and hike again. We were going to stop for a snack at my favorite benches by the river, but when we got to the benches two people who were together were each taking up a bench for some reason. They talked to Mommy and pet me, but neither of them offered to get off their bench so we could sit. So we continued on to the bench by the river's flood plain.  Mommy considers this bench to be Boo's bench because he liked to stop there when they would hike and so Mommy requested a bench be installed and the county DID install it!

The river had gone over the trail a little bit, but not enough to stop us

The flood plain

 Me relaxing after I ate my snack

After our snack I got back in the stroller and we turned around to head back to the car.  I forgot what trailhead we had parked at so when we were a quarter mile from the more northern lot we sometimes park at I insisted on getting out and hiking again. Mommy told me I was going to be mad when I realized we were at the wrong lot, but I kept barking to get out so she let me walk. When we got to the trailhead I tried to turn down it to get to the lot and Mommy said no, we weren't at that one. I walked a couple hundred yards farther and then insisted on getting back in the stroller.

A mile from the RIGHT trailhead I insisted on getting out of the stroller again. Mommy let me out and I hiked the rest of the way.  I did demand a rest at the bench a half mile from the trailhead. Mommy offered to let me ride in the stroller again, but I didn't want to do that, so, since we had time Mommy said we could sit there for a half hour.  About 10 minutes into our rest a herd of about 10 big bunnies came up behind us. They didn't know what to make of the stroller any more than the big bunnies did last week, but this group, instead of running away stood behind us and stared at us. Sometimes one or two would get brave and approach us, but then they would back off.  I was lying in the shadows under the bench so I don't think they could see me, but they certainly could smell me.

What is that big red thing?

 Why does it smell like dog?

Big bunny!

After about 10 minutes of being stared at by big bunnies I couldn't take it any more so I stood up and barked and they all darted back a bit. Then Mommy and I continued on our hike to the end.

Miles hiked by me: 3.5. Miles riding in stroller: 4.5. Total miles hiked: 8.

The Stroller is Out of Storage!

Mommy noticed the other day when she was driving past the preserve by our house that the snow had all melted off the trails. So, today, even though the temperature never got into the 30s, Mommy got the stroller out of storage!! I barked at her when I saw she had it. Then I barked at her while she inflated the tires. I continued to bark at her while she put it in the car. Finally we set off for our hike.

 I hiked for the first 1.25 miles sniffing everything before I asked to get into the stroller

Mommy finds it interesting that I will insist I'm tired at a 1/2 mile when we don't have the stroller, but will continue walking for over a mile when we do. I don't see what is so interesting about that. After all, I know that when we have the stroller I can always get in and ride when I get tired so I don't have to worry about getting back to the car.

We saw Canada geese chasing ducks off a pond that usually is where the ducks hang out. We wondered why the geese were acting so badly until we came to the geese pond and saw this:

 

 A pair of mute swans had taken over the goose pond. 

Swans are very territorial and won't let geese nest in the same pond with them.

We've never seen swans at this preserve before.

 Since Mommy had her camera out she decided to take a picture of me.

 Stop taking pictures and start pushing, Mommy!

We kept going and then we heard a very distinctive call which means that one of our favorite birds were back!

 Welcome back sandhill cranes!

I rode in the stroller for 1.25 miles and then I barked to get out again. It was a good thing I did because shortly after I got out we came to a section of trail that was still covered in snow. Mommy would never have gotten my stroller through it with me in it. I hiked for a mile and then asked to get back in the stroller. Shortly after I got in the stroller we came across some deer. They didn't know what to make of us. They were downwind so they could smell dog, but all they could see was a big red thing.  So they decided the best thing to do was run away.

Bye, deer!

When we got back to the car I started barking that I wanted out of the stroller. Mommy told me to wait but I wouldn't listen. I wanted to get into the car and while Mommy was taking the front wheel off the stroller so I could get out I tried to turn around and get out the back door and I flipped the stroller over backwards! It took Mommy quite awhile to get the stroller upright and me untangled from it. She said I should have waited, which I thought was rather cold of her. My hip is a little sore, but not really injured. Mommy gave me a tramadol when we got home just to be safe though. I'll probably get another one tomorrow morning.

Miles hiked by me: 2.25. Miles riding in the stroller: 1.5. Total hiked: 3.75.

Daylight Savings Day HIke

It has been Mommy and my tradition to take hikes on the days that Daylight Saving Time starts and stops.  When I was younger these hikes would be all day hikes, but now they are just hikes for as long as I want to go at one of the trails we didn't get to much in the previous hiking season.  Well, the weather has been so bad we had a lot of trails to choose from this year.  Mommy decided we should go to the lake trail in the northern part of the county so off we went.  Mommy made me wear my lifting harness because she wasn't sure if the trail would be icy or not.  I sure was glad she did make me wear it because when we got to the trail there was a HUGE mound of snow blocking it.

That pile was about as tall as Mommy.

You can see the trail curving off to the left behind it.

Mommy and I worked our way around the pile of snow using my harness to keep me on my feet on the uneven climb and got to the trail. The conditions beyond the mound were quite good.  Very few people had hiked or skied on it so it was mostly soft snow with very little ice.  I guess the big snow pile had protected the trail from the less intrepid users this winter.

There were even some spots where the snow had all melted.

We didn't see a single hiker, but there were quite a few ice fishermen out on the water.  Mommy said it sure didn't look like a fun sport to her especially since they aren't allowed to build shacks on this lake.

The Christmas trees behind that fisherman were put out by the county. The lake was originally a gravel pit so they are still working to improve the bottom. When the ice melts the trees will fall in the water and provide hiding and nesting places for the fish.

 

There were lots of really good things to sniff in the snow and I ate a pile of fox poop too. Mmmmm

After we had hiked a little more than a 1/2 mile I spotted this truck in the north parking lot.  

I led Mommy straight to the truck, then stood by the door and held my paw with the missing toe up in the air and looked miserable to show her I was too sore to keep hiking. Mommy pointed out to me that 

A. My foot was not sore BEFORE I saw the truck 

and 

B. It wasn't her truck and she wasn't going to steal it. 

She did agree to turn around and head back to our car though.

The clouds gave us a nice return hike show.

Total miles hiked 1.25. 

Mommy and I both can't wait for the snow to melt so my stroller can come out of storage.

My Monthly Diary for February, 2014

IS WINTER OVER YET??!!!

I was tempted to stop there, but I guess I can tell you a little bit more.

• We got more cold; 16 days at least 10 degrees colder than normal and 7 days at least 20 degrees colder than normal
• We got more snow; three and a half feet over normal so far.
• We got more ice and I've slipped and fallen on that ice more times than Mommy can count. I have to wear my lifting harness if I'm not wearing my coat so Mommy can help me walk on the icy sidewalks and streets.
• I'm tired of cold and snow and I have pretty much decided to stop pooping outside after dark and just sneak off and poop in the back room or bedroom instead of telling Mommy that I have to go potty.  Mommy is now watching me like a hawk in the evenings. Despite all her attention I did manage to poop on the bed five times last week.
• We did get three days that were 10 degrees warmer than normal. That was exciting and I did finally get to walk across the ice on the lake because we got enough of a snow/thaw/wind/rain/freeze/snow cycle in those three days that the the lake ended up with a nice even packed down layer of good traction snow on it.
• I decided I wanted to go hiking last weekend and followed Mommy around barking at her until she gave in and took me to the nearest trail. 300 yards into the hike I decided it was too icy and insisted on going home. 
• Mommy wondered why the mattress had gotten all lumpy after she moved it to the floor to make things easier for me.  It was because I had hidden a half dozen stuffed animals under it.

 Wake me up when it is spring.

My Monthly Diary for January, 2014

Snow. Cold. Snow. Cold. Snow. Cold. Rain. Beautiful day, HIKE! Snow. Cold. Snow. Cold. Snow.

That pretty much sums up January.

The polar vortexes came in and gave us dangerously below normal temperatures then they went away and gave us normal temperatures with snow or above normal temperatures with rain. Then they came back and repeated the cycle. We had a -16 degree day (without the windchill) and a week later we had a 44 degree day. A week after that we had a 9 degree day. When I was younger I'd have loved this weather, but with my arthritis in my back these wild shifts have not been helpful. Also, the ice that forms over everything after you go from 44 degrees and rain to 20 degrees in a 24 hour period makes walking really hard when your back feet tend to go wherever they feel like no matter what you are telling them to do.  I've had to wear my lifting harness and boots a few times and I've been wearing my coat and boots a lot. On the below zero days Mommy had me me wear socks under the boots. On the -16 day Mommy even wrapped a scarf around my ears so I wouldn't get frostbite on the tips. We got a lot of looks and honks and comments that day.

I refused my coat and boots one below zero morning and then, when we got about two houses down I was so cold I started shivering and picking up my feet and glaring at Mommy because it was all HER fault that I wasn't wearing the right clothes. When I smiled at her and dodged she should have chased me down, tackled me and forced my boots and coat on me and not just said, "Fine. Go out without your coat and boots and freeze."


We got about 17 1/2 inches of snow in one snow storm

 

It was so deep that when I tried to go out and potty in the backyard I fell and got stuck in the snow.  Mommy had to shovel a path for me to a tree and then a big spot for me to poop in and another for me to turn around and head back to the door in. Even though she made that potty area for me I did mostly decided it was easier to poop in the house. Mommy was not pleased.

Because of the cold days Mommy got a couple days off work which was nice. I always like it when Mommy stays home because of bad weather because that means I get to walk as slow as I want in the morning and then we stay inside and there is a lot of snuggling in bed time.

The 19th of January was my Gotcha Day and would you believe it MOMMY FORGOT!!!  I've been with her for 13 years and she FORGOT!!  I didn't get any special treats or even a "Happy Gotcha Day" from Mommy.  I had fallen out of bed the night before and landed really hard and Mommy spent my Gotcha Day rearranging the house so that our mattress is now on the ground and not on the box spring (Mommy took away the bed frame about a year ago so I could get in and out of bed easier).

The new bedroom arrangement

 Little known fact: box springs can be used as bulletin boards

Since Mommy was so busy that day she bought a chicken at the grocery store and I always get a lot of meat from a store chicken on my meals and as treats so Mommy said that should count, but I don't think it did since she didn't know it was my Gotcha Day.  So a few days later when Mommy realized she had forgotten she gave me extra treats and some more chicken that night and we celebrated then.

Finally this month a couple days after my FORGOTTEN Gotcha Day Mommy came home from work early. I was sound asleep in the bedroom and I didn't realize she had come home for about a half hour.  When I woke up and heard noises in the other room I came out to see what it was and there was Mommy, but she smelled weird and she looked like she had been fighting with a big dog or something. I refused to come near her and say hi and I avoided her the whole rest of the day.  She told me I was acting silly because she had only gone to the dermatologist to have a growth removed from her lip and they decided that two moles on her face had to be removed too. I didn't care. When I had to poop I refused to tell her and instead went into the puppy room (dining room) and pooped.  Then later that night when Mommy tried to get me to go out in the backyard and potty I refused to go because I wouldn't walk past her while she held the doors open and it was too cold outside to leave the doors propped open for me. Instead I went into the bedroom pooped on the bed. After Mommy cleaned up the bed she went to sleep and I waited until she was asleep before I went into the bedroom and joined her in bed. 

The next morning I got up and avoided her as soon as she woke up and then I refused to go outside again. A few minutes after Mommy gave up on getting me to go outside I snuck back into the bedroom and peed on my bed and pooped on hers. Mommy got mad at me and I got locked in the puppy room for the day. That night Mommy was allowed to take a shower and after she did she still looked kind of scary, but she smelled normal so I wasn't afraid of her anymore and we went back to being friends again. If she was smart she would have just rubbed her face against the couch until the lip thing had fallen off and then we wouldn't have had all that drama.

Beautiful Winter Sunday Hike

The weather was beautiful today, so, after Mommy and I took my morning walk and Mommy did her chores, and scraped all the ice off our driveway, we were happy to have 1 1/2 hours left before sunset for a hike.  We went to the preserve closest to our house as is our habit when we don't have a whole lot of time.  We knew the trail conditions wouldn't be great because of the big New Year's snow and then the warm day of rain followed by a cold night and another warm day, but we were surprised that there were only three other cars at the trail parking lot because the day was so nice.  Then we saw the trailhead.

Solid ice (The building is a bathroom. I hope nobody had to use it really badly today!)

Mommy hadn't brought our ice skates so we picked our way past the hockey rink, um trail head, on the snowy sides. Once in the preserve we found that the trail was icy, but not Zamboni smooth ice like the trail head, and after about 50 feet (which we figure was the average walker's tolerance level) the trails became much better.

Much better trail conditions

Lots of good smells.

You can see that the snow was still rather deep just a little way off the trail.

We headed for the one mile loop, but because we were walking much slower than normal we ran out of time before we could do the whole loop.  So after finding a lot of coyote poop and peeing on everything I could reach and waiting while Mommy watched a red tailed hawk hunt, we turned around and headed back to the car. We were passed by two other people and a dog on our way back and when we got back to our car there were still two cars in the lot and an impatient ranger waiting for us to leave so he could lock up.

It was a nice, if slippery .86 mile, 1 1/4 hour hike on a beautiful warm winter day.

My Monthly Diary for December, 2013

Well, this month we had some really cold weather and some ice storms and some warm weather.  Since I'm not allowed to sleep under the covers anymore because of my sleep pooping issue I started waking Mommy up in the middle of the night on the really cold nights to complain that I was cold.  So Mommy got an old nightshirt of hers and fixed it up so that I could wear it.

It has loons on it if you can't tell

I really like it and will whine until Mommy puts it on me on cold nights now.  On Christmas Eve I refused to let Mommy take it off me and I spent the whole day in my jammies. I wanted to keep wearing the nightshirt on Christmas Day too, but Mommy said I was not allowed to wear jammies for two full days in a row.

Speaking of Christmas, Mommy and I went down to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas Day. Usually we go down on Christmas Eve and sleep over, but Mommy's youngest brother couldn't make it into town this year so we stayed home.  When we got down there my cousin Missy and her family were already there. Missy came running up to the car to say hi to me. She was worried when she got there and I wasn't there. Mommy helped me out of the car and we went inside and Missy and I talked for a bit and then Missy got an itchy ear and sat down to scratch it.  I went over to sniff her ear and see what was wrong and SHE SNAPPED AT ME!! Well I don't take that kind of behavior so I roared and snapped back at her and she roared and snapped back at me and then our mommies came to separate us and I fell over.  We both got in trouble for having a slapfight on Christmas Day and we had to sit on opposite sides of the room for awhile and we didn't get to open our presents until the very end of the present opening.  We kind of avoided each other for a while. Then Missy ate my dinner after I left the bowl and I didn't argue about it and at dinner Missy called me over to see if I could get the turkey off the sideboard, but Mommy saw what we were doing and we had to move away from the sideboard and lie down. We did both get some mashed potatoes after dinner though and even though Missy was rude and shoved me aside so she could eat the first batch Mommy put down we didn't fight about it.

Because of my lack of feeling in my hind end ice has become very hazardous for me. I fell over three times just trying to walk to the neighbor two doors down to bring her paper to her door. So Mommy went out and bought me Pawz.  I am NOT overly pleased with them, but I have to admit that I fall a lot less on the icy days when I'm wearing them.  Also, people tend to smile at me and talk to me when I'm wearing them, so that's not bad.

Why do the large sized Pawz only come in purple? 

Big dogs should get black or white or red or something.

On the Saturday after Christmas we had a really warm day in the upper 40s so Mommy and I went for a hike. Then the next day the temperatures dropped to the low 20s and everything that had melted the day before became a sheet of ice.  Even with the Pawz on I couldn't walk that day.  In fact, when I went out in the backyard to go potty I got stuck and Mommy had to come out with my lifting harness to help me get back to the house.

Finally, Mommy calculated out our walks and hikes this year and we did 701.9 miles! We had fewer regular walk miles this year, but thanks to my stroller we nearly doubled our hike miles from last year and, at 111.55 miles we actually passed 2010's, and 2011's hiking totals! That brings our imaginary walk to Alaska and back to Vancouver, Washington if you have been keeping track.