It's nice and warm here - almost 60 - so we took advantage of the weather to hike with the dogs and play a little fetch. I'm just going to write about the hiking part since I had the camera during that portion.
The Flat River is near our house and there's a nice little trail network that runs by it. You wouldn't think you'd have to climb a steep hill to reach a river, but that's what we're doing in order to access a nice flat spot for fetching. You can see how high we are above the floodplain on the far side of the river and we're just halfway up the hill.
Near the top of the hill we're much higher, but the view isn't quite as good since some cedar trees block part of the view. Still, it's this view is well worth the climb.
The leaf-covered trail that ascends the steep bank of the river. This was taken roughly in the same spot as the first photo, before the grove of cedar trees. We call Haven a "mountain goat" because she has no fears or problems negotiating steep terrain. Beacon, however, prefers to avoid it.
Beacon watches from a safe position as Haven contemplates whether satisfying her curiosity will be worth the trip back up this steep slope. You can see the river behind the cedar trunks far below Haven.
Yes, that's a pretty big hill! It's even tougher to climb when the ground is soft and covered in dry leaves, like today. Amanda did a hill repeats workout earlier today so it's pretty impressive that she tackling this hill just a few hours later. Notice those annoying dogs that make hills look so easy to climb! This was probably their third or fourth time up!
Success! The three hill climbers pose for a photo at the top of the hill. The dogs tongues may be hanging out, but I bet you Amanda is more tired than they are! At least she kept her tongue in for the photo.
Haven has a very strong curiosity drive so while Beacon is dutifully retrieving sticks from the river, Haven occasionally takes little sorties through the woods. What she's chasing, who knows, but she's loves to just run around weaving among the trees.
This is the backside of the hill we climbed; yes, we had to walk all the way down it to reach the fetching spot on the water. Then we had to walk up again on the way home. Hard for humans, easy for mountain goats like Haven. I attempted to apply some artistic touch with this soft focus effect using Picasa and I think it looks pretty cool.
For the rest of the hike go visit Amanda's blog where she
covers our labs doing their retrieving thing.
