Mountain Goat Dogs

Sorry for such a lag in posts... dad was here all last week and I took the week off. I really didn't feel like flipping on the computer any last week...

So LAST weekend (not the one we just had. See, I told you I"m behind) David and I took the dogs to the Adirondacks to hike Rondaxe Mt. At the top there's an old fire tower, etc.... We went with our adventure group which has a great cross-section of folks. I warned them prior to the hike that we were going to bring the dogs. I felt I needed to warn them because, honestly, I've never taken the dogs hiking before - not "really" hiking. on a path, maybe - but not a "trail"...

Might I remind you that Nikki is a 10 year old lab/chow mix that has had an ACL repair on each knee and Liam is an 8 year old golden that is easily 10 pounds overweight.... I wasn't very optimistic about how they'd do. I only took them because I was feeling guilty about leaving them home so much now that David and I have been biking a lot.

We get to the site. David has the camelback ("people" water) and "people" food. I have the fanny pack with the "dog" water and "dog" snacks. (and the metal dog dish... out "princess" Nikki wont'e drink out of anything else but metal...) I take Nikki and David takes Liam. Before we even get the trailhead I realize my ass is wet. no, SOAKING! We tell everyone else to go ahead. We may or may not make it up there with the dogs and we don't want to hold anyone back.

I take off the fanny pack - the container holding the dog water is leaking. As i'm working on fixing it David is holding both dogs as other hikers are coming off the trail with their dogs. Liam starts going bonkers. Not like "Let me at 'em"- bonkers but the "oh shit! other dogs! hide me!!"- bonkers. He backs up between David's legs, and for hte first time ever, pull sout of his collar. I'm trying to fix the water container and I hear David yelling at Liam, chasing him tyring to scruff him to put his collar back on.

My immediate thought: this isn't going as well as I'd hoped.

I was pretty sure that we would be immediately returning to the truck and heading home. But no. I fixed the leak, David got Liam's collar on and we continued on....

Not but a few hundred yards into the trail and here starts the large, smooth boulders on the trail. I took one look at them and wasn't so sure the dogs could make it - especially if there were more of these on the way. Apparently Nikki had other ideas. She didn't hesitate - jumped up and started to make her way up the rocks. Not to be outdone, Liam followed.

Nikki tracked that trail like she was following a rabbit. Her tail was wagging and she smiled the whole way up. She literally dragged me to the top. She LOVED it!! She slide a few times here and there but it scared me more than it did her. (Liam was happy to follow.)

We left before everyone else thinking we might have to hand down dogs on some of the steep, rocky parts. We wanted to have plenty of time - plus it looked as though it was going to rain.

Nope - Nikki dragged my right back down the mountain!!! She's quite agile, you know. Grandma is quite the pup!

And, of course, I have beautiful pictures of us at the top of the mt... but they're on the computer at home... so when I finally remember to do it I'll get them on my computer and post.