Three years ago, this happened (photo courtesy of Hoof and Howl Sled Dogs):
Then a few months later, this was in my backyard:
And it grew into this:
I can hardly believe how much time has passed, but at the same time it feels like he’s always been here. If his Squashiness comes through even a tiny bit in all of my posts and pictures, then you all know what a fantastic dog he is and I am blessed to be sharing some time walking this world with him.
So Happy Squashies Day, my sweet goofy brute of a dog!
I have a sort of “home base” at the state park where I almost always park the car and start my runs. It’s a small, centrally located and relatively unused row of parking spots set back far enough off the main road that the dogs can’t get into the way of traffic when attached to the trunk latch and next to a nice patch of grass but not next to any large chunks of woods. So it’s a good spot for me to spread out over a couple parking spaces getting the scooter ready and letting the dogs drop (go potty) before a run without bothering or being bothered by anyone else, generally including wildlife.
Generally.
Today I pulled into my usual parking space, got the scooter out of the front seat, and then as I was walking around the car to the trunk I looked up and saw…
They must have come up out of the strip of woods across the road there (which is right next to the river and has a path “sunk” down a bit compared to the level of the road), because they absolutely were not there when I pulled into the spot.
I almost got right back into the car and moved to a different area. And then I thought “No, I am going to trust my dogs and my training” and kept getting my gear ready while the dogs watched the turkeys completely ignore me, and pecking and turkeying their way down the row of parking spots and then on down the road.
By the time everything was ready (I admit I might have intentionally been a bit pokey) the flock had made their way not out of sight, but at least past the point where we turn off the road and go in the opposite direction. And the dogs did really, really well with their ON BY. Like, so well that I’m gnashing my teeth that I have misplaced my helmet mount for the GoPro and so don’t have any footage of it.
What I didn’t know at the time is that as we were setting off on our run, not only did THIS flock of turkeys start working their way backwards towards us from the end of the same loop we were running, but there was a second flock of turkeys pecking and turkeying at our halfway/turnaround point. And damn it all to helmet mount hell, THE DOGS WERE PERFECT. Even Squash. They also absolutely nailed ON BYs past 2 small groups of deer along the way. I am incredibly proud of them. The only ON BY that we horribly failed was a tree that apparently was so irresistibly delicious that it cried out to be peed upon IMMEDIATELY but that was so close to the end our run that I didn’t even care about it.
Thursday, November 21st: 3.25 miles, cold/windy/drizzly conditions.
It was windy and chilly today, but we had a nice long run. As I’ve been adding distance, it’s cool to see the dogs “settle in” on some of the longer runs to a nice, steady trot with a bit more focus.
Monday, November 18th: 4.25 miles, cold/cloudy/windy conditions.
I gave the dogs the week off, since they worked so hard last week I figured they needed a vacation from our vacation and they definitely spent some time resting up. But by this morning they were back to their “why yes we are dogs who need a lot of exercise regularly if you value your possessions” selves so back to the grindstone with our noses.
I didn’t bring any cameras, so no pictures today. Mostly because I forgot but I’m kind of glad I did. Sometimes when I have the camera I’m thinking more about taking pictures than just enjoying the ride. We got a LOT of ON BY practice today thanks to deer, turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, other dogs, other people, and geese. So many geese. And it reminded me once again how grateful I am to have Maisy involved in all this business. I’m not sure how far I would have made it in this sport (literally and figuratively) without her helping me keep Squash ON BY. She really is just an amazing dog with such a natural talent. I’m not sure how her sled dog heart and brain ended up in this little houndy body but there you go.
Friday, November 15th: 3.25 miles, sunny/cool conditions.
It’s that time of year, the slow season up North when it’s too late for trails to be used for horseback riding but too soon for them to be used for snowmobiling and skiing. The perfect time of year to repeat last year’s fall mushing vacation. The Mush Puppies and I spent almost a whole week just scootering and cani-hiking around in between catching up on our reading, movies, and knitting.
This is how Maisy rode most of the way up:
The first day we got in too late to do any scootering, but they settled into the cabin nicely. My dogs, the dirty segregationists:
The next day, we went out bright and early and it was nice and crisp. I’ve been working hard on lining out politely and waiting to start without dragging or forging, so this picture makes me happy with the scooter standing up all undragged.
Sometimes Squash gets a little impatient. ARE WE GOING YET?!
One of the many lovely things about where we were staying is that it’s perfectly safe to leave your GoPro lying around trailside without having to worry about it getting stolen, because there’s really nobody else out there. I did not so much as glimpse another human being the whole time we were scootering and hiking (and if I had, I don’t think anyone would have taken the camera anyway). Since it’s really not safe to do this at home, I had a bit of a learning curve but the pictures slowly improved over the week.
And a nice video from the GoPro:
After a few days of scootering some familiar trails, I decided to give the MPs a break from pulling the scooter and scout out some new trails with them on foot. When I hike with them, I don’t use a neckline although they are in harness and attached to my skijor belt. One thing I’m seeing happen more and more is, although there is a fair amount of this stuff…
…there is also a fair amount of this:
where they stick together and act like a team.
Anyway, I was trying to figure out if there was a scooterable loop of decent length I could cobble together. Based on the trails I already knew, I thought I had about 2/3 of a rough oval accounted for, but wanted to see how they all connected. The first third of the loop was unfortunately too hilly to be practical for the scooter, but it did lead us to a lovely view of Gunflint lake (the dogs thought posing was dumb, though):
The new-to-me trails did join up with our familiar trails where I thought they did and ultimately lead back to our starting place, but what I did not know is that while in my head the final segment was about 1/3 of the loop, it in fact consisted of a series of switchbacks (in both elevation and direction) that made its actual distance on foot (vs how the crow flies) more like 1/2 of the total distance of the loop. Thus, we spent about 2 1/2-3 hours hiking that day. It was fine from a time standpoint because we were on vacation with nothing to do and all day to do it and I had the benefit of being attached to dogs who were pulling me up and down those hills, but… I ended up with shin splints on my shin splints, which then gave birth to wee baby shin splints. And I’m in the process of writing my new “melt away your saddlebags by cani-hiking up and down hills for 3 hours” because those things were sore for 2 days afterwards.
All of which meant the next day was a rest day. An adorable rest day.
I had brought a little pink round bed for Maisy and a big square bed for Squash, who then decided he liked the little pink bed. There were minor skirmishes regarding the ownership of the pink bed all damn week.
Which culminated in this theft:
But there was always the couch:
Our last full day there, we woke up to this:
And so OF COURSE we went hiking up the high trail because it was effing beautiful.
I think he was hunting wabbits or something.
Evenings were often filled with frivolity of the “overtired and overstimulated toddler” variety.
Followed shortly by dogs who passed out until the next morning.
So that was our week. In some ways it was exhausting and in some ways it was rejuvenating, but in all ways it was wonderfully restorative. I got to spend a lot of time with my dogs and myself and no one else, in an extreme introvert’s paradise. I got to see my dogs looking great as a team, even better than they did at this time last year. We got a lot of work and training under our belts, but as usual we also had a lot of fun. And hopefully a picture-laden post-vacation post will continue to be an annual tradition for many years to come.
Had a nice, crisp (read: cold) run today; added a little distance. We started out a little rocky with a LOT of apparently delicious trailside odors, but once we got that sorted out the MPs did great. Of course, I wasn’t filming when we came around a bend to find ourselves face to face with someone walking two dogs; it’s my usual custom to pull the scooter all the way over to the other side of the trail/road and hang on to the lines until people with dogs walk by, but after I moved over the MPs just started trotting off in the direction we were going so I went with it. Maisy can be reactive to other dogs, especially when she has Squash as her backup, so this casual and uneventful encounter was actually quite momentous.
Monday, October 28th: 3.8 miles, sunny/cold conditions.
I tried out a new trail today that was closed most of last year. It started out promising, as I like to try to stay on dirt paths as much as possible, but long stretches of it were more gravel-y than I would like so I don’t know how regularly we’ll run it.
Friday, October 25th: 3 miles, sunny/cool conditions, one water break.
Monday, October 21st:: 2.5 miles, cloudy/flurries. Maisy was really distracted by something off the trail on the Picnic Island loop, but she still ran really strong.
Saturday, October 19th: 3.5 miles, cool/wet conditions, one water break. Lots of ON BY practice thanks to the local deer herd.
A doe who was either very brave or very dumb was kind enough to stay in one place so we could practice ON BY until it worked.
After this run, I realized how much we have matured as a team and how much confidence I’ve gained in myself and my dogs; instead of slinking around, terrified that we might run into some deer/ other people/ other dogs/ cars, I’m glad to see them and welcome them as training opportunities.
You sneak out in the rain for a quick run because you need it and because your work schedule is going to mean the dogs are going to have some long, boring days and because it’s really only sprinkling at this point anyway, right?
Short run today, since yesterday I had added some distance. Tuesday, October 15th: 1.5 miles, light rain, no water breaks.
Mush, Baby 