Boot camp: sunrise to sunset

K and I hiked up high before the sun rose this morning, and we watched the show unfold.

When the first sun rays hit K, she glowed unbelievably.

In my photos from yesterday's sunrise hike, I noticed that K sometimes moves her "bad" paw very oddly when she wears a boot on it.

 

I decided to let her spend almost all of today's hike with a "naked paw".

She trotted with enthusiasm and no hitch in her stride.

She climbed rocks much more confidently without that slippery sole under her foot.

She jumped with amazing grace.

She trotted with long reaching strides.

And she galloped with an enthusiasm that made me forget the whole paw ordeal for a little while!

It was my lucky day. After the sunrise hike, I had R's ever-exciting companionship for a short snow bike ride.

With R, I alternate letting him run wildly and then asking him to "stay" so he can learn to harness his energy. Here, the black jet is stationary atop Hug Hill.

I left him in a stay all by himself on the peak, and I descended out of sight before calling him to me. Wow, that boy can move!

Later in the snowbike ride, I found mountain lion track superimposed on my bike tracks from yesterday.

I was both excited to see the lion track and had a nascent feeling of unease that a lion seems to be cruising our neck of the woods so intensively.

I did some research about how to determine a mountain lion's sex from its track. I discovered that scientists use the width of the heel pad as the main determinant. That's the triangular pad near the back of the paw. I discovered that this lion's heel pad width falls into the category of a large adult female (or a subadult male). I also learned how to distinguish individual mountain lions based on extensive measurements of every conceivable aspect of a track. I might try to do that so I can figure out if it is indeed one lion who keeps tracking all over our forest. I use my 3.5" long handwarmer for my scale to let me take measurements from my photos.

Later in the day, after resting, I took both halves the Labraduo for a sunset hike. Rottrover left a very funny comment two days ago about "boot camp" at my house, involving many hikes, bike rides, and photo shoots - all in one day. She's right! Actually, the amount of hiking has increased exponentially recently because K is not allowed to snow bike with me yet. Before her injury/amputation, I included her in part of my snow bike ride and did no morning hike and a very short evening hike. The net effect of our new program is that K is getting stronger, and I'm getting very very tired... I hope that K can snowbike soon!

The Duo didn't seem even vaguely tired during our sunset hike. In the photo below, K looks incredulous that she actually beat R in a recall! She's getting faster and stronger every day.

The sunset cast an orange glow on the whole forest.

Being in the forest for both sunrise and sunset with my duo of wonderful dogs is, without a doubt, my favorite part of winter.