Raining mushrooms and coyotes

Yesterday evening, the clouds lifted so that we could see the sunset light. The wind still howled, as you can see from R's flapping ears.

We hung out in the warmth and beauty of the ending of the day.

These winds have been, by my understanding, true Chinook winds, flying off the high mountains down to lower elevations and warming the world that they touched. It's been incredibly warm and sunny here, melting the snowcover on south-facing slopes at an incredible rate. K and I walked on dirt today, by hopscotching from one dry patch to another.

I've mentioned before that my dogs adore eating wild mushrooms (to our chagrin), and the wind blows the squirrels' caches out of the trees and onto the ground. To my dismay, K spent our morning hike searching for mushrooms. I watched her like a hawk, and she found some. So, rather than let her eat them, I had her balance them on her nose and gave her treats for the feat!

Each time she found one, we did the same routine. Look at the evil glance that she threw my way during this balancing act.

The dried mushrooms that littered the ground today are not poisonous but they do cause "gastric distress" if eaten in large quantities. And, Labs are not known for their moderation!

The ironic part is that the only "alternative" medication that K is taking for her osteosarcoma is a mix of wild mushrooms that has been shown to slow the spread of this type of cancer. My friends joke that K is actually "self-medicating" when she forages for mushrooms in the forest.

The other food that was suddenly uncovered by the melting snow today was rose hips. The snow has covered them for a long time, and K enjoyed munching on the tart berries. These are fine for her so I let her munch all that she wants.

I want to apologize that I haven't been visiting many blogs. My sarcoidosis (an autoimmune disease) has acted up in a big way, attacking one of my eyes. I'm having great difficulty focusing on the screen for any length of time. I'll be seeing my eye doc at the end of the week...

Just one more thing, in a comment, someone asked the great question of whether the coyotes ever wriggle in tandem at the scent post. Most of the time, one stands guard while the other wriggles. But, on one occasion, I caught them both wriggling!

Someone else asked if coyotes can be dangerous to dogs. They can be... but we've never had any bad incidents. We carefully train our dogs to recall away from wildlife, and we keep the dogs leashed at times of day when coyotes are likely to be around. I think that, by respecting these canines, we can coexist with them peacefully.

Stormy skies and a wildlife mystery

As K and I started our mountain bike ride together this morning, I spotted a beautiful reddish aspen leaf leaning out over the trail.

K has always taken it upon herself to "cover my back" when I am focused on photography. She laid down next to my bike, watching over the me and the forest around me.

Yes, she's wearing a muzzle. I tend to take it off for photos since she claims that it ruins her beauty. We have to muzzle her because she has a mushroom addiction.

When K was a couple of years old, she almost died from eating poisonous mushrooms during a trip to western Colorado. We've tried a million methods to train her not to eat mushrooms but they haven't worked. So, we muzzle her when she's off leash in late summer and autumn. We bought her a new, better-fitting, muzzle this year, and she dislikes it less than her old muzzle. And, please notice Stella, that it is black. Last year, Stella insisted that K would be happier with a black muzzle than with her old blue one.

Unfortunately, K taught R about mushrooms, and he's even more obsessed with them than she is. So, R wears a muzzle too.

The funny part (from my viewpoint) is that the muzzles make strangers afraid of our incredibly friendly dogs. Today, I encountered a person who had just sneaked across our land, and K scared her. I giggled inside my head (but not out loud, I hope)!

K insisted that I include one photo without the muzzle from today's ride. It's in our favorite spot, and you can see that a wall of clouds poured off the Divide behind K. With it, a winter wind blew toward us but not as fiercely as in mid-winter.

The stormy skies and wind accompanied me for my solo ride. When my spine is giving me pain and all sorts of odd symptoms like numb toes, I give thanks that bike riding helps me so much. I honestly don't know how I'd get through these rough patches without it.

I feel so lucky to have trails and mountains and wildlife all around me.

Near the end of my ride, I did an extra loop to check a wildlife camera. This photo was taken by my trail camera mounted about 5'5" off the ground on a Lodgepole Pine tree. What do you think is going on?

Three dog weekend and deer video

Yesterday evening, we took a sunset hike. The setting sun revealed a dark silhouette of our nearby mountain range.
We were accompanied by THREE dogs, including our visiting Border Collie Mix.
She's staying with us for the weekend. She's a sweet rescue who loves to run with the boys in our pack. Although we have to be very careful because she guards all food from other dogs, we love having her with us!

This morning, K and I headed out for a mountain bike ride, a short one because K has had an upset tummy. Here, she explored an aspen grove with that nasty blue muzzle covering her snout. I padded it where it was hurting her nose so, although she still hates the muzzle, it isn't rubbing her nose raw. I think that K's fear issues, usually hidden well below the surface, make her dislike a muzzle much more than other dogs. R barely seems to notice his.
After our short ride, I headed out on my own, noticing the inexorable advance of autumn. I'm not ready for that transition so I focused on the flowers still blooming. A brown-eyed Susan glowed in an oasis of moist green growth within a pine forest.
And, gentians opened their flowers to soak up the sun's rays. These amazing flowers can open and close their blossoms very quickly depending on whether it's sunny or cloudy. That trick might explain why they thrive in the wildly vacillating autumn weather. It was literally freezing yesterday morning but the air warmed to 75°F this afternoon. We're all soaking up the warmth!
At the end of my ride, I discovered that a Mule Deer Duo visited one of my trail cameras posted deep in a pine forest. I've been curious about why the deer frequent this area. The ground is mostly a carpet of pine needles with little food for a deer. So, I checked the exact spots where I'd seen the deer nibbling in past videos, and I discovered that they're eating mushrooms. Just the bottom of the stalks remain, barely visible down in the earth. Maybe these deer are 'shroomers just like my dogs!

In the video, be sure to notice that the deer in the background is busy rubbing her head against a tree. Does anyone know if deer scent-mark trees this way? Or, does the deer just have an itch? Also, look at the size of their telescoping ears!

What I love about these videos, even of common animals like deer, is that I get to see the animals acting naturally (not fleeing from humans) and I get to see them very closeup. Look at the details of the deer ears that you can see in the video!



I've learned a lot about which animals use various trails through my trail cameras. I intended for this camera to capture images of animals walking along a well-packed animal trail that runs toward the camera along a contour of the slope. I'm discovering that deer rarely use the prominent trails, like the one in the video. Rather, the deer go straight up and down the hillside, using their own less obvious paths. In this case, I didn't even notice the deer path that crosses the well-packed trail when I chose my camera site. Now that I see the deer traffic on my camera, the deer path is obvious to me.

It's also interesting to know that a mountain lion killed a mule deer within 50 yards of this site in January. I'd love to get footage of a lion hunting here - I suspect that more dominant animals, like lions and bears, use the well-packed trail.

Learning about wildlife mainly involves learning to "see" the forest through fresh eyes. I miss so much (like the deer path in sight of my camera) because I don't always truly "see" my surroundings.

Canine mushroom addicts and trail cameras

Since returning from our trip, I've been having a blast mountain biking through the late summer wonderland near our house with my Labraduo. I mentioned a little while ago that R has been wearing a muzzle to stop him from eating mushrooms. I also confidently asserted that K no longer needed a muzzle - she'd beaten her mushroom addiction.
I was wrong. Two days ago, K started lurking behind me on the trails during mountain bike rides. Due to my fused neck, I could no longer take a quick glance behind me to find out what she was doing. After many quick stops and turning my entire body to try to catch her in the act, I did see her eating something off the ground. So, the poor girl wore a muzzle this morning. Although she's worn a muzzle before, she initially pretended that she was unable to run while wearing it. She sat planted by the house, refusing to join me for a mountain bike ride. I went back and cajoled her into a ride but she acted pretty subdued due to the muzzle. Eventually, she relaxed a bit, at least long enough for this photo.
Later in the ride, we met another mountain biker, a visitor to the area. He loved K and played with her for a few minutes while we chatted. As I tried to ride away from him, K refused to leave his side. I believe that she'd decided that he was nicer than me! After all, I'm the one who tortured her by putting on the muzzle. If only she could understand that I did it because I love her...

In the evenings, I've been exploring deep in our forests for perfect trail camera locations. As I mentioned the other day, I placed one of my remaining cameras in a secluded spot. It sits atop a ridge where two animal trails intersect. One is a trail that crosses the ridge from one hillside to another. Based on tracks, I guessed that deer and elk are the primary users of that trail. My camera footage supports that idea so far. Specifically, Mule Deer does with very cautious fawns seem to use the trail.



The intersecting animal trail follows the spine of the ridge from left to right across the camera view. In winter snow, I've tracked cats, both bobcats and mountain lions, following the ridge trail. I've worked hard at placing my camera so that it'll capture footage of animals on both of the intersecting trails. As an added bonus, bears clearly hang out nearby. Trees are scarred with claw marks, berry-filled scats abound, and many stumps have been excavated. So, there's also a chance that we'll get to see a bear on this forested ridge in the short remaining time before they start hibernating. I hope so! I'm very excited to see what we find!

On the wildlife photography front, I'm super happy to say that I have my very first sponsor who is advertising here, a trail camera company called trailcampro.com. Just so you know, I approached them about being a visible sponsor on my blog as I tried to figure out how to deal with the theft of two valuable cameras.

I've bought a number of cameras from them over the years, and I think that their customer service is the absolute best. They're available to give advice over the phone, and everyone I've spoken with there is an expert on wildlife photography with trail cameras. Also, they rigorously test all the camera models that they sell, and their tests have helped me choose the best trail camera models for my purposes. Their website is full of great information for any of you who might be considering buying a trail camera.

My conversations with the staff at trailcampro.com over the past few days have proven a point that you all emphasized when I was so demoralized by the theft of my cameras. You all reassured me that most people are good-hearted, generous, and trustworthy. It seems that you are right. Thanks to all of you for convincing me that I shouldn't give up on my passion for capturing photos of our elusive wildlife.

Meadow oasis

"Sunny with a few clouds" described life pretty well when I wrote my last post. We'd just found out that R had pancreatitis and K's recurring urinary tract infection was very nasty. We had planned to head out of town but weren't sure if taking two sick dogs far away from their fabulous vet was smart. So, we hung out at home and waited to see if the dogs' health seemed to go north or south. Fortunately, it seemed to go due north for both (more tests this week will hopefully confirm our impression). So, with a long list of every vet hospital on our route, we headed out in our LabMobile, the high clearance 4WD camper van that lets us "car camp" while sleeping on a comfortable mattress that keeps my finicky spine happy.

We traveled through tumultuous weather into the high mountains of central Colorado. Although I felt confident that the Duo was mending, I hoped that the ominous skies didn't have hidden meaning.
As we approached our destination, blue sky opened over our heads and a rainbow dove into the valley below us. It was close to our dog S's birthday so I thought of it as his rainbow bridge to us.
We camped in a Subalpine meadow surrounded by 13-14,000' peaks in the distance. It's one of my favorite campsites on Earth - peaceful, filled with wildlife and flowers, and close to beautiful trails. K expresses joy by wriggling on her back. As soon as we set foot in the meadow, she dove into the grass.
The tumultuous weather followed us to our oasis, and stormy skies loomed as we took the first short hike of our trip. K perched on a rocky pinnacle to survey our meadow.
R scanned the meadow's edge for wild animals. We always keep our dogs on leash in this lush meadow because it seems so obvious that we are visiting the home of the deer, elk, marmots, bear, and lions.
During our trip, we took lots of mountain bike rides and hikes, although very carefully. Both of our dogs are wild mushroom addicts, and the never-ending rainfall this summer has produced a spectacular mushroom crop. We can't trust the Duo to roam even the slightest bit during rides or hikes without sampling the local fare. In fact, when K was 2 yrs old, she suffered severe mushroom poisoning, sending us careening down a mountain from our remote campsite in the Elk Mountains. Fortunately, we found an emergency vet who saved her life. So, we know that the risks are real, and thus, the Duo spent more time on leash or in "heel position" than usual. Sometimes, we even muzzle them to prevent mushroom grazing but that has the bad side effect of making people very afraid of them. There's nothing more mortifying to gregarious Labradors than to have people shy away from them!

These mushrooms grew out of the side of a live tree next to a tumbling stream!
The sun set on our first evening in our favorite meadow with a faint rainbow arcing up out of a fiery mountain.
I plan to write more about our trip in coming days but that's all for now. We gradually made our way to the San Juan Mountains, including the peaks, passes, and lush valleys above Silverton and Ouray. It's the wildest part of Colorado, and we loved it!

When we arrived home, I checked the wildlife cameras that are within 100 yards of my house. Whew - there was a flurry of action on the tiny trail that leaves our house to go into the forest. Coyotes marched past at 6AM, 11 AM, and 4 PM on various days. In the dark of night, a deer fled from something so fast that the camera caught only his hind end. On his next passage past the camera, he posed with his velvet antlers in the camera lens.
Then, just last night, a bobcat sauntered past the camera with dinner in his jaws. I believe that the rabbit who I frequently see on this camera nourished a bobcat last night. It's sad for the rabbit but it is the Year of the Bobcat.
This morning, K and I triggered the camera as we finished our bike ride. I have so few "action" photos of my girl and me that I'll treasure this one!
Notice how closely she's "heeling" next to my bike. I trained her to heel on the right of my bike when she was a puppy. It's very useful on busy trails or when mushrooms seem to be sprouting everywhere!

K's energy waxes and summer wanes

The waning of summer always casts a bittersweet sadness into my heart. For me, a year feels like it follows the pattern of a lifetime starting with the unbridled promise of late winter, the birth of spring, the crescendo of early summer, and the pinnacle of mid-summer. In my heart, the gradual dimming of life in late summer and fall represents the ending of life. I've tried for years to break this thought pattern but it persists anyway. One advantage to it, however, is that the feeling that each year is a mini-life motivates me to get out into the forest and enjoy each day I'm given.

Today, despite undeniable signs that I won't be able to stop the natural world's inexorable march toward winter hibernation, I felt happy. K sparkled with resurgent energy, and seeing her energy painted a goofy grin on my face. While K and I spent a short time on the trails together this morning, she exuberantly surged ahead of me to chase a squirrel and bluff chased a pair of antlered deer bucks. K's deer 'chases' last only a few steps because she knows, after approximately a million of these wildlife encounters, that returning to me will earn her huge rewards.

K led the way through an aspen grove whose leaves haven't yet relinquished the chlorophyll that keeps them green.We summited on our local peak, Hug Hill, and the skies over the mountains awed me again.K peeked out from behind a Douglas Fir Tree near the summit. She loves to try to hide from me so that I'll call her, "K come!", which earns her a jackpot. I had bland rewards with me today to keep her touchy tummy happy. However, I didn't participate in her hide-and-seek game. If I even slightly encourage this game, then she'll hide every few minutes while in the forest, driving me nuts with worry about whether she's really wandered off this time.We descended through glorious yellow aspens to finish our 20 minute excursion. K seemed very surprised that she wasn't going any further - but she needs to save her energy for healing.After I left K at home, I did a ride that included some exploring, trying to link together pieces of singletrack mountain bike trails that I've found deep in our forests. I climbed a steep and gravelly hill where I've seen a myriad of wildlife this year, including a deliciously long observation of a bear, but I didn't see anything but fresh tracks and scat. Bobcats, deer, coyotes, and bears had all traveled my trail, leaving footprints in the fresh mud, but stayed hidden as I passed. Coyote scat sat prominently in the middle of the trail, filled with mushrooms! I didn't know that other canines besides silly dogs eat mushrooms. I wonder how coyotes know which ones to eat or if they sometimes get poisoned.

Once I attained a plateau, my goal was to find a sweet singletrack trail down through the National Forest. I succeeded, and swooped down a tacky dirt trail through a meadow, then an aspen grove, and finally a pine forest. Near the bottom, the sweet smell of pine pitch permeated the air, and I wished that I could photograph a scent! Who knows, maybe someday that'll be possible. At the very bottom of my new trail, it met a small dirt road. I pedaled along with the sinking feeling that I was trespassing on a private road but I saw no signs. However, when I reached an intersection with a bigger dirt road, a "keep out" sign guarded the area I'd just ridden through. Bummer.

Our forest is a patchwork of public and private land with private land lining the roads, with only a few hidden gaps. The private land is a barrier that keeps everyone but landowners out of the public land behind it. It's frustrating when the National Forest sits just yards away but is legally inaccessible. My usual strategy is to meet a landowner and ask permission to cross their land. Nine out of ten times they'll say "yes" to a local resident. Maybe I can finagle such a meeting in the area where I was today.

I rode home with bluebird blue skies over my head, looming thunder clouds over the mountains, and changing leaves surrounding me.
The thunder columnus clouds reached high into the sky over the mountains but stayed stalled over the Divide, leaving me in my bluebird world.
One of my favorite flowers, a deep purple and yellow aster, still bloomed, and a fly busily pollinated it. If you click on the photo, you can see a close-up of the fly and the pollen.
I arrived home to a ringing phone - our vet checking up on K. We had a sensitive 'off the record' conversation, discussing my vet's experience with pet insurance companies who add a 'riders' to policies excluding future pancreatitis treatment after one bout due to the high cost of treating chronic patients. I had to choke back my dismay - that's why I bought pet health insurance - for expensive problems! I'm wondering if pet health insurance might end up mired down in similar problems as human health insurance. Ironically, it was my first 'off-the-record' conversation with a vet although my doctor and I have had those conversations for years to avoid insurance issues. Convergence or coincidence?

Good thoughts for K

My friend, SMRP, posted yesterday about K being in the hospital. She's still there, and from what I heard from the doc this morning, she's not a lot better. Yesterday morning, she suddenly became lethargic, acted like she was in pain, and refused to eat. Then, she threw up a few mushrooms. But, her bloodwork is very confusing - it's certainly not indicating classic mushroom poisoning (yet - but it can change over time as the toxins do their work).

Due to K's strange assortment of symptoms, the vets are worried about an underlying unrelated problem that's exacerbating a mild case of mushroom poisoning and that might be causing the mystifying blood problem that cannot be caused by mushrooms, a low hematocrit (i.e., low red blood cell count).

They said the terrifying word 'hemangiosarcoma' yesterday. I had an anxiety-soaked hour while they looked for it but xrays and ultrasound didn't show the telltale signs. The images also didn't show any signs of internal bleeding, another worry. So, that's all good news.

Whatever is going on, she's staying the hospital, I was just told.

I think that those of you who follow this blog know that K is unbelievably close to me. I feel like she's part of the fabric of my heart and soul. Please send good thoughts her way.

Dog recalls and sweet mountain bike ride

Yesterday evening, the veritable parade of wild animals that we know are wandering through our forests and meadows convinced me that we needed to practice dog recalls even more intensively than usual.

One of my favorite ways to practice is to leave K and R in sit-stays and to walk a long distance, well out of sight. R has decided that the best method for assuring that he 'wins the race' to me is to block K as they approach me. Here, at the end of a 200 yard recall, he is trying to slow her down. I'm not sure why winning the race is so important to R since they both get heaps of treats on arrival.
Then, a stride later, they're both homing in on me like torpedoes. It's hard not to flinch and keep taking photos! Obviously, R's 'blocking' worked - he's ahead.
Later in our hike, I did recalls in less controlled circumstances. Rather than having the duo start in sit-stays, I called them as they played or sniffed. K flew toward me.
R streaked at me, through a patch of sunshine in the meadow.
I take recall practice very seriously. I believe that my dogs must have extremely reliable recalls to earn the privelage of hiking off-leash on trails. Due to never-ending practice and sage advice from our trainer, Gigi Moss, I can call the dogs even when they're tempted by deer, like the one with velvet antlers who crossed our path today, or almost any other animal. Practice, practice, practice.
When we arrived home, our zany character, R, wriggled under the bed for a snooze. He seems to like being underneath objects for naps, including chairs, vehicles, and beds!This morning, K and I rode through a moist forest, soaked by yesterday's train of thunder storms. Mushrooms bulldozed their way from below the soaked soil.As a young dog, K had serious mushroom addiction problems. Her first dabbling in fungi involved eating the type of mushroom shown above (which I've never positively identified). In our 'home' forest, she ate only this one type with no ill effects. I carefully showed her our most poisonous type, Amanita muscaria, and she backed away like it was, well, poisonous. She never sampled this type. I took the photo below yesterday. These almost fluorescent red mushrooms currently decorate the pine-needle carpeted forest floor.The good news is that K has outgrown her mushroom obsession. That's especially good news this year because I've never seen such a variety of mushrooms littering our forest floor. I have no idea which are edible and which might kill a dog.

K and I rolled past a yellow-bedecked plant, that I've seen only one of throughout all of our forests. I tried to identify it last year and failed. I took numerous photos today, with K guarding my back but I still can't find it in any wildflower book. I'm starting to wonder if it's an escaped domesticated variety.We sat, sunbathing, next to Columbines clustered under an aspen tree at the meadow's edge. The columbines have passed their peak, although some still shine, at our elevation. I'll have to go higher in the mountains to get my fix in the near future.After I dropped off K, I did a long but mellow ride. As I rode, the dark clouds gathered and became organized over the Divide. The dark sky contrasts with the yellow carpet of wildflowers on the ridge.
A closer look revealed that the yellow carpet was comprised of Sulphur Flowers (Eriogonum umbellatum) with other plants, like white Mariposa Lilies, mixed in.The Sulphur flowers need to hire a new public relations firm to get a name that suits their magnificence!As I rode, storms continued to organize and advance, rumbling in the distance but I easily beat them home. The gray clouds gave the mountains an eerie and foreboding tinge.