Lots of Fun!

Life is starting to return to normal around here, after some fun in the Rockies. Many of you know how much we adore the high mountains of Colorado. We love camping up high where we are surrounded by high mountain peaks. We spent a couple of weeks with only rare visits to anyplace lower than 11,000'!

Of course, the Labraduo was with us, snuggling into our sleeping bags every night.

It's no surprise that they love swimming in high mountain lakes. R's enthusiasm is over the top. He literally quivers with anticipation when someone is about to throw a stick in the lake.

Then he launches himself like a flying Labrador.

On our recent trip, Shyla found an intensity level about retrieving that I didn't know she had inside her. She awaited the throw...

And she launched herself high above the water to retrieve the stick.

Seeing the Duo's enthusiasm for something as simple as fetching puts life in perspective. After their intense races to the stick, they often carry it back together.

It's been a wonderful few weeks, replete with long mountain bike rides on the Continental Divide, lazy afternoons soaking up the sunshine, and glorious wildflowers all around us. This is an Elephant flower. Do you see why that's its name?

Yes, there was some inevitable rain too but the bright sunshine is what I remember most. I hope to tell you all about it and to catch up with your summer news!

Summertime and a Wildlife Mystery

The idyllic spring-summertime is continuing here, with enough rain that the fire danger isn't even an issue yet and the wildflowers are lasting a long time.

New ones are emerging too. This trail will be "Columbine Alley" a little later in the summer but you can see one tall Columbine just above Shyla's head.

The meadow areas remain speckled with yellow, as the Golden Banner wildflowers have gone wild this year.

Shyla decided that she needed to go incognito so that the crazy photographer wouldn't recognize her...

Meanwhile, I've still been struggling with the dang migraines and an unstable shoulder. But, I don't want to miss even a single day when Mother Nature is glowing with beauty like this.

I've also been puzzling out some wildlife situations that my trail cameras have revealed. One situation involves that mountain lion photo that I showed you the other day. It actually involved at least two mountain lions.

Early one morning, I captured a photo of a collared mountain lion in typical territory for these felines. She was alone. I'm assuming this lion was a female because she wasn't leaving scrapes and she's not big or muscular as an adult male lion.

Then, about a mile away, I captured a photo of another collared mountain lion, who I presumed was the same one as from earlier that morning.

This lion was fascinated with the area near a bear-marking tree.

I really hate seeing all the gear attached to these collared lions. I can only imagine that it hinders them.

After rolling around, she departed to the left in the photo.

That night (14 hours later), at the same site, a collared mountain lion appeared again. This makes sense... The above mountain lion could have been going to a nearby "day bed" to sleep for the day. And then, after dark, she could have been heading out to go hunting.

Here's the part that confused me. Another lion was right on the collared lion's heels. This lion was soaked from the rain earlier in the evening, unlike the collared lion. And, he appeared to be smaller - possibly an older kitten. But, if he was the collared lion's kitten, why was he soaked while she wasn't?

This new lion became interested in the scent where the collared lion had rolled earlier that morning.

 Then, he appeared to hurry to catch up with the other lion.

He even "bounded" out of the picture. I've never seen an adult lion use any gait except for a saunter (i.e., an assertive walk). The "bound" really made me think he was young.

I'd be interested to hear any thoughts you might have on this sequence of trail camera photos. I'm so curious to figure out what was going on.

Happy Saturday

Happy Saturday to all of you. We are having a restful one, relaxing on the deck watching our recording of the penultimate stage of the Tour de France. Our ShyBear has learned how to live the good life in the summertime, snoozing in the sunshine on the deck.

Of course, a big part of why a young dog like her can snooze away the day is that she got a good romp in the mountains this morning.

The flowers are still glorious here. Since I know that we have a long winter with none of these bright and happy colors, I can't help but share the joy of Mother Nature.

But the animals are already preparing for winter. Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels breed as soon as they wake up in May or so. Then, they start eating non-stop to prepare for their long winter's sleep. They usually hole up underground to hibernate starting in September. Imagine sleeping for 8-9 months of the year!

The bears are doing the same thing as the ground squirrels - eating, eating, and eating. I have some more fun footage of cubs and mothers that I'll share soon. Yesterday, I almost met a bear family up close and personal when I went to check a trail camera. True to their nature, they fled and had disappeared by the time I pulled out a camera.

In this photo, you can see how skinny the mother bear is. She has been nursing her cub for a long time without substantial food available. Now that the berries are ripening, she'll go wild, piling on the pounds as fast as possible.

Serious R wishes that he were allowed to eat as much as this bear!

Happy Saturday!

Shyla's Time to Shine

It's the start of a new year, from my point of view. It's the year of Shyla - a year when I will fully appreciate her incredible sweetness and love.

She and I rode up high first thing this morning, and the sun was bright and warm.

For fun, I tried a backlit silhouette with a rope toy draped over her head. She looks like a creature from outer space! And, I must add that she's incredibly tolerant of my silliness!

Then, she played with her toy. You can see the Divide behind her. At that point in time, it was completely clear of clouds, like many mornings. When I saw the clear sky, I thought that we'd do a short ride and then go hiking up high, to kick off the Year of Shyla perfectly.

Alas, within about 45 minutes, the clouds erupted over the Divide, and the mountain that I wanted to climb with Shyla disappeared into the swirls of gray angry clouds. So, I decided to save our alpine hike for a better day.

Another factor in not doing a long hike was that Shyla is much better in terms of her diarrhea but not completely better. Apparently, the laboratory analysis showed an overgrowth of bacteria that is typical after a stressful time. I guess that, even though she absolutely loves the Runner and R, she missed me while I was away. I wish that she hadn't gotten sick - but it does touch my heart that she missed me that much.

After I left Shyla at home after our ride, I headed out for some more riding. You'll have to forgive me for my wildflower obsession this year. It's the first year that I've had a real macro lens to try to photograph the flowers, and it's fun!

This wintergreen is a plant that K and I stopped to water every single day last year during the drought. It was the only wintergreen plant in that section of the forest that bloomed last year. So, seeing it blooming today made me smile. It's a good memory of something that K and I did together.

Also, while I was out on my bike alone, I checked a trail camera. I discovered that Mabel, our main bear sow, and her single cub had come through our neighborhood the other day. Indeed, I'd noticed the signs that they'd been feeding in the area. Mabel had ripped up a big stump and had also pulled a large log so that it was blocking the trail. An ant colony lived under the log (that's why she moved it), and she'd clearly been chowing down on their pupae. Here's her cub sniffing a spot that many animals have marked over the past several years.

This spot has seen far more bear traffic than in most summers. First Milton went by in the last week of June, and then the new male went by a few days later. Here's the new male. He just walked by without slowing down.

I'll leave you with one my favorite bear photos from my visit to Bear Land. This was a 2 year old male who we saw foraging near the cabin where we were staying. He's still gangly, because he is growing fast. Male black bears don't reach full size until they're about 12 years old.

I love bears, which is why Shyla's nickname is "ShyBear". I've always thought that chocolate labs look a lot like bears!

Here's to the start of my new year! As my friend over at Tales and Tails wrote so eloquently, we don't always get the dog that we expect but, despite the unexpected traits, we often end up with the ideal dog for us. I think that her description fits Shyla and our family perfectly!

Wordless Wednesday

Crafty older brother

Bye-bye Sun

Glorious Columbine

Good Luck

Colorful Bounty

Bye-bye Sun

Full Circle

One of K's Columbines just bloomed - a poignant reminder of all that has happened in the past year. I'll love her forever. As I gazed at it, I remembered how she and I sat next to Columbines last summer, taking life slowly and soaking up the beauty.

There's a new girl, sweet Shyla, who is learning all about the bounties of summertime in the mountains. We mountain biked on Paradise Trail this morning.

I'm so happy to have her to share this beauty with. She's so sweet and so sensitive. I love seeing her with a happy sparkle in her eyes.

And she makes her own rainbows all the time!

Her ears are flapping in the wind in the photo above. We have a hot wind gusting out of the west today. It reminds me of the day when a huge wildfire started near us a few years ago. Today, I took Shyla to town for training but only stayed for a short time because I was scared about R being home alone and a fire breaking out. I hope that sweet Shyla never has to learn about fire.

We've almost come full circle. It's been nearly a year since K died, and now Shyla and I are soaking up similar summer beauty as K did in those last weeks. It's bittersweet but I'm so grateful that I have my Shyla next to me.

Wordless Wednesday

Renewal of Life

Just about a year ago, K was becoming much more sedentary as the end neared. She and I would take short walks in the morning, and then she'd watch my back while I worked on the garden. I was nurturing Columbine seedlings that had just sprouted. One of those Columbines is about to bloom.

As I watch it becoming a delicate flower, it reminds me of the renewal of life, even after a heart-breaking loss. I utter the words "I miss K" almost every day but I am finding happiness again. This girl is certainly helping.

It's only because I am finally emerging from the fog that I realize what a trance I fell into after K's death. Over the past 11 months, I put one foot in front of the other and marched through life but I didn't truly see the beauty or feel the joy that life has to offer.

I'm starting to come back to life, just like that Columbine that K helped me nurture. Although K's Columbines aren't open yet, Columbines are opening on the floors of aspen groves throughout our forest. Ah, the beauty...