Just riding

Yesterday evening, we hiked through our verdant meadow, with the elk herd waiting impatiently to the west and downwind of us. They'd spent the day grazing and seemed anxious to get moving. It provided another demonstration of how our dogs rely almost totally on scent to scan their surroundings - they didn't seem to notice the downwind herd of 100-150 elk. Overnight, the mass of elk marched through the forest in close proximity to our house, and our dogs launched into several bouts of frenzied barking as the cows and their almost year-old calves mewed back and forth.After crossing the meadow, we visited the closest lookout point for sunset. The rays of sun filtered through looming clouds just above the snowy mountains.
This morning, I mountain biked up to a higher point but saw almost the same view, looking much less foreboding.
K took advantage of a stump to get a better angle for checking out the mountains.
I rode my 'summer bike' for the first time since Moab in March. It's a Specialized Safire with a 'brain' that automatically adjusts the rear shock depending on the bumpiness the trail. The Safire feels so nimble and fast compared to my winter tank-like bikes. I had fun, zipping up steep hills and descending with as much grace as I can ever muster.

I stopped to soak up the beauty of dense patches of Pasqueflowers. I noticed that the pistils, located in the center of the yellow disk, have morphed from pure white to a pinkish color on some blossoms. I suspect that this color transformation means that pollen has found its way into the pistil and seeds are developing. In any case, the pink pistils with the bright yellow pollen-packed anthers surrounding them are a beautiful sight.
Aside from enjoying the Pasqueflowers, I watched for bears. I love seeing my first bear of the year, and I'm certain that they're awake and foraging. I rode a trail that a cinnamon-colored black bear mother and two cubs frequented last year. Despite my vigilant watching, I didn't even see any signs of bears today - no tracks and no scat. Maybe tomorrow.

Today, I reveled in the flow of riding my nimble and fast Safire on dry dirt trails and in warm sunshine!

Glorious spring with a sad tinge

For a brief springtime period, a shaft of sunlight bathes one special dog bed every morning. This morning, S found the warm spot and curled up in the sun. He's always been a 'comfort-seeking missile' as my brother likes to say, and relaxing in the warm sunshine defines comfort. I'm feeling very sad about S right now because it seems like the evil cancer is moving faster than we expected. We don't know how much time we have left with him. He still seems happy, even content, most of the time so that's good.K and I rode out into a glorious morning of blue skies and sunshine but we were burdened with heavy hearts. As we rode, I appreciated having my chocolate friend by my side. After visiting our favorite spots down on the lower trails, we climbed up to Hug Hill. This view is the first glimpse of the Divide that I see when I'm about 20 yards below the peak.
We tried to push the envelope of 'ridable trails' but spring slushy snow still swamped our favorite west-facing ledgy trail. We made it about a half mile and I decided to wait a few days to try again. The sun is melting the snow so fast that the world seems transformed daily.

After dropping off K, I rode a route that follows a creek, where many deciduous trees and shrubs, including willows, dominate. Willows have either female or male catkins on a single tree, and today I identified both kinds. Below, a female catkin looks greenish. Each stalk-like protrusion is called a pistil, and the forked shape on the end is the stigma. Pollen from a male catkin needs to be deposited into the pistil for a viable seed to develop.
Below, a nearby tree displayed a veritable forest of male catkins, and a bee perched on one of them, doubtless drinking its nectar and getting pollen dusted on its body. Later, if this same bee visits the nearby tree with female catkins, he'll take the pollen with him. As I inched closer to the tree to photograph a bee on a catkin, an undeniable buzzing sound emanated from its branches. I scanned the tree and saw bees visiting catkins all over its dense lattice of branches.
After following the meandering creekside trail dense with water-loving trees, I climbed up to a south-facing plateau which is like a different universe in terms of trees and other plants. As I rode along a dry and dusty trail, a bright pink and yellow flower stood out like a beacon. The Mountain Ball Cacti (that's what I think they are) are blooming in the sunniest spots along this trail. The quills, armed and ready, contrast dramatically with the soft and glowing flowers.
A close-up look at a flower emphasizes its soft glow. It also shows the detail of the flower structure. I believe that we're seeing a forest of anthers, with pollen pellets on their tops, surrounding a single pistil. However, I'm no expert on botony so please correct me if I'm wrong.
The proximity of such different worlds struck me. I'd just been creekside, looking at water-loving trees and shrubs, and now I was on an arid plateau where cacti bloom. Then, I looked over my shoulder, and a snowy mountain peered at me between rocky outcroppings and forest-fire burned trees. I love the extremes of the west.
After seeing the dawn of true spring here today, I wistfully wondered how much of the spring we'll get to share with S. I hope that he gets many more chances to bask in the sun - one of his favorite things.

Flying labs

Yesterday evening, the whole pack hiked just before sunset. Recently, a mountain biker made a jump out of a downed tree, and we used it to capture fun photos of our pups flying. First, K stretched her trunk and limbs, trying to reach as far as possible.
Then, I caught R as he started to gather his limbs for landing.S declined to do any flying leaps but I photographed him wearing his vibram-soled boots to help his hind paws stick to our hardwood floors. As his hind end has lost strength and sensory feedback, his hind paws have tended to slide outwards as he tries to stand still or stand up after lying down. So far, the boots seem to help. In the photo, you can see that he's also altered his stance to help with stability - he now keeps his paws in a wider stance, just like humans do when they're feeling uncertain of the footing.
Today dawned as winter, with dark skies, spitting sleet, and a cool wind. K and I rolled silently through the forest, listening to the sounds of springtime in the wintry landscape. Despite the chilly air, peepers hoarsely called, in low tones, likely due to their cold calling muscles. I thought that I might've heard one of my favorite migrants, a Cordilleran Flycatcher, near a buggy shallow pond but I wasn't certain.

We ascended to our favorite viewpoint, Hug Hill, but the mountains had vanished behind the clouds. As we climbed, we passed the eye-catching neon spotted stump that I highlighted yesterday. Thanks to the help of The Watcher and Dog Geek, I've figured out that the neon orange brain-like stuff is a fungus. Yesterday, I failed to mention that the fungus inhabited a conifer stump, which means that it's Dacrymyces palmatus, or 'orange jelly', as opposed to the very similar 'Witch's butter' that grows on hardwood stumps. According to the websites that I've perused, it's 'edible' but I'd have to be starving to taste it. It looks like an alien lifeform to me although it does brighten up a rotten old stump.

Later, I passed a small herd of deer, grazing in the same meadow as the huge elk herd. I've never thought about how deer and elk might socially interact. In this case, they seemed to peacefully share the same meadow but did not directly acknowledge each other.
By the end of my ride, the sun shone so brightly that the flowers opened wide to greet their pollinators. I saw multiple bees and flies on pasqueflowers and dandelions. Spring is truly here!

Receding snow

The snowy carpet is receding, exposing more dirt every day. K and I rolled out into a day that smelled like spring. The wet dirt pervaded my senses, and I could see many green sprouts pushing their heads through the dirt. The amazing thing is that, this year, I think that I can identify many of these tiny sprouts when their first leaves unfurl. I love knowing our forest so well.

K and I climbed up to the highest point on our trail network for the first time since mid-March. A few snowbanks remained but the trail into the sky was mostly dirt. A moist and psychedelically colored stump caught my eye - snow doubtless submerged it until very recently.
I'm pretty sure that the yellow stuff is a lichen but I don't know what the orange slimy stuff is, and I've never noticed it before. It looks glistening wet with grooves - almost like a neon orange brain.
Part of why I noted it is that several dogs that live a mile or so from us have recently been poisoned. No one knows what toxin is the culprit, or even whether it's a natural toxin or the work of an evil person. As far as I know, all of the dogs have survived. In light of a possible natural toxin being the culprit, this bright orange mold-like stuff caught my eye. For some reason, it looks poisonous to me. For once, K showed some good sense and wasn't interested in it. Does anyone know what this orange stuff is?

We reached the top and the awe-inspiring beauty astonished me, yet again.
I had to capture K's lovable image while we stood atop our slice of the world. If you look closely at her photo, you can see pink splotches on her upper lip, just below her nose. I don't know what's causing these splotches that appeared about a month ago and aren't getting worse. My vet didn't seem concerned when I described them over the phone. Any ideas?
After dropping off K, I headed out for a fairly fast ride but a couple of birds caught my interest. A Western Bluebird flitted around me, flying short distances from one perch to the next. I usually spot Western Bluebirds once or twice over the entire summer because they prefer lower elevations yet I've already seen them several times this summer. I hope that global weirding isn't changing their nesting habits.
Next, I passed a nestbox where I saw Mountain Bluebirds and Tree Swallows jousting recently. When the weather turned cold and wet, the swallows fled, presumably to the warmth of lower elevations. At that point, the bluebird pair acted like they owned the box. Today, a single pair of tree swallows busily worked at the box entrance. Their emerald backs glinted in the strong sun. What gorgeous birds!
When I arrived home, S awaited me, wanting a trip outside. We lingered in the sunshine, and I stroked his warm fur. Male hummingbirds trilled past us and a golden-mantled ground squirrel trustingly sat on a rock watching us. S's hind end seems shakier today. It's just a small decrement - but each one worries me. So, I sat with him, enjoying being with him on a fresh spring day. The photo below highlights one of my favorite parts of his face - his blond eyelashes!

A sweet ride and K' s first scent training

A sweet mountain bike ride - a chocolate lab running along side me, soft dirt trails, beautiful blue skies with dramatic cloud formations, and peeking snowy mountains. What more could I ask for?After a couple of days of riding through a ghostly forest with trees barely recognizable in the fog and almost no mountain views, blue sky punctuated by fast-moving clouds dominated today. I brought along full rain gear because the creeping clouds seemed to chase me at times but they never caught me!I rode along a ridge, watching the horizon for glimpses of the white mountains. I ran into a number of local trail users, bikers and runners. It was wonderful to catch up with my kindred spirits who I haven't seen on the trails in ages.
On my way home, I spotted a Wyoming Ground Squirrel, who was so curious about me that he couldn't help himself from poking his head out of his burrow to watch me. At the same time, a Golden Eagle soared overhead so I considered myself the little squirrel's guardian, and kept him from scampering into the open until the eagle had moved on.
I felt like doing something novel with K so I decided to try training her in scent discrimination - i.e., teaching her to find a particular scent. Scent training has been on my mind since reading about it at Champion of my Heart. I videoed the first session, and I was amazed by how well it went.

I used two identical pill bottles, both of which originally contained the same supplement to avoid K accidentally learning to sniff out a certain supplement. Inside one closed bottle, I placed a used chemical handwarmer as the object that K would learn to find by using her nose. I chose this because it probably smells strongly like a combination of my sweaty hands and the chemicals inside it.

Also, K has experience with a 'Find it' cue that tells her to search for a lost handwarmer out on the trails. I drop them all the time in the winter, and they're hard for me to find in the snow. So, I trained K to find them, pick them up, and bring them to me. It was super easy to teach her to to this because I've trained her to pick up all sorts of things for me when my back is hurting. So, this training was an extension of something she'd already mastered. However, dogs are not good at generalizing so I didn't expect the new exercise to be easy.

At the start of the session, I used just one bottle containing a handwarmer. I was using 'Free-shaping', meaning that I clicked to mark behaviors that were even vaguely related to the final behavior (retrieving the pill bottle with the handwarmer in it) and gave her a treat after each click. K and I have done this type of training many times before so you'll see that she simply tries something new if a certain behavior doesn't earn a click/treat.

At the start, I gave K no cue - I just waited to see what she did when faced with the pill bottle on the floor. When she showed a glimmer of interest in the container by nosing toward it, I clicked and gave her a treat. Next, I waited for stronger interest to give a click - pawing at it. Once it was lying on its side, she tried nosing it but I didn't click because it wasn't a new step toward our final goal. Instead, because we've played many games where she picks up objects, I waited for her to mouth the container for a click. Finally, she needed to pick up the container and place it in my hand to earn a click and treat. After doing this once, she repeated it several times in a row which I spared you from watching. I apologize that the first video is zoomed in too much.


Next, I added a verbal cue 'Find it' - so I could elicit the same behavior later with a verbal cue. We repeated the same exercise, with one pill bottle, 5-10 times with the cue 'Find it'.

The big step was adding the second bottle, which had no handwarmer in it, so that K had to choose the correct container from two visually identical ones. At first, you'll see that I placed the correct container (the one with the handwarmer) closer to K to make success more likely.


I gradually moved the containers so that neither one was closer or easier for her to retrieve. At the very start of the clip, she did one her favorite naughty tricks - sticking her head in my treat bag to chow down. Aside from that antic, her success rate was very high. I forgot to signal the camera about which bottle was the correct one. But, as you can tell by the click at the instant that she delivered the bottle to my hand on every trial, she was 100% accurate during this clip.


Then, R sniffed loudly under the door. K heard him just as I said 'Find it' for the first repeat of the next clip. She paused to listen and then forgot everything that she'd learned so far. Once she started moving again, she chose the wrong bottle twice in succession. On the second of the failed trials, I made the mistake of encouraging her verbally after she started moving because I thought that she was heading for the right bottle (I usually try to keep my mouth shut). Her only 'punishment' was that I didn't click or give her a treat. Despite how minor that 'punishment' was, before the third repeat, she started whining. In my experience, if she fails more than a couple of times in succession, she goes into a frenzy of whining and randomly tries behaviors that she thinks might earn a click/treat. The training session falls apart because I can't pull her out of her frenzied nervous behavior. To avoid that during this training session, I placed the correct bottle closer to her for the last repeat of this clip. Then, although it's not shown, I repeated this easier pattern about 5 times to rebuild her confidence before placing the bottles side-by-side again.


After recovering from her minor setback, K was doing so well that I was worried that she was noticing something in my body language that told her which bottle to pick. For the last couple of repeats, I mixed up the bottles really well and I pointed at the correct one so that only the camera and not K could see it.


It's interesting to notice that she often goes directly to the correct bottle and does no debating before deciding which one to retrieve. However, after picking up the correct one, she sometimes carries it on a path so she can sniff the other container. Perhaps she's double-checking that she made the correct choice.

This session was, by far, more successful than I expected. The most surprising part to me was that her nose led her directly to the correct container, with no need to sniff both of them.

I think that, for our next session, we'll review what we did in the first session and then try adding a third empty container.

A bike ride though nature and the canine spirit

My two exuberant younger dogs, K and R, mountain biked with me this morning. The sun briefly came out early in the morning, illuminating a phantom-like forest.On murky spring day like today, the sheer number of spider webs woven into the fabric of the shrubs overwhelms the forest. All the whitish spots in the reddish-brown shrubs are silk webs, glowing with condensation.
As I paused, K declared that it was play time. It's unusual for her to goad R into playing with her - it's usually the other way around. They frolicked on a soft wet carpet of ever-greener knik-knik, a leafy ground covering with red berries.
Of course, a stick became the play object - they are labradors, afterall. The photo below makes K look very skinny. We recently increased her thyroid supplementation, and she may need more food. Time for a weigh-in!
Although it was another foggy, wet, and dark day, I could see the plant colors brightening, even compared to a couple of days ago. The reddish tinge, with a touch of green, of these shrubs is subtle but new.
When I looked closely at the bushes in the foreground, I found leaves! I know, for those of you in warmer climates, green leaves growing on bushes do not constitute a big event. But, high in the Rockies, it's an exciting find because the mountain world has yet to explode into springtime. As I photographed the leaves, I imagined the complex biological processes that were coordinated to allow the newborn leaves to finally unfurl. Physiology, in plants or animals, is so complicated that I'm astonished that it works so reliably.
A lot of flitting and flying motion caught my eye among the shrubs. Those Ruby-crowned kinglets that I first spotted yesterday have decided to torture me. They're following me everywhere but then flit away before I can photograph them. Today, a pair chased each other relentlessly, from one shrub to the next, around boulders, and among pine branches. I caught one as she took off from a bush. If you look carefully, you can see that her beak, eye, and two outstretched wings.
Then, I caught a kinglet off-guard, staying still. They mostly eat bugs but also will eat the foliage from pine trees, which might have been what she was up to in the photo. The only obvious signs that it's a kinglet in the photo are her diminuitive body, short tail, light-colored chest, and white wing bars.
If this pair of kinglets breeds, they will lay as many as twelve eggs in a nest hidden high in a conifer tree. The female almost constantly incubates the eggs for almost 2 weeks and then keeps the naked chicks warm for a week, leaving the nest for brief 5 minute forays. Once the chicks have feathers, a parent arrives with food every 1-2 minutes, all day long. Imagine twelve tiny beaks gaping open when mom or dad returns to the nest with a bug. That's a lot of beaks to feed and a lot of hard work for the parents!

On the way home from the trails, I confirmed that the mountains, completely obscured for a couple of days, are indeed still standing tall. The clouds briefly parted, revealing only the local ski area and no other mountains. When I arrived home, I had a brief scary moment when S remained motionless, lying on his bed. My heart accelerated with fear, and I stood in the doorway watching closely to see his chest wall rise and fall with a breath. Afterwards, I realized how silly I was - he's deaf and didn't hear me open the door. But, it reflects how much I subconsciously worry about him, even though he's holding his own right now.S is a good example for me. He must know that something's not right with his body but he's the first to remind me when it's time to hike and enthusiastically tackles the trails even when we run into unexpected obstacles, like deep snow or massive fallen trees blocking the trail. On rough terrain, he occasionally stumbles and face-plants, but it upsets me far more than it bothers him. He trots onward, with his usual happy and hopeful face, as if nothing happened. He's seizing every day, rather than brooding over what might happen in the foreseeable future.

Foggy beauty

Thick fog surrounded and enveloped K and me as we rolled out the door this morning. I'd procrastinated in remarkably creative ways because the weather looked so nasty - fog, light rain, and 30 degrees. But, I had a relaxing and fun time riding through the surreal world. It seems that I might never truly learn, and commit to long term memory, that it's almost always fun to mountain bike through the forest with my dog, even on nasty weather days. Almost immediately, K and I bumped into my husband and R as they ran. Just short distance away from me, the fog seemed to consume them.The rain and freezing temperatures created art from K's fur and eye whiskers.
Similarly, the currant bushes, whose delicate green leaves just recently dared to peek out, became ice sculptures.As I passed by the meadow where the swallows and mountain bluebirds jousted over a nestbox the other day, I noticed that the swallows had 'abandoned ship' - probably fleeing the frigid mountain weather to the relative warmth of the flatlands. In place of the swallows, Western Bluebirds, who mostly live at lower elevations, fought for territory with the Mountain Bluebirds. The plumage of Western Bluebirds contains rust colored feathers while the Mountain Bluebird plumage is crystal clear blue and white. The photo below captured what I think is a female Western Bluebird (her mate was perched a bit further away) with puffed up feathers to keep her warm.
As I passed the willows whose catkins I focused on yesterday, a plethora of birds flitted in their branches. The photo below was intended to include a bird, who zipped out of the picture before I captured her image, but the lushness of this microhabitat is overwhelming.
A Cassin's finch carried nest material in her beak while perching in the willow. Then, a pair of new migrants fluttered from one branch to another, Ruby-crowned kinglets. The one photo I captured of a kinglet was overexposed but it shows how small she is. In fact, kinglets are among the smallest of the songbirds.
I borrowed a better photo, mainly to let you imagine how well the kinglet's plumage blends in with the yellow willow catkins.After the cold numbed my fingers during bird photography, I rode through the fog down to the usual water's edge of a reservoir. I found an almost empty basin except for the creek feeding it. On the last occasion that I visited this spot, heavily bundled people played ice hockey on boots while monitoring fishing lines dropped into ice holes. It looked dramatically different today.
Next to the basin, wild flowers bloomed while covered in water and ice droplets. Their purples and yellows splashed the drab foggy day with color. The purple gem was, I believe, a Storksbill.
I believe that the second colorful flower was another 'weed', Wild Alyssum.
Even if the rest of the world classifies these flowers as weeds, they brightened my day.

For the rest of my ride, I decided to 'get over' being tentative about my health scare from the other night, and I rode hard from the water's edge up to a ridge top. I played my pace-changing game - 1 minute of hard fast spinning followed by 1 minute at a sustainable pace. A big part of what I love about mountain biking is that my entire world tunnels down to navigating a narrow path, pushing my burning muscles to keep pedaling, and listening to my the sound of my breath. For brief intervals, nothing else invades my tranquil mind.

Real life is rarely so simple as a long hard mountain bike climb but it's good to have sweet escapes. Between S's cancer, a close relative's rapid decline, my iffy health, and all the tempetuous events in the larger world - I think that it's important that we make time to do what we love. For me, riding my mountain bike and spending time with my human and dog pack top that list.