A Mountain Bike Ride with the Duo

I mountain biked with both halves of the Labraduo this morning. We have entered an intense part of the monsoon season, and we saw about 20 minutes of sun this morning before the storms started enveloping our world. Fortunately, the Duo and I were out for those sunny 20 minutes!

Whenever I ride with both dogs, I put special emphasis on doing some training during our ride. It helps to keep their focus on me.

Recalls are most important so we did a few this morning. Before R's elbow surgery in January, every recall race ended like this, with Shyla ahead of R. She could out-race him without even trying very hard.

But, since his surgery, R can run almost as fast as Shyla when he's motivated to sprint. In this recall, I gave R a small head-start, and he held Shyla off the whole way. He's very cunning - he blocks her path to pass him!

My favorite of all the recalls was when they ran to me side-by-side. They spend much of their time outdoors running right next to each other so I'm glad that I captured a photo of it.

I think that R's elbow surgery was a big success. It was his second surgery for congenital elbow dysplasia, Now, we are hoping that his elbow remains comfortable and flexible, like it is right now.

What sweet boy he is! Shyla and I love having him join us on our morning mountain bike rides.

P.S. My computer is fixed! Now, I hope to catch up with all of you soon.

See Beautiful

I don't have access to my computer or photo library so I can't put together the post that I'd hoped to do for this month's See Beautiful blog hop. But, I can share a few "See Beautiful" sights from the past two days. 

I wrote yesterday about coping with the loss of K. One of the best things for me to do is to revel in who and what I have in my life now. 

Our new Labraduo makes me smile. I've had the gift of being able to spend a lot of time with both of them in the past couple of days. We watched the sunset together one evening. R enjoyed the scents wafting on the wind from the mountains.

R is still teaching Shyla lots of things, like how to trust people she doesn't know. I saw him greet someone who Shyla has been scared of for her whole life. Because she saw R give the person a happy greeting, Shyla decided to come out of hiding to sniff the person's hand (which was a Beautiful moment!).

It is the peak of our summer wildflower season. I'll leave you with what I think is one of the most beautiful sights of all - Colorado Columbines. Entire aspen groves and hillsides are covered in them now - and that is so beautiful!

This post is part of the See Beautiful Blog Hop. Because I'm using an iPad to compose this post (while my computer is being repaired), I don't know how to link to the Blog Hop but I do know that you can find the Hop at Sugar's blog (http://www.sugarthegoldenretriever.com/2014/07/this-moment-see-beautiful-today-will-be-a-great-day/) - Thanks for hosting it, Sugar!

See Beautiful!

Listening to the Heart

Today I found myself falling into a shadow of sadness. At first, I couldn't figure out why. I was enjoying a wonderful mountain bike ride with the Labraduo, with colorful flowers, fluttering butterflies, and singing birds all around us.

Every flower seemed to have a butterfly drinking its nectar. Why did that sight make me feel blue?

Then, I realized the reason. We are very close to the two year anniversary of K's death, and my heart was more aware of it than my mind. Indeed, when I looked at my post from exactly two years ago, I had photos of the same kind of butterfly perched on flowers.

But, that was a different kind of day than today. I was preparing myself to say goodbye to K. Indeed, the title of that day's post was "Let it be" - it was my way of trying to accept what was inevitable. And, most importantly, I was trying to tell K that it was okay to let go - that she didn't have to keep fighting for my sake - because I'd find my way after she was gone.

After I re-read that post, my heart literally hurt. If it weren't for cancer, K would still be alive - because she died at a young age. I miss her, and I'll never stop missing her.

Yet, I know that those who have died before us would want us to keep living, keep trying to be happy, and keep enjoying the days that we are given. My mother wanted that for me, when she died young so many years ago. And, I have no doubt that K would have found a way to be happy even if it had been me who died rather than her. Dogs seize the day and delight in each one.

Each of us has a finite number of days, and my approach is to always strive to be happy - so I don't waste my life wallowing in depths of despair. That doesn't mean that I don't get sad - like today - but it means that I try to find the good in today.

Last year, I used the strategy of taking a really fun field course on bear behavior in Minnesota close to this anniversary. I learned so much from observing wild bears... and it helped me with the anniversary.

I didn't do anything like that this year... and that's probably part of why I'm in a funk. Today has had many glorious parts, and I'll try to focus on those. The best part of all was spending time with the Labraduo. R and Shyla adore each other, and seeing that makes my heart sing.

As a side note, my hard drive crashed yesterday right after I posted to my blog. This is one of my first attempts to post from my iPad... so I couldn't include many photos and the formatting might be odd. If any of you has suggestions for posting from an iPad, I'd love to hear them! I'm using the Blogger App. Thanks for your understanding.

Wordless Wednesday: The Labraduo at Sunset

A Confident Girl

Yesterday evening at just about sunset, a front of storm clouds suddenly took over our world, after a day of blue skies and warm air. It seemed sure to bring huge storms but it didn't.

Very oddly, for Colorado, we awakened to an overcast day, and it looked sure to storm this morning. I brought rain gear when Shyla and I headed out for a ride. 

During our ride, I usually try to get a photo to fit the "cue" from a Flickr dog photo group that I participate in. Today's cue was "Look Out!". In the past, when I've tried to get photos of Shyla looking at me, she's spent the whole time swiveling her eyes around, trying to keep watch on the world 360° around us. Our trainer calls it "hypervigilance", a common behavior in dogs with a tendency to be fearful.

So, I reasoned - if I asked Shyla to look at me, I'd surely end up with a photo that fit "Look Out!" as she tried to watch out for danger behind her while lying in an exposed spot. 

I was wrong. My sweet girl settled in and looked at me with confidence. It made me smile that I was so wrong about how to get my "Look Out!" photo.

So, we went on our way, with me pedaling and Shyla running to an incredible patch of Columbines. Just after we arrived, something in the aspen grove caught Shyla's attention, and she looked surprised! I think it qualifies as a "Look Out!" photo.

I never found out what had caught her attention so totally. As quickly as she'd been surprised, she settled down again. We had a peaceful ride back home, where I left her so I could go on a solo ride.

During my solo ride, I checked trail cameras, wanting to see what had happened over the holiday weekend. In general, I see that the animals hunker down, staying far away from any human scent, when the holiday hordes descend upon the forests. This past weekend was no exception, although two bears, Milton Jr. and Cinnamom, showed up for my trail cameras.

The photo of Cinnamom was a relief to me. I hadn't seen any sign of her recently. Knowing that she has a "strike" against her (as shown by her ear tags), I always worry that she's going to get hungry and get herself killed by going near humans (bears are euthanized when they get their second strike).

We've had a lull in ripening of the usual natural bear foods so I've been expecting that bears will start visiting homes, which really raises my worries about Cinnamom. But, from this photo, I know that she was fine as of a few days ago!

Cinnamom was sniffing a bear tree that was very popular with the bears last summer but less popular this summer. She's big for a female bear but you can see that she was standing on her tip toes to sniff as high as possible where big male bears can mark.


I'm looking forward to a season of bear cubs next summer. Cinnamom will probably have cubs, as will Mabel (our black bear mom from last summer), and Socks (Cinnamom's daughter who is about 4 years old and was consorting with Tiny during mating season). If all three sows have cubs, there will be lots and lots of fun cub cavorting to capture with my trail cameras!

A Lion Walked Nearby

It's summertime, and the living is easy. One of our favorite summertime things to do is spontaneous picnic dinners up on Hug Hill. Yesterday, all the rumbles of thunder ended before our normally late dinnertime, and so we did a quick hike to eat while watching the sunset from Hug Hill. It was warm and relaxing.

By the time we headed down the mountain, hiking on a main trail, it was dusk. One eerie thing is that, due to my trail cameras, I can find out when we've been very close to a mountain lion. Last evening, we were definitely close to one. I bet he spied on us either during dinner or as we hiked down.

This was fairly close to the trail that we hiked down, and the lion is coming from the direction of where we ate dinner.

He was a sinewy looking feline. He left a territorial scrape mark just outside the view of my trail camera.

To be honest, we had no idea he was nearby, and our leashed dogs gave us no signals that they smelled him. That's how he wants it - he wants to invisibly move through the landscape of our increasingly populated world. He let us pass in peace last evening, as mountain lions almost always do.

This morning, Shyla and I were back on Hug Hill, playing games. Her enthusiasm makes me smile!

But, for us, it was hot. It's now 80° in the shade, which is very rare up here in the mountains. I cut Shyla's morning run short so she wouldn't overheat. She looked ready to snooze as soon as we got close to the house.

Yes, that's Shyla's antler that she found a few weeks ago. She sends a huge "thanks" to the Runner who brought it home for her after I nearly destroyed my bad shoulder trying to carry it.

That huge and heavy elk antler was what revealed that my shoulder has become quite unstable since my surgery in February. I'm now doing an intensive shoulder strengthening program that is already helping. When my shoulder "pops out of joint", it is downright excruciating. I have to use my other hand to gently manipulate my bad shoulder until it pops back into joint. Thank goodness that it's happened only twice since my PT started my new strengthening program. I am really lucky to have a Physical Therapist who knew exactly what to do when the instability reared its ugly head!

Shyla says "mine, mine, mine"!

Happy Summertime to you!

Sunday Fun!

Big Storms, Flowers, and Bears!

I woke up feeling better this morning. I've noticed out that sudden drops in barometric pressure trigger migraines for me. We're having daily thunderstorms, and, when the whole world turns dark just before a big storm, I often get a migraine. I'm hoping that there are no big storms in store for us tonight.

Feeling happy not to have a throbbing head, Shyla and I went for our mountain bike ride this morning.

It was muggy and somewhat cloudy, the aftermath of our big storms last night. Fortunately, neither of our dogs is afraid of thunder or other loud sounds (although there were no fireworks near us last night). To keep them unafraid, we play a fun "treat game" during thunderstorms. After the loudest thunder booms, we excitedly give both dogs treats!

The flowers are going wild in this wet weather. I think that there are more Columbines than I've ever seen.

Columbines are my very favorite flower so I can't help myself but take lots of photos of this year's bounty. Shyla is now well enough trained that I don't worry that she'll jump into the flowers, breaking them, so I can take her photo with them. I love seeing my beautiful girl with these beautiful flowers!

Other flowers have bloomed for much longer than usual, including the delicate Ninebark blossoms.

The one weather worry has been that our spring and early summer were cooler than usual, with a couple of very late deep frosts thrown into the mix. Consequently, the foods that our Black Bears favor are developing more slowly than usual. Most years, we have a nearby hillside that harbors endless Buffalo Berries - and the hillside rustles with foraging bears. In contrast, this year, some of those bushes have no signs of berries and some bushes have just tiny green berries, only now starting to develop. I suspect that the bears are having a difficult time finding the thousands of calories that they need to eat each day at this time of year.

Despite that, I haven't heard that bears have been spending too much time near human residences. I'm still catching footage of them in "their" territory. Here's a yearling cub who was checking out a bear-marking tree early the other morning.

 Then, she actually marked it, for the first time in her young life that I've "seen" with a trail camera.

Just hours later, our second-largest male bear, Milton Jr., passed the same tree. He didn't mark it but he seemed fascinated by the scent left by the yearling. He looks humongous compared to the yearling!

Based on my cameras, I know that the yearling doesn't spend a lot of time on this "bear super-highway". She usually appears at one tree, checks it out, and then seems to leave the path, perhaps to avoid meeting other bears. Being a small and inexperienced bear makes her shyer than she will be in the future. It's such fun to follow our bears using trail cameras!

Happy Saturday to all of you!

Happy Independence Day

It's a mid-summer holiday for those of us in the US.

I wish everyone a fun and safe day.

I'm afraid that the migraine monster is back again (for only a brief visit, I hope) so I plan to rest for at least the rest of the day.

The End of our Alpine Adventure

At the end of Tuesday's post, I was in the midst of telling you about our hike up in the alpine zone. Shyla and I had climbed a few thousand feet up to a ridge and a lake. Going uphill is my favorite part of hiking (it's easiest on my back) so I felt good when we reached the ridge.

There's never any question about whether Shyla feels good during physical exercise. She is an amazing athlete. I wish I had her capabilities!

We'd climbed up from the east so the ridge gave us amazing views to the west that I haven't seen since last summer!

It was amazing to see the high craggy peaks, still with fissures full of snow, standing tall against the blue sky. I suspect that Shyla was not reveling in the sights, but rather the scents, that must have been wafting from the west.

After enjoying the view from the ridge, we kept hiking upward to a large lake in a cirque of mountains where Shyla usually swims. Alas, that lake still had huge plates of ice atop it. There was some open water but I feared that Shyla, being a silly Lab, might mess with the ice and get in trouble. So we took some photos near the lake before searching for a smaller tarn for her to swim.

We hung out in the cirque for a long time because I love being in that high world so much! It's the original "Rocky Mountain High", not the recently legalized one.

Finally, at Shyla's insistence, we moved over to a "tarn", which is a seasonal pond of water fed by melting snow. I thought it might be too cold for Shyla but she swam and swam in it! This tarn will be dry by August.

Then, it was time to start the downhill hike back to the trailhead. Ugh - downhill is what my spine does not tolerate well. Shyla surveyed the downhill route before we departed.

The "Old Men of the Mountain" wildflowers watched stood guard over the downhill trail.

About halfway down, there were some lingering large snowfields covering the trail. At the edges of the snow, Glacier Lilies were blooming. They are utterly unique and beautiful alpine flowers. They bloom only briefly, just after they are uncovered by the melting snow.

Finally, we made it back to the trailhead. What a day! It was a day of confirmation of the friendship that my Shyla and I have built. She's a wonderful hiking buddy!

Wordless Wednesday: An Alpine Edition

Close to Heaven

Yesterday dawned perfectly sunny and warm. I felt pretty good (all things considered) so it seemed like a day to seize with an alpine hike. Long time readers know that hiking is painful for me, due to my spinal fusions. However, there some places that I can only visit by hiking so I bite the bullet and go for it a few times a year!

One of the most remarkable things about our alpine hike was to realize how much Shyla has changed since last summer. She was overjoyed when we arrived at the trailhead. She knew that it was a special day!

We saw only a few people because it was a weekday and we timed our hike to avoid all the mid-morning hikers. However, Shyla was not afraid of any of the hikers who we did see!

Our hike involved a narrow trail, and her fear of strangers passing us on the trail has been an issue in the past. Yesterday, she just kept hiking past all sorts of people including those with trekking poles, people with beards, and loud-talking people. Indeed, when one pair of hikers asked to meet Shyla, she responded enthusiastically (and I almost fell over with surprise). Wow - what a difference a year makes!

We hiked up to a ridge and then to a lake. Shyla was on-leash all the time, except when I was taking her photo. She's very reliable about "staying" on command, especially if I give her spot to target, like a boulder.

Last year, at the end of one of our "photo stops" on this trail, I noticed that a Ranger had quietly walked up behind me. I spotted her as I was re-clipping Shyla's leash so we could hike onward. I said to the ranger: "I guess we're busted" (there's a leash rule in Wilderness areas). The nice Ranger laughed and said that unclipping the leash from a well-behaved dog for a photo was not a violation. Phew! So, I no longer worry about our "photo stops", as long as no other hikers are around.

Yesterday, some flowers were starting to bloom even though the snow had just melted. The purple flowers are "Sky Pilots" by Shyla's feet (I hope to show some closeups of them in a future post). The ridge that we were heading for is in the middle of the photo.

When we made it up to the ridge, the wind was howling! I was very glad that I'd carried a down sweater with me so we could linger without me freezing.

Shyla's ears flapped in the wind.

As we gazed at the mountains around us, I thought of all the dogs who have hiked up to this ridge with me and the Runner over the years. Shyla is the most recent in a long and well-loved lineage.

I felt grateful beyond words as we sat there together. Shyla and I have built a bond that I never thought I'd have again after K died. I've truly learned the important lesson that it's always worth risking my heart again... even though it makes me vulnerable to heartbreak again.

The high alpine world felt a bit like heaven, especially with the memories of K and our other departed dogs dancing through my head. The carpet of yellow wildflowers was divine.

I'll continue the story on Thursday (after Wordless Wednesday). We still had a lot more fun ahead of us as we explored the ridge and a lake!