The End of our Desert Escape

Our last stop on our desert trip was at a campsite that we've been visiting for about a dozen years. It's next to huge rock outcroppings that remind me of Mother Nature's cathedrals.

It's clear that people have appreciated the beauty of this area for thousands of years based on the rock art at the base of the huge rock walls.

Some slabs have fallen off the rock faces but fortunately the art landed facing up!

A distinctive thing about this place is that it's 70% slickrock and the rest is sand. For slickrock, boots are critical for dogs.

We have always used Ruffwear Grip Trex boots for our dogs in the desert. However, Shyla has always hated them. I finally figured out why after our last desert trip. They didn't fit her elongate paw shape correctly, and she had a spot rubbed almost raw on top of one of her toes. So, I decided to try her winter boots on this desert trip - Ruffwear Summit Trex. They have a nice vibram sole, and she was SO much happier than in her old boots.

The greatest part of finding boots that she liked was that we could mountain bike together on the slickrock, something that is impossible without comfortable dog boots.

Both of us were happy about that. On past visits to this site, her running was very limited by having to avoid slickrock.

When we visit this area, our campsite is always marked by a "dog boot drying boulder". Shyla's are the orange boots and R's are the red boots. If you ever happen to see a sight like this, you know it's us!

In the afternoons, one of our favorite activities was to watch a family of nesting Red-Tailed Hawks. We have a spotting scope that lets us see almost every detail of their life in their rock cavity nest.

We've watched them every spring for 4 years so far. By May, the funniest part is watching the nestlings maneuver into position to go to the bathroom. They carefully back up to the edge and launch their poop completely out of the nest to the ground below. Their maneuvering makes us laugh every time. You can see from the photo below that they weren't so skilled when they were younger.

Unfortunately, I don't own a big enough lens to get good photos of the nestlings "in action". There were three this year, and we both wished we could stay long enough to see them fledge. I hope that they had successful first flights! From that height (200-300 ft high), the first flight must be very scary.

I hope that we keep visiting this campsite for many years to come. The first dogs who visited there with us are now departed (K and S). But our current pack seems to love it too.

The desert is now too hot for us. Our next visit will be in the fall. Between now and then, we'll be exploring the mountains!

Black Dog Sunday

About a week ago, I had the honor of R joining us for a couple of mountain bike rides. Unlike Shyla, R often looks like he's about to doze off while I take photos of them.

But, it's better not to be lulled into complacency by his sleepy look. In fact, he's scanning the world, from under hooded eyelids, for potential prey. One time, while the Duo was in a stay for a photo, R spotted a quarry and took off.

I think the best title for the next photo would be "Canine Mortification" because Shyla gave him such a mortified look when he broke his "stay". But, looking at his eyes, you can see that he was utterly focused on whatever he'd seen.

He didn't go far, and the rabbit escaped unscathed.

Then later, he smelled something underground and started digging. Before I could stop him, he'd dug a hole big enough to fit his entire head in it.

Even his tongue got dirty!

Those were a fun couple of days! R keeps me on my toes and makes me laugh and laugh!

The Lizard and Me

While we were in the desert, I really wanted to see a beautiful Collared Lizard. I knew the places where I'd seen them in the past, and I returned to those places, with no luck.

On the day that we were departing our peaceful and quiet campsite, I went for one last mountain bike ride. I was churning up a hill, and, to my delight, there was a collared lizard basking next to the trail.

Initially, I was a little confused by the markings on this lizard's body because they were not as bright as I'd seen in the past. In addition, this lizard was a little smaller than I'd remembered Collared Lizards as being.

Based on some reading, I think this might have been a sub-adult lizard who was gradually developing the blue color of adult male eastern collared lizards. You can see the blue on his throat.

Collared Lizards are amazingly docile around people. I photographed this one for almost 10 minutes before he decided he'd had enough of my camera and flitted away.  What a beauty!

That day was my "reptile day", as I also saw a 3' long non-venomous Bull Snake basking in the middle of the trail. Knowing he wasn't poisonous, I took a few photos, and I loved this one as he flicked his forked tongue to "smell" me.

He was not as patient with me as the Collared Lizard. Soon, he decided to scare me away by slithering straight at me with his head raised up off the ground. I complied and hopped on my bike to speed away!

I'm always sad to leave these desert campsites that we visit only once or twice per year. Each year brings new memories, and my attachment to the places grows.

On this visit, I learned to take advantage of the uncluttered landscape in my photography. I rarely have such a "clean" landscape in my home arena that is so forested and boulder-strewn.

I suspect that Shyla and I will be visiting the tops of mesas to play for many years to come.

In the star trail photo below, the mesa that Shyla and I played upon is on the right.

After leaving our very peaceful campsite, we drove about a third of the way home and then stopped at a campsite in the middle of a slickrock and sand world. It's a gorgeous area, although it is more popular than most places we visit.

 It was our last stop - so there will be only one more desert tales installment coming up soon!

The Beauty of the World - Dedicated to Charley

This post is dedicated to a chocolate Labrador named Charley. The beauty of this past week symbolizes Charley's life perfectly.

We had a full moon before the latest round of storms, and its beauty was sublime.

The next morning after seeing that moon, Shyla surprised me by trying to "jump over the moon". I expected her to go under this log when I called her. It was super high but she chose to leap it. She was fine after her amazing leap, thank goodness. Her leap was astounding and miraculous, almost like Charley's life.

That night, I knew that moonrise would be just after sunset so I went to a great look-out spot to watch it rise with my Shyla by my side. It was less than five minutes from the first instant that I saw a hint of the moon until it was clear of the rocky peak that towers to our east.

Watching the moon rise in the silence of the outdoors makes me so happy. It takes a little bit of work to be in the right place at the right time but it's worth it.

Shyla loves being with me outdoors so she loves any event, even a moonrise, that leads to an outdoor adventure.

It was a beautiful week here, and I appreciated every single day. I was especially reminded to do that because a hero of ours died this week - a chocolate Labrador named Charley. He was diagnosed with bone cancer when he was 2 1/2 years old but he lived almost 5 years after his initial treatment. His family knew that every day was a gift, and they appreciated every single day with Charley.

Back when K was diagnosed with bone cancer, Charley's mom was so supportive, offering Charley's life as an example why it's worth trying to fight that awful disease - because miracles do happen. Alas, after living a miracle for almost 5 years, Charley was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma this past week and earned his angel wings.

This post is dedicated to Charley - he has inspired so many people and their dogs to live life to fullest after a diagnosis of bone cancer. Although K lived only 7 months after her diagnosis, they were an amazing 7 months, filled with love, gratitude for our bond, and even happiness. I was so grateful that we chose to extend her life by treating her cancer, partly thanks to Charley's example. Now, we send our love and support to Charley and his family.

You can visit Ellen and read about Charley at their Tripawds Blog.

Desert Solitude

Back to our desert trip... we'd just been at a canyon rim campsite and trail, which we loved, but was a little more crowded than we prefer.

So, we next headed to a site where we almost always find solitude, peace, and quiet. And, as a plus, there's great trail running and mountain biking next to the campsite.

We woke up our first morning to utter silence except for bird songs and complete solitude.

We enjoyed a quiet breakfast, and then Shyla and I set off for a mountain bike ride with many stops for photos.

The first day's ride was warm, as you can see from Shyla's wet tongue in her photo. On the days thereafter, the clouds kept things a bit cooler.

On that first day, I kept our ride short, and then I rode solo to the abandoned mining cabin where I found a tricycle back in March. I looked around a bit more this time, and I found the remains of a car. I know almost nothing about cars - so I can't guess what year or what model this one was. You can also see the cabin on the left in the background. It must have been such a hard life living there.

When I had just left the cabin, a thunderstorm came up on me incredibly fast. It was coming from the west, and I needed to ride east to get to the LabMobile. So, I rode like a maniac, trying to stay ahead of the storm. It caught me about 4 miles from camp and pelted me with hail. Then, it poured rain so hard that I could barely see to steer my bike.

The hardest part was the last 2 miles into camp. It was all downhill which meant that I froze as I coasted and navigated the rocky trail. I was shaking and barely able to feel my hands by the time I arrived at camp. Fortunately, the first clap of thunder didn't happen until I was climbing into the LabMobile. I warmed up fast once I was inside and out of the rain.

The storm moved out almost as fast as it had arrived. Shyla and I had a wonderful time playing in the sunset light later that day.

She loves taking a bow, and volunteered this trick during our photo session. I know that I repeat this a lot - but one of my favorite things about positive training is that your dog isn't afraid to improvise during a fun session like this one. It makes me smile!

During these "play" and "photo" sessions with Shyla, I totally lose myself in the moment. I lose track of time and almost nothing can break through my concentration. I love it.

The desert stories are almost finished... but to answer one question from yesterday's post, the fires in the canyon were not our doing. For one night, two guys camped about a quarter mile away. They were typical of a certain faction who visits the desert - they wanted to raise hell because there was no one around to make them stop. They did a bit of shooting, and then they had a reasonable campfire going. Just before bed, it looked as if they they set a bunch of flammable liquid on fire all over the ground near their camp, resulting in yesterday's photo. The flare-up lasted about a minute, and it didn't set anything else on fire because it had rained so hard that day.

Their inferno did look pretty with the flames reflecting off the canyon walls. However, I worried about all the birds who I'd watched in the cottonwood grove where they were camped. Before the arrival of the campers, it was like a mecca of exotic birds who were all singing their hearts out.

In the grand scheme, the camping neighbors didn't stay long and certainly didn't make us love our campsite any less! But, I'm guessing that the author of the inspiration for the title of this post, Edward Abbey, would have complained endlessly about them. When he said "solitude", he meant absolute solitude. In this day and age, we have to be a little more flexible to stay happy!

Wordless Wednesday

Takeoff..

Human light show...

Nature's light show...

Springtime: The Duo and The Bears

Recently, I had both halves of the Duo for a morning mountain bike ride.

We had lots of fun playing atop Hug Hill.

And, later that day, a chocolate and a black bear cub played nearby. Their colors reminded me of Shyla and R.

It turned out to be a big day of bear activity. My trail cameras monitored a large male bear, probably Tiny, who walked about 5 miles in the afternoon, marking trees along the way. I made a video of his travels that you can watch here or at Youtube.

There's some true video in this one so it's fun to watch (at least, for me!).

Happy Springtime!

Desert Life

The morning after the rainbow sunset was cloudy but not actually storming. So, we decided to check out a new trail in the area. The Runner took both dogs with him because we felt that the Duo needed to be leashed so close to a big canyon.

The trail followed the rim of the canyon, including every last little side canyon. It rarely was more than 10 ft away from the cliff.

Usually, I don't like trails with so much exposure but this one was fun because it wasn't very technically challenging. It was easy to keep a distance from the dropoff.

The views were endless. I could have stopped 100 times to take photos because looking down into the canyon was so breathtaking.

The Runner and the Duo also had a lot of fun so we decided to spend another night in the area. We tried to find a secluded place to camp but we didn't totally succeed. Every rim of the canyon seemed to be popular with campers. But that was okay for one more night.

We enjoyed the sunset from a campsite overlooking a side canyon. Shyla's clear eyes and glowing fur were beautiful.

As the sun was about to set, clouds filled the western horizon but I managed to get a couple more photos of Shyla before the sun was totally obscured.

In the next photo, I believe she was catching a wiff of meat being grilled in someone else's campsite. We don't eat much meat, and we always joke that our dogs would dump us without a second thought for a family that grills meat while camping!

Then, we watched the colors of the sunset evolve over the deep canyon.

Ending in the pinkish hue that means the show is coming to an end.

After enjoying the rim trail again the next morning, we were ready to escape to someplace where we would have total solitude. We happily headed toward a campsite that almost never fails to deliver peace, quiet, and incredible beauty.

Along the way, we saw a sundog next to a butte, telling me that there was lots of moisture in the air just waiting for another chance to nourish the desert.

The desert can seem austere, especially when I look at the photos after being there. But, in person, the landscape is overwhelmingly beautiful, and it's easy to spot springtime life sprouting in every little crevice in the rocks. The toughness of the animals and plants that call the desert their home is part of what makes me enjoy exploring the landscape so much.

Indeed, somehow, wild burros eke out an existence in the Utah desert. What a sight!