Monday, September 28, 2009

A Hiking We Will Go!!!!

I have been so busy that it has taken me until now to have time to write about our hike at Alder Springs. We had done 1/2 of the hike with Connor and the dogs before, but Murray and I wanted to do the entire 8 mile hike without worrying about a 4 year old. Murray took Monday off and dropped Connor off at daycare early in the morning. He came back and we packed the van up with 9 dogs and then headed to the store to get sandwiches and drinks. I had already packed water, but you have to have something special to drink at lunch on your hike. Mmmmm
The Forest road is about 20 minutes from our house and then you have to do a 5 mile drive on a narrow dirt road going uphill. The dogs in the top crate quickly learned to just lay down and not sit up as they were bouncing back and forth.


This is a map of our hike. The hike that we did before was to the first river crossing. This time we went all the way to the end and got to see where the Deschutes River came in and wow those are some rapids.

(Click on Images to Enlarge Them)


This is our view from the parking area. Our hike takes us tho the north end of the picture and down.

The dogs are patiently waiting to be released for their hike. As Murray let them out of the van, I laid they down. The one lady commented that our 9 dogs were better behaved than most people's one child. YEP!!!!


I loved this picture because if there wasn't a sign here you would not know where the trail went.

One of the many hills we hiked up.


It was right about this time that we "lost" Fusion. We called and called for her and finally she came back.............

The darn dog remembered where the entrance to the river was and took it upon herself to go WAY ahead of us and go for a swim. When she came running back to us she had a HUGE smile on her face and was very proud that she knew where to go swimming at.
My dogs can smell water. This is a good and not so good thing. There are times that we are hiking and it is very steep down the side of the mountains. You can not see the water, but they know it is down there and often try to sneak off.


Everyone pose before you get wet. Oh wait, Fusion is already wet. Little Sh**!
This is at the river crossing. We had lunch here on our last hike and then turned around after playing in the water with Connor and the dogs. This time we are crossing and going on.

Murray and the dogs heading across in a shallow area.

Once we are across I stop for a photo moment. There aren't many pictures with me in them as I am the one who is usually taking the pictures.

Onward we go. Our dogs are very good hikers. Skarlet loves to be the leader and Risk is always on my heels. It is like this whenever we hike.

Uhhhh can't you walk any faster? We are tired of waiting for you 2 legged creatures.

The nice thing about this hike is that there are many places that the dogs can go swimming along the way. It makes it easy as we don't have to bring water for them.
Skar cooling off and getting a drink during the hike.

Going up another hill. Havoc is already at the top and wondering what is taking so long.

We reached the end of the trail (side of a HUGE rock) and turned around as we saw a great place to eat lunch. At this time we had dogs on couplers because we were walking along the Deschutes River and if a dog decided to go swimming that would be the last we saw of them.
We put all of the dogs in a settle as we ate lunch and rested.

The dogs finally started to rest themselves.


Yah right, Risk sleep. That is funny! She and Singe were the only ones who did not take a nap.

Kate is 11 1/2 years old and what a great hiker she still is. She acted like she was 6 years old during this hike and the greatest thing is that she had a smile the entire time.

Skarlet fell fast asleep and did not budge the entire break. She was out cold.


Fusion (1 year old) finally took a nap.

We let all of the dogs play as we crossed the river again. Kate loves to fish for "rocks". I should tell you that this water is so cold that your legs are bright red by the time you get out. She had no problem dunking her head in the water over and over and keeping it there until she found a rock.






Lash is cheering Kate on.

Mick gets very excited as the dogs start to bark.

Skarlet looking at the crazy dogs in the river.

On our way back to the car. We are almost there.


Mick says we are at the end of the hike. Thank you for following along.