We’ve been wanting to go camping for awhile now, but it seems that each time the weather has plagued us until last weekend. In another bout of good luck, we were asked to petsit Whiskey’s sister (different, younger litter) Sophie over the same weekend. It was the perfect opportunity to take them out of the city so they could be off leash the whole time, and we wouldn’t need to worry about the house being torn to pieces (they had already begun before we left). At first Whiskey was pretty protective of her humans and home, but soon the two became best friends taking turns to initiate play and games.

two dogs and two humans with one queen bed

playing non-stop

Sometimes they can stop for treats

I have no idea what happened

I hear we are going places…

Meeting up with a couple friends, we braved the rough forest road to Jones Lake and secured a really nice spot next to the mud flats covered with stumps and roots. The road was pretty busy with 4x4s and atvs and the muddy/sandy flats proved irresistible to those who liked to go “vroom vroom”. This ended up as free entertainment, for each day a truck got stuck and we would watch as they tried really hard to get stuck even further before a nice local would then help them out (he did 3 this week).

Jones Lake

Hmmm not too bad!

First look at their playground

Not so clean dog

Is this really sleeping in my tent tonight?

Sisters having fun

Truck #2 stuck

As hard going as it was for trucks and humans (many times we sank pretty deep), the dogs were just in heaven and ran their little butts off. Whiskey demanded sticks thrown, even swam a little, and Sophie basked in the sun on the sand. We were lucky enough to have access to a blow up paddle board that Whiskey rode (not too happily), and of course we brought out the drone for a couple shots. Both dogs got super muddy but thanks to their fur, it magically disappeared before nighttime.

Sophie gets her model moment

dino attack!

zoom zoom!

Beautiful when free

Sophie running away with the stick

paddleboard with swimming Whiskey

Kisses on the water

Take me back to land!

Dinner was shared (the dogs preferred each other’s food of course) and with lots of leftovers, the pups were more than happy to be the clean-up crew.  I couldn’t believe how much energy they had as they played until it got dark and then fell asleep in front of the fire, only to wake up and bark at anyone passing by to go to the toilets (Whiskey is more protective). Of course since they are softies we brought loads of blankets and the pita bed so they were extra comfy.

Warming up by the fire

Feed me your dinner

Beggars!

Clean up crew

Sleeping was a bit difficult with a 3 person backpack tent (larger tent is on the wish list) but we managed. Sophie slept in the pita bed and Whiskey alternated who’s sleeping bag she would crawl into.

Sunrise and Whiskey wants out

Lets go Lets go!

The next door, the dogs ran and played until afternoon when we packed everything up. At some point, I threw the dogs into the car for a time-out just so they could be forced to rest for 20 mins.

I have no idea why humans are so slow!

sharing

Checking out her domain

Sophie loves it here

Play play play

Sophie rests on the sand while Whiskey keeps going

The drive back into the city was quiet with two very sleepy puppies although as soon as we got back home, play started all over again!

Sisters

Loving these two!

This Christmas holidays my mom visited and we took a little trip into Washington state to get away from the rain and into some snow. What we hadn’t anticipated was the amount of snow! Our first stop was Mt. Baker and with a fresh snowstorm, most of the trails we had wanted to try had vanished into hip-deep fresh powder hidden by 7 feet of snow banks. We did try our hardest to visit Picture Lake but this is about what we saw (assuming we were looking at the lake and not on top of it!)

This is Picture Lake (we are probably on top of it)

Even with snowshoes we were sinking

Mom wasn’t too amused by our attempt to hike

Whiskey was quite happy for her jacket!

We eventually found a really nice and easy mom-friendly snowshoe trail to try at the Salmon Ridge Sno-Park. The trail was called Elk Snowshoe trail and crossed a couple cross country trails.

Elk Snowshoe trail had much less snowfall

the trail wasn’t very well maintained but it was easy to follow

the little balls of snow are covered pebbles

on leash while the drone flies!

There was only one other car in the parking lot and we met no one on the snowshoe trail.

The river is so beautiful

A very nice easy trail

The road to Glacier town

The trail itself was very flat and easy with a couple obstacles and was easily done in crampons or snowshoes. The part along the river was fantastic and we even got a little drone footage.

until next time!