Giddy-Up

We finally got around to buying Pickles some booties to keep the ice balls out from between his toes and to save his paw pads when we're on rough rocks.  Like all dogs wearing booties for the first time, he galloped around like a marionette.  This is actually the 2nd or 3rd time he wore them so he was mildly used to them.  His feet still had minds of their own though.

Guinn Mountain Hut

Several weekends ago, Pickles, Lily, Mark, and I hiked up to Guinn Mountain Hut near Eldora to check it out as a possible overnight destination.  It was a great hike and a neat little cabin so the next weekend we hiked up with a bunch of friends.  Pickles and Lily had so much fun playing in the snow, chasing sledders down the hill (Pickles barking ferociously), and snuggling up in the cabin.  Unfortunately, after Dec. 1, dogs are no longer allowed due to the need to melt snow for water.

View of the cabin on our scouting trip, you can barely see the loft up above

Pickles sporting his new backpack compliments of Talia.  Thanks!

Everyone getting ready to leave the cabin

There was a strong wind storm over night and lots of huge trees had fallen in the trail

R&R sledding their way down

The top of a tree that blew off in the storm; we took it home with us for a Christmas tree

Mousey

We often have mice getting into our chicken food.  Lily has been quite helpful in catching them for us.  I think she's caught a total of three.  Here's a real little baby one that she caught and we let her and Pickles play with it for a bit.  Pickles was super gentle with it, nudging it with his nose and licking it.  While Lily didn't actually kill it, I'm not sure if rolling on it is considered gentle.

Trick or Treat

We had a very doggy Halloween at our house this year.

We carved a scary dog face in our pumpkin

Pickles dressed up at a teenage mutin ninja turtle

But he didn't like wearing his ninja mask so we let him just be a regular turtle

Lily wore green to be supportive of Pickles turtle theme and the environment. 
She says "Happy HaaWooWeen" to her family.

It's already 7:30pm, and we've only had three Trick-or-Treaters, one of which was our neighbor; she was dressed as tinker bell and thought Pickles costume was super silly.

Apples

Despite the abundance of apple trees in Boulder, there is only one you-pick apple orchard this side of Grand Junction , and you have to make reservations to pick at that orchard.  For the past two years, we have been picking apples from some half wild trees along the bike path near our house.  They're small apples, and many have rotten cores, but if you slicer peeler corer them, there really aren't that many bad spots left to cut out.  They are a wonderful variety, something similar to my favorite Empire Apple: sour and crunchy. With no other options, we decided to return to our bike path you-pick trees.  

Pickles got to come this time, but I'm not sure if he'll get invited back next time.  First we have to jump over the creek and then climb up a 3ft vertical rock wall to get to a little ledge between fence and creek that has the trees on it.  It took an acrobatic hand-off to get Pickles up onto the ledge without either of us falling into the creek.  Once there we tied him up and climbed the tree to pick.  Apparently, he never learned that it's okay for people to climb trees because he started his pitiful don't abandon me crying.  Something like when he was 2 months old and left alone in his crate.  We were only 10ft away from him and usually he is fine being tied up if we are within sight.  Maybe he was just looking out for our well-being afraid one of us would fall out of the tree.

Despite his less than perfect behavior, we picked a ton of apples in less than 20 minutes and took them home to process.  We ended up with about 9 pints of apple pie filling, 3 quarts of apple sauce, and 3 quarts of sliced apples.  All free.

Mark is peeling and coring the apples while Pickles hides under the table tasting the peels.

Fall Aspen

Lily and Daisy were both visiting this past weekend so we had 3 dogs.  We took them down into Lost Creek Wilderness on the Ben Tyler trail to see the aspen and run wild.  The trees were amazing, the weather was great, and the dogs were pretty well behaved.  

Weekend With Roscoe

Lauren and Kirk went to California a week past, so we got to watch Roscoe.  Pickles was overjoyed.   We spent a lot of time at the playground down the street where there boys wore their matching harnesses and played on the playground. 

 

Here they are playing on the soccer field next to the playground while Mark flies his kite.  Pickles has gotten quite vicious with his playing.  We hope he doesn't scare all his friends off.

 

And here is Pickles showing off.  

Wyoming Medicine Bow Peak Hike

Day 2, Sunday, we climbed Medicine Bow Peak and looped back to Lewis Lake Trail head.

Wyoming Lakes Hike

Last weekend, we took Pickles north to Wyoming for some epic hiking adventures.  Colin, Kristen, Talia, Rebecca, Russell, and Lily all came with us.  It was absolutely beautiful hiking and Pickles ran himself ragged. 

Pickles looking back over the back seat through the trunk.  He got to ride in the backseat with Talia.

A beautiful beginning

The dogs following Russell across a meadow

It being the snowy range, there were lots of large snowfields left over still.  Pickles and Lily play down by the water.

Stopping for a drink at one of the many stream crossings.

Rock hopping

Pickles and Lily racing down a snowfield

Medicine Bow Peak

Lily and Pickles wading in a lake.

Resting at the campsite after a long day of hiking

Flattops Wilderness

This past weekend, we took Pickles hiking and camping up in the flattops wilderness south west of Steamboat Springs. Our goal was hiking across Devil's Causeway, a 5ft wide ridge with thousand foot drops on both sides.

Talia came with us!

Saturday, we did a tour de lakes almost all off trail following along at the base of the cliffs.  Sunday we hiked in reverse along the same circle but on the top of the mountain.  We dump camped at the Horseshoe Campground nearby Saturday night.  This was an amazingly beautiful area.  We saw very few people and true to its name the mountains were flat.  We didn't gain much elevation on either hike.

Pickles went swimming in some of the lakes to cool off

He dries surprisingly fast after exiting the lake with 10lbs of water in his coat

 After accidentally jumping head first into a stream that was buried under some tall grasses, Pickles found a soft dry mound of dirt and did his crazy doggy dance.

There were still quite a few flowers including these columbine

There was one steep traverse on our off-trail hike; Pickles was not very cautious running full speed across the slope

Back at the campsite, Pickles and Mark are kissing in the hammock

Dinner was baked potatoes, grilled cherry tomatoes, corn, and asparagus.  Pickles had dried venison and sweet potatoes

Climbing up towards the causeway on Sunday

Talia crossing the causeway.  Pickles was fully harnessed and leashed for this part.

Up on top, Pickles found several large snowfields and played fetch with an ice chunk.  His feet turned bright pink from the bacteria on the snow (watermelon snow).

We stopped for a nap on Sunday at Mosquito lake and were treated to a rare moose viewing. 

The end of the day, hiking back past Stillwater Reservoir

Since we were car camping, Pickles brought his lounge chair.  He was one tired pup.