Pickles is a blue merle Australian Shepherd that we have raised since he was 8 weeks old. Here you can watch him grow, learn, and play. We are very enthusiastic about dog training and plan to have the most creatively trained dog in town.
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
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
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.
Saturday, August 27 we took Pickles on the hike of a lifetime. We started by attempting to drive up to Rollins Pass from the east side. We'd never been past the Moffat tunnel and didn't know what the road would be like. Turns out it is quite a long way (1.5 hours) of really really rocky slow road. Nothing that really needed high clearance but enough rocks that you didn't want to go more than 5 mph. After the first 30 minutes we started debating whether it was worth it to keep going, but stuck to it. Eventually we came out above treeline, still on the road, with the most gorgeous views. There were some awesome campsites along the side as we passed Yankee Doodle lake which continued till we reached the end of the road.
There were other cars parked at this point so we decided to stop driving and start hiking. We were up really early so we didn't see anyone on the road except people at their campsites just waking up. On the drive down we passed a lot of cars and bikes.
Pretty soon after we started hiking there was a giant snow drift along the road and Pickles went crazy. Something about snow makes dogs wild.
Shortly thereafter we got to the needle eye tunnel which is closed. There was a man in his dirt bike outfit looking through the tunnel that spooked Pickles (we had passed this guy earlier and Pickles was nothing but friendly). He barked a lot until we finally got close enough that he could smell the guy.
We climbed up over the tunnel and took the wagon road up over the hill towards the pass. When we arrived a the pass we realized there was an easier old rail road bed route that didn't gain any elevation from the tunnel (we took this on the way back). From the pass we decided to drop down to King Lake in Indian Peaks instead of heading up farther onto the High Lonesome trail. You can see King Lake below in the picture.
Pickles saw the snow field down the hill and started doing laps; he ran down the hill to the snow sprinted across it and then circled back up to us, seeing that we hadn't moved yet he did it again. It was a pretty far ways down and I think he ran at least 4 laps.
King Lake was beautiful. We stopped for lunch and Pickles went wading.
After King Lake we decided to continue on to Bob and Betty Lakes. These are at about the same elevation as King but you have to go down and back up to get to them. The wild flowers are amazing in this area.
One the way we found the waterfall we had seen from the wagon road.
Looking from the wagon road towards King Lake and Bob and Betty Lakes (see the waterfall).
At the waterfall, the railroad bed is visible across the valley.
On our way to Bob Lake looking back towards Rollins Pass, we arrived at the pass from the left.
By the time we reached Bob Lake the clouds were starting to gather and we had a long way back above treeline so we skipped Betty Lake. Pickles was hot and trying to swim, but the bank was real steep and he couldn't figure out how to get in. Finally, I just grabbed his harness and dropped him in. He paddled around in little circles, loving it, before he climbed out.
Bob Lake.
When we got back to the pass, a couple of guys had set up a rail in the snowfield and were snowboarding. There was a pretty steep drop just to the right of them where the snowfield dropped over the edge, but I guess the snow was soft enough they could stop themselves easily.
We then crossed some awesome railroad trestles on our alternative route back. They were pretty exposed so we put Pickles on a leash.
We made it back to the car at 2pm, 6 hours after we started. Pickles was exhausted. And we still had to drive back down that awful bumpy. But we concluded that the awful drive was worth the amazing hike (though I'm not sure if we could do it again soon). Maybe the drive from the west side is better.
