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.

Swimming with Lily

Lily is spending the weekend with us.  She and Pickles have become fast friends.  We took them to res to go swimming this morning and Lily loved the water.  Here they are cooling off.

Horsetooth Mountain Park

A couple weekends ago we went up to Horsetooth Mountain Park near Fort Collins.  There is a huge reservoir (Horsetooth Reservoir) next to the park.  On the beginning of our hike we came to an arm of the reservoir and stopped to take a swim.  Pickles waded right in and swam in circles to cool off.  Our hike then took us up to a waterfall which had carved some really cool pools into the rock.  We had lunch at the bottom and Pickles enjoying another cool-down swim.

Horsetooth Reservoir

Top of the waterfall

The falls

Boulder Res

We found that you can access the north side of Boulder reservoir by walking from Coot Lake.  There is a nice rustic swimming area and dogs are allowed off leash.  We've been taking Pickles there quite often on the weekends.  The water is high at Boulder Res so the area we go to is flooded.  It makes great swimming for the pup because he can just wade in and it gets deep very gradually. He'll swim for 10 minutes or more just paddling around if we're out in the water.

Pickles Loves to Swim

Taking the Plunge

We really really hope that Pickles learns to love water.  So far he will splash along the edge but never go in past where he can stand.  He's spent a lot of time watching other dogs swim at the pond on South Boulder campus.  He runs back and forth along the edge whining because he can't get out to them.

Yesterday, we were up at Boulder Valley Ranch open space walking along a narrow deep creek.  A black lab came up and went straight into the water.  Pickles was standing on a steep bank whining to get to the dog and finally jumped in after him.  Surprisingly for him, the water was over his head, and he swam to the other side.  We called him back across, but he jumped almost the whole way and then clambered up the side.

At the very end of the hike, we came back to the creek.  Mark went around to the other side and called him across.  Pickles tried to run around over the bridge after him but there was a huge bush that he couldn't figure out how to get around so eventually, he swam!!