Leroy and I have been working on our hiking.
We have a goal and we are trying to gear up for that goal.
The goal is to hike a mountain that I use to hike back in my younger days.
Younger days meaning decades ago.
And mountain meaning a very big hill.
To me it’s a mountain, therefore I will refer to it as a mountain, but just so you know it really is a hill.
Anyway, obviously Leroy and I are aren’t just going to go hike a mountain out of the blue.
We need to train.
And that’s what we’ve been doing over the past few months but the last few weeks, since it’s been cooler, we’ve been able to step it up a few notches.
We’ve increased the length of our normal walks and we’re wearing our backpacks to get use to them and we’ve even gone off trail a few times to explore different terrains and keep things interesting.
And that’s where we are running into a small issue.
Off trail walks are hard and can be dangerous and when you have a large dog who is super excited to explore it is both. Honestly, Leroy has been very good and we’ve been working on our communication skills and we deal with challenges as they present themselves on our hikes.
One of the many issues we had last week while exploring was getting stuck.
We both had our backpacks on and since the trees are all bare now that leaves their branches sticking out every which way and since I really had no trail to follow and I’m an amateur I led us to a very heavily branch infested area and both of our backpacks kept getting stuck on branches.
Leroy was smart and caught on really quick and he would stop and wait for me to help him when his backpack would get stuck.
However, when my backpack would get stuck on a branch, Leroy would not stop.
I was continually getting whiplash.
And yelling.
“Hold on! I’m stuck! I’m gonna get decapitated if you don’t stop!”
He didn’t care.
So after about the 8th time of almost losing my head,I just took my backpack off and carried it….and used it as a shield from getting my eyes poked out by the stray branches sticking out every which way.
I was like a little knight with her shield being led by her horse through the forest.
And that’s the way we deal with challenges.
Now we’re mountain ready 😉
Welcome to Monday Mischief – The pet blog hop that wraps up the weekend! This Blog Hop is brought to you by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, and My Brown Newfies
Jessica@YouDidWhatWithYourWeiner
Wednesday 20th of November 2013
So it looks like you must already have hiking shoes or boots. It makes me happy to read about your hiking adventures. And remember, one man's molehill is another man's mountain :)
Jen
Wednesday 20th of November 2013
Nope...I'm wearing my son's hiking boots which I just realized yesterday are NOT waterproof! :(
Donna
Tuesday 19th of November 2013
Great thinking on your part. :-) I'm sure it was something to see. LOL!
Jen
Tuesday 19th of November 2013
I'm sure someone was laughing at us somewhere ;)
beth
Tuesday 19th of November 2013
So you and Leroy are ready for the Hungar games or was Leroy just hungry when he returned home
Jen
Tuesday 19th of November 2013
Lol, no way!
Alfie - Alfie's Blog
Tuesday 19th of November 2013
Pawsome - terrain obstacle course! I know exactly what you mean though. I'm wearing a harness at the moment as my neck is too swollen for my collar (long story, involves a stick) and I keep nudging into things too, even though the harness is super slim! *waggy tail*
Jen
Tuesday 19th of November 2013
Thanks Alfie!
I read about your stick incident today....that was scary and I'm glad your back home resting
BoingyDog
Monday 18th of November 2013
Whew - glad you didn't get decapitated! ;0) Sounds great - we love hiking but I'm not great with hills either...we need to train too!
Jen
Monday 18th of November 2013
Lol! Me too!
One thing that is working out on some of the small hills we've done is that Leroy actually lets me grab onto his pack and he assists me in getting up....it's pretty cool.