Clay and Elvis to the rescue

I set out for a walk this afternoon with Kinley and Reyna. It was a beautiful, sunny day, nice and chilly, perfect for hiking. I was planning out possible routes to get us 2.5 or 3 miles, or maybe more. We were just over a mile into the walk when I spotted someone coming towards us with a couple of smallish dogs. She appeared to stop to put leashes on them and I found a spot where I could pull my girls well off the trail so they could pass. However, as I stepped off the trail, pulling two dogs, I tripped on something obscured by the thick layer of fallen leaves. It was no big deal, I hopped back to my feet and pulled the girls up the hill off the trail as they began to react to the on-coming dogs. The woman passed with her two while mine were acting stupid, but it was a no-contact encounter and then we were on our way.

I was listening to music via a bluetoothed headset and the music began to break up. I assumed I was losing my signal although this was not an area that was normally without cell service. Then it dawned on me that I had lost my phone and I was losing signal as I got farther from my phone. I turned around and retraced my steps, hoping to spot it along the trail. I hadn't gone very far and as I returned to the area my music returned but I couldn't spot the phone. I realized that I had lost the phone when I fell, I didn't know the precise location, and a cell phone was going to be impossible to spot as it was almost certainly buried in leaves. I looked around briefly but I knew that the only way I'd find the phone, aside from dumb luck, would be to have somebody call it.

I took a shorter route back to the van, drove home, and picked up Clay, his cell phone, and Elvis, leaving off Kinley and Reyna. It was just about a half mile to the approximate scene of the loss and when we got there, Clay called my phone and it was easily located by barking sound that is my ringtone.

It was not the hike that I had planned, but all's well that ends well, and I actually got Clay out on the trails with me for the first time for at least a short walk. I'm lucky that it was a day that he was home, and that it was early enough that we had enough daylight to get back and find the phone before dark. Instead of walking just two dogs today, I walked a third, Elvis, and got Clay out too.

These two are a lot of white fur and fluffy tails.