Sunday hike

Bailey and Elvis and I went hiking late Sunday morning. It was a beautiful day, chilly but sunny. That's perfect hiking weather. I started out with the plan to do at least four miles and hoped we could do more. 

We encountered a number of people on the trails, some with dogs, some without. I always pull my dogs as far off the trail as possible, at least 15-20 feet, and let the other people pass. These two dogs are friendly enough, but it's good trail etiquette and I wish more people practiced it. We saw a number of trail runners today owing to the fact that it was such a nice day, but the trails are still closed to bikes and  horses so everyone we met was on foot. 

Bailey and Elvis walk nicely together. She keeps moving and pulls him forward when he stops to sniff or mark every third tree that we pass. I have the leashes joined together so she does the pulling, not me. I'm just the neutral party in the center of the combined leashes.

Bailey noticed and focused on the river today in a way I haven't seen before. We took one trail that went down near it and another that provided a clear overlook of the river below, which is still running fast and high from recent rains. She's very focused on movement and that includes birds and the tops of trees swaying in the wind. I'm working on teaching her "left" and "right" commands at trail intersections. Emmylou knew them and Maya learned them as well. I'm sure Bailey can too.

Earlier in the day I had been looking at old blog posts that talked about much longer hikes than I've been doing lately. I fell off the diet and exercise wagon back in early December and I've been needing to get back on. Today was a beautiful day so we just kept going and we racked up seven sweet miles. These two are good for any distance. 

7.02 miles