Labor day hike

Things have been very hectic around the farm recently. The turkeys are huge, the ducks are enormous, and our rooster has lost his tail. Our foster dog went home today, so it's the start of a slowdown. Fall is here, and time to start to pick up the pieces from a hectic, crazy summer.


This long weekend, we went to the Cohos Trail in New Hampshire to do some hiking with our two rotts, and the twins. It will be Zen's last hike, she barely made it the second day of hiking. She can do small hikes, but no more overnight, long hikes up mountains. It's the passing of an era, and sad. However, the bright side is that Clay surprised us all by being a goer. He wanted to go and go and go. In extremely cute, Clay fashion, I asked him as we were setting up tents for the night if he wanted to go to the woods, and he got all excited. Duh - Clay, we're IN the woods.

On the kid front, we were very impressed and gladdened to see that they were able to make such a difficult hike their very first foray out. We've taken them on hikes up mountains before, but never with packs on. They were true troopers and kept up and then some. We did about 2/3 of the hike up the 4.5 miles of trails to the top of Sugarloaf the first day, and ran out of daylight. So, we camped and continued on in the morning to have breakfast at the summit. A total of about 3 hours of hiking, with out of shape people and a senior dog... not so bad. The trek was steep and our packs were heavy, but our hearts were light, especially when we saw what laid in wait for us at the top.



Once breakfast was over, and the relaxation and lovin's were done...


we headed back down the mountain. We stopped at a nice waterfall along the way to fill our water bottles and allow everyone to cool off. Zen plopped right down into the water with her pack on, but the rest of us waited to take the gear off.




When we were done on this side of the trail, we crossed the road to start on the path to the Devil's Jacuzzi, a 12 person natural formation with bubbling water that looks just like a jacuzzi. We overshot it, missing the sign on the trail, and wound up at Nash Stream Bog instead. Poor Zen was so tired, but Clay was just going and going like a bunny. Zen needed to stop frequently, so the 2 mile hike took us well over an hour. Finally, we got to the Jacuzzi, and missed the spur path, so we had to descend a sheer cliff face with the dogs, which we did using teamwork and good old muscle. Thank goodness that those dogs trust us so much. The kids were like mountain goats, no problems. They were made for mountain climbing. We sat at the Nash Stream, and Clay just decided to poop out. Everyone else became energized and played in the water, including Zen





Bran was the only one brave enough to try the Devil's Jacuzzi, so Daddy lowered her in. It was too cold and fast moving to just jump in. She touched her feet to the water and promptly declared he could remove her from the water right NOW!


Finally, it was time to go home, and just in time. Zen was absolutely drained and one more second, we would have had to have carried her. The kids were tired and sore, as were we. We tried in vain to find the next mountain, North Percy Peak, before dusk. When night began to settle, the thought of climbing another mountain with a dog that was not able to drag, never mind lift, her paws just seemed unsettling. So, we hiked back to the truck and settled in to a motel for a night of showers, pizza, and a rare treat, television.