Light time..

Am I becoming the "Daffy Dog Dame", or do all single women take their dogs to the bar? Ok, I didn't really take her to the bar, but when I head downtown to play bar trivia with some friends after our Wednesday night run, Daisy often comes along with me. Since Christmas season is upon us I decided that after trivia I should take Daisy for the four block walk up Main Street to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square.

I have walked Daisy many places, but I think this was the first time in her 11 years that I've walked her through the heart of the city. She was quite curious about the chirping sound the crosswalk signal made, and she was momentarily frightened when the Trax train rumbled up the street. I don't think that she realized that it was kind of tacky to try to beg food from a homeless guy who was sitting on a planter eating a snack...Oops.

I'm not sure when I last went downtown to see the Christmas lights. It was a favorite thing to do an snowy December night when I was a married person, but since becoming single I haven't bothered. Judging by all the young couples walking the square, it is still the romantic December thing to do. I have to say I felt a little dorky that my hot date for Christmas light stroll was my four legged pal, but hey, she is the one in my life who is happiest to join me.

My big amusement was finding baby Jesus in the water. The most unusual nativity that I have ever seen - Joseph, Mary and Jesus in middle of the big reflecting pond on Main street surrounded by pretty floating lights... made me wonder if that is when he started walking on water?

The canyon called again

And it was not even an odd day. But when I came home tonight I remembered that the gate is scheduled to open tomorrow, so tonight would be my last chance to do my new favorite evening hike- Burch Hollow to Elbow Fork and back down the road to the car. I took Daisy, although I was a little worried because last time she did that hike with me we got back to the car and she couldn't jump in. I had to pick her up, all awkward 80 lbs of her, to get her in the car. She will be 11 next month (77 in dog years), has a bit of arthritis and (just like me) is a bit "fluffy". It makes me terribly sad to see my favorite hiking body slowing down and unable to go the distance. Especially since she really wants to accompany me. So tonight we took it easy, more of a saunter up the hill, meander down the trail, with lots of stops for me to enjoy the wildflowers and use my camera. The flowers were really lovely tonight. The Wasatch Penstemon, one of my favorite wildflowers, was in full bloom.

And Daisy did well. When we got down the road to the parking lot at the winter gate I could tell she was scoping out all the cars looking for ours. She was ready to be done and I'm not sure she was happy that ours was a half mile further down the road at the Burch Hollow trail head. But she trooped along, and, luckily for me, managed to hop up into the car on the third try. Poor baby. She had a hard time getting out of the car when we returned home. It's so sad to see my baby get old.




I just adore this rocky section of the trail and all the lichens on the rocks.





Ah. the penstemons... I just love them!

The call of the odd....

Last time I posted pictures from a hike I kinda got a hand slapping from a friend, who commented about how I'm always bragging about my hikes but never ask anyone to accompany me. So why is that? Am I anti social? (maybe LOL), a jerk? (I hope not), or just a bit intimidated by people who are in better shape then I am? (yes, cuz I hate the thought of slowing anyone down). Maybe a bit of all those things, although I think the real issue is more the "call of the odd day".

Millcreek Canyon, is one of the few places with good hiking that you can take a dog. Dogs are forbidden in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons for watershed reasons. It seems silly to me, but that's the law. Consequently, the "dog people" of the valley all descend on Millcreek Canyon, which has caused it to have it's own set of dog rules. While dogs can be in the canyon any time, they can only be off-leash on certain days... the "odd" days. To remember this, my mantra is "Dogs are odd." When I get home from work Daisy usually looks at me and says "let's walk mom". Should I happen to remember that the day is odd, I will choose to take her up to Millcreek for her walk. A nice walk for me, a nice walk for her... I call this the "call of the odd day"... it is often a very spontaneous event, a "why walk the neighborhood streets or the park when in 10 minutes I can be on trail" moment.

I didn't plan on a hike Wednesday, but weather was so nice and the house so quiet when I got home from work that I heard the call of the odd day loud and clear. I had thought I had done all the shorter after work type hikes, but the other day a friend had mentioned hiking at Burch Hollow. I've hiked and biked the Pipeline trail west from there many times, but realized that in all these years I'd never hiked it east to Elbow Fork. Now is great time for that hike because the road is still closed at the winter gate, which means I can hike the 2 miles to Elbow Fork, and then walk the 2 miles back down the road to my car. A great option for evening when you don't wish to be caught out in the darkness, as the road would be fine to navigate should you hike late and lose the day light.

It proved to be a very pretty nice hike. I can't believe that in all these years I had not done it before. Uphill, like all the Millcreek hikes, but not super killer uphill. The trail wound through deciduous forest, through a few pretty creek drainage's, past a nice overlook or two and then followed a very pretty cliff band of lichen covered rock up near Elbow Fork. The birds were singing and the wild flower abundant. Only downside was having to play chicken with the mountain bikers coming down the trail, as the Pipeline trail is popular with the bikers.





For those paying attention to the snow melt and out raging creek, Millcreek is moving along pretty well. At one spot just below Elbow Fork the water is nearly lapping over the road.

Reaching the snow zone...

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A Tuesday night with no plans, other than the need to do yard work, but since our spring monsoon season has left the yard wet and muddy I decided to take Daisy up the canyon for her walk instead. About half way up the canyon the Millcreek Canyon road gets closed for winter, becomes a cross country ski trail and is not scheduled to open to cars until the first of July. Tonight I decided to drive up to the winter gate and walk up the road a bit. We had an big snow year and a cool spring (it actually snowed at my house on Memorial Day), so I was curious how the snow melt was doing this year.

We walked the mile and half or so up to Elbow Fork. The road turns sharply there, and around that bend is when we first encountered snow on the road. It wasn't much past there that the entire road was snow covered. I ventured a quarter to half mile past Elbow Fork, and found the road covered with anywhere between one and three feet of snow, and I imagine it only got deeper in the next few miles. It will be interesting to see if the upper canyon road really opens on July 1st this year.

Daisy was a little sluggish walking up the road tonight. In all fairness, she is old for a big dog(10 1/2) and overweight (just like her "mama" LOL) and it is an uphill trek. I kind of wondered if Sarah may already walked her today and wore her out. But as soon as we hit the snow zone I got my puppy dog back. She was totally thrilled to be able romp in the snow and play a little "snowball". She really is a "mama's dog", a lover of snow just like me.

Just past Elbow Fork


My happy doggy!


The next big bend in he road.


Snow getting pretty deep...

Fishy Stuff...

I did a dreaded chore this week. I cleaned the fish tank. I am not a great fish mama. My intentions are always good when I set up the tank, but over time something happens, and next thing you know the algae is overtaking the tank and the fish start dying and I feel like an aquarium failure.

Needless to say I don't purchase expensive fish, mostly things like tetras and mollies and of course a beta. Before you say "You can't put a beta in a tank with other fish", I will assure you that "yes you can!". I always put a beta in my tank, and he's always happy, and clearly enjoys having the freedom to cruise the whole tank rather than a cup or little beta bowl.

Anyway I posted something on facebook about cleaning my tank, and a friend posted this link to a scene from Finding Nemo... a funny scene where the fish are suffering in a scummy fish tank. I have never seen the movie, but the movie sure depicted my tank prior to it's recent cleaning... right down to treasure chest!

Let it Snow!

Thanksgiving week ended the way it began... snowy!
Sarah wanted snow while she was home, and she got it on both ends of her trip. I had to shovel the driveway before leaving to take her to the airport this morning, and the snow kept falling all day. After shoveling again tonight I decided it was a great time to walk the dog... I just love walking on a snowy night and so does Daisy. As we headed out onto the street, Daisy's friend Miley ran over to greet us, so I invited her along for the walk.

So the two happy dogs and I wandered the snow covered streets down to park, where I was able to let them off lead so they could really enjoy themselves. Turns out I'm not the only one who enjoys getting out in a snowstorm, the park was pretty busy for a dark snowy night, the dogs got to have a romp with a few new dog friends. I really enjoy watching the dogs play in the snow, they are just like joyful, happy children. I wonder what it is about snow that makes a dog so happy? You would think that from an evolutionary biology perspective snow would be a sign of hardship to a dog, I can't imagine winter is an easy time for an animal in the wild, yet many domestic dogs seem to really love the snow. It certainly brings out the puppy in my 10 year old dog.

My Daisy is the black dog, Miley is her yellow younger twin!

Talking about the weather...

The seasons sure can change fast. We went from a taste of winter on Monday to a full course meal last night. This is what I woke up to this morning. A perfect storm! Pretty snow, no need to shovel! Daisy has always loved the snow, but I think now that she's a 10 year old she actually notices that it's cold. Unless you are tossing a snowball of course!

My doggie Daisy, after a recent snowstorm. I think she is a reverse dalmation!
Have I ever said how much I love my dog. She has been the most wonderful companion and best friend!

Christmas '09

The bad blogger returns at last! Started a blog entry before Christmas but never got it finished. Then a few days after Christmas disaster struck... some rotten little cold bug invaded my bronchial tubes and I've been a sicky ever since.

So back to Christmas.... can I say I have the best kids ever. They are always so kind and polite on Christmas. Despite the mound of gift with their names on them awaiting opening, their first priority on Christmas morning is to give each other and me their gifts. I am so thrilled that they are so musch more concerned about each other that what "Santa" brought!!!

Perhaps their Christmas stockings help with their patience. Santa fills them with plenty of gifts, and lays them next their bed to be opened before they wake me up. I have to admit that at 17 and 20 those stockings are difficult to fill, but I still hear exciting exclamations coming from their room in the morning.

This year they surprised me by filling my stocking and placing it next to my bed. No one has filled my stocking for me since my mom last did. That would have been back int the early 80's. I was really touched. It made me cry a little.

Prior to opening their gifts the kids wanted to give the pets their gifts. A new toy for Oreo the cat, and a huge rawhide bone for Daisy. Daisy was pretty excited, she'd been eyeing those big bones on her walks through Petsmart. This bone had a red ribbon tied to it, and sometime that morning Sarah got worried that Daisy would chew the ribbon. So she got a scissor and reached over to cut the ribbon off. You should have seent the look on poor Daisy's face. It was as though she was saying to us "OMG, you ruined MY favorite present" Clearly Daisy had taken ownership of the bone, ribbon and all. Sarah felt bad, and extended the ribbon towards Daisy, who with a look of relief, quickly took it in her mouth, and set it next to her bone. She was not about to lose any of her gift!!! No way, no how!!

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On the trail...

Yesterday I decided that I should try to take Daisy on more hike up to Dog Lake before the the end of the season. The Big Water Trail is at the very end of of the Millcreek Canyon road, and the upper half of the canyon closes for winter at the end of the month. Sure enough winter has already started up there, with the exception of a couple of west facing dry spots, and some chocolate pudding like wet spots, most of the trail was snow packed from the parking lot up to the lake. It was a tiny bit slippery for me in my hiking boots, but heavenly for Daisy who just loves frolicking in the snow. She must be showing her age (she's 9), for the first time ever she didn't play in the water at lake. It was pretty cold, maybe she's a smart dog after all. We hiked the three miles up ad the three miles down, but it wasn't until I was about 30 feet from the parking lot that I slipped on the ice and landed on my rear...
I'm not sure but I think Daisy laughed at me....

It's good day when you wear out the dog...

Daisy and went hiking today. We headed up Millcreek canyon, and decided to hike Porter Fork. The first mile and a half or so is a narrow paved road that's dotted with quaint summer homes. A paved trail doesn't exactly sound rugged, but it is pretty steep and a nice workout. Perhaps that makes it a wussy trail and that's why I never hear about anyone hiking it? It's a favorite spot of mine for an evening hike, because I know if I should end up coming down in the dark it's easily navigable.

At the end of the paved road you enter the Mt. Olympus wilderness area. I've hiked into the wilderness area a little ways, but never very far, as I usually hike this trail after work and have limited time before the sun sets. My first picture was taken at my normal turn around spot.

Today was my day to get further up the trail. As you can tell by my third picture, the trail goes quite a ways higher, up to a nice meadow surrounded by a cirque of mountain ridges. I hiked up through the meadow and a little further. Eventually the trail should head up over the ridge, but the meadow seemed like good turn around as Daisy, who's almost 9 years old, was getting pretty tired. She never really understands the point of hiking where there isn't a creek, and we'd left the creek behind a while back. One thing about these steep trails, they give you quite a workout going both up and down. Ask my quads. And my dog!

My requisite weird close up flower shot for the day. The sun light shining through this sticky geranium was so pretty... so why not take a picture from the underside of the flower?

I Can Has Cheezburger?

I check my email tonight and I find an email from "I Can Has Cheezburger?" titled "missfrof22 sent you a picture". I had no idea who the sender was so I wasn't sure if I should dare click the link in the email. Curiousity got the best of me so I clicked. Sure enough it was an "I Can Has Cheezburger?" picture. A black and white cat, just like my Oreo. Wow, some one searched "I Can Has Cheezburger?" for a cat like mine and sent me picture? This seemed really weird. Then I noticed the red harness, just like Oreos, and a blue tag just like... wait that was Oreo... Oh my goodness, my kitty is now an "I Can Has Cheezburger?" cat. What the heck? I check my email and there's another, with a different picture; Oreo inside my house. This time there's note, Victoria sent the pictures. She's Matt's girlfriend, they must have been messing aqround with his photos. Mystery solved. And look, now I have "famous" internet cat. Isn't he cute???

Cake Update....

A short update to the tale of too many birthday cakes at my home this weekend. Yesterday afternoon Sarah and I went off to run a short errand. When I returned a spied a large piece of fool on the floor. I'm sure I didn't leave it there! On the counter stood the well bitten remains of the rasta cake. It appears Daisy put her paws up on the counter and bit off as much as her furry muzzle could reach. Fortunately, the chocolate layer cake I made was still safe under the metal cake lid, and she hadn't yet made her way to the other foil covered confection. Tragic yes, I for one and glad to have less cake in the house. I'm hoping Sarah and her friends finish off the others today at lunch.

And that Daisy dog of mine... I'm always amazed at the look of sheer embarassment and guilt she has as she lowers her head in shame when I exclaim "Daisy! What did you do?" Guilt, on one hand yes, but on the other I can't help but wonder if she spent the last two days impatiently wondering: "When, oh when, will both of them leave so I can have a snack?"

Happy New Year!!!!

Do you suppose Daisy and Oreo made a New Years resolution this year? One that said "I will be better friends with my 4 legged sibling!" They normally get along fine. Daisy is not a cat chaser and she's not exactly a alpha dog, so she leaves Oreo alone. Even so, every once in a while Oreo walks up to Daisy and gives her a random swat. I suppose he does that just to reinforce that he was here first and that is the "boss". While they have really gotten along great for seven years, they have never really been playful or cuddly together.

So I was actually surprised when I walked into the living room this afternoon that where both sleeping together on the couch. Definitely a rare sight. When I walked up with the camera Daisy's tail started wagging, alternatively thumping on the couch and Oreo's face. Oreo just sat there and smiled. I wonder if their resolution was to be nicer to each other this year!

Silly Kitty..

What is with my silly kitty? He likes to drink from anyplace other than his own bowl. Actually, he can't drink out of his own bowl, because we don't bother to fill it anymore. He loves the dog water bowl, my bead soaking water (I hope bead release isn't bad for kitties!), but his favorite thing to drink out of is whatever beverage glass one of "his" people happens to be drinking from. He really likes my on-the-rocks glasses... his head fits in just perfectly.

Yummm...lip lickin' good!!!

Dog days

I took my dog Daisy down to the gully for a nice walk and swim last night. I figure I should make the best of the nice weather and the quickly waning evening sunlight. She absolutely loves to swim and play ball in the water. Her problem is that she doesn't really understand playing ball. She stands there, eagle eyed, watching the person tossing the ball, chases and grabs it (this is the part she gets!), but she does not understand the part about bringing it out of the water to me so that it can be thrown again. She often drops the ball in the water, lets the current take it down stream a little ways, then pounces on it again, then eventually she looses interest and the ball floats down stream. This is why I bother to bring never bring a ball to the creek.

So unless we happen to find stray ball (not uncommon actually) Daisy horns in on the other dogs ball games. Last night she joined a golden that had new sort of game. It had a broken tennis ball, that sank, instead of floated. This dog was so fun to watch. Huge, dynamic, splashy leaps in the water to retrieve it's ball. Daisy tried to join, but was beat the ball every time. The other dog was a hoot to watch; she felt around the bottom of the creek with her two front paws, and once she got the ball under control she stuck her head in and grabbed it. In spots the water deep enough that I can't imagine it could see the ball, yet it still found it every time. What a hoot! Poor Daisy tried to play the game, the few times she beat the other dog to the ball you could see her feel around with her paws, and stick her head under, but she never came up with anything. Didn't stop her from trying though, she LOVES the game. We left the creek before the other dog, and every time we'd get about 25 feet away Daisy would look back, see the man tossing the ball, and run back to play some more. As big of a "momma's dog" as she is I was surprised at her choosing a ball game over me!

Dog Days....

I have been trying to get out in the mountains more lately. Millcreek Canyon is right near my house, and as opposed the other two local canyons, which are designated watershed, dogs are allowed up the canyon so that is where I tend to head when I want to hike. At the end of the canyon road lies the the Big Water and Little Water trails, which lead 900 feet or so up into the mountains to Dog Lake, which as the name may indicate, is one of Daisy's favorite places! Daisy and I have been up there a few times year. It is about 3 miles up to Dog lake on the Big Water trail, pretty much uphill all the way. There are three creek crossings along the way which Daisy loves, but at age 8 the uphill is getting hard for her.

Last night she was tired when we started(the kids had taken her swimming in the afternoon) so she was really dragging and lagging all the way up the hill. (made her "momma" feel like she was in tip top shape!) The top of the trail is pretty steep, then you hit the crest of the hill and head downhill a short way to the lake. As soon as Daisy sees the lake she starts running and hops right in. She loves to swim, just for the sake of swimming and the sight of water gives her a second wind. She actually likes to swims laps. It's her idea, she starts swimming, I start walking, and the next thing you know we've traveled all the way around the lake. She is a graceful swimmer. She looks sleek, like an Otter, and clearly enjoys herself. After our lap she plays 'fetch the stick', either with me or she hones in on the other dogs games. While most dogs swim out and fetch then come back on shore and run, Daisy never gets out of the water. Since yesterdays hike was an evening hike we reached the point where I knew we should leave or we risked walking down in the dark. I called Daisy, but she wouldn't come. Every time I caught her attention some other people would throw the ball and off through the water she swam. Finally the other folks decided to leave, allowing me to coax her out of the water. As we headed up the trail a new dog headed down, and it was all I could do to keep Daisy from turning tail and heading back to the water.

Because it was getting late, we took the Little Water trail down. It's about a mile shorter, much steeper and rockier, but is more out in the open where there was still light. Even though we were hurrying down the trail to beat nightfall, I stopped and enjoyed the sun setting over the mountains!



A rather poor picture of dog lake. I'll have to try to get a better shot during a sunny time of the day!