Day-hike with the family and dogs

Pinot and Maggio enjoying a small dip, and cool-off in one of the cold streams we encountered.

Yesterday we took the whole family, dogs and my friend who is visiting from Finland, on a gorgeous, fairly strenuous and  simply stunning day-hike through Sentinel Pass in the Lake Louise area.

Short synopsis of the day:
Through Larch Valley to Sentinel Pass, over Sentinel Pass into Paradise Valley, down to Lake Annette and through the forests down to the Moraine Lake Road.

19 km, 7+ hours, more than 2 liters of water each, 2 sandwiches, multiple mandarin oranges, and a few much-appreciated sugary treats...
Tired legs but ecstatic minds.
My friends' super tech watch reported 2100 calories burned.

Going up toward the Pass.

Almost at the top of the Pass. Maggio's real name isn't Mountain Bluebird for nothing :-)

Coming down from the Pass toward Paradise Valley side - a fairly steep and extremely rocky 500 meter descent, probably not enjoyable for someone with a fear of heights. The kids and dogs were amazing - they just "go with it" and get down.

Once down the steep and rocky descent off the back of the Pass, Paradise Valley opens up and the scenery is - once again - completely surreal. 

It was still several hours to get all the way down from here and yes - all got tired - and we finished our last drops of water in the last 20 minutes of walking - but happy, content and Exhausted - we made it all the way around the circuit. Had a big dinner at home and slept a solid night's sleep.

The final photo (bottom) is again from the top of the Pass. Absolutely stunning scenery!! The hiking in "our backyard" is simply unreal. 

Our kids at 10, 13 and 14 are like Mountain Goats and seem at home wherever we take them. The dogs, having both grown up in the Rockies, too - don;t miss a step, never stumble, trip...just simply amazing hiking partners. 

Pinot's weather report.

Unreal how much snow was dumped on us in the last 24 hours!! I enjoyed a fabulous walk in the woods with Pinot yesterday. Maggio is on bed rest (and lots of bones) right now while we wait to figure his elbow-issues out. It's hard to leave him behind, as he just would like to go, go, go, but it's also obvious he is not feeling all that great about moving too much, so we have to limit his exercise for now. By the end of the week, there should be a Plan of Action in place for how to best address what's going on with his elbows.

Pinot is soaking up all the solo attention and honestly does not seem to care whether Maggio comes along or doesn't. As long as she gets to go - she's happy. That's all that matters :-) Pretty self-centered creatures when it comes to stuff like that?! 

With the accumulated snow - it was too funny to watch her literally not be able to "reach bottom", but keep experimenting with kangaroo-style leaps alternating with belly-flop attempts looking like  she was thinking "maybe I DO float on this if I try again?" 

She didn't float, no matter what style she tried, but it sure looked like fun trying! And we both got a really good work-out! It really was quite the show, this "walk" of ours; playing in the snow and watching Pinot's intense, crazy energy - insisting on playing her favourite Frisbee games despite it being quite difficult to get around in places. At times she was literally over-her-head-deep-in-snow, and I had the occasional thought go through my mind about snow-shoes perhaps being a smart thing (not that I own a pair) as I was labouring along, too - in the sometimes thigh deep snow. Great exercise, and a remarkably soft landing when a loss of balance threw me off. Pinot was doing all kinds of "four-wheel-getting around" and just seemed to have a total blast, too! I DO love the snow. This is what winter is supposed to be like!

Weekend walk in the Foothills

Sharing some photos from the weekend. We have been so lucky with the fall weather. People and dogs alike have been able to enjoy some amazing hikes and walks. Here we are out for an amazing outing with friends in the foothills south of Calgary.

Pinot checking back: "Are you coming?"

Tails and backs...dogs on a huge treasure hunt enjoying all kinds of interesting finds in the tall grasses.

Our friend Monty at full speed.

Pinot takes a break.



Maggio. "Mr Wags Unlimited" himself. A true portrait of never-ending happiness :-)



Alberta really is an amazingly beautiful province.



Hiking photos

It's pretty well a tradition for us to get out on a full-day hike on the weekend for my late September birthday. And so we did again...

The whole family got out in the gorgeous mountains for a full day 14-16km trek, leaving children, dogs and adults alike pretty tired, relaxed and filled with feel-good endorphines.

Here are just a few photos of the dogs enjoying their day out.

Maggio living up to his name: Blazingstar Moutain Bluebird. Almost high enough to just spread his wings and fly?! :-)

 Re-fueling and resting tired legs.

Her Highness, Pinot the Princess, DID bounce and swim across the river on the way out. However - during the six hours we were on the other side hiking on a hot September day...the water levels were actually quite a bit higher upon our return...and alas - her Highness got quite upset when she realized returning across the very fridgid river would mean getting both wet and cold. Concerned that she would get carried down stream and really panic, I ended up giving her a Royal Shuttle service across. All ended well, and all slept very well after a tremendous hike!
I keep reminding myself how very lucky indeed we are, to have all of this,
right in our own "backyard"!