Category Archives: Outdoors
Day At The Dog Park
Yesterday, my family ventured to Bear-Creek Dog Park. We’d been there a few times before, and quite enjoy it. The park is HUGE. It has an area for large dogs and small dogs, as many parks do. There are clear areas, wooded areas, and a mountain-runoff creek running through for the dogs to play in. There are free donated balls is a basket, a bin of shopping bags for owners to have no excuse not to clean up after their dogs, drinking fountains for humans and dogs, a restroom with a lockout for dogs to wait in, benches, and picnic tables.
It’s nice to bring Molly out. She certainly enjoys the change of pace. Being outside is fun for her, there’s a lot to see and smell and the socialization with humans and dogs is good for her. As for myself, I enjoy seeing Molly have a good time. It’s also nice for me to get to a park, and one with so few children (no screaming!) It’s fun to look around, identifying different dog breeds is if I was at a car show and pleased to see models that I like. I get to see and play with more dogs than I could ever take in to my own home, and that’s quite nice. The other owners have nice chit chat about our dogs, training, care, and so on. Really, a good time is had by all.
Yesterday, it was hot. Whereas other days she either avoided the creek, or tried to cross it by hopping on rocks and avoiding getting her paws wet, she spent most of her day in the water yesterday. All we had to do to keep her entertained was throw her Frisbee in the water and she would jump happily jump right in after it.
We noticed that Molly is very non-confrontational. If another dog so much as came near her toy, she’d approach slowly to see if the other dog would take it. If another dog did take it, she wouldn’t try to grab it but would simply follow the dog around and wait for the dog to drop it so she could get it back. There was one dog in particular who would take Molly’s Frisbee, and then trot away from her casually. The owner said that dog is probably not really interested in the Frisbee but just likes to be chased and has actually learned to run slower just so other dogs could keep up. As for chasing, Molly was happy to oblige. At one point, another dog a bit larger than Molly invited her to play by wagging his tail and bowing, but also by barking and growling, which Molly evidently found intimidating. When the other dog would bark, Molly would run over to either myself or my boyfriend for safety, but wouldn’t bark or growl back. The barking dog simply found someone else to play with.
The tree of us then wandered the huge park, playing fetch as we went along. By the time we had circled the park and returned to our car, Molly was already mostly dry. Happily, we use a dog tarp in the back seat of our Pathfinder, so a moist and slightly muddy dog isn’t a problem, although we really should have brought a towel (Douglas Adams would be displeased to know we forgot one that day.)
It was a fun day. We’re always smiling at that park as we just have a great time. Best of all, it’s free. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon with our dear Molly.
Like this:
Waldo Canyon Loop Trail
Yesterday, my family hit the Waldo Canyon Loop Trail. We hadn’t been able to go hiking in quite a while, due to conflicting schedules and other plans, so it was nice to get out.
My Boyfriend found the trail using AllTrails, and downloaded the map, which is a nice feature of the app. We had an embarrassing amount of trouble finding the trailhead, as the dropped pin on Google maps was about a mile off. After we passed the dropped pin, we pulled into a small parking lot on the side of the highway to turn around. After driving around a bit, unable to find the place, we realized that parking lot we turned around in was actually our trail head – doh!
Once we got going, and hiked far enough for the highway to be out of earshot, we quite liked the trail. We enjoyed the thick woods as well as the scenic views. The trail itself seemed well-maintained, which I surely appreciated. There was evidence that a tree had fallen onto the trail, but had been cut and moved out of the way. Further down, there was a nice bench made of polished logs made by a local scout troop
This was the first hike that Molly wore her dog backpack for. It fits a bit awkward on her as she’s too large for a small, but a bit too petite for the medium-sized pack that I bought. Still, it didn’t seem bother her at all, and she loves putting it on as she knows it means going somewhere fun (we’ve had her wear it to the dog park to get used to it.) It was really nice not to have to unpack ourselves to give Molly food and water when she needed it, she had that herself. In one side of her pack, she had her water, on the other side, she had her food and a collapsible bowl with compartments for food and water. You can carry your own things now, dog!
Sadly, as we had a late start, we weren’t able to complete the trail and had to turn back early. It was getting dark by the time we made it back to our car. It would be nice to return to this trail another time.
Like this:
Manitou Incline
I went up the Manitou Incline with my boyfriend and my dog earlier in the week. The soreness is only just now starting to get better.
In an effort to get back into/stay in shape, my boyfriend goes up the incline frequently. The last time he went without me, he brought the dog. He wasn’t the only one to bring a canine companion, as doing so seems to be quite popular with other climbers (the incline is more of a climb than a hike.) Kindly, he let other thirsty fur-friends drink out of Molly’s water dish. He said that bringing the dog earned him lot’s of attention. He jokingly lamented being taken already.
Anyway, this time I came along. It was only my second time up the incline. I don’t think it was as bad as the first time (I was dying the first time I went up – couldn’t breathe.) I got light-headed a few times during the ascent, but I did alright. Maybe I should climb it more often? The view from the top was just as stunning as ever.
We took the Barr Trail down. I enjoyed running down that, in the sections of trail where doing so was safe enough. Some day, I’d like to go up the Barr instead of down. I’d like to hike all the way to the summit of Pike’s Peak.
Mt. Cutler and AllTrails
This week, my family of three (with eight legs between us) hiked up Mt. Cutler in Cheyenne Canyon. It was a short, out and back type trail, not even a mile each way, according to my boyfriend’s GPS and a handy app on my iPhone (more on the app later,) but it took us about 45 minutes to get to the top of Mt. Cutler.
The reason the trail took us so long was because there was hard packed snow and ice on the shadowed side of the mountain where the hike begins. It was very, very slippery, especially when we came back down. Once we got to the sunny side, however, snow was no longer a problem and I happily removed my coat.
We saw a few other people on the trail. There was a jogger in shorts, a t-shirt, and running shoes with ice cleats (I still need to get some for my boots,) and a few other hikers. One other hiker stands out though. On the return trip, I fell a few times, landing safely on my backpack, so I was shocked to see a man hiking up with a baby strapped to his back. I foresaw bad things happening…
Molly gave us some reason to worry. She followed my BF up a steep incline off the side of the trail, at his encouragement (bad BF!) Suddenly, I felt a cloud of rocks and dirt fall over my head. My dog had tried to run back down, but instead of taking the dirt path she had on the way up, she took the most direct rout to me. This direct rout was over steep rocks and loose gravel. She fell and got into a bit of a tumble before righting herself. She gave me such a scare, but she wasn’t hurt.
At the top, we enjoyed some victory jerky and took in the view. At only 7231 ft, Mt. Cutler was hardly an impressive mountain. It was barely a hill next to the giants that surrounded it. But it was quick and easy and introduced me to the other trails and peaks in the area to try for another day when we have more time.
As for the view, it was quite nice. 
Down in front!
- I can see Commo Hill from here. When I was in the Army, my platoon would occasionally run up and down that thing. I was not a fan of that.
AllTrails App
I just recently purchased an iPhone, and I love it! I’ve spent hours looking for awesome apps and I’ve found quite a few.
For this trip to Mt. Cuter, I used AllTrails for the first time, and it was just fantastic! I’m still figuring out all of the features, but so far I’ve found that I can:
- Browse and search for trails nearby, and get driving directions to them from Google Maps.
- View topographical maps of trails.
- View trail information such as difficulty, usage, obstacles, type, duration, distance, and elevation gain.
- Download trail information before I head out so I can access it offline.
- Use my phone’s GPS to track my hike so my course is marked.
- Read and write reviews for trails
- Add new trails to the database or edit existing ones.
- Read and write trail reviews as well as view and add trail photos.
This app was very useful today in helping us pick a trail, and was fun to play with and explore along the hike. I highly recommend getting it yourself if you have an iPhone, iPad, or Android. It’s FREE!
And Here I Thought Being Childfree Was The Opposite Of Parenting…
I had forgotten all about this for a long time, but was reminded of it recently. So I have to share.
Every summer, while visiting my grandparents, my family went to this lovely beach on a lake. The lake was weird. Past the waterline, the ground disappeared fast. You wouldn’t have to be very far from shore before the water got pretty deep. The beach was private and had no life guard. Everyone was expected to mind their own safety.
I wasn’t a great swimmer (I could barely doggy paddle) as a kid (not much better now,) but enjoyed relaxing as I floated around on an inner tube. I wasn’t the only kid to do that.
Anyway, I was floating around when a group of much younger and smaller kids (no older than about five or so) floated vaguely my way. I didn’t think much of it, until one slipped off his boogie board and disappeared under the water. I watched little hands frantically splashing at the surface of the water, but no head surfaced. The other kids watched in shock.
It would have taken too long to paddle over on my floatie (and it wasn’t a very good floatie and could barely support me, anyway) so I jumped off to help. I thought, since I was taller, it wouldn’t be much of a problem. But like I said, the water level was deceptive and I was in too deep as well.
I lifted the kid high enough to get his head out of the water so he could breathe, and held my breath as I walked (slowly) below the water until I reached water shallow enough for my head to clear the surface. As the drop off was somewhat steep, as I said, I didn’t have to go very far.
The kid was shaken up, but otherwise OK. It occurred to me that this kid could have drowned. Hell, I could have drowned just trying to help him. There could be dead kids floating in the water. And no one seems to have noticed the crisis that was just averted could have just happened at all.
There were no parents around to help him. Even now that we were on shore, no one rushed over to check on their baby. I asked him to take me to his parents. Not only were they not in the water watching their little kid who, obviously could not swim, they were nowhere even near the water. The oblivious idiots were drinking on a blanket about as far away from anything as they could get and still be on the beach property. And it wasn’t as if their kids just wandered off (and if they did, shouldn’t the parents be looking for them?) the parents (and I use that term very loosely) knew full well that the kids were off in the lake where there was no lifeguard.
Oh, I hope they felt the guilt when I told them their kid could have drowned if a 13 year old hadn’t just done their job for them. But maybe that was exactly what they were hoping for, a retroactive “abortion.” And then they’d act distraught and claim, “I only looked away for a minute!” Or maybe their thought was an area full of people (complete strangers) meant free babysitting.
Either way, they’re irresponsible fucking idiots who should not have bred. I find it amazing that I can yet be called a “child-hater” for not having any of my own, even as morons like these neglect theirs.
Although I am not a fan of the word “breeder,” I am most familiar with its use as referring to people who do not deserve the title of parent. It’s used to distinguish good parents from bad ones, so as not to generalize all parents. I do recognize that there is a world of difference between just having kids and actually being a parent. The word parent, I think, should also be treated as a verb.
