Pine Grove Trip!

Yesterday, the dogs and I headed out to the teeny, tiny town of Pine Grove that's just east of Mt. Hood to meet my dad (Adam stayed home because he's a light sleeper and the dogs usually drive him nuts when we're not at home) for some camping. My parents have 40 acres of bare land out there that my dad is slowly building a cabin on. This property happens to butt right up against national forest land, which means that the porperty seems to basically go on forever. This is something that the dogs LOVE!! We just went down to camp for the night and then came back this afternoon, but it was a whole bunch of time where they didn't have to be on leash at all and could roam and wander wherever they wanted to. They were VERY happy dogs and are now totally zonked out in the office with me as I'm writing this.:O)


The drive out was a total pain in the butt though. It's Memorial Day weekend and that means that it's basically a mass exodus. Unfortunatley I needed to take the main highways that run by the city of Portland, and it was basically a crawl the whole way and ended up tacking about an hour onto our drive time. Yet another reason why I am sooooooo not fond of city's! Once we got through all of that awfulness, it was pretty much smooth sailing! On the way out to Pine Grove we take the highway that goes along Mt. Hood and I snapped this picture along the way because it was just so grogeous (though the picture doesn't do it any justice!).

This weekend turned out to be warmer than it usually is. And while I know that we had a rough winter and people in the area are really looking forward to the summer, this warm weather this soon is just abnormal and I am definitely NOT a fan! This doesn't bode well for the summer. Anything over 85 degrees is too hot and tends to ruin my outdoor plans because I have to make sure that the dogs don't over heat and that they have plenty of water. But I digress!

When we got to Pine Grove it was probably in the upper 70's. After a three hour car drive, the dogs were happy to get out and stretch their legs, but it was warm enough that they weren't going totally crazy. Okay, so Heffner wasn't going crazy, but Bess was having a grand time running all over the place. She definitely thoroughly enjoys being a "wild" dog! She was digging and routing around in the shrubbery and just getting the zoomies in general. Heffner was happy to just follow me around mostly. With his darker coat, he definitely gets warmer faster and he DEFINITELY feels the heat. Bess doesn't seem to get too phased by it.

As the things started cooling off, we went for a little hike around to stretch our legs, let the dogs run around some more, and burn some calories before cooking dinner. Bess was pretty much hither, thither, and yon. Which is pretty much her MO! She never really goes too far (unless there's a deer to chase!), but she definitely loves to explore. Heffner stayed pretty much right with us and even though it was cooler out, I could definitely tell that he was still feeling the warmth a bit.

Once we got back to camp, we settled in and cooked dinner. My dogs are pretty spoiled and Heffner, starting from an early age, never seemed to really like laying down on woodsy type soil. The first time we took him camping with us, he was about 5 months old. He would pace around the campfire, obviously tired and wanting to lay down, but would never actually lay all the way down. I would either let him up on my lap (he BARELY fit at that point), or finally I just pulled out a blanket for him to lay on. He was all too happy to use either of those options! The same is pretty much true now. Heffner obviously wanted to lay down as it was getting darker, but couldn't quite find a good spot to lay on. So I pulled out a blanket and they both immediately layed down on it. It was especially funny because Bess was pretty much in constant motion from the time that we got there. And she FINALLY stopped moving!

Part of the problem is that there are a lot of biting ants around, especially by the fire pit so that makes laying down on the ground not as much fun. For whatever reason the ants were really good about staying off of the blanket.

Once it was too dark to really do anything, we headed off to the tent trailer and my dad headed off to portion of the cabin that was built. This is one of the few times that the dogs get to sleep with me and I LOVE it! At home, our bed works for Adam and I, but there really isn't room for even one of our big babies. They each have their own couch to sleep on, so it's not really a big loss for them! Thankfully, they aren't terrible bed hogs. We got all adjusted and drifted off. I did wake up a few hours later because it had gotten a little colder in the tent trailer and I was a little worried about the dogs getting chilled because I hadn't brought any of their coats with me. Bess was shivering a little bit, but Heffner didn't show any signs of being cold. Nevertheless, I got up and grabbed an extra quilt and put it over them. The dogs had readjusted so that Heffner was a "little" ball down by the foot of my sleeping bag and Bess was sort of positioned for me to spoon her with her head on my pillow. Totally cute! I draped the comforter over them and everyone was happy, especially Bess who had her head right up next to mine (she seriously LOVES to cuddle!).

Through the night we heard either a deer or an elk calling from a little ways off. That of course got the dogs attention and they wanted to go out and investigate, but there was no way I was going to let them off on that wild goose chase! Then, as the sun started rising, we heard the wild turkeys who weren't too far from the tent trailer. Again, the dogs were very excited, but I really wasn't into letting them catch their own breakfast, so they had to wait until I was totally ready to get up to be let out.

Once we were all up and everyone had done their business, her highness decided to sprawl out and soak up some rays.

Again, this was one of the few times that morning that she actually held still. Otherwise she was off investigating and trying to get Heffner to chase her. It was so great to see them out there tearing after each other when one of them would get the zoomies. They were so happy! And I didn't have to worry about them being off leash and running around at all! It was sooooooo nice and relaxing!

After breakfast my dad worked a bit more on the cabin and the dogs and I just relaxed around the camp.

By 11:00am it was hitting the upper 70's and we were getting really warm, so we headed down to the White River to hopefully cool off a bit. We did a little hiking around there, but even though we were by water it wasn't all that much cooler. So piled back into the truck, dropped my dad off at his truck, and headed home. The drive back was MUCH better! It took the usual amount of the time and the dogs were totally beat! Unfortunately I didn't get a whole lot of pictures. I was in some sort of weird battery sucking zone. The batteries on my camera, cell phone, and head lamp all ran out while we were up there. Very strange!