May brought with it increasingly better hiking weather. There were the usual hikes in the areas closer to home.
There were a couple of longer group hikes that Miley got to come along for. I wasn't quite comfortable taking Dominic on longer distances yet and what he doesn't know he's missing out on won't hurt him. The first group hike was out to Tamanawas Falls near Mt. Hood. We did an afternoon hike on a day where the weather was a little questionable, but it turned out to be great! And not many people out on the trail, which is definitely my favorite!
Towards the end of the month, I went on another group that Miley got to accompany me on. A friend of mine is an endurance athlete and he started putting together an annual hiking event that he calls the 3Ds. It's three hikes (Devil's Rest, Mt. Defiance and Dog Mountain) for a total of a little over 26 miles and over 10,000 ft. of total elevation gain. It's burly. I'm not that burly. Miley and I did Devil's Rest and Dog Mountain and took a nap at home while everyone else hiked Mt. Defiance (I've previously made two attempts at it with Heffner and Bess; attempt 1 and attempt 2). I will also admit that I am not a huge fan of that hike. Then again, it's been a few years since I've done it. Anywho, the first hike was Devil's Rest (not to be confused with Angel's Rest, which is a very popular hike close to this one), which started at 5am. That's the other thing about that much hiking in one day, you gotta start early! :)
Devil's Rest isn't a terribly long hike, but it's pretty much all either up or down. Really warms up those quads! ;) Miley and I went home to take a nap. Not that she really seemed like she needed one, but Dog Mountain was a fair bit longer and a fair bit more up and down, so I did want her to recharge. My friend David did a really good job of planning out and timing the hikes so I had a pretty good idea of roughly when I should shoot for meeting up with the rest of the group. The weather was getting warmer and was basically a pretty gorgeous day to be out hiking. We were hitting Dog Mountain towards the end of the wild flower season (admittedly, I'm not a huge flower person and I don't do hikes for the plants; I do them for the views and the particular challenges they pose), and given that it was a holiday weekend and the weather was just about as ideal for a hike as it gets in the area, I was kind of dreading finding a parking spot in that parking lot, which is rather small and fills quickly. Thankfully I was in luck and we were starting our hike late enough, that parking wasn't an issue!
It was a gorgeous day for hiking and Miley was such a great trail buddy! I was definitely getting tired towards the end of the hike and I could have planned my snacks and hydration better, for sure, but overall it was a pretty great day!
Naturally, there were plenty of non-hiking, derpy dog moments throughout the month as well. :)
And as always, more training. Though not any videoing. I'll work on that. I did make an attempt at vlogging when we went camping in July and I think I'll put those clips together when I get to that month.
Has anyone else noticed that while dogs can't speak exactly our own language, they sure as all get out know how to convey that they're bored and you need to do something about it?!?! I have been getting poked, arm bopped, climbed on and had a certain wrecking ball's cold wet nose tucked under my shirt onto the bare skin of my back, to what I'm sure for her was a very satisfying reaction. With that, I'm off to exorcise these two ridiculous demons. Happy weekend everyone!
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