dogs and dan on hadley

Dan and I had a rare day off together. just us and the canine kids today! First of all, Dan has been on a healthy eating plan since January. A resolution thing that he consistently followed on his own for a few months until he joined a nutrition center 5 weeks ago. No plan works without being more active, so we have been walking at night after work. During Wednesday's walk, he asked if I thought he was ready for a mountain. I told him we should find out on Friday by doing Hadley Mountain. OMG, I know, Hadley AGAIN? But this mountain is so close to home and it's a cheap ride to a great hike, when I don't have enough time to spend 2-3 hours on the road getting to a trailhead. So what if my obituary reads "in addition to becoming a 46er, she climbed Hadley 150 times". I am beginning to feel that it is a different hike everytime I do it. And besides, Dan was with me and that is different! This was also Shadow's return to hiking following surgery and it was Hudson's debut climb. In the 13 days since I last made this climb, the yellow trout flowers and pinstripe star flowers have bloomed. AND, there are going to be at least half million trilliums blossomed very soon! Triliums excite me, they are a definite favorite and a real treat to look at in the middle of the forest. I may have to get up there again in about a month just to see them. My cousin, Janie, will go with me when she gets here.

We got to the trailhead at 8:45 not knowing what to expect with Hudson. Would we have to carry him a lot? Would he stay with us? Would we have to put him on the leash? Well, this little guy carried his 2 pound self all the way up the mountain. The few times that we tried to carry him to give him a breather, he was just itching to get back down on his own 4 feet. He stayed with us and followed commands like he had already been through puppy class. Shadow didn't have any trouble. He laid in the mud on the way down to cool off and got really tired near the end but other than some slow moving this evening, overall he did wonderfully for 9 years old. We got to the summit at 10:45 and spent at least a half hour on top. It was so sunny and warm and we had the near windless top of the mountain to ourselves. After a nice lunch break (hudson likes apples and bread crust) we started back down. We met some people on their way up and of course they all could not believe how little hudson is and that he was hiking. One lady told us that her son has a shih tzu who hikes 12 miles at a rip. We just might have to get a front puppy carrier for longer trips than today's 4 roundtrip miles. Although, I don't think he would stand for it. I remarked during the hike that hudson certainly is not one of those yorkies who will prefer perfectly coiffed hair and sitting on a satin pillow all day. He wants to be out there running with the big dogs!

Oh yeah and Dan- he had a great time. He stayed with me, I didn't have to leash him and he actually appeared to need less breaks than me. Even though he is not my official 46er hiking partner, he has not ruled out doing a couple more high peaks with me. We have climbed Buck, Black, Crane, Cascade, Porter and now Hadley together. I bet it won't be his first and only trip. We were back at the car by 12:20pm. A perfectly spent vacation day.