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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

A Weekend in the Woods

We spent the past weekend in the Mt Hood National Forest doing some serious car camping.  The forecast was all gloom & doom with temps barely surpassing 60 and rain, rain and more rain.  Y'know, the usual Pacific Northwest forecast.  Oh, and it was our very first camping trip with all 3 dogs.

The stream next to our spot.  It was pretty fast especially to the right of this picture but Sadie heeded my first few requests for her not to go too far and then was great not venturing far the rest of the weekend.  (Pardon the smugdy spot in the middle of this and every subsequent photo.  Girl needs to clean her lens!)
Despite the forecast and some serious misbehavior on the part of the dogs, we had a great time.  We drove out on the South side of Mt Hood to the small Forest Roads in the National Forest.  There are tons of roadside campsites that are perfect for car camping with a wild pack o' dogs my three wonderfully behaved pooches.

Looking angelic huddling underneath the EZ Up and out of the rain.  Don't be fooled.
The drive out to our regular spot is one of the most beautiful drives in Oregon and that's saying a heck of a lot.  Of course, I didn't have the foresight to take one darn picture of the drive so you'll just have to trust me on that one.  And if you're ever in our neck of the woods, we highly recommend taking Highway 224 past Estacada.  You won't be disappointed.

I hope this adorable picture of Sadie will make up for no pictures of the drive.
One of the things that I love most about where we generally go camping is the freedom our dogs have.  They don't have to be tethered as we would have to do at a campground.  There's almost always a stream next to our spot and it's easy to find a spot that is sufficiently far away from the road so that I'm not too* worried about them and the road. 

Looks cute and sedate, right?  Looks can be deceiving.
The freedom they had, that is.  Hurley, who heretofore has rarely influenced his sisters to be truly bad, was the king of bad influence.  You see, 60 degrees, rain and the Great Outdoors is apparently Hurley's kind o' camping trip.  To say he was invigorated would be an understatement; his rambunctiousness reached a really special level this weekend.  We evidently camped a bit too early in the season; a bit too early, that is, if you don't want to camp surrounded by a fish graveyard.  Yup, we were apparently in a prime spawning area and though the fish had returned down river, the bones left by birds of prey and possibly bear were still in abundance.  And Hurley was in heaven.  Keep away with a fish skeleton is just about the most awesome type of keep away, he would like me to let everyone know.  So we spent most of the weekend figuring out new ways to steal fish backbones from the Hurley man.  To be honest, I had fun out-tricking him.  :) 

Fish Skeleton.  My nemesis.
The fish issue wasn't the only source of Hurley's fun.  Our last morning, he had an epic case of the zoomies and decided to lead his sisters on a merry chase.  One in which they didn't respond to our calls.  After a half hour of near panic, we found them a half mile away.  Yup, new camping rule.  Tethers.  We've never had a problem with Sadie & Maggie.  If they're out of my direct line of sight, they respond to calls within 30 seconds.  Always.  And I'm religious about them checking in with me every 5 minutes.  Now with Hurley, we'll need to keep 2 of the 3 tethered at all times, if not all 3.  I'm kinda bummed that Sadie & Maggie won't have the freedom they normally do but nothing's worth the feeling of thinking, for any amount of time, that they might be lost.   

No one's enthused about the new rule.
Not even Sadie, who is happy 99% of the time.




Actually, I think Maggie was relieved with the tethering.  She was most harrassed by the Hurley Monster this weekend.
Oh wait.  Never mind.  They found a new way to torment Maggie.  Tug on her tether rope.  Endless trouble, I tell you!
Other than that, our camping trip was a relaxing few days in one of our favorite spots.  And we camped for the first time in our super duper ginormous new tent, which I love!  Despite having all the room we could want, I was happily snuggled by 2 dogs on one side, the other as my pillow and the Hubster by my side.  What more could a girl want?

A gratuitous 'Sadie's my pretty girl' photo
Getting her revenge.  That's what more a girl could want.

I promise never to be bad again.  I promise.  Can I please get out of this tub now?



13 comments:

  1. Those pictures are adorable! It looks like you guys had a great time, even if poor Maggie was tormented. I love Hurley's face in that last "revenge" pic. Classic!

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    1. Thanks! I love nothing more than torturing Hurley with a bath.

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  2. This post made me realize how much I miss the smell of wet dog fur.

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    1. They do look adorable all wet, don't they? I gotta tell you though - the smell of wet dog plus the smell of dogs who've spent a couple days chomping on fish bones made the drive home....interesting.

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  3. Oh the joys of camping. I don't think I will EVER camp with Delilah. She would hear every little noise and bark her fool head off, roll around in the fish guts and be gone for hours. That is NOT my idea of relaxing! LOL

    I love the pictures and the last one of Hurley makes his head look HUGE compared to his body. :-)

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    1. I don't think I really relaxed until Maggie & Hurley were tethered. :)

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  4. At least you can get Hurley in the tub! Max has figured out that we can't move him when he goes dead weight on us, self-service dog wash here we come!

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    1. Hurley is highly motivated by the promise of treats so I use that to my advantage. He's actually getting better about baths - I never thought I'd be able to get him all suds'd up and take a picture but he stayed like a champ!

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  5. Isn't it just so "cute" when they all decide to misbehave together? Our scary off leash moment with our Braylon where it took maybe 10 minutes to get her scarred me for life. It looks like they had fun!

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  6. Camping in that area is so awesome, and I love that weather for camping. Have you checked out Bagby Hot Springs? I remember sitting in the springs once and feeding Lamar baby carrots, one after the other.

    Anyway, what camping trip would be complete without some dog mischief? Sounds like an amazing time regardless.

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  7. Sounds like *fun* was had by all! Except the fish bones....

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  8. Hi Y'all,

    Sounds like a wonderful time!

    I passed the Sunshine Award on to you. Please stop by my blog tomorrow and pick it up!

    Y'all come by now!
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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  9. I love how serious Hurley looks in all of his pictures, when I know that in his mind he is concocting some crazy scheme!

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