dog miles

Weeks ago, I scheduled today as my floating birthday vacation day. I had my family holiday in January, President's Day in February, and my Mexican vacation is coming up in April so I knew I was going to need a day in March. I just happened to luck out and pick a day with beautiful weather so Ava and I hit the Gorge.

After I found the hike by a net search, I thought it sounded ideal for us. It was about 50 minutes away from our house, right off I-84, starting at Wyeth Campground. When we got there, Ava was on leash for maybe 10 feet until we got behind the road barrier and I knew it would be car free. After that, she was free and ran like mad. She's really good about checking in with me though. We walked up the path along Gorton Creek to see the falls before heading to Trail #400.

We saw one group of hikers (two guys, three children, and one German Shepherd) right away but the didn't see another person for four miles until the end where we turned around and ran into two girls and a guy. After that, we just saw one mountain biker heading up the trail. It was so peaceful and so great for Ava to be able to run so much. Eight human miles is probably equivalent to 20 off-leash dog miles. She would run back and forth and into the brush and down the wrong path. She was really in her element. And so was I. I want to do this a lot more often.

What else?

Yesterday I played Civilization with Tim and Sophia. I almost won but it's okay. It was a bad weather day that took out the power right after we started playing so it was ideal conditions for a board game. My new thing yesterday was making a cucumber/avocado dish that was simple and delicious.