I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, I love having a hiking dog. I will love her when she gets too old to take long walks but I'm going to enjoy this time when she runs trails and expresses pure pleasure at her freedom in the woods. We took Ava to Umbrella Falls and Sahale Falls, both of which were gorgeous! They're on the other side of Mt Hood, up high enough for there still to be snow. We know next to nothing about Ava's life before she came to us, other than she was kennel trained so we don't know for sure that this was her first time in snow but, as Ava and not whatever she was named before, we know this was her first time and she loved it. The picture above has got to be one of my favorite pictures ever.
I will definitely be back on this hike. I love the Gorge but it's a different and pleasant feel on Mt Hood. It's more arid, more open, and more chill. Plus there's less people which makes for a better time for Ava, being able to be off leash the whole time. We ran into only five other people (and saw two on a bridge) and there was a dog for every one of them. One couple had two little deformed dogs that had white curly hair and looked like lambs so it's not a surprise that their owner was nervous when a wolf-looking dog charges at them full speed. However, Ava just wanted to say hi.
It'd be a crime of the heart to leave her on leash during a walk like this after seeing how much she gets out of the independence and how well she listens to us. It was probably a 4 mile hike but Andrew hiked ahead of me (since I'm slower and wanted to stop and take pictures all of the time) and Ava spent a lot of time running back and forth between us. She had to have walked around 15 miles and ran around 5 miles. She was delightfully tired when we got home. And so were we. We went to the movie Some Like It Hot which I haven't seen in around 25 years. It was a wonderful way to end a wonderful day.
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