like to hike

American Lake on the last day American debt is AAA-rated

One of the many perks of having a furry child is that you have a hiking partner who is stoked and ready to go every minute of the day. Lucy is the rare breed who enjoys her sleep and sleeping in, but even so I could wake her up at 4am say the word "hike" (it's maybe once a year I actually wake up that early for a hike...) and she'd jump out of bed and be seated at the door ready to roll.

Yesterday my little hiking fiend and I went up to American Lake. The trailhead is about a 15min drive from my place in Aspen towards the ghost town of Ashcroft (where I biked to in my previous post). It starts at about 9,500ft and goes up to around 11,500ft. Aside from the awesome scenery at the top/the lake the route up makes you feel like you're on 3 separate hikes all at the same time.

You start in a huge grove of mature Aspen trees and switch-back and forth through them up a moderately steep face for about 2/5ths of the hike. Then, you hit this very short yet steep little section covered with exposed roots and BAM, you're now in an evergreen forest with a completely separate ground cover... it's pretty weird. You go through that type of terrain for another 2/5ths of the trail and the last 1/5th is a combination of a scree field (lots of loose, reasonably-sized rocks) and a few huge meadows brimming with wild flowers that inspired the puppy to frolic like a member of a certain singing Austrian family with a bunch of kids.

Lucy and I loved the hike and were pretty psyched that we were able to keep a very good pace over the entire 6 mile trail (3mi to the lake, 6mi roundtrip). One day I'd like to be able to run it... that one day may have to wait until next summer when I'm (hopefully) fitter though.

You know you want to frolic through this!

lucy!

tired Lucy

She's finally here! Lucy is a 3.5 month Labrador/Boston Terrier mix. She just moved here after living with my sister and her brother, Cooper, in Little Rock, AR. It's tough to tell how big she is from this photo but she's little! After only one full day here she's already been to her first happy hour (did great, she's definitely a people-dog), slept a full night (though she did wake up a bit early), met and played with a few doggie friends (great around other dogs too), went to lunch at a restaurant (on the porch and sat very patiently) and today I took her for her first mini-hike.

I just found out (thank you!) that puppies shouldn't really be doing strenuous exercises like running or big hikes. So we basically just did our walk but on Vail. She's very curious about everything, was frolicking through the tall grass and the flowers, looked at a little stream (she's not quite adventurous enough... yet... to get in the water), and was just generally happy yet very obedient for her age.

It's only been a day but I'm really glad to have a dog again. Can't wait until she can come for runs and more demanding hikes with me!