Porkies spring camp trip!

 Can you believe it? It's been 5 long years since we last rented a yurt in the spring in the Porkies. With that in mind, we'll consider this our Gromit Memorial Yurt Spring Camp Trip!

Our short little adventure was from Sunday March 27th to Tuesday March 29th.

Dolly! This is Union Bay.

Finally! Me and Sandy carried packs while
Arly pulled the pulk. Little Dolly didn't have
to carry anything. Gyp!

Let's go look at the Union River.  The river is up!

Dolly stayed safely away. Puppies have a natural
fear of the water...we'll make a swimmer out of her this spring.

Snow depth near the trail head wasn't so good, but
up here near the yurt it was quite nice. Recent new snow was
deeper at higher elevation, as usual.

Made it! The 2-leggeds hiked since the surface was
hard and crusty everywhere from recent thaw and freeze.

The yurt is always a nice home-away-from-home.
And new to both of these trail mutts!

Ya Dolly, we have to collect some water.

Can we help?  Little Union River's starting to come up.

Arly! Can't I come snuggle with you up there?

Supper time! All this excitement really whets your appetite.

And full bellies cause heavy eyelids.

Monday morning. Another beautiful day for adventure.

After breakfast, we decided to back-country ski, following
the Little Union upstream. Nice terrain, and we
did discover some old logging roads. This
photo is remains of the logging road's river crossing. Our
"Porcupine Mountains Companion" book says the last
logging was salvaged after blowdown in the 1950's.

After lunch and a little break at the yurt, we headed
back out again. Here we met a friendly family from WI
out skiing on the groomed trail.

On Tuesday, it was already to pack up and head home.

We got some tussling in while they cleaned up the yurt.

Bye bye, Little Union Yurt! Hope to be back next spring.

Hiking out, since the crust was still good and firm for 
walking, we bush-whacked over towards the Union 8 bunk
cabin, then took the hiker trail to the Union Mine Interpretive
Trail. From here we took the 2-track
cut across back to the ski trail.

Hey! We got to meet some of the friendly park guys.
Including Paul, who we've seen on many our
our camp trips here. See ya next time!

Tribute to Gromit the Trail Mutt

In memory of Gromit the Trail Mutt

3/13/2007 - 1/5/2022 

In 2005, our beloved old retired working border collie OJ had passed away, leaving us dogless for the first time in years. Then in May of 2007, Sandy spotted an ad in the Mining Gazette for "Free Puppies, border collie mix." Arly reluctantly caved in to go and look at the one remaining puppy of the litter. As they say, the rest is history! Little 7 week old Gromit came home and promptly joined us on a wide array of adventures.

The 1st time getting into our house.  It was scary!
She'd never been in a house before....or a car.
So many new things to learn and experience!

This is my own toy?

Who's slipper is this one? Oh, it smells like Sandy,
I think I'll nibble on it.

She loved to be coddled.

She learned to retrieve at a young age
and became very proficient. She relished
 this game for the rest of her life,
enjoying it even as an old dog.

Ya I love to try and catch a frisbee!

This ball was a gift from a friend when
she was about 2. It never was broken or lost.
Whenever it was brought out, we'd remember 
Erin, who was one of Sandy's student P.T.'s
who got to know and love Gromit.

At a young age, our "part lab" puppy needed to be
convinced that she really was a water dog.
This was a typical hot summer day at Lake Norden, SD.
Think we could get into a lake for her first time?  No way!

Oh, but the kids were in the water! Who
can resist kids?

Sandy helped her along, to show her
she wasn't going to drown.

It didn't take long, and she figured out she could
swim like a fish.  Many times she'd hop in a lake
or pond and swim, just for fun.

Her world revolved around kids, playing with anyone really, romping in snow and swimming.  She was indeed a water dog.

She got along with most all dogs she met.

Not to mention people!

One of our trips to ride the Maah Daah Hey Trail in
western North Dakota. She was disappointed not to
run alongside the bikes but at least got to hang
out with this young gal!

 

Sking at Boundry Road trails

 We've been getting out for romps on a daily basis. It's getting to look like spring but up until St Patrick's week it's been staying cold. Back country skiing has been excellent! 

These photos are from Sunday March 6th.

Yet another excellent adventure in the works.

No new grooming with the machine
down but it was good going!

Ya let's head towards the east end.

The rain last week froze into a nice
crust and then new snow fell so
the top was a nice loose grainy texture.

The blind is still standing.

We had such a nice romp here today!

 

Fun in the Winter Wonderland!

 Wally says, my lame pack has not been keeping up the dog blog worth a hoot ever since they started posting grooming reports for Boundary Road Trails on face book and instagram. Finally, here's a proper Trail Mutt Report from our Sunday romp!

When the booties go on, the pack goes out! 
Although I'm not a fan of them. I whine and complain
when she puts them on.
But I forget about them once I'm outside.

We headed to Boundary Road to ski the
whole loop and we seen friendly people.

Me and Pip tussled and made some noise!

These were the only folks we saw today. Too chilly I guess!

Single track conditions were excellent, again.

Arly made me go down in the deep snow for a pic.
I only protested a little.

Kelpies with small paws prefer a packed trail!

Now what does he want?

Dang it! He's making me go off trail again.

Ya I'm getting there.

He had me jump up here.
I was kind of proud of myself in the end!

We had such a nice ski here today. I hope we come back soon!

Sad news today.

 Folks,  At 9:45 this morning our old girl Gromit was laid to rest.  In the spring she would have been 15.   Her arthritis and strength had gotten too bad, where she couldn't get up and walk. We had end her pain so she could frolic with kids and run in tall grass again.  Of course she was a snow dog at heart.  We'll write more later and sorry to have to post this sad news.

Always was a social dog.

Especially with kids coddling her.

Up in Dog Heaven, she's grinning ear to ear
as she runs fast and without pain.