Finally, the pack is cruising the trails again!

The pack had a bike shortage for about a week, which limited our excursions to hiking around, which of course meant hunting for the ball for me. On Wednesday, the long-anticipated new full-suspension tandem arrived, and was promptly named "The Silver Bullet". So now we're back to trail running (riding for Arly and Sandy).

First ride on the Silver Bullet! Churning Rapids.

Finney Creek, my favorite!

Spring Creek, my other favorite!

Where's the water?

On Saturday, the pack all hopped into the Bread Box and drove up to Swedetown Trails. Other than the heat, it was great!

Oh, for a longer tongue.

 


We are all so glad to be trail running (riding) again! We love to go fast, except the pack is kinda slow going up the hills...but I don't mind. I have a chance to hunt for squirrels then.

Hot time on the Cooper Harbor trails

Ya it got HOT here so we looked at the forecast in Copper Harbor and it was 15 degrees cooler.... so the pack loaded the camper and headed NE to ride the awesome trails and lounge at Ft. Wilkins.

We did not take this direct (Downhill) route to town!

We saw many friendly riders here on Woopidy-Woo.

Like these guys. They threw a stick for me!

We went up and down the Edge trail, but not The Flow.

Ya it WAS hot, even in camp. But not as bad as Ho Town.

The best vacation ever!

For the 4th of July the pack hopped into the Bread Box with intentions of doing some camping and biking, then visiting Sandy's family in northern MN. What I was looking most forward to was the kid-immersion weekend!

My pal, Danny.

He didn't mind me sitting on his lap...I love that!

The whole fam.

Oh what is he doing now??

They made sure I always had fresh water close by.

These kids were the best!
Danny, Jason, Erika Brandsma, Sarah

All in all, it was a great weekend. We spent most of it outside in the yard since it was so pleasant, although I wouldn't have complained about a nice swim. If only I could get the 2-leggeds to the lake! Anyway, we don't often get Sandy's whole family together, so we were all pleased with the visiting (and playing!) of the weekend.

As for biking, we did get out for a short (HOT!) jaunt on the new trails in Duluth's Lester Park. Other than lots of mud holes and a complete lack of signs (maybe we're supposed to be orienteering??) it was a nice little ride. Of course I did get to cool off in the river.

Shed construction move along doggies!

Ya I had to nip some butts to get them going,, but things are finally moving along on this shed construction. If it takes any longer there could be snow falling! Of course I do love snow :-).

I brought in the wood.

Summer is shedding time for trail dogs.

Everyone knows that trails dogs love to shed in the summer. Right now, I'm in the spirit of the season because I'm building a storage shed for Keweenaw Nordic Ski Club. It's the least I could do, since they take care of my favorite dog-friendly trails - Maasto Hiihto and Churning Rapids.

Yeah, this looks good.

Supervising is hard work! So I had to nap on the way home.....

Ball throwing: it's not just for kids!

Just the other day I bumped into the most friendly neighbor ever, Joe. He threw the ball for me many times, and I brought it back faithfully.

I'm ready!

The wind up gets me going.

That blur is me. I'm so fast.  You can see the ball in flight at the top center.

And just like that...it's back...

When will YOU come over to throw the ball for me???

Home sweet home

After our ride in Hayward, the pack stopped for lunch then set up camp at our favorite place in WI, Namekagon Camp Ground. I stayed there to guard the camper while the rest of the pack went for one more ride at Rock Lake, outside of Cable. That trail has no water for a trail dog to cool off in, so I wasn't too concerned about staying at camp.

Prior to swat-a-thon

What we hoped would be a relaxing evening at camp proved to be a swat-a-thon. The nasty mosquitoes were even harassing me! The rest of the pack donned long sleeves and pants plus bug nets. They were whining about how hot they were. I swam a few times so I was cool enough.

Peak swat-a-thon. You can see me rubbing my nose in the dirt to remove mosquitoes.

The next morning, we contemplated riding then either camping one more night or coming home after the ride, but in the end we were all so tired of getting bit up that we decided to break camp and head home. We took our lunch break at "O.J.'s Rest Stop", located on M-45 near the Ontanogon River. This was O.J.'s favorite place to stretch his legs on car trips with the pack.

O.J.   1989 - 2005

After lunch, it was just a short drive more and we were HOME! Wow is it nice to be back home.  I simply relaxed in the tall grass (It seems that it's been  warm and wet and here lately) and monitored the yard - a very important job.

Guess it's back to Keweenaw Trail Adventures for a while!