Short Fun Hike

Today's hike was long, but short at the same time. Timewise it was long, distance it was short. Why? Because we ran into this guy:

My favorite local big dog... LOGAN!

But first...
We started going the same route that we took the other day. I again wanted to do Wild Rose, but AGAIN, I was blocked by someone else. Wasn't a horse though, it was a man and a growly Golden retriever. It was strange, since it had a show build, but field coat color. Looked mighty odd to me.

Conker spots the growly Golden (not visible)

Anyways, I don't like hiking right behind or around strangers, and since Conker and I hike at a pretty good clip (4mph average) I didn't want to butt up behind this guy and his growly Golden who clearly did not like Conker despite the distance between the two. So we skipped Wild Rose and went up towards Hogback. I'm glad we did.

We were about halfway up the first section of Hogback when I spot another guy and his dog up ahead. Unlike the owner of the Golden, this guy leashed up his dog. As we drew closer, the dog looked familiar, really familiar. So I asked: "Is that Logan?" And Logan's owner said "Hey, it's Conker!"

Logan is one of Conker's dogpark buddies. A while ago, Logan's owner and I talked for a long time (hours) in the parking lot of the dog park. I really like talking with him since we can both talk about stuff that interests the other and it's never boring like it is when I talk to most other people. That was the last time I'd seen them until today.
The reason why I hadn't seen Logan or his owner was because Logan stopped being "friendly" with other dogs, much like Conker has in recent months. When a dog is not having fun at the dogpark, or is always getting into fights, it's better to just not go anymore. I only take Conker in when it's a select few dogs or if nobody else is in there. He does want to go, but will always start shit, so I just don't risk it.

Much to our surprise, Conker and Logan got along just fine, as if they were old buddies and had been hanging around each other for a long time. They hung out in the shade, sniffed and looked at things, and were general dogs together. No snarkly fighting went on between the two, which is why neither of us took our dogs to the dogpark anymore. It was neat seeing them get along since we had both had problems with our dogs not liking others.

There was a lot of loafing while Logan's owner and I were talking. One other hiker passed us, and since neither of us had the time, I do not know how long we talked for. An hour maybe, close to it, since we hiked barely 3.5 miles but spent over two hours at Cathedral Hills.

Once we parted ways (I had family friends coming into town, Logan's owner had to get to work) I decided not to finish the original planned hike of 7 miles and cut it short, and we ran almost the entire way back to the trailhead (it was downhill, I don't run uphill) so we saw Logan and his owner again in the parking lot.
We are now going to try to go to Cathedral Hills around the same time so we can do some more catching up and hike together.

Yes, we did stop to take an Obligatory pick-nick table picture. There is always time for one of these.