Summer in Southern Oregon

We went to Cathedral Hills today. First thing I see when we get there is... Horses. Tons and tons of horses! So many horses, there were at least seven. It was like a horse party was going on at the trailhead. It looked like they were going to pack up soon, so I sat around and waited as Conker tried to see what all the hubub was about.
The moment I decide they aren't going anywhere and get out of the Jeep is the one when the riders all start walking towards Conker and I. Their dogs got to us first. Conker was very nervous with the dogs, a Pointer and a Carin Terrier, and snapped loudly at them a couple times. The riders did nothing to get their dogs away so I did not tell him to stop, but I did shoo the other dogs away since Conker obviously did not want them around him and were pissing him off.
I was able to get Conker distracted enough that he did not focus on the horses walking closer and we hit the trails. Two horses did not go to the trailers. One followed us, and the other trotted along the trail parallel to the one we were on. The following horse soon disappeared, then reappeared at the crossroads to the exact trail I wanted to take. The trotting horse was already on it, so that cut about a mile and a half out of our trip.

I did not get any pictures during this since I was on high-alert for the horses and was too busy scanning the surrounding terrain for them.

Anyways...

Conker was insisting we take Hogback instead of Cloverlawn. I said no. We took Cloverlawn.

Thankfully we did not run into any more horses after the first few at the trailhead and crossroads.

Obligatory.

Even though today was only a mild 82 degrees, we took several water breaks on Conker's request. We are still learning how to read one another during hikes, and I have just now figured out what Conker's "I need water" behaviors are.

There was a lot of rolling on things. That often resulted on Conker getting covered with burrs that itched when he moved so I'd have to pull them all out after every rolling session.

My favorite trail, Skycrest. Look at how dry the grass is and how well Conker blends into the terrain. Time to get that orange bandana out again!

Conker investigates scents on a pine tree. His tail was down in this picture because I refused to remove the burrs from his ass since I'd just pulled about a million of them out of his fur seconds before he ran and rolled in dried grass again.

Conker begins a rolling session. Probably to scratch the itchy spots caused by the burrs he kept picking up by rolling.

We took a short break somewhere along Skycrest. We don't normally take actual "breaks" where we sit/lay down without packs on (Conker did not have a pack on this hike) but today we did.

Conker on one of the trailside benches with GP in the background. This one is on Hogback, which Conker still insisted we take, so we did. He really likes Hogback and will attempt to convince me to take it every time we pass a crossroads for it.

It's supposed to be nice for a long time. I hope to get out and hike at least twice a week, preferably three times. We'll see what happens.

RMB Day

I haven't done one of these in a while, and since I had some pork shoulder and butt bones just sitting around in the freezer taking up space, I decided to do something about them.

The dogs all got: Pork bone of some sort, an egg, some turkey liver. (Conker did not eat his liver.) The biggest bone was for Juneau, the mid-sized one for Sasha, and the smallest for Conker.

Juneau got right to work on her bone. Juneau is the best behaved dog while waiting for their food, so she always gets to eat first.

Sasha likes to carry her bones into the bushes. I did not get very many pictures of her.

Conker just eats right on the pavement.

Juneau is very delicate when she eats, she takes her time and deconstructs her food bit by bit.

Conker, much to my amazement, actually wanted his food! He was not vocal about it, but was excited while I was preparing and carrying the bowls out to the back. He ate most of his bone and all his egg. He never finishes bones like these, so Sasha usually gets the rest.

It took Juneau twice as long as Sasha to eat her bone.

All the dogs were in need of a good tooth cleaning, and while the bones did not get all the gunk off their teeth, it really did a good job on Conker's. His teeth were starting to look pretty nasty (for a dog who normally has no tartar whatsoever, even a tiny bit looks bad) but the bone brushed them up good. Juneau's teeth are still relatively nice looking since her extraction/cleaning earlier this year, but Sasha's were in need of a good scrub. They still are, so I will probably either just give her another bone soon, or plan another RMB Day for next week.

Canine Visitor

Yesterday late afternoon/evening, Juneau decided to visit Conker and I out in the trailer. (Forgot to mention: I live in the trailer.)  Now, Conker's always been a tad defensive of things that are mine. Like my former room, and former bed. Conker would throw a hissy fit if one of the other dogs went in, let alone tried to get on the bed. But the trailer? Oh man, he must consider it to be his private domain. The shitfits he throws dwarf the previous ones by a lot.

Anyways, back to the story.
Juneau prefers to avoid conflict whenever possible (unless with a strange dog) but she wanted to come in. Conker was standing guard at the door, hackles raised, teeth bared, and a series of low snarls eminating from his throat, as poor Juneau stood outside trying to find a way to get past the idiot in her way. Well, Conker can be easily distracted, and something outside the trailer caught his attention so he abandoned guarding "his" trailer to investigate. In that instant, Juneau leapt up into the trailer and settled herself down on the couch beside me.

After Juneau had gotten settled on the couch with her head resting on my leg, Conker struts back in. He freezes when he sees Juneau clearly in violation of his laws. He starts to growl, but a quick "Shut the fuck up Conker." From me makes him stop. (I don't put up with most of his bullshit and only allow a small amount of guarding.) He angrily huffs about in the space beside the couch and table, then jumps up on the other side and angrily glares at Juneau as we both ignore him.

Juneau spent about 15 minutes in the trailer, quietly lying beside me, loving the attention she got from me for being such a good dog. Conker decided to put his war plans on hold for the visit and stared out the window behind the couch and growled at anything that walked past the driveway.
Then, Sasha began to bark at something in the back yard. That signaled the end of Juneau's visit as she leapt off the couch, paused at the door as Conker surged over and snarled, then blasted out of the trailer, into the garage, then to the backyard to join her sister in a barkfest.

The "Access Road" at Dollar Hill is NOT an access road

I was told, some time ago by another hiker, that the "access road" on the backside of Dollar Hill could be used as an alternate route to get down if you didn't want to slide off the incredibly steep inclines on the way back to the trailhead. Yesterday I finally decided to see where this "road" came out, since the other hiker told me you'd have to walk on the road a bit to get back to the trailhead.
So once we'd rested at the lookout rock then made out way to the cell tower on the top, Conker and I set off to explore the backside of Dollar Hill.

The Cellular Phone tower atop Dollar Hill

Bad idea.

This "road" looked like your typical jagged gravel road for the first 1 1/2 mile. It was wide, cut right through the side of the mountain, had very little if any tree cover, but wasn't too overly steep. Then, it gradually shrank, the trees got closer, bushes began to hang over the gravel, and it looked more and more like a private residential road. I hadn't seen any signs indicating private property, or city property for that matter, anywhere along the road. Until I came to the 2 mile mark.
Yep, private property, no trespassing.
WELL. Apparently this "accsess road" is NOT what the other hiker said it was.

See, I have this thing about trespassing. I don't do it. Period. And up until that point, there were no signs to indicate otherwise, but I'd had a feeling that the road I was on was no longer city property. Yay. So happy about that.

So Conker and I turned around and trudged back up to the top of Dollar Hill. I was fuming. I did NOT want to go back up that damn hill, and I wanted to strangle that other hiker who lied about this road not going onto private property. (Which I asked about.) We added an unnecessary and unwanted additional 4 miles to our hike in the middle of the day BEFORE the damn storms hit, so it was still bloody hot outside despite the forecast of clouds and a temperature of about 77 degrees.

Anyways, I generally don't listen to the "advice" of other people, but now I know to just not do it at all.

Conker and I stopped at the lookout rock and watched the storms blow in from the Siskiyou mountains.  I wanted them to start raining while we were still on Dollar Hill, but that didn't happen. We just got blasted by a lot of wind, so we slid down the hill and walked back home.

Speaking of sliding...
The trail at Dollar Hill has really degraded a lot in the recent weeks. It's rather sad, since it's not almost impossible to go up it without slipping, and going down? Yeah, staying upright is damn near impossible. I had to hunker down and slide most of the way down the steepest slope. Conker didn't have much problem, but I don't want him going too fast down that hill due to his knees, and he always seems to think the correct plan of action is to rocket down as fast as possible.

I said I'd probably make the 6 mile walk/hike more of a regular thing, but if the trail continues to get worse, that's just not gonna happen. To top all this retardation off, the extra exercise did not help increase Conker's appetite at all. I was hoping it would. That has not worked yet.

Yesterday was just a generally stupid day.

Cathedral Hills on Monday

Yesterday we went to Cathedral Hills. It was pretty fun, and we only saw one other person and their elderly dog. Conker was good with the other dog, so that was nice. Usually he has a spazz-out moment when meeting other dogs on the trails.

Blurry picture of Conker in mid-shake.

We took a smaller connecting trail that he don't usually take due to the presence of a horse trailer at the trailhead. Whenever I see horse trails, I stay off the larger outer loops to avoid the horses.

 This trail was called Bridges since it's got about three of these little things on it.

Most of the Bridges trail is forested, but a couple spots have less trees and are more exposed/dry.

A crossroads on Hogback with the Outbound Loop.

Obligatory.

We did about 3.75 miles on yesterday's hike, as well as a 1 mile petshop trip and a 2.65 mile evening walk. It was a good amount of exercise, but not enough to make us take a break for a day!
More on that mishap tomorrow.

Sunday Dollar Hike

I don't usually hike on the weekend. It's always too crowded, there are never parking spots, and the people seem to be of the "stupid" type. Like tourists.
Yesterday I took my chances with Dollar hill.
It was warm, around 85 or so, which is "hot" for the vast majority of GP residents. Perfect weather for a hike in my opinion, so I harnessed up Conker, grabbed my Camelbak and filled it with water, tossed in a few things I always take on hikes, an headed off for Dollar Hill.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we walked to Dollar Hill rather than drove. I was too lazy to move Mom's and my Grandparent's cars out of my Jeeps' way so we left the Jeep at home and walked the two miles to the trailhead.

Conker waits for me as I rest in the shade in the "parking lot" across from the trailhead. He explored the area a bit then impatiently began to whine at me and glance at the trailhead.

Since I did not have a good enough camera in the spring for flower pictures, here is a residual flower I found along the trail. It's bright purple hue really stuck out amongst the dry browns that covered the ground.

Conker, at first, seemed happy to be on a trail. He haven't hiked in a while. He did a lot of running on the first flat section of the trail. (I did not get any pictures of that.)

The first of several very steep climbs was a breeze for Conker. He usually powers up this one then lags behind on all the others.

Barely visible in this picture is the small cowbell I bought for Conker. He wears it so I can tell where he is without having to look all over for him. It also serves as an early warning if he takes off after an animal that I did not see first, and provides me with his rough location so I can find him.

Another residual flower. This one wasn't as bright as the first, and the camera failed to capture it's correct hue, but it was very beautiful.

Around the second steep incline is where Conker begins to get annoyed. He does not like Dollar Hill anywhere near as much as Cathedral Hills. But he puts up with it.

The summer view of GP is pretty cool, but I get annoyed with all the buildings after about two seconds and wish that none of them existed.

It helps when your dog is a goofball and starts to slide off the rock after he lays down.

Overall it wasn't a bad walk/hike. I think we'll do it again soon, and leave the Jeep at home again. Walking turns Dollar Hill, which is otherwise a 2 mile hike, into a 6 mile walk/hike. That's a much better workout and doesn't use any gas (money) in the process.

First Aid Kit

Whenever I go hiking with the dogs for longer than 3 miles, I take a first aid kit with me. Usually Sasha is the one to carry it since it does not weight very much and she doesn't need a lot of stuff in her pack to give her a workout like Juneau and Conker do.

This is all the junk that I have in my first aid kit.
Several feet of some sort of sports wrap, Vet wrap (green), mole skin, a very large needle, maxi pad (very absorbent. I otherwise don't use these), several different sizes of gauze pads, tooth floss, various bandaids, miscellaneous alcohol/iodine/anti-septic/whatever cloths, benadryl, anti-itch/anti-septic cream, sunscreen, chapstick, medical tape, blunt scissors, rain poncho (for making a shelter?), roll gauze, hand warmers, plastic gloves, and a pair of uber-needle nose pliers I use to pull out embedded ticks.

It all goes into this plastic thing that used to have thin curtains in it. I'd rather be prepared and have more than I need than to not have something when I'm 5+ miles from the trailhead and bleeding. Also, you've got no idea how many injured people I run into on hikes. They are everywhere, and they usually don't have ANYTHING with them that can be used for any sort of first aid.
Usually, a hiking/backpacking first aid kit fits into a pocket zipper thing barely bigger than the little black bag in the first picture. I use that to hold all the moist wipes and creams, which I carry about 5x more of than comes in those little kits. Same goes with all the other items.
I also have Sasha carry 100 feet of paracord rope, and have almost an entire roll of duct tape wrapped around a water bottle that I carry, neither of which is pictured.

If you think that's a lot of first aid stuff, you should see what I take on overnight backpack trips.

Camarillo, California

Just a reminder; Conker is not a Vizsla.

Guess what?

I'm really excited about this.

I have a digital camera.  A WORKING digital camera. It's at least 6 years old. It's an Olympus FE-190. It's been "broken" for at least 4 years. I fixed it with a screwdriver. There was sand in the lens mechanism.
It takes better pictures than the Fuji. (Which is still MIA)  I don't have the photoshop the shit out of the pictures to make them barely presentable like I did with the Fuji and my cellular phone pictures.
Unfortunately, the 1gb card I have for it doesn't work. I am stuck with a 256mb card. I can only take 59 "super high quality" pictures. More if I bump the quality down. (Like I'm going to do that.)

Not "super high quality" Just "high quality"

I have a digital camera. A working digital camera. I don't have to use my cellular phone anymore.
I am happy.  For now.

The Kibble Trials Contestant #5 Before Grain Pork

Note: I accidentally deleted this post, so I am re-doing it. It will be short.

Before Grain is made by Merrick, and was their gran-firee food line. There are several formulas, each with it's own number that associates it with a certain protein in the food. For example: Pork is actually 0.
It has now been discontinued and is being replaced with a food under a regular Merrick label. The ingredients are very similar with few changes, but the packaging is way different.


The Rundown.

Of the formulas offered in my local Petco, the Pork was the only one with no chicken. They did not carry salmon or regular chicken, but did carry buffalo, and I did get a bag of that. But I went with pork first since I am still on the fence about chicken with Conker.

Ingredients:
Pork, Pork Meal, Potato Dehydrated, Dried Pork Protein, Beef Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Salmon Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Pork Liver, Sweet Potato Dehydrated, Natural Pork Flavor, Apple, Yeast Culture, Blueberry Dried, Salt, Choline Chloride, Organic Alfalfa , Salmon Oil, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Taurine, Yucca Schidegera Extract, Chicory Root, Marigold Extract, Rosemary Extract, Dried Lactobacillus Plantarum fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus Faecium fermentation product, Dried Lactobacillus Casei fermentation product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus fermentation product, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Vitamin E Supplement, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Copper Amino Acid Complex, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin D3, Niacin, Lecithin, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Cobalt Amino Acid Complex, Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Sodium Selenite.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein……32.0% Min
Crude Fat………15.0% Min
Crude Fiber………3.0% Max
Moisture…………11.0% Max

More will be added later...