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For once, I had my camera within reach when I came across wildlife in the road. This turkey stared at me for a few seconds, and then took off across the road just as I took this picture.
After getting to the side of the road, much to the delight of the Herd, he hung out and watched us.
Saturday was rainy weather (good – we needed it), but Sunday dawned with clear blue skies. As I said yesterday, we hiked to the top of Waterrock Knob. From the pinnacle, I took this picture. I love watching the low clouds burn off in the valley while the peaks are clear (the opposite of many days). Just reminds me of why I like living here so much. Feel free to click the picture to get a larger version.
If you have multiple dogs, sooner or later, you have to deal with a dog fight. I certainly have over the years and have learned a number of techniques to deal with them – both preventative and in the moment. What I have not had to deal with is a fight in public. Until today.
We started our morning by hiking Waterrock Knob, an early morning effort of a Tired Sibe is a Good Sibe. After the hike, we went to downtown Waynesville at 11 for breakfast / lunch with my sister who was visiting from Charlotte and my parents. Waynesville has a small downtown area of about three city blocks of one and two story buildings, most catering to the tourism business that is so critical in this area. Sunday morning is great because so few people are on the sidewalks. I rarely go down with the dogs when the area is crowded.
We eat at tables on the sidewalk in front of a restaurant that is a Sunday regular for me. We can get parking right in front of the tables on Main Street. People who pass by always comment on how well behaved the dogs are. Since Cheoah is still being integrated into the pack and is not to be trusted unsupervised, she was out of the Jeep and sitting at my feet while we ate.
Lunch is over and I put Cheoah into the jeep, testing to make sure everyone is ok. All smiles. I close up the jeep and am starting to get in, but am in no particular hurry.
I saw it. The warning snarl from Kiska. Cheoah had committed some offense – who knows. I started to move to correct both of them before it escalated but I moved just a hair too slow and the scuffle was on. Worse, Queen Natasha decides she needs to break things up by getting into the middle of it. So I have not two but three fighting girls. The boys, wisely, are standing to the side and watching. I kind of picture them at a Middle School yelling, “Fight, Fight, Fight.”
Now Sibes playing make a noise like a fight to the uninitiated. Sibes fighting make a terrible racket. And I am vaguely aware that I am standing on Main Street and people are paying attention. But no time for that, I need to break this up. At home, I would throw a blanket over them or use a pillow, anything to avoid sticking my hands until the middle of the mess and getting bitten. But we aren’t at home and I don’t have a blanket or pillow. We are standing on the sidewalk.
So I pull open the back door of the Jeep and go in. Technical problem hits me, other than the fact it is very crowded back there at the moment. They are all in the Champion Seat Belts. Buckled in. I am going to have to disconnect one of them and that means getting very up close and personal. My hands go to Cheoah’s connection first. For the uninitiated, a Champion Seat Belt is NOT designed for quick release. It takes some effort. Doing that while being in the middle of the fray is difficult. It seemed to take minutes, but I am sure it was no more then a few seconds. And it was loose and I pulled Cheoah out using her seat belt harness. Good solid construction, so I am now holding 38 pounds of dog in mid air.
And it was over. The whole thing was maybe 30-40 seconds, but as I look around I realize there are people standing on the sidewalk watching. People in storefronts watching. People I know. People I don’t. I would love to just disappear, but I can’t exactly put Cheoah back into the Jeep at the moment, now can I? So I have to stand there until everyone calms down enough to go on.
The damage? Only my pride and slobber covered dogs. No blood. No puncture wounds. Not on me or the dogs. The fight, as loud as it was, was really more a pushing and shoving match. But to anyone watching, it was a melee.
Oh, and when we got to Craggy and went hiking this afternoon, Kiska and Cheoah walked together like it was nothing.
Sigh.
Oh yeah, I am studying built in dog boxes and designing my own for the Jeep.
I have described before Kodi hugs. Kodiak stops whatever he is doing, comes running across the room, slams his head into your chest, wraps his front legs around you, and squeezes. After a few seconds, he releases and runs back off to play. It is very sweet.
Today, he added a twist. I was squatting down on the ground and he came running up and collided into my chest. I fell over backwards back on my butt. Kodi then climbed into my “lap” and curled up, looked up at me, and grinned. I guess he wanted a lap to sit in.
It is the lazy, hot days of July (ok, a high of 75 F (24 C) here, but that’s hot for us) so not much is happening here. But we are doing are trails, trying to stay cool, and getting admired by tourists. Well, the dogs are getting admired by tourists. In that spirit, some close-ups from the trail today. Apologies that Kodiak and Cheoah are not represented – they were not being cooperative with the camera and I had to keep wiping their nose prints off the lens. Nose art is cute on a window, but not a camera lens. First up, a semi-cooperative Rusty:
Next, the other blue eyed boy, Qannik, giving me the “why are you calling my name” look:
Miss Kiska giving us her best profile:
And, of course, Queen Natasha herself:
You may remember the story Rain Storm about getting caught by surprise in rain on a trail. Well, this is different. We did it on purpose.
We got up this morning a little slower than planned and ended up having a late breakfast / early lunch downtown Waynesville at one of our favorite Sunday spots. We decided to do a single longer trail despite the drizzling rain, so we went up toward Black Balsam Road (a great trailhead with multiple trails snaking through the Pisgah National Forest). We stopped just short of the parking area and started down the Art Loeb Trail, stayed with the Mountain to Sea Trail over Silvermine Bald and Chestnut Bald, and then did the spur over to Devil’s Courthouse. Coming back, we opted for the Little Sam Trail and connecting back to the parking area via Flat Laurel Creek Trail – and then down the road to where we parked the jeep. We certainly achieved Tired Sibes (and Tired Bi-Peds) since that was probably 8-9 miles in the rain. Spectacular views from the cliffs along the Mountain to Sea Trail, though no really good pictures because of the fairly steady rains (and focusing on footing outweighed trying to get pictures).
Our editorial for the trails. First up is Kiska. I encourage you to click on the picture and enlarge it so you can see Kiska sticking her tongue out and saying pbbbbbbbt.
Next up is the ever happy Qannik. Through all of that fur, he didn’t feel the rain. I really can’t explain how little mud he has on him – I had far more. Anyway, he was clearly a happy camper.
On the way back from Devil’s Courthouse, we asked Natasha whether she wanted to go back via the way we came (MTS trail and Art Loeb) or take the other route (Little Sam). She sat at the intersection pondering her choices:
And decided Little Sam:
My good lead dog got us back. Of course, she picked the trail with the most streams to play in. There is a huge surprise.
So a happy, and sleepy, Herd made it off the trail and headed home. I had to stop at Mast General Store to pick up a new pair of hiking sandals – my old ones had waaaaaay too many miles on them. The dogs love it because several of the store clerks saw us parking on Main Street and came running out to pet the dogs. I went in to shop while they – and a few tourists – spoiled the dogs. (and, yes, I can see the dogs from the shoe section).
Right now – six Sibes all sound asleep. And I will join them shortly.
One of the great things about living in Western North Carolina is the sheer number of waterfalls. Today, we elected to visit one simply because it is a little out of the way and, thus, very likely to have no other hikers. It worked – we did the entire trail without running into anyone until we were loading the Jeep back up (meeting two very nice couples who were preparing to hike it themselves).
The Rufus Morgan Falls Trail is located not far from Franklin, NC. Great place to stretch your legs, cross a few streams (the dogs love that) and stand at the base of a 70 foot or so waterfall. Cheoah certainly looked on in awe (Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version):
Kiska was far more interested in striking a pose with Rusty:
As always, our goal is a Tired Sibe. With Rufus Morgan being our last – but not only – trail of the day, I think we achieved our goal – Rusty, Qannik, Natasha and Kiska from left to right in the parking lot of a store in Franklin before we drove home:
Another picture here as we were getting ready to leave the store. You can see Kodiak, Rusty, Qannik, Kiska and Cheoah from left to right (Natasha is behind Kiska, but doubt you can make her out). Trust me they were asleep again before we left the parking lot.
While out over the weekend, we drove past a large sign in a person’s yard advertising, “Homing Pigeons For Sale.”
Now The Herd is fascinated with the concept because a Siberian is exactly the opposite of a Homing Pigeon. Release a Siberian and he runs away from home, not towards it. Sibe Quentin was built at Chez Herd for exactly that reason.
The bigger question though – is this a scam? if you buy Homing Pigeons from someone, don’t they just fly back to that person upon release? Isn’t that the whole point of Homing Pigeons?
Yesterday, we went to Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Why? Because it is in the Cheoah District of the Nantahala National Forest. I was looking up the history of the word Cheoah and was reminded of that trail.
Though the forest itself is not very convenient to get to, the trail itself is a very easy trail that has a double loop. A great description can be found here.
Old growth forests are relatively rare in the Eastern US and the Yellow Poplars here are absolutely enormous – over 100 feet tall and some as wide as 20 feet. Even the Herd was impressed at the size (Cheoah, Rusty and Kodiak):
In an ode to Joyce Kilmer, here is the poem “Trees:”
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
