Running Wild in the Woods


Today was a special treat for Sascha.  Rich decided to take her over to Moraine State Park, which is right next to the subdivision and let her pull the scooter.  The trails are pretty nice, but there are a lot of hills. 

Rick decided to ride his bike with them.  Following behind would keep him out of the way and still be able to enjoy the ride.  This meant taking two vehicles, but it turns out the scooter doesn’t fit in the Honda anyway.  Time to get that bike rack for the back of the car.

I thought I’d pack up my stuff and read while everyone was on the trail.  That way someone could drive to the hospital, if needed.  I got my blanket, book, chair, and cup of coffee.

We drove over to Opossum Run at the end of the park.  There’s a nice loop around the end that’s about 2 1/2 miles around.  It goes through woods, prairie, and by Lake Defiance.  As I said, there are some hills to the trail. 

We parked and got the bike and scooter out.  Everyone suited up for the ride.  I walked Sascha around as they prepared.  She got very excited to be out in the woods.  I hooked her to the lead and away everyone went.  Turns out the trail was very sloppy and wet.  The downhills are paved to prevent erosion. 

The sloppy trail meant that the scooter got bogged down.  Rich had walk it through these stretches, but Sascha kept wanting to pull.  It’s hard to control her and the scooter at the same time.  But going downhill on the paved, you kind of fly.  On the first downhill, Sascha decided to dash in front of the scooter and might have gotten run over.  She appeared to be walking fine, but she definitely learned to stay out of the way after that.

At about halfway through the trail, the guys decided to stop for a break.  Rick had a water bottle on his bike and they were able to squeeze water into Sascha’s mouth.  She has done that before.  Probably how she learned to drink Mountain Dew from one of the volunteers are the rescue! 

After a rest, they continued on the trail.  Sascha kept stopping to greet all of the other hikers she meet on the trail.  That one is way too social for a good scooter ride.  I don’t why she thinks everyone in the world has to pet her. 

At the 2 mile mark, they stopped for another rest.  A nearby ditch had ice on it, but Sascha broke through it and stood with her feet in the freezing water.  This is how Husky normally cool off.  They stand in water.  We normally have a pool for her to stand in, but she prefers to do a full body roll in the water. 

At this point, Sascha was starting to be tired.  She managed to continue her run back to the car.  Rick rolled up first and announced that they were coming in.  I got ready to grab Sascha when she and Rich arrived in the parking lot.

They were all so dirty when they got back!  The back of Rich’s jeans were solid mud from the knees down.  Sascha’s entire underbelly was a thick layer of mud.  We loaded up bike, scooter, and muddy dog into the cars and headed home.

Once we got back, we hosed down everything, including the back of Rich.  Sascha wasn’t too happen being sprayed down, but it did remove a lot of loose dirt.  She would get a full bath later.  I dried her off some and put her in the house.  She ran around like a nut, or someone on caffeine.  She was ready to go again! 

It didn’t take long before she got tired and a nap soon overtook her.  She was stretched out in that ray of death on the living room sleeping away.

Picasa site for pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/JZurekFamily

 Video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/UTcURdW26C0

 

Chiilin after the run