Alpendoggie

Numbers done and on the odd chance the weatherman weren't lying, we decided to drive up to the mountain. So with two apples a handful of chewies and some rolls of film we set out in the late morning.

Half way there was the same route we took to Silver Lake but instead of turning left at Maple Falls we continued along the Nooksack riverbed between immense ridges covered with pines.  It was chilly and damp.

As soon as we got to the periphery of the national forest the road began to climb, curvy but surprisingly easy.  Traffic was almost non-existent.  I think that during the entire trip we passed maybe 50 cars all told, which meant that for all intents and purposes we had the alpine immensities to ourselves.  Tuesdays are good.

(Rosco) got mad at me saying that i was driving too fast and missing good scenes to shoot.  I promised to drive more slowly on the return but told him i wanted to get to the top and scope out the route while it was still sunny.

Nearing the top, Nicki was getting cabin crazy.  I saw a place to pull over next to a gentle sloping field/trail of snow.  Nicki bounded out like a crazy wolf and started bouncing and bounding through the snow with canine abandon, as i fished around in the back only to realize that ... no... i did not have my snow-shoes in the car as i had for some reason thought.  Grrrrr. 

"G'wan, Nicki. G'wan."  But Nicki is a dog and would have none of it.  Either WE go or we don't.  So we got back in the car and drove further on to the top.

There we had the fortune to run across some snow-shoers and their two huskies.  Sniff, sniff.  Chit, chat.  They said that there was a semi-packed trail a little further on that would be walkable.

I don't know if we ever found it, but i did finds something like a trail or pathway of sorts where my shoes didn't sink more than two or three inches.  And so WE got to do something of a trek.

  

It is almost impossible to get decent pictures of a snow-crazed dog but after a myriad of useless shoots i did manage to get a picture of Hero Doggie on the crest between alpine horizons.

Triumph achieved we returned down to the flats where i did an errand and Nicki got in a bit of racing for the ball with other dogs at the park.  

Home at last, we rested with a tea and a bone, listening to a string quartet, while waiting for "The Germans" -- a musician and his wife -- to arrive from over the border.  From the way Nicki apparently tunes in to music, I am beginning to think the he might also be a true Rennaisance doggie.