Come take a walk with us. We won't say a word.

 

Happy Dog Morning

 

O, Happy Dog Day!

 

Human beings in these Disunited States are still at each other's throats this week, but dogs are better people. 

Buddy was tired from an earlier long walk, Molly yet a bit suspicious of the newcomer, and Peasy his usual little Chicken Little self (running back to mama whenever he got scared), but they managed together pretty well this morning, all three off leashes most of the time. There is nothing like working with -- and just plain being with -- dogs to lift my spirits! Therese (in top photo), of course, is also a good companion on the trail....

There was ice, there was snow ...

 

And the wind was very cold --

but there was sunshine, too.

It's a beautiful day in northern Michigan!

Looking Around Includes Looking Down

Good Morning ! Before the Storm...

The sky was dark, and the wind was blowing hard, but thunder and lightning and rain had not yet arrived when Sarah and I got out for our morning constitutional. Later on, my, my! But my camera battery needed recharging by then.

I Meant to Say This Earlier

That is -- Good morning! What a beautiful, shining, sparkling morning after yesterday's rain! The day called out to Sarah, as it did to me, and we had to make time for a little adventure before our day in the bookstore. 

The water at the Bight looked heavenly in the morning sun.

Inland, away from the water, the world was no less lovely.

Sarah waited patiently while her dog-mom obsessed over tiny flowers and leaves and stones along the road (even bindweed and chicory looked great to me) -- and then we stretched our legs and ran back to the car, just for the fun of it!

Here are the fossil treasures I collected this morning. Sarah has her olfactory memories, and I my pocket objects.

Beautiful Sarah and Her Ghost Town Friends

Sarah's friends: Buddy in front, Mollie in back (ready to go)

All on the trail (following a cow path)

Catclaw is flowering and going to seed already

Is this monkey flower?

Desert willow in the wash

Desert willow flowers

Water break

Buddy and Sarah are senior dogs

Beautiful Sarah!

Beautiful morning!

Adventures Close to Home: All But the Pigs

Deeply cut bank of the wash, our trail for the day

This morning we two humans (Therese and I) and three dogs (Buddy, Mollie, and Sarah) explored a different section of the Philadelphia Wash, an arroyo that runs down through our neighborhood from the Dos Cabezas Mountains. The section we visited today is favored by shade on one side if you get out early enough, but the sunny side pictured above glowed red in the morning light, sun already well above the horizon when we set out. 

I have never been in Arizona during monsoon season to seen a dry wash become a dangerous, roaring, life-threatening torrent, but the vertical cut of the bank above gives some idea of what rushing water can do during a summer storm. Here is an explanation of an Arizona wash from the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, and I'll quote from it briefly for those who can't be bothered following links:

Desert washes are also called xeroriparian habitats to indicate their relationship with rivers. Like typical rivers, washes are linear, chronically disturbed habitats that concentrate water and nutrients from a large area, and serve as dispersal corridors for plants and animals.

Netleaf hackberry in wash

Xeroriparian -- dry river habitat -- dry, yes, but a kind of natural highway providing more in the way of nutrition and moisture than surrounding high desert and mountains. Note the advanced spring green of the hackberry tree with its feet deep in the wash. Mesquite too reach deep to find moisture beneath the dusty surface.

Therese, my hiking guide and guru

Love the exposed rock!

These are determined roots!

Something I need to identify...

Buddy likes the shade. We all do.

Another of those DYCs

Tiny but bright

A look back to orient myself to the way we have come

We are making the return trip now

Remember this exposed rock?

It happened right around here --

What happened? The biggest excitement of the morning, more than we really needed: a troop of javelina crossed the wash up ahead of us. Quick, distract dogs! Get leashes on dogs! A little farther along, we looked back and saw the "pigs," as people call them, in the wash behind us! Their eyesight is very poor, and it's not likely they were stalking us, but I made as loud and deep and scary a sound as I could, several times, in their direction. "You're freaking out the dogs," I as told. "I want to freak out the javelinas so they don't come charging after us!" The pigs took a different path, and after we all calmed down, Therese and unleashed our dogs again so that they and we could all enjoy the walk more.

So, no photos of javelinas! Too busy with dogs to bother with camera! And no photos, either, of the mule deer Therese spotted, so high on the mountain that I couldn't see them at all until they moved. No telephoto lens. 

Anyway, as the sun reached even into our shady places, we needed to get back home soon. Midday is no time to hike in southern Arizona.

Sun is reaching for us...

Can you even see Sarah here?

It was a pretty arduous trek for a couple of old dogs like Sarah and me, but she drank water every time I offered it to her (finishing a whole bottle in the course of the walk) and took advantage of shade at every opportunity, so although I sometimes think these expeditions are too much for her, I was glad she hadn't missed another exciting morning with our neighborhood pack. We will be tired for the rest of the day, both of us, but it's worth it to feel we are living life to its fullest -- which isn't easy in these strange times, is it?

Tired but happy dog!