On Top of the World in Massachusetts

Big eggsitements yesterday on our road trip to the biggest mountain in Massy-Chew-Sits, Mount Greylock!  You can drive your cars up to the top but of course that be too easy fur us, we had to hike up there and hiked up 3 udder mountains on the way.  And the boy and his gurlfurrend (we call her the gurl now) commed with us.  Kewl drool that the boy sitted with me in the back seat and gibbed me skritches the whole way.

I think I gibbed him plenty of MY seat to sit on but all he did woz complane "Shawnee! Move OVER!"  Honestly, I woz being more than generous sharing my space.  The gurl woz up front with mom and she did not complane.
So we all started off our hike togedder out to Stony Ledge.  This be our group shot at Stony Ledge:

See that mountain ahind me with the two things atop it?  That be Mount Greylock and on the left be a towah wot you can climb up in (not me, no way, no how) and to the rite be just an ugly radio towah.  I biggify it fur you:

So here do be where we pawted ways.  Our hike woz going to be too much fur the boy and the gurl coz they is not used to hiking so we sented them on a wild goose chase a shorter route.  Mom made them maps and direkshuns and stuffs so they would not get themselves lost.  We sayed bai and off we wented in opposite directions and we woz going to meet back up ofur there at the towah on the summit of Mount Greylock.

 We crossed this bridge wot had a furry kewl sign on it:

We commed to waterfalls wot did not has lots of water coming down coz they duss not flow well at this time of the summer but there woz pools I could soak my furs in and mom taked her shoes off and kewled off her feets with me!  Refreshing!

Then we climbed up Mount Prospect fur a seenik:

In this zoomified pikshure of the seenik below, you can see the Adirondack Mountains far, far away!  We has not been there yet fur hiking coz it do be a little too far away fur a day trip.

Then we climbed down and crossed ofur that road wot takes cars to the summit:

We do be on that Appalachian Trail here:

Then we climbed up Mount Williams and it woz STEEP up!

Then we climbed ofur Mount Fitch but there woz no seeniks there.  Then finally, we woz getting closer to that towah on Mount Greylock!

OMD! It do be the boy and the gurl! They made it!

A seenik at the Mount Greylock summit.

That towah up close and fursonal.

That Appalachian Trail goes rite ofur the summit.

So duss you know wot the boy and the girl did while they woz waiting fur us?  They had noms at the lodge!  They sayed it woz the bestest noms efur.  Did they save me any? NO!

Where the boy and the gurl had noms.

Is dogs allowed in here fur noms?

This do be that sign by the door biggified but I is thinking it duss not apply to dogs.

So then it do be getting rilly late and the sun be setting.  Oops.  We still had a ways to hike to the car and it woz getting rilly dark on the trails:

When it gotted too dark on the trails, we cutted ofur to the road coz it do be a little lighter there and we could see better.

OMD, lookie at the sunset! We did see the most fab sunsets efur from walking down the road.  There woz no cars on the road coz almost all the peeples had left the mountain alreddy to go home.

We made it back to the car just afore it gotted pitch black outside!  Mom and the boy had their headlamps and flashlites but they did not has to use them.  On the way home the boy drived so fur the furst time efur, mom sat WITH ME in MY back seat!  But all she did woz complane:  "Shawnee! Move over!"  I gibbed her more than enuff room.  Look how squished I is.

So me and mom ended up hiking 14.4 miles!  The boy and the gurl sayed they had a furry good time on the hike and seened some pawsome seeniks on their route wot mom and I did not see.  We will just has to go back again sometime.

Loot From Corbin!

OMD, I had totally furgotted that I wonned a prize from Corbin fur taking him on a hike with me! So wowser, that woz rilly a surprise coz I woz not eggspecting it!

Wowser! Loot from Corbin!

Warming up the snooter.

Corbin has such nice pawmanships.

 Here I is checking out all of the loot:

Hey! Who invited you two?

Fine, I gess I has to share the noms.

I is going to play with my new Skinneez in my hidey spot coz the udder two would not dare bother me there! I is pawtending he be that evil skwerrel wot woz looking in my winder yesterday.

Thank you Corbin, that woz some PAWSOME loot!

Wordless Wednesday

Back to the Big Mountains

So we hasn't been to the big mountains in the Catskills in Noo York yet this year.  We liked the name of this mountain so we thought we would gib it a visit:

How pawsome is that? Peekamoose Mountain!  And just one mile farther be Table Mountain, so we got two mountains in one trip!  There be lots of things I rilly, rilly like about the Catskill Mountains:

• No blood stealing ticks like closer by us
• Dogs is allowed off leash as long as they be unner control
• The wevver be 10 degrees kewler in the mountains
• It do just be downrite bootiful there

So furst we need to sign the trail register so that the park peeples knows the trails is being used and so if'n you get lost they know where you woz last.  We signed 1 peeple and 1 dog. 

Those rite afore us writed 1 peeple and 1 dog too and we runned into them later in the hike and had a little visit. But me and that dog woz the only dogs on the trail this day.  A total of 9 peeples had signed in.  Oh, and this woz yesterday on Furiday, coz mom played hookie taked vakashun from werks again. 

So we had to climb steep uphill fur the furst half of the hike.  The high temp forecast woz a whopping 64 degrees on the mountain but it still feeled like 100 degrees climbing up high like that.  Mom and I woz both panting.

We commed to this rawk wot looks like you could just push it ofur but it duss not fall.  We dussn't know why. Mebbe the aliens put it there like that. It be called Reconnoiter Rock.

See that crack in the rawk next to me? Gess wot woz in there?

It just be a harmless little Eastern Garter Snek.  Then we finally reached the 3500 feets elevashuns mark.

And here is where the trail rilly gets pritty. We be going through mossy spruce-fir forests wot looks like they is from the pages of a fairy tale.

And then way at the top, seeniks!

You can clickie on this Pan-O-Rama two times to biggify it:

Then here at this big rawk be the summit of Peekamoose Mountain wot marks the spot so you knows you be there:

Then a little farther we be at the summit of Table Mountain.  Somebuddy builded that pile-o-rawks ahind me to show where the summit do be:

There do be anudder seenik at Table Mountain:

Here I is pashuntly waiting fur mom to finish futzing around at the seenik:

So then we be heading back down the mountain...

... and stopped at one of the seeniks one more time...

So mom's knees has been going wonky on her not on the going up but on the going down so I made sure she stopped lots to stretch.  Then when we woz finished I taked her across the street from the parking lot fur us to ice up our knees in the freezing cold icy Roundout Creek:

BRRRRRRR.  That woz heabenly.

But wate, we woz not done yet!  We drived up the road just one mile and stopped speedy quick like at the Buttermilk Falls:

Then we stopped and did anudder short hike on flat ground wot woz only 1 mile each way to the Vernooy Kill Waterfalls!

So all togedder we hiked 11.5 miles.  There woz even seeniks on the way home:

Oh, hai. It just be me watching the seeniks from the car.

So when we got home it do be Dixie's turn to model the litters.  We only founded the pencil on the trail wot somebuddy prolly dropped on axident.  The can and sodie bottle woz at the Roundout Creek.  Grrrr.

My Tenth Gotcha Day!

Yuppers, today do be my 10th Gotcha Day!  This woz me 10 years ago today, on the eggzakt same day I gotted out of the skeery inner city shelter in Newark, NJ.  I nefur in my wildest puppymares imagined my life would be wot it has become.

OK, so let the pawty begin...

How mom snucked Ice Cream Woofiches from Lainey's Pawtique and Bakery into this howse without my snooter detecting it is beyond me.  You has to click on the pikshure below to see some of the pawsome stuff Lainey's Pawtique and Bakery has.  It be fur dogs and kittehs but you mite want to keep your hoomans away from your pooters coz they will be drooling and sliming up your keyboards fur sure!