An Illegal Mini Hike, a Lost Dog and the Chiropractor

Bizzy, bizzy day today furrends!  Mom taked half a day off werk coz my chiropractor appointment be today and it be far away in hiking country.  There be a park close by wot is too small fur a regular weekend hike but mom figgered we could do a little mini hike afore the chiropractor.  So afore we go to a new park, we always check if'n dogs be allowed coz we would nefur pawtronize a park where I do not be welcome.  The innerwebs sayed nuttin about dogs not being allowed.  Butt, in the pikshure above I is not looking at you coz I is bizzy reading the park sign:

Uh oh.  We woz 3 hours early fur my appointment and it be an hour drive home so not werth going home and coming back.  Well, we woz noggty and hiked anyways.  There woz udder cars parked there so mom figgered they woz going to where the seenik is and we would hike where there be no seenik and hope we did not run into anybuddy.  But pawlese note the sign also say litter do not be allowed:

But horse poo must be OK:

So we stealth hiked furry quietly through the woods.

Shhhhh.  I is not here.

I go where no dog has gone afore.

The coast do be clear.  Let's roll.

So we made it back to the parking lot undetected and mom sneaked me back in the car.  Whew.  Then a van pulled in and the laydee in the van asked mom if'n she had seen a 9-month-old husky in the woods.  Mom sayed no, we, errr, I mean she had not seen ANY dogs in the woods.  But she asked the laydee fur her phone nummer in case we did see her dog on the way to the chiropractor.  The laydee sayed she woz so close to catching the dog but she bolted.  They had adopted her 2 weeks ago from a husky rescue and she somehow got off her walking string.  Mom gibbed the laydee some advice.  She told her if'n she sees her dog again, not to try to grab her but to fall to the ground, cover her head with her arms and whine like a dog rilly loud.  Fur real, that her dog would then come to her to sniff her head to see why her mom be flipping out like a loony tunes and then she could reach up and grab the collah.  The laydee looked at mom like, um, OK and left.

So as penance fur our evil, illegal stealth hiking ways, mom picked up ALL the litter in the parking lot and throwed it away in the trash can.  Well fur that reason and coz we woz still too early fur my appointment.  So just as we was getting reddy to leave, the van pulled back in.  They laydee jumped out, ran ofur to my mom and sayed, "THANK YOU! THANK YOU!  I did what you said and it worked!  I got her!"  Ta da, here be the vagabond puppeh:

WANTED CRIMINALS:  Illegal Hiker and Runaway Puppeh

That laydee woz amazed that the minute she covered her head and started whining, her dog runned rite ofer and snootered around her head wonnering wassup and the laydee reached up and got her collah.  OK, so good deed done to wipe out bad deed (that werk fur you Santa Paws?) and off to Mike's Feed Farm fur my chiropractor appointment.  We still had some time so I did some shopping.

I did find some of that Merrick's Homecoming Holiday at Mike's Feed Farm and had mom get it fur our howliday dinner! Thanks fur telling me about that Phantom, Thunder, Ciara, and Lightning!

And thank you all fur your concerns about the Lyme disease.  It be a worry fur mom and sumpin she has to stay on top of but I has not had any symptoms at all and it dussn't make me feel sickie.  I is not even aware of it and hopefully we can keep it that way.  And I dussn't mind taking the pills at all coz I get eggstra good nom chasers to wash them down with.

PEE ESS:  I looked back on the innerwebs and seened this on the town web site about the park we woz at.  I think mom be calling them tomorrow...
Moutainside Park; End of Mountain Ave and West Parkway; Mountains and wooded area, hiking trails, dogs permitted on leash;  Camping by permit.

Hiking With Haley Again

Sorry not to gibs you my full attenshuns but the dogs across the street from the park had just been let outside and they woz woofing impawtant stuffs at me so I had to lissen carefully.  Anyways, my furrend Haley in Con-etiquette asked me to come hiking with her again.  But she woz late.  Haley's mom called my mom on the cell phone to tell her she had gotted pulled ofur by the pawlice and woz getting a BIG SPEEDING TICKET!  Yowser!  So while we waited I went and checked pee-mail at Millers Pond.

Then finally the pawlice finished writing up the noggty slip and let Haley and her mom go.

Haley! Is you in there?

Using proper greeting tekneek to be sure I is me and Haley is Haley.  We dussn't want any identity thefts or nuttin.

Identities confirmed.  Let's hike!

Here we is hiking.

I is sniffing pee mail ofur Haley's shoulder.

It woz furry cold and the moms kept complaning about their fingers being frozened like these icy sickulls.

So we did not get a whole lot of piksures of this hike coz you know the moms, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak.   So let's get rite to the seenik and our break.

Here we is at the seenik called Bear Rock on the Mattabasset Trail.  The mountain ofur on the horizon on the left be where Haley and I hiked fur our haunted Howloween hike.  Spooky ofur there.

Me and Haley could not keep our snooters out of the break noms.

Chickun jerkey woz hiding in with the Zuke's Powah Bones!  Wot a surprise! Me and Haley snarfed those down FAST!

When we woz done with our noms and break the moms got up and woz putting their backpacks on and me and Haley started BOLing coz, is you reddy fur this?  Haley's mom woz sitting on COYOTE POO!!!!  Thank dogness it be frozened or she would has had it on hers britches, BOL, BOL.

Frozened Coyote Poo

Uh oh.  Litter in the woods.  I had mom carry it out.

Tight rope walking on a log - but I chickunned out and went through the cold water.

Here we be back at Millers Pond but it still be way too cold fur swimming and getting our furs wet.

My magical leash be engaged fur leading mom back to the parking lot.  Haley LOVED my magical collah and her mom said she could has one.  We mite has matchy magical collahs the next time we hike togedder!

So fur some updates on our stolen bloods and the chiropractor.  The V-E-T sayed Sydney must has studied fur her blood test coz she passed with flying colors - that be sumpin the hoomans say, wotefur that means.  Me, my bloods woz good too butttttt......  the Lyme disease do be BACK!  I has to take anti-bionics again.  So it either commed back on its own or I woz reinfected.  So neither Frontline nor K9-Advantix stopped me from getting cooties from the icky ticks.  Boo.  And we be thinking that the furst visit to the chiropractor done did fix me coz I has not been stiff or limping after this hike.  Yay!  We go back to the chiropractor tomorrow fur anudder re-aline-ment.  I is so liking this!

Lyme disease in my bloods - biggified

Biggified even more.

Yes, furrends, you can get Lyme disease stuffies and pull their guts out and stuffs.  I want one to put the bitey on.

The Chiropractor Visit

I woz dooped.  Here I woz thinking me and mom woz off to the chiropractor.

We rilly do like our V-E-T coz she gibs good skritches.

And she dussn't mind if'n we body slam her to the floor, BOL.

Turns out Sydney be due fur her rabies shot and blood swiping and I woz due fur blood swiping coz we has to keep checking me fur Lyme disease to see if'n I stay cured or get it back again.  So mom stopped here on the way to the chiropractor.

Sydney's heart be in werking order.

My heart be in werking order and the V-E-T say mine sounded RILLY good, all slow and steady from all that hiking.

So I has no foto-graphic evidences of the bloodletting coz the fotografer, aka mom-who-is-not-to-be-trusted, holded us down fur the V-E-T!  Yup, she played V-E-T tech and put us in death grip headlocks and holded off our veins so the V-E-T could stick the NEEDLE in and bloods would come leaking out.  She did that coz it be the only way Sydney dussn't has enuff nerve to try to put the bitey on the V-E-T fur stealing her bloods.  She knows better than to do it if'n mom be holding her.  And me, well, troof be told, I would rather mom hold me than a stranger even if'n she cannot be trusted.

Weak from loss of bloods.

Now check out how kewl this do be.  The chiropractor V-E-T sees some of his patients at Mike's Feed Farm.  This be my kinda V-E-T place!  It be a place full of nomilicious treats, stuffies, anything and efurry thing fur any kind of critter, even...

Let me biggify that fur you coz I know you cannot beleef you eyes:

I wonner, be this chow FUR skwerrels or chow MADE OUT OF skwerrels?

Anyways, I rilly like the chiropractor and Sydney woz all schmoozing with him coz she knowed he not be the blood stealing kinda V-E-T.  He sayed my pelvis be tilted too high and he rearranged some innards around in there.  It did not hurt, felt kinda good akshually.  Then he went along my spine and it felt kinda like a massage, ahhhhh.  He sayed a verti-bray be out of line in my neck and that woz causing my shoulder stiffness so he twisted my head off put that back where it belongs.  He sayed this just be normal aging stuff but he be there to help me feel my bestest in my senior years.  He sayed to mom I be in furry great shape fur my age coz of the good nutrishun (he be furry happy with the fuds and supplements mom feeds us - Wellness and Missing Link) and lots of hiking eggsersize.   So I go back in a week to see if'n my front and rear-end allinements stayed in place and mom is to let him know if'n she notices any difference so we will has to let you know but so far so good!  And it woz not skeery at the chiropractor!  There woz udder dogs wating to see him and they woz all happy and eggsited and stuffs.

Hiking in the Snow

We dussn't has any snow rite now (thank dogness) and there be no snow nowhere in Noo Joisey.  But leave it to mom to find the only park with snow within a 100 mile radius of our house.  (Note to self: This mite be good fur Sarge's "My Peep is a Flake" Contesty.)

When we seened snow 10 miles from the hike out the car winder, mom woz all like "What the....."  So it be a big surprise to both of us.  So let's get started on the "Shades of Death Trail".  Yes furrends, snow AND death.

Akshually, this be called the "Shades of Death Trail" becoz it follows along Hickory Run and in the olden days dams on Hickory Run would break and flood the town and make peeps dead.  I let the park peeples ofur at PA State Parks eggsplain it better to you.

"The loggers clear cut the immense forests but did no replanting. Hickory Run, which frequently flooded because it is so steep, flooded more often because there were less trees to slow the water. In 1849, several dams broke, flooding the towns of Saylorsville and Hickory Run. The devastation was so great that the state legislature passed a bill that allowed those who lost property to sue the builder of the faulty dam, but nothing could be proven and no action was taken. At least seven people died in the flood and many are buried in the small cemetery near the park office. The blacksmith, Jacob West, lost four of his children and his wife in the flood, yet survived by nearly forty years until he was finally buried at their sides."

We went looking fur the cemetery at the end of the hike coz it be too cold early in the morning and we needed to start hiking and get the bluds flowing and warmed up.  Brrrrrrrr.   

It woz so cold there woz steam coming out of the waters from Hickory Run.  See on the rite side of the pikshure?  I would say it might be a ghost but it woz warmer by the water and it is supposed to get colder when ghosts be around.

And when the steam got higher on the tree branches where the air be colder, it frozed and made pretty trees like fur Chrissmass time.

Snow.  Brrrrrrrr.

Snow.  Brrrrrr.

We got back ofur to a different part of Hickory Run downstream - akshually I think the water we is seeing is the same water we seened at the beginning of the hike and we catched up to it.  Anyways, in this hiking book mom has the writer man writes "Just find a way over Hickory Run to continue on this trail."  Mom could has scootched ofur on that log but it did not reach all the way ofur to the udder side.  I would has had to swim but it woz way too cold fur me to get all my furs wet.  So we went a different way.  Doodyhead book!  Mom figgered this mite happen so we had a backup plan.

Ta da!

Backup Plan

We just taked a different trail wot runned along side the Hickory Run until we commed to a bridge so mom did not has to scootch and I did not has to get my belleh wet and has ice sickulls hanging on meself.

OK, so you rememmer how my whole life I would nefur poo anywhere udder than my own back yard?  I nefur efur poo'd on hikes until the skeery Howloween hike when I had the poo skeered outta me.  Well, I has now decided to take it up as a new hobby.  Today be the THURD time I has poo'd on a hike since that Howloween hike.

Mom tied it to her backpack so she did not has to carry it and efurry time it would make noise moving around mom would turn around thinking sumbuddy woz walking up behind her.  (Note to self: Anudder pawsibility fur Sarge's "My Peep is a Flake" Contesty.)

In case you is wonnering why I hasn't been wearing my backpack to carry my own poo, well, you see, my shoulder has been bothering me some.  Not while hiking but after we get home and I take a nap, I cannot get out of my bed or walk coz it goes all wonky stiff on me.  The next day I be fine.  So mom duss not want me wearing anything wot mite bother my shoulder.  (Did I time taking up pooing on hikes just rite or wot?)  Anyways, tomorrow mom be taking me to a chiropractor and I unnerstand they dussn't swipey bloods or give needles or do alien probes so I think I mite like this.  I'll get back to you on it.

So back to the hike.  We found this humungoid pine tree.  I think the peeples in the olden days wot cut all the trees down missed this one.  The trunk woz about 36 gabillion inches in diameter.  The only udder tree we seened with a trunk this big woz 500 years old!  This tree woz so big we could not fit all of it in the camera.

We climbed up high where it be warmer with sunbeams and we be looking fur a seenik up here.

Sniffing out some seeniks...

Here I is at the seenik.  That be the Lehigh River down there and that pillar thingie in the water is where a bridge used to be but it's brokened.

ACK! Litter!  Mom had to carry that too seeing as I duss not has my backpack on fur litter hauling.

So then at the end of the hike we went sniffing around fur the old cemetery.  It woz not easy to find and mom dragged me through sticker bushes and up and down steep mountains we had to go off-trailing to find it.  Mom read on the innerwebs it be across from the park office and we looked efurrywhere but no cemetery.  The sun woz starting to go down and we woz ready to gib up when we decided to try up the street from the park office instead of across the street and wah-lah!

There be no signs or trails or nuttin coz they dussn't want bad peeples finding this spot and messing up the graves.  The tombstones alreddy be old and breaking on their own without any help.  But sumbuddy comes and puts flowahs on the graves.  They be plastic that be why this is not dead from the cold.

Here be the tombstone of the childruns from that fambly wot the park peeples woz eggsplaining about:

So furry sad even tho it happened 162 years ago.  But it be such a bootiful place where they be buried, up high on a hill unner the pine trees with soft pine needles on the ground, overlooking the Hickory Run so they not get flooded any mores.  It woz a peaceful place where we could has stayed a while longer but we woz losing sunbeams and had to get back to our car afore dark.