Day 12: Sequoias!

Today we set out on a mission to find giant trees. Our first stop was Sequoia National Forest.  We drove up the very twisty, foggy road to the find the groves recommended by the ranger that were accessible by road this time of year.  Well turns out when you drive to where the road ends you still have to hike some to find all the big trees.  And guess what...the trails are covered in snow.  So we ended up stopping at a nearby campground in the forest which was quite scenic and had some Sequoias so the trip was not a total waste.  The mountains were dreary and drizzly today so lots of my photos need "help" and I'll try and post more later when I get home and have photoshop.

 Oh look, a log for Legend to pose on!

So then we drove back down the winding, foggy mountain road and headed up north a few hours to Sequoia National Park.  Once there we drove up another winding, foggy mountain road.  As an added bonus there were road construction delays on this one.  Here is Legend waiting for us to take our turn through the construction zone.

But finally!  The road through the Giant Forest...

This is General Sherman, the largest tree in the world.  It's 36 feet in diameter at the base.

 More big tree photos.  It's hard to take a good picture of them.  If you are far enough away to get the whole tree in the shot, they don't seem as big.  But if you are up close it's hard to get enough of the tree to show anything worthwhile  You really have to see them for yourself but I did my best.  The fog adds an interesting element to some of the pictures.

And we saw a few friends along the way

Now, I'm not usually one to disrespect the dead, but this was just a little too funny to pass up...looks like he partied too hard...RIP Squirrel.

On a lighter note, some California wildflowers.

And lastly we stopped at a roadside park on our way back to the hotel.

 She was more interested in the water than posing.

Day 11: More Driving

We did one final check this morning and it seems all of the travel restrictions had been lifted for the Sierra Nevada region we were wanting to travel.  So we were able to end up crossing the mountains after all.  But we decided that instead of going to Yosemite we would skip that and continue on further south and go to Sequoia National Forest instead.  There were two reasons for this.  One-it's closer to our next destination and two-in a national forest you can take your dog on the trails but in a national park they pretty much have to stay in the car or the parking areas.

The drive here through the mountains and rolling ranch country was beautiful but we didn't stop much.  We got a late start since we needed to get some laundry done before we left Tahoe.  But here are a few pics from along the drive.  This is by far not the best mountain view we passed, but it's where we happened to stop.

Day 10: Tahoe

If you have not been to Lake Tahoe I suggest you go.  This is the best place we have been so far and the one we would make an effort to go back to. Except we would go in the summer when it's not cold and snowy.

We did a little shopping this morning and then took a cruise on the lake.  The views from the boat were great and we got a close up look at Emerald Bay and the only island in Lake Tahoe-which is really not much more than a big rock.

This is the island

The view from in the bay

But the views from the drive above the bay were even more spectacular.

We wanted to go hiking but in addition to all the parks and recreation areas being closed for the season, the trails were covered in snow.  Like two feet of snow, as you can see below.  This is the deepest snow I have ever been in!

Legend didn't see any problem with this though, she was light enough that she didn't sink too deep and was having a fantastic time sprinting around while we were getting soaking wet up to our knees!

We stopped at this beach on the way back to our hotel.  Technically dogs weren't allowed, but it's closed for the season and we saw several other dogs while we were there so I guess no one really cares as long as it's winter.  

 Poor Legend had now been posed on every rock and log west of the Mississippi I think!  She's a pretty good sport though.

Our plan after this was to go to Yosemite but it looks like we will be skipping that too.  Although some of the park is open, I think most of the hiking trails are closed.  Plus the roads to get there currently have travel restrictions due to snow.  Evidently it's still winter here.  Who knew?  It's 90 at home.

Day 9: Nationals Round 3 and Wrap-up

The hybrid course today was pretty challenging and we had a few almost mishaps but did mange to run clean again today!  This gave her a total of 295/300 pts and moved her up in the standings significantly.  We ended up 69th out of 235 twenty inch dogs.  I'm more than pleased with that result.  She really did the best she could and I could not have asked her for more.

We stayed to watch the challengers round and the finals both of which were so much fun to watch.  No pomeranians make the finals though, maybe we can do something about that someday...

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts on the weekend.  The trial site was pretty nice.  Except for ring 4.  It was dark and dusty and stuffed over in the area with the inside stall crating.  It was not even as nice as most of the arenas local trials are held in and certainly didn't give you a "championship" feel.  The PA system was terrible and depending on where you were sitting you could only make out about half of what was said if you were lucky.  Also, we were relatively unimpressed with Reno as a city.  It's not somewhere we would go back to.  I thought the courses for rounds 1 and 2 were pretty straightforward but the hybrid round was definitely more challenging.  Also the challengers and finals rounds looked like they presented some definite challenges even though I didn't get to run them.  The vendors were so-so.  There were a few with some good stuff and unique products but I was sort of expecting there to be more.  But I guess it's good there not more, since I spent all of my budgeted vendor money on what was there! And as I mentioned before the clean run ribbons could have been nicer.

Well, that's all I can think of right now.  We are spending a day or two in Lake Tahoe now, which so far seems super nice and we are looking forward to seeing more of it tomorrow.

Living In Fast Forward CD, RE, MX, MXJ, NF, CGC

My "Hillbilly Rockstar"

Day 8: Nationals Rounds 1 & 2

Legend had a fantastic run in JWW this morning for our first clean run at nationals!  Everything was beautiful and she was almost 10 seconds under time.  That's about as good as she can do, and a great place to do it! it would be nice if they gave out fancier ribbons for clean runs but we'll take what we can get.  So where did her best effort place her?  Are you ready for this.........123rd place!  I know, super exciting right?  That's about halfway through the class (more towards the end of the clean runs) which is just about par for her.  We were about 7 seconds behind first place.  Good enough for me, we just wanted to do our best.

Several hours later we ran standard-I was dog #215 out of 267 20 inchers in this round.  Again she put forth a solid effort running right at or slightly better than average pace for her.  She nailed her poles and did all her contacts but took a crazy off course.  I could not have predicted that one.  I'm not sure what she was thinking but she actually made a hard turn away from me instead of coming with me on the natural curve of the course.  Oh well. Also you will see in the video my getting confused between the tunnel and the teeter.  I had planned a front cross there but forgot what I was doing. Then she took a really wide turn in the corner on her way to the dogwalk.  Best I can tell her cumulative score puts her at around 116th place.  We still have one round to run tomorrow.

JWW

Standard

In our hours of free time today we watched a lot of the 8 inch class to size up some up Lyric's possible future competition.  There are some super fast little dogs out there.  Some were as fast as some of the better border collies.  It was pretty amazing.  Lyric has her work cut out for her if she wants to compete with those guys!  But it make me anxious to get her to the point of qualifying for nationals and giving it a shot!  Maybe in 2 years, of if we are really lucky next year!

Day 7: Nationals Prelude

The good news is Legend is running great.  The bad news is she's popping out of her weave poles.  I think both of these stem from the fact that she has spent the last 6 days in "captivity."  She was pretty wound up this morning and I think ran both her runs, but especially the first one, faster than her average.

First up was warm-up standard.  The a-frame was the third obstacle but she went up it just fine so I was happy about that.  And she was really fired up-had she not been listening we would have definitely had an off-course or two!  The weave poles were second to last and she came out around pole 9 and just blasted  to the last obstacle.

Next up was Time 2 Beat.  She was again running well but popped out of the last pole or two.  I was really trying to watch her to make sure she finished so I don't know if that contributed or not, maybe I should have just stood back and let her go.  Either way, she knows to finish them and was being naughty!  I even tried again and she still did it.  Stinker.  Neither of these runs actually count anyway, but sure would have been nice to walk away from today with a couple clean run ribbons.

So tomorrow our actual Nationals runs start, we don't expect to actually place or get to finals or anything but are hoping to just show off our best work. I have ordered all my runs on video for the weekend so hopefully I'll be able to post those later, but here is our T2B that Jerry taped for me today.

Day 6: Reno!

Salt Lake City, UT to Reno, NV

We got up early this morning and made the 8 hour drive to Reno.  Legend slept pretty much the whole way.  I think she's starting to think that there is no hope of ever getting out of the car once she gets in!

Anyway, we got all checked in and set up in our crate space and then spent a little time wandering around the rings, letting her take in all the new signs and smells.

 We passed this local shopping center on the way to the trial site.  Obviously we had to go back and take a few pictures!

 Can you see her on the wall?  She kind of blends in but how cool right?

 She gets her own bed and seems quite happy with it.

Wish us luck tomorrow!

Day 5: Our very long walk

As if all the driving wasn't enough, we had to go on a very long hike as well.

We decided to spend today at Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake.  Overall, I would say this is a good place to go if you just want to drive around and look for wildlife  They are not that hard to find, after all, they are on an island.  However, I do not strongly recommend this place for hiking.  It's only moderately scenic (today was very hazy and gray so that didn't help), some trails don't allow dogs (which may not be a problem for everyone) and many trails are only accessible via other trails.  So unless you are prepared to hike 10-15 miles or more, you won't get to see many of the interior trails.

So, our plan was to hike a 6 mile loop and then do a few of the very short trails.  However, the other problem with this park is the lack of decent signage.  The trails and trailheads are well marked, but not well labeled as to which one is which.  We ended up following the wrong trail and probably ended up walking closer to 8 or 9 miles instead of 6.  Thus, we skipped the smaller trails.

We did get to see some wildlife, but as I mentioned before we actually saw these while driving.  We did see some while on our hike, but it certainly wasn't necessary to hike to see them!

 Legend, who has spent most of the last 4 days in the car, crate, or hotel thought this was the greatest day so far.  She never did get tired on the hike and I'm sure she thought the only thing wrong with the outing was that she had to stay on her leash.

Day 4: In and around Salt Lake City

We got to sleep in today!  And then I was able to get in a good run at the hotel before heading out on our activities for the day.

Our first stop was the Olympic Park in Park City.  This is where the sliding events and some of the skiing events were held.  We took the guided tour, which was pretty interesting.  This is not the greatest time to visit the park though, as the athletes are between winter and summer training so nothing was going on.  Much of the snow was melting off the hills and the ice had melted off the sliding track.  If you go during training season you get to ride a bobsled down the track, which is pretty cool.

 This is the view from the top of the ski-jump hill.

 The medals for the Salt Lake games took 20 hours each to make and weigh over one pound.

Then we returned to Salt Lake City for some shopping and sight-seeing.  This is the view from the Capitol Building.

 The Utah State Capitol Building is pretty spectacular.  With all the marble and granite architecture it't the perfect example of a building that would be cost-prohibitive to build in modern day times.

These are all from Temple Square.  The Temple itself is a beautiful building but the whole area was beautifully landscaped and all the spring blooming flowers and trees were really pretty.