Long Hike with the Dogs

Yesterday Andrew and I were out with the dogs on the North Country Trail.  We were gone for 4 hours 20 minutes!  This is the longest the dogs have ever been out.  We only went a total of 5.1 miles.  But Andrew and I were "working" during this hike.

Andrew wanted to get a long but not too tiring workout in prior to his 50 mile race this coming weekend.  He decided to walk part of the trail and trim trees and prickers in some bad spots.  The dogs and I decided to tag along.  I helped Andrew trim (Andrew got the high things while I took care of the low stuff) things while the dogs walked along with us and explored.

At first the dogs wondered why we weren't moving along very quickly.  They're used to going on decent paced walks or running with us.  It didn't take them too long though to wander around to the edge of where they could still see us.  Toward the end of our time out on the trail they were staying with us because they were too tired to explore. 

On the way back home we didn't have things to trim so we walked without stopping.  The dogs chased a squirrel up a tree at one point.  Once we got home they got rinsed off in the bathtub because they smelled of stinky swamp water.  They crashed the rest of the night and haven't moved much today!   I've never seen them so worn out!

And speaking of Beacon and Haven I made a montage of them through the years.  We're lucky enough to have been around them since they were a few days old.