Bear – Page 5

Back on the Trails

One of the best parts of my leave of absence is I get to take Bear hiking on weekdays as well as weekends. He’s had a few health issues that have kept me from taking him every day but I’ve enjoyed getting him back into hiking shape after the summer layoff. I started him on shorter trails since he was tiring quickly when it was warmer, and then choosing trails that let me easily extend the hike by half a mile or so based on how he was doing. Pretty quickly he was back to hiking our regular trails, even if he still tires a bit by the end, here he’s enjoying the view at The Amphitheater (real name, not one I made up) with saguaros and Cholla Mountain as the backdrop.

📷: Nikon Z 7II | Nikon 24-70 f/4
Date: October 22, 2023

A Love of Nature Trails

They may not be the best for exercise or for feeling like you’re alone in the wilderness, but I’m a huge fan of nature / interpretive trails. They’re accessible to a wide range of people and are great if you’re short on time, and often have a good sampling of the local flora. This is Bear at the Jane Rau Trail in February, I wanted to see how he’d do going over the bridge over the wash (he was unfazed). This loop is really short but a nice addition to the start or end of a longer hike and can offer up some pretty cool wildlife, I’ve seen a bobcat and a gila monster here.

Friends in High Places

As part of getting Bear ready for hiking again I took him for the first time to the short trail up the hill in Cavalliere Park. He loves looking out from up high so I gave him a moment to take in the view. I always try to sneak in the four mountains that helped me get my bearings when we moved here, especially Brown’s Mountain just above his nose as well as Cholla Mountain above his shoulders and Granite Mountain above his rump. Cone Mountain is blocked by vegetation but would be to his left.

It’s Gotta Be the Shoes

On a couple of recent hikes Bear picked up some large prickers that took a while to remove, we may have to try again to get him to wear shoes on his hikes. We tried in April but he just lay there in his humiliation, whispering “Don’t let the cats see me like this.” You have my word Bear, you have my word.

Not a Candidate

It’s Fat Bear Week at the National Park Service where you can vote for your favorite chonk fattened up for the Alaskan winter. No matter how much you love him you can’t vote for this Bear however as he’s lost over 20 pounds since we adopted him. I didn’t take him hiking much over the summer since you have to be up pretty early to beat the heat and I couldn’t manage it. We’re back at it now but he’s gotten pretty out of shape and is gassed by the end of our normal hikes, so I’ve switched him to shorter hikes while he builds back his endurance.

Thankfully he does ask to lie down when he wants a break and on this occasion when we stopped for water it gave me a chance to photograph him as though he was paying homage to my favorite saguaro, which I call The Green Elephant. In truth he still isn’t interested in her, putting her in good company as he’s also not interested in bobcats, rattlesnakes, and tarantulas. He is interested in just about anything that moves in front of him but I’ll say this for the great matriarch, she doesn’t move much.

Layers Upon Layers

This picture of Bear at the end of a winter afternoon hike has several layers of meaning to me. When we first adopted him he was overweight and slightly limped even on shorter walks in the neighborhood, and his manners precluded taking him into areas with lots of people and dogs. It took months getting him physically and mentally ready for long walks before I was willing to try him on less-visited trails far from trailheads. Take to the trails he did, while he enjoys his neighborhood walks he has a special love for the desert and when we’re about to head out he practically knocks me over as he scampers to the back of the garage and waits beside my hatchback.

As his progress continued I started taking him to more and more populated trails, culminating in this our first visit to my favorite place, the Brown’s Ranch trailhead. We took my favorite hike, finishing up at Sunset Vista with the sun sinking low in the sky, stopping for a snack break and some pictures before dropping down the hill to the car. I was growing confident we had a lot of desert hikes in our future, as he did well even with the off-leash dogs we encountered.

I snuck Brown’s Mountain into the background as I love to do, as this landmark more than any other was the anchor that helped me find my bearings when we moved here and it felt like we were in a never-ending whirlwind, with this part of the preserve my refuge in stormy seas. The looming mountain would add an extra layer of meaning to the picture a week later when for the first time I took him up its flank to the overlook, watching him enraptured as it slowly dawned on me he had never been up that high before.

It’s now far too hot for any evening hikes and we haven’t been into the desert for weeks since I haven’t been able to get up early enough to beat the heat. Long swims will have to do until I can manage an early rise, but even then I’ll avoid trails with elevation gain until cooler weather arrives in the fall.

What? All The Dogs Are Sitting This Way Now

The View From Home

One of the things I love about our house is the view of the mountains in the distance when you walk in. For months now though this is the view I often first see when I come home from work. Sometimes Bear greets me at the door and runs off to find a toy for us to play with, but if he’s sleepy he rolls over and asks for a belly rub. There may be wiggling involved lest such a subtle gesture go unnoticed.

A New If Old Leash

Another picture of Bear and The Elephant, taken towards the end of an afternoon hike a few months ago. It’s hot enough now that such walks are verboten, it’s early morning or nothing. Evening swims are now on the table though! I have switched back to this leash, which we bought on the day we adopted Ellie in 2009. We have fancier leashes but I’ve always come back to this one.

Bear’s Classroom

A map of NE Scottsdale showing with red traces many of the trails my dog Bear and I have hiked since December 2022.

If you’re wondering where Bear has been matriculating since Christmas, this map shows many (but not all) of the trails we’ve hiked in the massive preserve to our north, east, and south. I’ve tried to give him a variety of experiences on several dozen hikes as we’ve traversed probably 150-200 miles of trails, and he’s been an eager student. I didn’t think anyone could love hiking in the desert more than I do, but we may have a contender. I’ve never chased my tail when I find out I’m about to go on a hike!

Even if I let him outside before we go, he likes to poop pretty early on in the hike, partially to leave his scent for the animals of the desert but mostly to let them know who’s in charge based on who’s carrying whose poop. It’s kind of hard to argue the point!