As I press the “Publish” button to make this post live it is April 9th, 2024 and the 1 year anniversary of the day I decided to accept Gia into my life. A lot has happened with us in that first year and she has improved dramatically. In that time frame she and I have …
Category: Nature
While searching for new camping spots in the Mendocino National Forest Gia and I came across a beautiful young dog wandering on a road in Upper Lake, California. I immediately pulled over and hoped he might want to be rescued and not run away like so many other of our rescue attempts end. Luckily all …
Fair warning: This post has almost no pictures. The incident happened over the course of a very hectic and tense 10 minutes and there was no time (or even thought) of stopping to get a camera to document the situation. ======================= We spent about two weeks in the Mendocino National Forest with the dog we …
Soon after bringing Gia into my life we traveled to Humboldt County, CA to visit some lifelong friends who knew and loved my first two dogs, Nohkuma (“Kuma”) and Willow. After a short visit where my friends put themselves on the line to help socialize Gia the possibility arose for a camping and fishing trip …
From a very early age, maybe 10-12 years old, I can remember making several repeated observations about how I differed from people around me. One, and I have no idea how this conversation came up, was that I could smell the sulfurous compounds in my urine after eating asparagus while other people could not. While …
My last dog, Kuma, was a Northern Breed (predominantly Karelian Bear Dog). When he was in his prime we played and camped in snowy conditions regularly. With Willow being a shorter-haired sun and heat enthusiast I have substantially cut back on my normal winter camping schedule. To keep both of us on our toes we …
We were down in the Arizona desert hanging out for a few days before meeting up with friends. Our spot was a few miles outside of Quartzsite at a place we have stayed a few times before. Out of the way, the barest hint of freeway noise, no one around during the week and a …
One of the best outdoor writers in America (IMHO) is Tom Stienstra who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and has done so for well over three decades. In 2008 he wrote an article titled Soul-soaring views await from perch above Heart Lake. In it he beautifully described the hike to and the views from …
While in the general area quenching our thirst to find out about the Corona Satellite Calibration Targets we had seen signs mentioning the Sonoran Desert National Monument and wanted to go explore. Sitting about 60 miles southwest of Phoenix it comprises 496,600 acres of cactus forests among untrammeled plains and rugged mountain ranges. It was …
Arriving in the area just in time for the annual chili cook-off sponsored by the Whiskey Runners Motorcycle Club we decided to find a different spot from our normal place near the base of Saddle Mountain. Turning off of West Courthouse Rd onto West Salome Highway right under the Highline power lines we saw some …