Great Walks

I recently read a diatribe about dogs.  You know, the usual thing.  Dogs stir up ground nesting birds, they leave poop, they startle people on the trails. 

Which got me to thinking about all the great walks I have taken with my various dogs.  I have been lucky to have had dogs (other than when I was growing up) since 1979.  That's thirty years of my life with dogs.  A lot of walks.

The thing is, dogs make you get up in the morning, poke your head out the door, and get outside.  In our increasingly virtual world, dogs make sure we know reality.  They get me to exercise, to walk or run in the rain, snow, sleet, hail, thunder and lightening.

I have witnessed all sorts of nature:  I have  seen Egrets on Long Island Sound, Herons on Puget Sound, Red-tail, sharp-shinned, Coopers hawks, Merlins, Kestrels, Bald and Golden eagles while walking my dogs.  I have seen fly catchers, phoebes, wrens, sparrows, thrushes, chick-a-dees, warblers, and bluebirds.  I have been entertained by Harbor seals and Sea lions, otters, and even whales.  Moose, elk, deer, even a bear, once, just ahead on a trail near Mt. Baker.  All while being outside with my dog.

I have walked paths, trails, sidewalks, old railroad grades.  I have bushwhacked, swam, slide, climbed, skied, with my dogs.  We have walked or ran trails in Park City, New York City, Vermont, Arizona, the beaches of California, the mountains of northern Montana.  We have met life long friends because of the dogs.

My dogs have kept me grounded when I needed it and helped me soar when I wanted to.  

My life, truly, is much much better because of all the great walks I have taken with my dogs.

Murphy's day.