Soggy Adventures

Low: 62°
High: 81°

Conditions: Humid with daily chance of thundershowers. Flooding in the western mountains.

Here we are, embarking upon the start of July, and nary an extended outdoor adventure for the caninaturalist to speak of. An embarrassing oversight, to say the least. And so, worried that Ari's naturalist education might be lagging, we humans spent the weekend trying to rectify this neglect with a trip up into the Great North Woods.

There, we camped at the base of Maine’s highest mountain, Katahdin, with our best little friend Olivia and her parents.

It was a dodgy camping weekend filled with thunderstorms and a surprising amount of bear scat around the campground. These are just two possible reasons why the caninaturalist chose to make herself scarce for most of the weekend, evidently preferring the cave she created under our picnic table to any adventure around our campsite.

In fact, we might not have recognized this dog at all, were it not for our daytime adventures in the woods.

This is Gulf Hagas, often called "The Grand Canyon of Maine." Part of the 100 mile wilderness known to all Appalachian Trail hikers, it's also a great place for a day trip, filled as it is with history as one of the country's oldest ironworks. This ore oven is a vestige of that mostly-forgotten history of the region.

Even a kiln of this stature would have had a hard time staying lit with all the rains this weekend. Still--and undaunted by the weather--we set out on Monday to explore this, one of our favorite northern haunts.

The streams were up considerably from the weekend rain, which means the three of us had a very wet stream crossing early in the hike. Ever the champion, though, the caninaturalist was not deterred by a mere flood-stage stream.

Maybe it's because she knew what kind of natural wonders were awaiting us, like this loaded boulder, a veritable ecosystem onto itself:
Or these loons, caught as a blurry image across the pond (but still noticed by our cunning, blue-eyed dog):

Or this garter snake, taking advantage of a dry moment or two (before being snouted by a equally-curious cunining blue-eyed dog).

All of this, I think, is proof positive that a true caninaturalist attitude can overcome any conditions--so long as there are new friends to meet and trails to explore.