An Afternoon on the River

We spent Saturday afternoon on the SUP, with my mom and grandma in kayaks. Koira stayed at home, because she is loud and pushy and not super fun to have along for most people (though I love how much she enjoys it).

Flight is finally getting more used to the SUP and getting pretty confident on it. He even jumped off on purpose twice, to go visit my mom in her kayak.

There were a ton of birds on the river. We saw many blue herons, and osprey, as well as king fishers and some other birds. And ducks, of course, which Ptera really wanted to go chase, but she restrained herself.

The day was beautiful, warm enough to be fun, but not hot. There was a bit of smoke, but not nearly as bad as what was here last week, so we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

The water sports season is fast coming to an end, and, like every year, I am realizing we didn't get out nearly enough.

July/August Hiking Goals

I skipped the July update of our hiking goals for the year. We didn't actually go hiking at all in July. I know. Pretty bad, considering we have so few dry months here.

My favorite SUP selfie so far this summer

In July, I did make it out on the paddleboard and kayak a few times. I went to a small, local lake with my mom a few times.

Playing with the GoPro at the local lake

"Docking" the SUP and going for the dismount

I also went camping at the coast for a few days with a friend and her family. We took out the paddleboard and some kayaks to Beaver Creek on the coast. I mostly stuck to the SUP, but did take a spin in the kayak. We camped at South Beach State Park, which was a lot of fun, but I didn't get a single photo of our campsite (we were in yurts) or of the beach. Or of the beach at Pacific City when we went there at the end of the week.

Kayaking a little at Beaver Creek

The first week of August, I slammed my week full of water trips. I started with a trip to Olalla lake with a friend who has never kayaked. I helped her put a big, super fun check mark on her bucket list, and had the opportunity myself to get out and have a great time.

The next day, I headed down to a reservoir near Eugene with a friend, where we spent a very smokey day out on the water. The Willamette Valley has been in smoke almost all summer, it feels like, from wildfires in Oregon, Washington, and even some smoke coming all the way from the big BC wildfires.

In a reservoir near Eugene- it wasn't overcast at all, that haze is all smoke

Then, I headed to the Silverton lake the next day to meet up with another friend and enjoy yet another day on the water. I was exhausted, but it was an amazingly fun week. It wasn't quite planned to be like that, rather, I made plans with three people and kept forgetting that I had plans. But somehow it all worked out, and I had an awesome week.

Still a smoky day, but much clearer in Silverton than in Eugene the day before

I went whitewater rafting with our flyball team boxloader and his friends/family, which was pretty awesome. I got exactly zero photos, and didn't have a dog with me, and didn't know anyone except the one person, but it was an absolute blast. So much fun.

I also had a chance to hit the beach once in August, even though I rarely do the beach in Oregon in the summer.

Posing on the beach

And went back to an old favorite hike, Drift Creek Falls. There was actually a tree down across the road and a few people had parked and hiked in the last mile to the trailhead. But, with teamwork between three carloads of people, we managed to move the tree out of the road with zero tools. That kind of eclipsed the hike, to be honest. It felt awesome to come together with a team of strangers and get something done that would have been impossible alone.

Classic sign photo

Having a tiny dog willing to balance on things is pretty fun sometimes

Trailhead mileage sign

I just love the suspension bridge at Drift Creek Falls. It scares me, but I have been slowly tackling my fear of heights (remember that I went ziplining in the Redwoods in California?). This is a solid bridge in good condition, but narrow enough with open looking sides to be scary, but with chainlink and solid boards, so you can use it to conquer fears.

Drift Creek suspension bridge

What have you been doing in the great outdoors this summer? Any fun plans before summer ends? I'm hoping to get some more hiking in this month, and at least a few more SUP trips as well.

Happy Spring

Today is actually cold, grey, and raining. Which, to be honest, is pretty typical for spring in Oregon. Yesterday, however, was amazing. The day started off cold, the night had been below freezing, but it warmed up and was clear, bright, and sunny all day.



I met up with some friends for the day, and we went for our first kayak trip of the year. That is my sunrise colored kayak in front, waiting to hit the water for the first time since August. My wrist wasn't thrilled with paddling, but my friends were awesome. I got a tow for part of our trip to help my wrist out, and shared a tandem kayak for a short jaunt as well.

After we finished up our trip, we stopped at a burger place and sat at the outside tables for lunch. I managed to, between kayaking and lunch, get a pretty nasty sunburn (bad enough I was running a fever last night). But overall, I have to say, it was an awesome last day of winter.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Much as I love her, Koira has some habits that I am not particularly fond of. Probably the biggest one is that she gets over the top excited and obsessive. When we go paddleboarding, Koira spends the entire time leaping off the SUP, swimming after the kayaks (I always go on the river with at least one other person, for both safety and fun), climbing back on the SUP and using it as a launching pad again. And barking the entire time, with a deep booming bell like bark.

Landshark locked, loaded, and launched!

She loves going paddleboarding. But she isn't the most enjoyable dog to take along in some ways. I said from the beginning that I hoped she didn't end up teaching Ptera all of her bad habits. 

Obviously Ptera is very excited by Koira's excitement and movement.

Honestly, I should have known better. I guess if I don't want Ptera to copy Koira, I can't take them out together. Because this little JRT has some serious terrier tenacity and high drive, which is just driven on even more by Koira's over the top excitement. I guess I am destined to have crazy dogs on the paddleboard with me. Or swimming after it.

Monkey see, monkey do. While Ptera doesn't spend as much time jumping off the SUP and swimming, she is confident enough to leap off into the water a few times before she gets cold.

Do your dogs teach each other things? I feel like it can work both ways. A well behaved dog with good habits and routines helps train a new dog to behave the same way. But when that same dog does crazy things like barking her head off and leaping into the water repeatedly (and then turning around to sharkbite the front of the SUP), those habits and behaviors appear to transfer as well.

I see some solo SUP trips in the future for me and Ptera, to try to get some more polite and enjoyable behavior, before the barking and craziness gets too ingrained.

4th on the Water

Much like last year, I decided to spent the 4th on the water with friends.

This was Ptera's first time on the SUP. She is a confident dog, so I wasn't too worried about her.

Koira is a bit on the crazy side when it comes to paddleboarding. She likes to leap off the SUP and swim after the kayaks, bite the front of the various boats, and bite the paddles as they go by. And then she asks to come back up on the board to start all over again.

Ptera actually jumped in after Koira a good number of times. She also fearlessly swam between the SUP and the kayaks, rode in every boat we had, and would jump back and forth between them when we were close enough together.

My fearless little girls had a great time. I just hope Koira doesn't teach Ptera to be totally crazy while on the water- she is already teaching Ptera to bark loudly when she wants something exciting to happen.

With a SUP, my kayak, and a borrowed kayak, we managed to have a great two hours on the water, despite car troubles my friend had that could have totally derailed our plans and ruined the fun, if we had let them.

How did you spend the 4th? Have you kayaked or SUPed with your dog?

Wordless Wednesday: The end of the trip

This is what the end of a SUP/kayak trip looks like

When Things Get Wet

I decided to see if my dogs liked to go kayaking. That is to say, I wanted to see if they would stay in the boat or flip me over with their wiggling and jumping. We normally kayak on rivers but decided a still lake would be the safest way to try out kayaking with the pups.



Both dogs actually did pretty well for the most part. Pallo was just about perfect once in the boat. Koira was a bit squirmy and whined a bit. I think Koira preferred to swim, actually.

Check out how cute Pallo is perched in the kayak in the video below (video taken by my mom via a helmet cam).



After trying out the kayaking for an hour and a half (during which Koira was allowed to get out and swim a few times), we went back to shore, packed up the boats, and played fetch for a little bit.







Koira really loves the water. Like, a lot. She thinks it is the most awesome thing ever.



All of the video and pictures during fetch were taken by Koira herself, with the camera mounted on her life jacket. (Safety note: no matter how good of a swimmer you or your dog is, you should always wear a life jacket when boating.)