Big Bear Re-Do Day 2

Tuesday in Big Bear.  By the way, did I mention that my parents rented the cabin right next door to the one ffluffy and I stayed in?  It was a nice cabin- great location of course, huge deck and no problems with ants or anything.  The room the dogs and I stayed in was upstairs and boy oh boy, what stairs.  Very steep and wooden, so slippy.  I was very careful and made sure the dogs were careful since the malinois in particular wanted to run down and loose control and get hurt.

We decided to give Butler Peak a try today.  I thought I was probably well enough to make it and I was right.  This is a 9 mile round trip with 1000 feet (or more) elevation gain.  Dad used his altimeter to measure it.  I drank lots of water.  The only problem was for some reason I thought it was only 6 miles so I gave the dogs their first water at 2 miles, thinking I would water again at 4 then at 6 when we got home.  It didn't quite work out that way.  Pie drinks so much water it is impossible to carry enough.  Everyone survived but they were thirsty. 

Starting off- the road was graveled for the fist few miles- hard on the dog's paws.

Dad with his trusty walking stick and Mom with her trusty Dad.

Me and my new Camelbak.  I like their slogan- Hydrate or Die.  So true.

Our first sight of the fire tower, zoomed in through the still dead trees.  It hasn't really grown back since the fire several years ago.

Pie kept running ahead and  taking Kerby with her, so I tried sitting her instead of calling her back each time, because then she was just running too much.

At our first break.

The only thing to pose with was this tree.

Dottie has mostly gown out of carrying a stick on hikes, but she gave it a try for a few seconds.

I like this line up.  Dottie was right behind me, as usual.

Pie in the shade with the tower getting closer!

afasdfasd

Trying to pose dogs but the 2 youngest got distracted.

More up hill!

Almost there.

Such a view!

We made it to the top and immediately sat down and had lunch.

This time we did not go up the tower- I've been up there 3 times now- so this is the closest I got.

Fancy and Kerby relaxing/ recovering.

And going back down.  It was a long way down.

What does Fancy see?

Fancy gets points for being such a good dog.

Almost back to the car and the heat and stones are getting the better of 10 year old Fancy and young Dottie who lacks stamina and always has.

However Pie presses on and is not tired.

Back at the Jeep!  We all made it!  I carried Fancy for the last mile, feeling sad for her- this is the first time she has ever showed her age.

The Malinois helped themselves to the outdoor couch once we got home.

And left Fancy with the little towel.  Poor Fancy.

I should also mention that in addition to hiking, we went into town several times, ate at lots of good restaurants (Boo Bear is always a favorite and Sizzler turned out to be surprisingly good), walked around the neighborhood and watched a movie every night.  Let's see if I can remember- Shooter, Sahara and... nope, can't remember the third one.