The Blond Wolf is Back
The Blond Wolf is back!
Two and a half years ago Abby hurt her knee. She tore her cranial cruciate ligament (the canine equivalent of her ACL) and needed surgery to fix it. The operation was successful and she completely recovered. Afterwards she could do all the things she used to do. Fetch balls. Play frisbee. Hike in the mountains. This winter she hurt her other knee and needed surgery again. Based on her previous experience we were optimistic that she could fully recover again, but we weren't sure. This time her injury was much worse than the first time. She's also older, something that I have learned from personal experience makes a big difference. So as she healed we increased her activity slowly. She did physical therapy for four weeks. We started doing very short walks in the neighborhood, gradually increasing the length up to our normal hour long walks. We started playing fetch and frisbee, just a few short tosses at first. Now it was three months since her surgery and time to do a real test - a hike in the mountains.
Abby has to wait for her slow human hiking partner
I have to admit that all through the winter, I had some trouble with my knee on our daily walks too. Between the pandemic shutting down our travel and Abby being unable to hike, I hadn't done anything harder than a walk in the park for a long time either. I needed something to test how well my knee would hold up on a real hike rather than a stroll through the neighborhood.
I picked something easy and familiar - hiking up Shafer Butte from the upper lodge at Bogus Basin. Abby and I have done it many times. It's short, only three miles round trip, but it's 750 feet of elevation gain. It would give us a chance to do some real uphill and downhill to test Abby's knee (and mine too). While it's close to home, it's remote enought that Abby could run free rather than be on a leash. I wanted to see if she could handle the steep slopes beside the trail. Plus we would actually be out in the mountains.
Abby is sure there is something out there
It was the first day of summer and the forecast was for unusually hot weather. The high was predicted to be pushing a hundred degrees in Boise. Even though it is ten to twelve degrees cooler up at Bogus, that would still be hot for hiking in the afternoon. To avoid the heat we made an early start and were at the upper lodge by 9:30. As soon as we reached the parking lot Abby started to whine before I even stopped the car. It had been a long time since her last hike and she was really anxious to be in the hills again.
Unfortunately things had changed since the last time we were up here and we ran into a problem right away. Just past the lodge the sno-cat track leading up to the ski lift was blocked with tape and marked with signs "No hiking - bike park". WTF? I couldn't believe that the whole mountain had been turned into a bike park. Since there was no one around I ignored the signs and ducked under the tape. Two minutes later, next to the top of the lift, I found some large signs showing the layout of the new bike park, or "Gravity Park" as I learned it was called. Fortunately it only extended from the top of the lift down to the lower lodge, so Abby and I had only cut across about a hundred feet of the park. The route above to the top of the mountain was still open to hikers so we were able to (legally) continue on.
Looking out over Boise and the Treasure Valley
The hike up was great. The temperature was in the sixties - just about perfect. Abby was enjoying being in the mountains again where she could be off leash. She would race ahead or stop to sniff or wander off the trail to check something out. Her knee seemed to be doing fine. I watched her carefully and I couldn't see her favoring it at all. Up and down the mountain was no problem. She was a little more conservative than usual in that she only went diving off the trail once to chase something, but I thought that was a good thing.
When we reached the summit area we went past the lookout tower to the absolute highest point, right next to the base of the new communications tower. Although the view is expansive, the top of Shafer Butte is not exactly a wilderness setting. But the hike up and down feels more remote, going through the forest, with lots of wildflowers. There are some nice trails although this time we just went up and down the cat track.
On the very highest point of Shafer Butte
We had the mountain pretty much to ourselves too. Above the lodge and the ski lift we only saw one other party, but that was exciting. Coming down I heard a noise and looked behind me just as a guy zoomed by us on a mountain bike. Fortunately Abby was close by right then and I was able to grab her before the guy went flying past. When she is engrossed in following smells she is oblivious to everything else and will often dart right in front of someone. If she did that with the bike, as fast as it was going either she or the rider could be badly hurt. It was especially dangerous because the track curved around the mountain at that point so you couldn't see very far ahead. While it's probably fun to race downhill after a hard ride up, I don't think it's a good idea to do it on a multiuse trail. At least the rider yelled "three more" after he went flying past so I knew to hold on to Abby for a few minutes until three more bikes appeared around the corner and went whizzing by. It was annoying but at least they were the only people we saw the whole time we were hiking.
Taking a break in the shade
When we got back to the top of the ski lift, I found a bypass trail for hikers that let us get (legally) around the bike park, so our outlaw days were over. When we reached the lodge Abby raced ahead to the car - I think she was thirsty. I grabbed the small cooler I had brought along and found a place to sit in the shade. Abby drank almost a liter of water while I downed a cold Diet Coke.
It was a good day. The weather was perfect, the hike was fun and we both felt good. Most importantly, we were ok to do more hiking again!
