Merry Christmas to All

lovely inaugural snowshoe run (thanks david for steering me in the right direction). now we can eat and drink anything we want for the rest of the day!

Merry Christmas everyone!

more winter wonderland

even though i'm not working today, we were out fairly early. good for ALL of us to get out! the dogs love their stays at spa boise kennels (halle runs in like she's getting a big fat steak every single time), but they seem to really enjoy the first trail walk after they get home...... and as much time as we have spent in airports & on planes since sunday evening i was ready for some movement and open space as well.

we saw some folks headed up the chickadee trail, and i decided that since the dogs were feeling a bit high spirited we'd be better off not meeting them and their dogs (who were cruising through the brush, not giving me a good feeling of them being controlled) so we went down to the scary trees. glad we did because the rose hips are just gorgeous and red and look beautiful with the snow. sort of a challenge being leashed on the downhill part there, but it was all good.

these guys just love the snow! they had a nice romp.

there were sled tracks in quite a few places. can't blame dogs or mountain bikes for this one. probably not so bad as long as it's on top of the snow, but i saw dirt coming through in more than a few places. and tracks off the trails.

looks like things have been busy. the trails (red fox) and chickadee weren't icy this morning, there's still a layer of snow on top, but that could change.

saw 4 with dogs, 3 groups following the rules, one group not (the women coming up chickadee with the dogs cruising the brush came down through the trees behind us with their dogs off leash) and one runner without a dog.

happy holidays everyone!

more snow expected - watch out for icy trails!

due to work obligations and preparing to head outta town for the holidays, i haven't been on any R2R trails since last saturday, but even then some of the lower trails were quite icy in a few places. i can't imagine how slippery red cliffs or hull's gulch or upper reserve trails might've been! - i saw one gal change her mind and run down red fox instead, just to be safe. and with the partial thaw/refreeze/more snow cycle, it could be pretty treacherous. my older dogs' paws don't get quite the traction they used to. :)

am restocking leashes at the 4 camel's back-area trailheads today. remember, this program is titled "lend-a-leash" - please be courteous to others and don't take the leashes home for your personal use. and have a wonderful holiday season!

hasta la vista

happy holidays!

off on vacation until next tuesday. hopefully tracy, paula or margie will post.

in the meantime, ridge to rivers staff has posted a trail report for this year that includes comments received from the public- calls, emails and comments to rangers over the year.

for those of us who don't run into problems it's a reminder that other people do, and shows how challenging it must be to meet the needs of all user groups.

we also got a nice call out, so thanks again for all of the hard work!

http://www.ridgetorivers.org/ ridge to rivers 2008 trail use survey

snow!

we drove up 8th street to where the gate is closed for a walk in the snow. the gate is now up past the parking lot, which makes it easier to park- it used to get quite busy at the gate, and hard to turn around, etc. the problem with this is that the lot is up a pretty steep hill...

here's how it looked when we got out of the car
we headed up the road and couldn't quite make out what this was in the road.

it was the remains of a fire- still smoking, with glowing coals. we kicked snow over it to be sure it was out, confused about why anyone would be camping up here in the snow & building a fire in the road.

that question was answered around the next turn. not good.

by the time we came back, the car had been pulled out of the ditch.

the usual beautiful muted winter colors- willow, grass, sage-

happy goofy halle b capering through the snow....

the snow was about 6 inches deep when we started (i mentioned gaiters at home and steve said oh, we won't need those- well, they would have come in handy!)

here you can see how deep the snow was higher up. echo is a good trail breaker! :)

what a great way to start the day! there were quite a few people out lower down, too- the snow not keeping too many people inside!

happy holidays!

what's the answer?

how can 30 degrees in boise seem so much warmer than 40 in dallas? maybe the lack of that damp, cutting wind?

anyway- beautiful frosty morning, and i was so glad to be outside and walking after hours in airports & on planes yesterday.

watched these folks running with their dogs from chickadee. the dogs both stayed close, probably don't bother other people or other dogs. this dog was behind the runners the whole time i was watching. maybe these folks make sure the dogs poop before they let them off leash, or maybe they go back & pick up once a week if they don't while they're running. i don't know, i don't know them.

i do know that the poop situation is getting worse and everyone who does not pick up ruins it for the rest of us. and those people will probably not start picking up, but the rest of us will lose access.

then there's toby's owner. toby running ahead of him loose on the on leash trail. i wasn't sure there was a person with toby for a minute. when i did see the owner, i called "please get your dog". we sat off the trail, he called toby, leashed him up and walked by us. no problem- until i mentioned that the off leash section started over the hill and he said "i know". at which point i sort of yelled after him "this will all be on leash if we can't follow the rules"

which is ridiculous, because i will still be following the rules and he will still be disregarding them unless we can get some more consistent enforcement.

then there's this guy, hiking up the hill- on the on leash trails above camel's back. dog bounding all over- up over the hill out of sight, back down to the trail.

my question is what exactly the fcac thinks they will accomplish by making more trails on leash when the city cannot even enforce the rules we have. i don't understand why the officers are sent to green parks to write tickets when we asked for enforcement in the foothills to help us make this work.

i don't understand how, when people currently flaunt the rules by having dogs off leash on polecat and on the trails above camel's back and around the pond and near the foothills learning center, making more trails on leash with the same amount of enforcement is going to work.

and i don't understand the dog owners who don't pick up after their dogs or follow the leash rules and who let dogs chase bikes, runners and wildlife and jump up on people. those people are not the majority, and i am certain that we can change behavior over time, but it sure gets frustrating when i hear stories about dogs knocking down kids or chasing bikes.

and of course, after all of that, i met 2 groups of well behaved people with well behaved (and leashed) dogs on the way out of the park to remind me that there are people who get it and who care.

6 with, 4 without

winter wonderland

beautiful morning. nice and quiet and not too cold. saw a hawk hunting between red fox and chickadee and lots of blackbirds hunkered down.

and one without, 3 with.

off to texas tomorrow, so unless tracy, margie or paula will blog it'll be quiet until thursday.

have a good week.