I got to hike from April Bowl to Government Peak and down along the Blueberry Koll Trail with a couple of friends today. I did this interesting traverse last year with my friend Pam, so Dela, another hiking friend asked me about it. When she asked if I'd like to join her group, I jumped right in for the opportunity. It is best to put a car at each end so you don't have to backtrack to April Bowl. I had forgotten how strenuous and difficult this route really is! I think Pam and I had avoided a few of the shortcuts that didn't turn out to be shortcuts on our previous hike. We ended up needing to go straight up instead of just toughing it out and climbing on the rocks. But it was all good. We were a little worried at first because clouds seemed to be forming around the tops of the mountains. Getting caught in a thunderstorm up there would not be a good thing at all. But the clouds were just dancing along in and out and were never threatening. They even cleared when we got to the top and offered some more interesting views. It took us over 8 hours to complete the 8 mile trek. I'll be a little sore for a while I suspect.
On the April Bowl portion a big loose dog came along. As I bent down to grab Baby, another big loose dog raced over to us and grabbed my poor little dog by her back. I wrapped myself around her to protect her and screamed until the owner came and pulled her dog off of Baby. We were both so shook up, Baby was shaking and so was I. Fortunately Baby only had a small cut on her leg and I was not hurt. We were able to continue. The dog owner was very apologetic and nice about it, but no one should have a loose dog on a popular trail like that. I'm so relieved that we weren't hurt. It was a horribly scary experience. But other than that, it was a wonderful hike with Dela and Rebecca. They were good sports on this tough hike.
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