Climb Every Mountain

I'm a dog.  I climbed a mountain.  It's true.  In preparation for taking her campers hiking, Alicia and I did a test-hike at Sugarloaf Mountain, a free mountain owned and operated by a non-profit organization, in Dickerson, MD.  It was about an hour away from home, and I knew I'd need every ounce of energy I could muster, so I slept the whole car ride there while Alicia drove.

Once we arrived I anxiously jumped out of the car and was ready to go!  We parked about halfway up the mountain and started hiking the White Trail.  One thing that was great about the hike was that we were some of the only people hiking the mountain.  I tend to get distracted very easily, so this was perfect for me.  With no one to get me off track I just focused on making my way up, down and around the mountain.

Taking in the scenery.

Looking for options other than climbing
over the fallen tree.

No other options. Gotta climb!

After hiking for about an hour, we detoured off the white trail and took the blue trail up to a parking area for a snack.  While we were up there, we found this cool area where they'd constructed an overlook and decided to see what we could see.

I see...trees.

You can't tell, but the other side of this wall is a straight
20 ft. drop to semi-jagged rocks. I'm a daredevil!

After this we walked down to the bottom of the mountain and then...all the way back up to the tippy tippy top!  To get to the peak, we took the Orange Trail, which is an incredibly steep 1/4 mile hike.  Alicia was worried that I wouldn't be able to do it, but I powered through and made it to the top.

We made it!

I'm the Queen of the World!

A celebratory earstyle I tried out.

I think it makes me look regal.

On our way back down to the car we came across our first group of people.  It was a camp group!  Full of kids!  Who wanted to pet me!  If I thought the feeling of accomplishment from hiking was good, getting pet and scratched and adored by 12 children at the same time was unbelievable!  And then they thanked Alicia for the privilege of petting me.  Not too shabby.

But then things took a turn for the worst.  Just as we were nearing the end of the trail, the wind picked up and it started to rain.  A total downpour.  Now, I have no problem with thunder or lightning.  But rain...I hate rain.  I loathe rain.  I despise rain.  It makes you get wet.  I do not like wet unless I'm drinking.  So I pulled Alicia along and we ran to the car.  She opened the back door and was futzing with my carrier door while I was getting soaked, so I just hopped right in the car and laid down in the foot well.

It's nice and dry here.  I'm not leaving.

Alicia spent a minute or so trying to coax me out of the well and into the carrier, but there was no way I was going out in this rain.  No sir.  I had big plans to curl up and sleep while I dried off.

Taking my well-deserved nap.

And that's exactly what I did.

Good hike!  Let's do it again sometime when it isn't raining.