Our first REAL hike

Today was our first morning hike, which is when we enjoy the river most. Also it was around 45º and drizzling which means pretty much the only thing you get are dog people. And when we ran into old friends and a couple of new ones we asked to get our picture taken, in hopes of getting a good one. As it turned out, I was happy with all the pictures we got, so here they are. As usual, click on the pictures if you want to see a bigger version:










Suzanne took the one above, while Cody waited patiently.













The people who took the above picture were nice but I'd never met them or their dog - and I still don't know their name!













The person who took the above picture was also a stranger before today, but now I know her name is Katie. Regrettably, I didn't get the names of any of her three dogs. Amazingly, she lived for two years in Galena, AK, which is a checkpoint on the Iditarod trail - I think on the northern route, which they take in odd numbered years. You just never know who you'll run into at Pony Pasture.













The above picture was taken by - get this - a person who I know his dogs names but not his name. Although I do know he's a Virginia Tech fan and he does a lot of bicycling, so that's good. And he's got a great looking Bernese Mountain Dog named Cody and I think a little Golden named Theo.

And that was the last of our pictures today; I think we're pretty saturated. I was wearing my 2006 Yukon Quest baseball cap that was autographed by Lance Mackey at the Quest that year when I was up there, and I was wearing my 16 dogs, 2,049 miles, No Problem Lance Mackey sweatshirt so I could show people Mackey's name on the back. For those of you who don't know what that sweatshirt means, and where Mackey got his name - although I mentioned it in another post - Lance Mackey used the same 16 dogs to first win the Yukon Quest 1,000 Mile Sled Dog Race then two weeks later win the 1,049 mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race. 16 dogs, 2,049 miles, No Problem.