This photo is from the first day of the Cascadian Nomads epic drive from Seattle to Buffalo. We have many more great photos and fun stories to share as this amazing adventure continues. Thanks for hopping by! |
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Typist: Bethany The sleep at Lake Kegonsa State Park in Wisconsin was short but good. Unfortunately, upon morning greetings with the dogs, I found a lump on Brychwyn's head that was yet another attached (but dying) tick. I also noticed Wilhelm chewing at his foot and found an attached tick there too. Arg! We had finally crawled into the tent at midnight, after a brief walk just around our mowed campsite. I am doing my best to avoid and find ticks but I think I now understand why all of the dogs we have seen these last few days have been very short haired breeds like weimaraners and German short haired pinchers. I am determined to get the hang of this tick thing. This region is beautiful, lot's of dogs live and thrive here, I just need to get used to sharing the trails with these bugs and help the dogs healthily cope. This forest in Wisconsin sounded like a jungle! There were so many singing birds and croaking frogs that I could not specifically identify any one call. It was just a wonderful symphony of North American forest sounds. Obviously, all of the commotion outside the tent, made the dogs want out into it as early as possible. I agreed and we pleasantly shared the entire hike with all the singing, early rising forest critters, passing only one person and his very short haired dog. I knew in my research, that there was a pet friendly beach on Lake Kegonsa. Because the Nomad who knows how to read often does not do so before her coffee, it took us a while to follow the signs to the pet friendly beach. A hike is a hike, though, no matter where it lands us and we had a lovely time. The pet friendly area of the park included a forest that wound through forest and field, with plenty of barbeque pits and picnic tables near the pet beach so families with pets (on leashes unless in the water) can spend the day at the lake. We only got a taste of the trail system at Lake Kegonsa State Park. All of the trails are pet friendly and it would have been nice to have had time to hike more but we had one more long day of driving ahead of us. Before we left, we had another tick search and I am pleased to report that we had no more attached ticks! We didn't get to see much of Illinois since it was hazy and there was a lot of construction along our route. I considered stopping at one of their interstate oasis's but it never looked like there was enough shaded parking for a van full of dogs to rest. We'll be back in Illinois on our return trip and plan to spend a bit more time in this state. So our next stop on our day five, four state tour was at a shady rest stop in a very green Indiana. We arrived in Columbus, Ohio just before sunset. This stop was not at a campground, but a visit with a friend. We walked around our friends neighborhood which was not as much physical exercise as we have been getting on evening park hikes, but it was a lot of mental stimulation. There were people and dogs and cars and so much to sniff and enjoy. After this walk, the dogs were content to play and wrestle a bit inside of a house and lay on the carpet and chew. It was nice for them to be safely un-crated and off-leash. After being on the road for five days and nights, staying in a tent, this visit was a nice change of pace for all of the Cascadian Nomads. Plus, we only have a short drive until we reach our destination in New York. So exciting! Please forgive any & all rough spots in this post as it has been done on mobile from the road! We will be reading and enjoying your comments but, due to being in the road, it will be difficult for us to respond right away. Thanks for understanding and for coming along on this great adventure. Seattle to Buffalo with 3 Dogs Day 4: A Tough Minnesota Morning and Long Drive to Wisconsin6/4/2013 Typist: Bethany I woke from a pretty bad nights sleep (each itch any of us had in the tent meant the light went on and a tick search occurred) to lovely woodland bird songs and a perky collie hovering over me attempting to give me some morning kisses, but he had a tick hanging from his lip. Yuck. Fortunately, our topical tick medicine was doing it's job and this tick was not engorged but almost dead. Day 2 ended with ticks, and day 3 began with ticks. This is a tough region to travel through with three long haired dogs. Needless to say, we did more grooming. Wilhelm also had an attached but dying tick on him. We did enjoy Buffalo River State Park in Minnesota a bit more before leaving the campground. We thoroughly shook and wiped every piece of bedding, avoided the grassland trails and we left way, way later than planned. I was definitely inspired to push on, though, because when filling up the gas tank I realized that we were over half way through our journey East. The West sure is big! The rest of the day was just driving. I had a creepy-crawly free nap at a rest stop and the dogs were SO incredibly good, patient and quiet, I wanted to scream at times (like while stuck in Minneapolis rush hour traffic) but the dogs constant good attitudes and amazing resilience helped me hold it together. I also considered abandoning our schedule and using the buffer day I had allowed us for arrival on time in New York but Jason and I both agreed it would be best for the dogs to press on and arrive in the Eastern U.S. as scheduled. We pulled into our campsite in Wisconsin way later than we would have liked and way after dark. The only fun thing that happened day four, after leaving Buffalo River State Park was this: What matters is that we did make it to our campsite in Wisconsin and we are all happy to be here. And the best part of all is that we Cascadian Nomads will be having many more fun adventures together, ticks and traffic or not! Please forgive any & all rough spots in this post as it has been done on mobile from the road! We will be reading and enjoying your comments but, due to being on the road, it will be difficult for us to respond right away. Thanks for understanding and for coming along on this great adventure. Typist: Bethany The Montana Badlands sun warmed our tent and got us going bright and early. I'm glad it did because all of us Cascadian Nomads were looking forward to hiking through Makoshika State Park in Eastern Montana. While I packed up camp, 'R' Blood on the Tracks Boys enjoyed hanging out on the grass. We walked just across the street from the campground to the trail head and hiked into the Badlands. The clay was cooling and the views were indescribably beautiful. I felt so lucky to have enjoyed this lovely trail all by ourselves. The boys loved sniffing the spring green sages and ancient rocks as we all panted our way up one of the sandstone peaks. With worn out dogs, it was time to hit the highway again. It seemed like no time at all before there was another state to add to our "States I've Visited" t-shirts. We were warmly welcomed into North Dakota by their breath taking Badlands at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Dogs are not allowed down into Painted Canyon but we enjoyed strolling the rim if the canyon, sniffing the breeze (and bison pies,) rolling in the tall grass and making friends. As always, the Cascadian Nomad canines are a big attraction, even with a natural wonder like the Painted Valley to compete with. One woman asked if Huxley was a collie and Newfoundland cross which cracked us up because we had not heard that one before... and he might be because he is such a huge collie! I made a mom smile when I commended her on teaching her kids good dog etiquette- they asked very politely if they could pet my dogs. It was hard to tear them all away from each other after that... Driving on all the way through North Dakota, we arrived at Buffalo River State Park in Minnesota, across the North Dakota border, right before sunset. We had a lot of fun playing in the sand along the river bed. Then we ran through the mowed grassland that is part of the Muskoda Interpretive Trail. This was great fun until Brychwyn began to repeatedly shake his head. We stopped and I brushed the biggest tick I have ever seen from his muzzle. Ew. We don't have ticks like that in Cascadia. I was glad he noticed it and I was able to grab it while it struggled to get into his fur. That ended our evening fun. Camp set up and some serious grooming (as serious as I could get by lamp light) followed. On the bright side, there were no mosquitoes or black flies, as I had very much expected in Minnesota. Plus, we did get to see a beautiful sunset. Yet another great day on our epic adventure. Please forgive any & all rough spots in this post as it has been done on mobile from the road! We will be reading and enjoying your comments but, due to being on the road, it will be difficult for us to respond right away. Thanks for understanding and for coming along on this great adventure. |
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