Spring Snow & Sunshine

A beautifully sunny few days saw us planning an early 6am start to head for the mountains and make the most of this feel good spring weather. We headed for Glen Nevis which, at the start, is a reasonably short and easy walk that takes you from the head of the glen, through the gorge and out into a high valley. From that point you can basically walk as far as you want. 

The path leads you through the valley, gently meandering and following the Water of Nevis and through the foothills of the mighty Mamore mountains. The valley walk gives a few different options... the main route takes you west through to Loch Treig and eventually Corrour station via a bothy stop... or south to Blackwater Reservoir then Kinlochleven. The route we took takes you around the Mamores and eventually to 2 lochans, Eilde Beag & Eilde Mor.

We are really in our element out in the wilderness with no limits or boundaries. We can explore for as far as the eye can see. We run through the bogs, chase and race each other along the track and scent new smells along the way. We sit and take in the nature of our surroundings, watch the clouds, listen to the wind, smell the deer in the air. We paddle and swim in the chill of river's melt water and roll and pounce in the snow!! We love love love it and our tails don't stop wagging for a single second!!

Even though the spring sunshine was shining its rays with all its might, the mountains are still looking epic cloaked in their winter white. The corries and gullies are all majorly packed with a huge amount of snow. Doesn't look like that's going to disappear any time soon. Reckon there will still be snow at mid-summer! 

We were walking just at the beginning of the snowline so it wasn't deep & didn't affect our walk. Just a light dusting at our level, about 400m, but so beautiful to see all around us. A couple of snow showers past through quite quickly during our day... just to remind you of the winter chill and conditions when the sun isn't shining, still a cold bite in the wind. But as soon as they past and the sun reappeared, you could feel the warmth of the rays and spring is definately here!

It was a really stunning day out, probably the best all winter, and after wandering happily for 28 kilometres through the valley, we were all exhilirated and exhausted in equal measures. Relieved to rest our paws and head for home!

Windswept!!

Mucky Pups

Spring in our step...

Our daily walk is showing the first signs of Spring and we enjoyed it in glorious sunshine today! The snowdrops & crocuses are laid in carpets of colour under the trees, the daffodils are up and ready to burst into full bloom, there's pretty pink blossom in the Cherry trees, everything's getting greener and ready to spring into life again... and there's some warmth in the sunshine!!

Frolicking with the flowers.

Almost warm enough to sit at our wee tree and soak up some sunshine!

Snow Much Fun!

Snow bound roads & paths... winter white landscapes... icy cold blizzard winds... sound bleak?? No way!! Perfect conditions for plenty of crazy doggy excitement & exstatic fun. The snow brings a whole new heightened state of exhileration to a wintery walk in the wilderness... its electrifying... new smells... new sensations... new adventures!! Just one member of the doggy duo missing... Drifty-boy... but Finn has his besties for company again, Miss Molly & Curious Cuillin!

Bounding through the drifts, chasing each other is so much fun and our inquisitive little cold noses pick up every scent to follow and trail back & forth across the path, through the trees and up & down the snow-packed bankings.

Meeting the locals!

Poor little Mollydog struggled at a few points with snow clankers building up on the her soft feathery tummy & leg hair. At a few points she looked like the abominable snowman and we had to break the hard packed icy snowballs from her fur before she was carrying her own weight in snow!! But after a certain point, once out in the open of the glen, the snow changed in texture becoming more dry and crystalline and less wet and sticky so it was no longer a problem... I wonder if its possible to get anti-balling plates for dogs?

A wee sensory bonus on the way back. We ended up following the tracks of a stalker's quad-bike with the fresh scent of venison blood to follow... all of a sudden the rest of the walk was very focused... and quiet... i'm sure the dogs expected to find their dinner at the end of the trail!!

2 Mutts & Their Mates...

What could be better than a day at the beach after being off my paws for a few weeks? Well.... a day at the beach with all my bestest canine chums of course!! First time for about 10 weeks i've been able to have a proper run around, stretch my legs, feel the wind in my fur and the freshness of the waves... and cause some chaos with Finn, Cuillin & Mollydog!

Concentrating Cuillin.

Mollydog chasing waves!

Last paddle before sunset.

2 lazy pups in their pits!

Well... we've been a little quiet of late! No adventurous tales for a few weeks. Drifty boy is laid up with a broken metacarpal in his paw. A delicate little bone that can't really be plastered... its just a case of house rest and trying to restrict his movements as much as possible... which is extremely hard for an energetic Border Collie that normally lives life full speed ahead! 

The Offending Paw!

He's actually done really well, the poor wee soul, i thought he'd have major cabin fever and be going round the twist but he's been really chilled out about it. It happened 3 weeks ago now, not entirely sure how? Its been really wet and muddy and Drift is always running around full pelt chasing Finn and balls and sticks. I think he slid and twisted as he's been catching a ball and maybe initially just had a hair-line fracture. He had a day of limping then seemed fine.. looking like it was just a little muscle pull... then a few days later it was much much worse again. He was limping badly and infact not using his foot, avoiding putting any weight on it at all. His foot was really quite swollen so hard to feel anything. Sitting infront of me, looking very sorry for himself, he insisted on constantly proffering me his sore paw! Expecting me to be able to fix it... i felt pretty useless apart from being able to give out as many snuggles as possible to reassure him. The Vet concurred my initial suspicion and committed him to total rest apart from going out for quick 'business' breaks!

Taking it easy & putting his paws up!

Little Finn has been a curious little guy without his side-kick! Out on walks he seems a lot less confident, looking to me for reassurance rather than following in the footsteps of his brother without a worry. He looks at every other dog excitedly hoping for a play-mate to run around and play chase with. We've been doing a lot of running together, 3 miles every other evening so he's been enjoying that and its giving him a focus on something other than the absence of his best buddy. Its been really enjoyable & beneficial for both of us and become something that we do together, so when Drift isn't there, Finn expects this routine. I can also say its been doing a good job of getting rid of excess energy & tiring him out...

Lazy bones Finn putting his paws up too!

So 3 weeks on and we are doing really well... Drift is walking around fine now, putting full weight on his foot but not wanting to cause any problems further down the line, it'll be another couple of weeks before he's back running around like normal. We've been on a couple of short on lead walks with a few days of rest in between, gradually building up exercise slowly again. Drifty is by no means an old dog, at just 5 there's more than just little bit of life left in him yet. But i'm very conscious... maybe overly so... that injuries and ailments that are not given a chance to heal properly are going to cause worse problems further down the line. So hard as it may be to keep Drift to minimal exercise it will serve his body well in the long term.