Camping with Annabelle and the Pups

It hadn't even been a week from getting back from Telluride that Shanam wanted to go back to the mountains :) So, we planned our little camping trip for Ruidoso and counted down the days until we left :) We decided to just go for one night, since we weren't sure how Annabelle would do, so we left Saturday morning bright and early and got there around 1. We all needed to get out and move around, so for our first adventure we hit the trails! I picked a few connecting trails that would take us into the mountains, then out along the crest and back down to our campsite where our car was. About a 1200 ft elevation gain and about 5 miles. Not too bad :) The hike started out great, nice and easy ascent, great views, and we even took both dogs off the leash to see how they would do.

Annabelle loved riding with her daddy :)

She fell asleep during the first leg of the trip.

The pups loved playing in the little snow they found :) They actually did really well staying with us and came running back whenever Shanam called for them. From everything we read, we were not expecting them to behave so well offleash, so we were very happy and proud of them, to say the least!!! There was a time, though, when we got to the top and stopped for little while, when I had to feed and change Annabelle, that they got a little too distracted and Shanam had to try and go find them. I continued on up the trail only to turn the corner to a whole mountain of snow blocking the trail. Annabelle and I tried to get across, but it was just too deep so we called Shanam to tell him we'd be coming back down the same trail we went up. This was after hiking four miles up, having one mile left, but now having to hike back four miles, instead :( Not too great, especially since Annabelle was pretty much done hiking and Shanam still couldn't find the dogs. It was starting to get dark, so we hurried as fast as we could. Shanam met us a little way down the mountain with still no dogs and very discouraged. Huskies will run for miles without realizing how far they had gone our where they were, so we were expecting the worst. As we continued down, who should come racing up the trail!? Why, Sophie and Sasha, of course! I think they were just as excited to see us as we were to see them! From then on, they stayed very close to us, all the way to the car! By the time we got there, it was very dark and cold and I was absolutely exhausted! We drove to town to eat dinner then came back to set up camp. Annabelle and I stayed warm in the car while Shanam put up the tent and got all our sleeping bags ready. What a gentleman :) We were happy to climb in and get some rest!

Annabelle did great!!!! She slept all through the night, only waking up to eat a few times. She just stayed right in my bag with me, curled up by my side :) I, however, had a harder time sleeping, but that's ok. I still felt great in the morning, waking up to the fresh morning air.

Shanam made a campfire to help keep us warm in the freezing weather. It felt lovely!

I think Annabelle likes camping :) Can you tell? :) While she and I stayed at the site in the morning, Shanam took the pups with him mountain biking. They did great, until a deer crossed right in front of them, and the chase was on!! Shanam waited for them in a clearing, but when they didn't come to his calls, he headed back down to the car. And guess who was there waiting for him?! That's right, our crazy dogs :) He was once again more than relieved! Right when we got back home we ordered some training, shock collars for them. Hopefully that will break them out of their hunting trance and we can take them into the mountains again with no worries! We were blessed nothing went wrong and we all got back in one piece together!