This Bittersweet Existence : A Very Interesting Hike

Sam and I had planned on hiking Arabia this past weekend but he hurt his back at work and need to rest it. So we ended up going on Monday after I got off from work. Like always, we took the dogs with us...which was both a mistake and a blessing. We'll start with the mistake.
When we parked, the dogs were super excited. Normally, Sam holds onto Willa because she pulls like a draft horse and Bruce is lazy like me, so I hold his leash. Sam was adjusting something on Bruce's backpack, so I temporarily had Willa. Well then a lady with a yippy dog came around the corner and both dogs, especially Willa went berserk Willa was pulling me so hard that I reached down to grab her collar so I would have better control. Note: we had just recently loosened her collar just a little bit. Once my fingers went into her collar, she jerked her head back and right out of the collar. Yelling, "Freedom" like a Scottish rebel, she bolted right toward the yippy dog and I had a sudden rush of possible scenarios run through my head, none of which ended well. I ran toward Willa, expecting to get there right after she closed her jaws around the yippy dog. Instead, I reached her right as she shoved her face in the yippy dog's head to say hi. The yippy dog snapped at Willa, scaring the crap out of her and causing her to fall over in fright. My pit bull-lab just got freaked out by a dog the size of a football! I had to wrestle with Willa to get her under control and so Sam could get her collar back on. My legs took a lot of abuse on the gravel and my pride suffered even more. I'm embarrassed that I'm one of those dog-owners that doesn't have complete control over their dog's obedience. Willa didn't listen to me at all. I've never felt like a worse parent and a bad example of a dog owner. I'm very fortunate that Willa never had the intention of hurting the other dog, she just wanted to play. Sam and I are going to have to seriously look into obedience training. After that incident the rest of the hike was uneventful until:

So here's the blessing about having our dogs with us, but I'll need to explain a few things about Arabia first. Arabia is a small, heavily quarried mountain outcrop that you can't camp on, you can only hike and it closes at sunset. Around 7pm, Sam and I were hiking back to the parking lot, still several hundred yards away, when we noticed a pile of black gear set in the middle of the path. It was odd because it was way more gear than you need for a park that you only day-hike on. Sam and I always just bring a backpack to carry water, snacks, and a few other odds and ends. As soon as I said, "That's weird." A man approached from the side. He was tall and skinny and I just got a creepy feeling about him. He asked Sam where the lake was and Sam told him it was about half a mile away. Which meant, that even though the sun was setting, this man was planning on hiking further into the park with a shit-ton of gear. If that wasn't weird enough, Bruce did something I've never seen him do before. He went on full alert. He got between me and the guy, who was several yards away and Bruce stared the man down. He wouldn't look away from him, and he wouldn't budge. It looked like he was at full military attention or something. It's really hard to explain. When I pulled on his leash to get him walking. He would walk a few steps and not look away from the guy. Sam had to call and get his attention and he finally started walking, but would keep turning around and looking at the guy just to be sure. I've always believed that animals can be better at discerning people than people. Humans are the only mammals that don't listen to that inner voice that says "Danger". If you want some examples, watch the show "I Survived" on the Biography Channel. On several of those episodes the person retelling their near-death experience will say, "Something didn't feel right" or "I got a bad feeling" but then they keep on doing or going wherever and end up almost dying because they didn't listen.

We hightailed it back to the car and came home, tired, bruised, and thoroughly weirded out. I'm so glad we had Bruce and I am very proud of the way he acted. Willa, on the other hand, needs to go to obedience school pronto. And I could use a couple of training classes on how to be a better dog owner.

I took some great pictures on my new used camera that my brother gave me that I'll have to upload. Besides the creep, Arabia is a really beautiful spot.