09.06.14

morning run:
Posey
Chester
Elewah
Daisy
Xmul
Lex
Hazel
Tori
Murci
(9)

Long and winding road: ~10k. Even though Chester is probably three times older than every other dog on this run he was so up for it when we got to the end of the northern charcos that I couldn't help myself; it was relatively early, I felt good, everyone was raring to go, we had plenty of water left and I've been wanting to see what's up out there in the deep monte for a while. The short answer is: not much. It doesn't look like anyone has been to the end of the long and winding road since we were there. It is completely overgrown and even the cows, intrepid as they are, haven't made it the whole way out there in a long time. There were no flamingos in the large charcos out on the road to Xixim; it hasn't been wet enough for long enough for the kind of krill they eat to bloom properly yet but I suspect in another month or so there will be hundreds of flamingos and other waterfowl out there. We headed north via the swimming hole but avoided it on the way back (salt workers close by); instead we took the parallel access road to the blue bag trail again, which is still quite pleasant and relatively bug-free. I let Xmul off the leash when we were way out there and let her have her head coming south on the Xixim road where it widens out to what feels like endless salt flats. She ran around like a lunatic with her buddies but still listened well and let me put her back on the leash before the turn west without any chicanery. I put Tori on the leash just before we got to the coco trail to keep her from bolting down to Angel's pups if they barked at us. Elewah could've been a pain there but she wasn't and only did a little bit of screwing around by her standards. Hazel has a tendency to run too far ahead off the leash on the trail home so we basically ran flat out all the way to the gate to keep everyone together. This was a high energy group so I hope a 10k in the humidity and heat will mellow them out a little today. It was really pretty out. We spent most of the run in the middle of a dragonfly swarm that blanketed the entire monte. In some places it felt like a living, shining, buzzing curtain of eyeballs and brightly colored wings was folding itself back continuously in front of us. I love them - they eat mosquitoes and kick ass. It was an honor to have such a beautiful escort.
GRADE: A