15.01.15

morning run:
Blue
Truman
Rufus
Elewah
Lily
Mega
Steve McQueen
Hazel
(8)

Northern charcos: ~8k. We've been wrangling Rufus differently to go on a run and it works a little better; he's still excited at the gate but it is easier to deal with his energy. It also helped that I didn't insist on filling my usual quota of nine dogs and instead just took who I had because we got out faster. Mega and Steve threw themselves out there early so I took advantage of it and ushered them into the launchpad 5min before we left, along with Elewah, Lily and Hazel. We left with Rufus on the leash; I only took one this time because I have a feeling that just taking the black leash kind of freaks Elewah out and in any event I didn't need two leashes with this group. Rufus came off after we crossed the alt. land bridge heading out and was an angel the rest of the way. We hit the swimming hole on the way out, did our usual loop through the northern charcos and came back via the parallel access road. I avoided the blue.bag trail (salt workers) and instead took that odd little road that brings you down to the cut over and the alt. land bridge from the north/west. It was bright out when we left but clouds kept rolling in from the west while we were out there so the heat wasn't terrible. The bugs were absolutely awful in a few spots but we managed to outrun them for the most part. Elewah ran off towards the army base when we got to the shrimpery but I didn't make a big deal of it; I called for her once or twice as we were heading towards the last trail home and she finally did appear in line behind me just after we made the turn. I had Rufus and Truman on either ends of the leash since they are the ones most interested in charging off when we get close to home. Everyone arrived at the gate together.
GRADE: A