01.05.15

morning run:
Gracie
Posey
Frijolita
Chester
Gowron
Xmul
Mega
Hazel
Murci
(9)

Hidden trail: ~8k. We had some unseasonably early rain yesterday and overnight. It left the monte in an eerie and beautiful state: it was still a little cool when we left although the sun was bright, there was very little wind and everything smelled crazy, even to me. There are many patches that have been burned recently throughout the monte and if my human nose can detect how crazy it all smells after a rain then I can only imagine what the dogs sense. This was an uptempo group to say the least: Xmul will run flat-out for the whole 8k if I ask her to and everyone else in this group was similarly minded today. It is impressive to see little PupG flowing with the rest of her running-mates as though her legs weren't 1/4 the length of everyone else's - and she swims her heart out in the ocean, even when there's surf like today. Mega won the biggest splash/spazz award by slamming himself face-first into one of the larger waves when I called them all to me to jump in the water on the beach; he's such a scaredy cat in most ways but big surf and vehicles full of hooting salt.workers don't phase him at all for some reason. I was glad he did that because he stank like fish.death from all the fun he'd had rolling in piles of offal on the way to the ocean. The hidden part of the trail is finally getting slightly more manageable and less prickly, but Xmul has so much energy that it is still challenging to leave her on the leash in those last 50m; since I never know what's waiting for us on the beach I don't like to let her off early. I consider this part of my extended martial arts training: catch a tiger by the tail and let her drag you through a forest of pins and needles... I think they do that in the 42nd chamber of Shaolin. I let Xmul off the hook on the (deserted) beach but I didn't like her attitude before we got too far so I had her back on the hook well before we got to the tortuga sign. Now is when creatures like mapaches will be rummaging around in the brush near the beach; Xmul's last run-in with one did not go well and I didn't like how close she was darting to the trees. We saw another dead sea turtle on the beach north of Au Soleil Couchant, obviously there a while; probably dumped by fishermen who caught it in their nets by accident. It was fairly large, a little over one meter in length. Depressing. I managed to keep some of them off of the dead sheep and bathed the rest when we got home. I put Hazel on the other end of the leash with Xmul as we were getting close and everyone was good to the gate.
GRADE: A