Our Hike To Dog Lake

My son Eddie and I took a hike (roundtrip 6 miles) to Dog Lake, actually a watershed area located in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  First of all, I don't know why they call it 'Dog' Lake, because no dogs or horses are allowed because of the watershed status.

I almost quit towards the first part because this was meant to be a leisurely hike, nothing major.  It was on a Sunday after all and I really try not to do hard physical labor on that day. However, on other days, all my efforts to do hard physical labor are mostly in vain as well!  But what do you know, after the first 100 feet, we ran into a very steep incline and it seemed to go on forever.  I panted and gasped and stopped for air and of course, Eddie was ready to bound up the hill like a gazelle.  But he was a nice son and waited for me.  He asked some hikers on their way down if it was uphill all the way and they basically said yeah.  I told Eddie I would go for 15 more minutes like this and then if it didn't improve, our hike was over.  Fortunately, it did improve and it actually was very mild from then on out! 

During the incline part of the hike, we had to stop often, due to Mom's lack of physical stamina and energy.  But we had a diversion and that was my camera.  We took quite a few silly shots.  I had the idea that we could pose in some beautiful ferns.  I hope that the difference between my pose, and  Eddie the Yettie's pose is vastly different....

The scenery, as we wound our way now more gradually up the incline, was truly beautiful!

The leaves were just barely starting to turn!  I couldn't believe it, one older man when we asked about how far the lake was, actually thought that Eddie and I were brother/sister, girlfriend/boyfriend, husband/wife.  Poor Eddie.  I don't think he took that too well!  I told Eddie that he looks a lot older than he really is, and that the poor man must be losing his visual clarity in his declining years.  Plus, I am really immature looking.  What else could I tell him?  (I was secretly loving it!)

We ran into some Moose (or is that Meese?) grazing along the trail.  I was kind of nervous because I've heard that Moose are dangerous animals known to charge annoying people hiking by in their territory. But Eddie the Yettie welcomed the opportunity to get as close as possible to take a few shots.  Believe me, I had some trees sighted in to run behind just in case things got dicey!  We even saw a Mother and Baby moose quietly grazing in the forest!

We finally arrived at Dog Lake and it is certainly not anything to brag about.  I might even be tempted to say it's a real dog!  It's just a tiny little body of water with a sandy shore on all sides. But we were excited to have reached our destination and be on our way back.  Of course we took a few more pictures because that's what you do when you have a blog to put them on!