Monday, August 2, 2010

Hiking in Hocking Hills and the Training Challenge is ON!

We went to one of my most favorite places today - the Cedar Falls trail at Hocking Hills!

This time of year, there isn't much water coming over the falls, but it's still pretty:

There were two big snapping turtles - this is the smaller one:

We were all alone for a little bit and I got to be off-leash:

Me and mom:

Again:

Doing some hiking - I am on a flexi-leash - there are cliffs and stuff so it's too dangerous for off-leash and mom controls the flexi carefully:

Tiger swallowtails were everywhere:

Me and dad:

Taking a break:

Me and mom again:

There were also lots of red-spotted purples:

The trail is so beautiful:

It follows a creek most of the time:

We even got a little video - listen to the sound of the cicadas in the background!




Enough of that! Ok, I declare that the training challenge is ON for anyone and everyone who wants to participate! Starting this week and running for as long as you all want to - we are thinking until the weather gets too bad for regular outdoor trips for us. But you don't have to be outside to do the challenge. This is how we view the challenge - we are going to do at least one thing each week that takes us out of our comfort zone. For us, it's very comfortable to practice agility at home and do tricks, walk around our own neighborhood, go to my favorite parks, and go to classes. So we want to motivate ourselves to work on other things - like take some agility equipment to safe locations other than our backyard (new neighbors yards, new parks, etc.), or go to places where I can see cars going by and work on my control and ability to listen to mom and not go bonkers, or train around other dogs - ones I know or don't know as I get all weirded out sometimes in those situations and don't even remember how to come to mom when she calls. You can make the challenge anything you want it to be. Video and/or pictures are always great but not required. We are going to post about our challenge every Sunday. If you have to miss a week, there is no penalty! :) But for the challenge to work, we all have to try to be consistent. During the weeks that we tried this with Marie, we felt just the right amount of pressure and obligation to do it and we got out there and it got a little easier as we went along. It's amazing how people miles and miles away can encourage you to grow and learn - this blogging and the internet are wonderful tools!

Let me know if you are going to participate in the training challenge and if someone is creative, come up with a good name for it and we'll use it! Let's get busy - the challenge starts......


NOW!


Gotta zoom!

Ricky

19 comments:

Diana said...

Very cool park. I would looove to go there. Diana

Dawn said...

Very very very cool park. I think we should ALL meet there and have a giant Sheltie walk. (Other breeds invited as well).

Katie and I ARE IN! on the challenge. So every Sunday we blog about what we did that was different or difficult or special etc. RIght?

Hmmm....name name name...

something like Crazy to Controlled Challenge...but that doesn't have the right zing...

hmmm.....

Control our Crazies Challenge?

Challenging our Zoomies?

Crazies Controlled Challenge?

geeze this is harder than it looks...

will get back if I can think of any others! LOL

Marie said...

ok, LOVED the park!

As for the challenge. We went to the park today, and we did a couple of things that I think count for the challenge. One will probably crack you up. I'll post about them later tonight. (Hopefully!)

Sara said...

Beautiful hiking place. We have a place around here that kinda reminds me of that. Glad you got out to enjoy it.

OK, we're in on the challenge, at least until school is back in session. Yikes, that is sooner than I'm ready for!

I'll have to think about the name. The only thing that is coming to me right now is, "out of our element".

katie, Maizey and Magnus said...

Wow Ricky you are all lucky to see so many butterflies at once!

Maizey and I are on for the challenge, and Meeka would like to be an honorary participant.

Not sure about a name, but I wondered if it would be ok to post links to others we know that are doing the challenge when we post about our week? It would be nice to be inspired by each other. :)

Thanks getting us all going!

Chris and Ricky said...

Kaite - Yes, posting links to other who are doing the challenge is a great idea!

Dawn - the naming is hard - that's why we haven't yet come up with one! LOL! By your name ideas, I would guess that Katie is a little crazy! LOL again! So any way, yes, just post about what your challenge was for the week on Sunday!

Sara - glad to know you guys are in!

Diana - if there are some things that Miley can work on while she is resting, join us! But I understand if you want to wait and see what is up with Miley first.

Lian said...

Lovely pictures, looks like heaven place to go walking.

Unknown said...

What a great hiking place!!
Have fun with the training challenges! We're not too sure on how to overcome Eva's craziness over somethings but we are thinking of trying Oreo's relaxation protocol.

Donna said...

What a nice park! :)

Dove said...

Cool Dyno Is totally in on the challenge I have arthritis but as I always say and agility dog is not a pampered slob!
~Dyno
I'm in I don't have a blog but Dyno can totally hook me up and I think I can take a rest from being pampered!
~Roxie
Name hmmm OH!!! How bout Hike and Like... Or Dogs Fun in the sun.. How bout Train Together... Um Train to Tame... No... Hotdog Hikin. I'll Keep thinking.
~Bella

Dawn said...

Hey Ricky! I just remembered, I camped out in the Hocking Hills when I was on my way to NC last month! It was SO COOL there!

Sagira said...

Sure is pretty there.

Your training challenge sounds like fun, just not sure we would be able to do one every week.

Dawn said...

PPS: On my "new" blog, just click on the blog title to the right of the big picture at the top to read the most current blog...

Smile! Change is good. Sort of!

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

HEY WE ARE IN!!!!! WE were going to do recalls in the front yard this morning but think we will pile everyone into the car and head to a fenced in park I know about. Yippie, that will be out of our comfort zone.

THAT IS GORGEOUS, what a gorgeous hike. Great pictures.

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

GREAT pikhs!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

Johann The Dog said...

That's a very cool hike! Have you noticed that some butterflies like to hover poo? BOL!!!

I agree, a big ole sheltie hike would be so fun, and probably loud, BOL!!!

Morganne said...

What a beautiful park! I am up for the training challenge. I pretty much try and push us past our comfort zone in agility training so I will have to come up with something else. Maybe tricks! I lack the patience to train my dogs to do tricks. Now I just need to think of a trick....

Nicki said...

Looks like a fun hike!

Patti and DeBoys said...

We loved your hiking pictures and are adding this hike to our list of Hiking Places to Explore.

We are so in for the 'CHALLENGE'! Our first challenge was to get MOM's attention away from the computer classes she has been taking. One down, how many more? Now it is up to MOM...oh what will she think of...

We will checkin on Sunday to see what all of you came up with...Good Luck!