With our two new additions for the year of Sammi and Cooper, we decided to go up to Browns Lake in the Comanche Peak Wilderness area for the day and see what kind of shape they (and us) were in. There was a light dusting of snow in the higher peaks, but a really beautiful day.

We have had them out for some pretty good hikes, but this would be their longest and steepest to date. Brown’s Lake is about 5 miles each way and the trail runs above timberline for quite a ways before dropping steeply down to the lake just below timberline.

Since it was fall, which means hunting season, we were a bit worried that Sammi might be mistaken for a deer. We kept her close to us as much as possible; she tends to wonder off aimlessly at times. We ran into a few hunters on horseback, but no problems though other than the curious interest of the dogs in the horses.

Sammi found an old elk bone somewhere along the trail that she carried with her for a while. They did really well the first half of the hike. We got to the lake and relaxed a bit, had some lunch and let the dogs romp around for a bit.

We headed back about noon. As we made our way back up towards timberline, the dogs slowed down a bit. Cooper always stays right by my side and will occasionally turn around to check and see if Renee is lagging too far behind, but Sammi was pretty tuckered out.

We got back to the car and I had to lift them both into the back end. Neither one of them moved the whole way home. Sammi just used Cooper as a big pillow. The next day wasn’t much better, I think they might have gotten up a couple of times to pee and drink some water and that’s it.