Snowshoeing at Clear Lake

We had a blast on Saturday snowshoeing. Both dogs were a little crazed to get out when I pulled off the highway. Leo even ran around like a bit of a nut with his sister - after they both had a potty break, of course. We ended up going to Clear Lake because there were no parking options at Mirror Lake. We'll have to try to hit that location up during the summer.

Here's a compilation of both dogs romping around in the snow right after we arrived and before we really hit the trail as well as a bit later on when we were down by the lake.

I brought alone a little dog front pack I got from my sister just in case Leo had a hard time keeping up. I didn't have any boots for him yet but didn't worry about it too much since his feet wouldn't sink into the snow (it was slightly iced over) plus he has furrier feet. I brought his coat along but didn't put it on as I figured I'd wait and see. He's usually hot and panting when the rest of us are shivering and I didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

We took a different route than we usually do at this location and had the trails all to ourselves. We never did encounter a single soul the entire day. We came across a lovely stream that gurgled through the woods. The dogs were fascinated of course.

The views were fantastic. The snow was so-so. The temperature was just right and we never got rained on - or caught in a blizzard. :-) The dogs enjoyed exploring and walking. Leo was quite the trooper trying to keep up. We did somewhere in the range of 9 miles or so; he managed to walk about 2/3 of that and rode in the front pack otherwise. I mostly put him in the pack as a means of keeping us moving along at a decent pace so we could get back to the truck and he was lagging a bit.

We were out about four hours total, walked along the lake, went off road through the woods, climbed some hills, and strangely never saw any wildlife either. I even managed to snap a picture of the three of us using the timer on my camera:

We had a good time and surprisingly Leo wasn't so worn out later. We stopped by my mom's house for a while and he even had a good time "talking" to her Yorkies. We went home a while later and he was antsy and bouncy and ornery about Vegas and I leaving a short while later - he wanted to go, too. I guess his recovery time is quicker than hers and mine.

After this trip I did decide to go ahead and order him some booties. I hope the ones I ordered are actually small enough. He's got such tiny feet. My goal is to get out a couple more times this season as long as the snow is sufficient. Will have to post pictures when they arrive or from our next trip.