Dog Days on the Bartram Trail

6/11 run/hike 1hr 45 mins on Bartram Trail in New Balance MT101's with CamelBak Lobo and dogs
6/12 run/hike 44 mins on Batram Trail before heading home with the dogs

HR not recorded

The access point for this section of the Bartram Trail was only about a 5 min walk from where we were staying, which made it great for taking the dogs.  For those of you not familiar with the Bartram Trail (like me), it spans over 70 miles with yellow blazes through Nantahala National Forest.  Within the first mile it became apparent that we were probably the only people on this section of the trail, so we unleashed the beasts.  Maddy can hold her own, but poor Tyson can't pace himself for sh*t.  Being a boxer, his brachycephalic head is excellent at spreading slobber onto anyone and anything but does a poor job of cooling and respiration.  Once off leash, he decided his best strategy for keeping up would be to run ahead of us at full speed, then stop dead in the trail to catch his breath.  This would take him awhile, so we would all pass him and then he would try and do it again.  Talk about bad trail etiquette.  Myself and the wife would have to jump out of the way to avoid knocking him off the trail when he would try to pass us again.  Maddy, being a lab/newftard, has unlimited stamina and climbs like a billy goat, so she decided to zig-zag back and forth across the trail and up and down the mountain side for most of the hike.  She probably covered about 4x the distance.

We planned our turnaround point for whenever Tyson puttered out.  He lets us know by lying down in the middle of the trail.  I believe this section of the trail leads to some very nice waterfalls, but we never got that far thanks to Mr. Tyson.  Here's a pictorial narrative of what happened, as captured by my wife:

Woohoo, we're free!  Hurry, escape from the humans!

Ugghh, I'm out of breath.  Me too.  Let's see what the humans are doing.

Cool pathway through the trees

Hey, I think I found some water!  I'll lay in it while you drink it.

He seems to know where he's going, I'll follow him!

Screw this, it's nap time!

The human is leaking water and it's cold and delicious!

Ok. Ok.  I promise to go a little further, but you better find me some more water.

Hey, I think I found some water over here!

Woohoo, let's go check it out!

Oh yeah, I just need to cool off my junk for a bit.

Hey, does anyone else think this tastes like balls?

Cough. Cough ugh.  Must get taste out...of mouth.

fin.