Mon, Aug 31 2009 - Monday DOG swim and short hike after work (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Brian Clark Participants: Brian Clark, Ben, Diana, Wyi, Alfred Y, james HARRINGTON, cheri harrington, Nicole Capocci, Jake Tharp, Pam Irwin, Vijay M, Stacey M, Angela, Sonya R

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I don't know if words will accurately describe the fun we had with our dogs in the river, so check out the pictures.  People started arriving shortly after 6pm and taking their dogs down to the beach.  By 6:30pm the dogs were well acquainted and in full-on over stimulation mode!  And just when the dogs couldn't possible imagine how their day could get any better, around 6:40 we begun our wet trek down the spur between long island and the shore.  

The river was higher than it typically is due to all the rain the past several days, but it wasn't so deep that we had to abort our mission.  The average wading depth was up to our knees, with some spots waist-deep.  As we trekked down the spur the dogs were running, swimming, and chasing tennis balls down-stream.  Once we reached the other end of the island we stayed there for 20 minutes letting the dogs do their thing some more, took some pictures, and had fun socializing.

Around 7:15 we started our trek back up river towards the parking lot.  We reached the lot where we changed out of our wet shoes into our hiking shoes.  A few decided to head home at that point, the remaining 10 of us begun our hike to dry off at 7:40pm.  We did a fast-paced two mile loop so we could get back to our cars by 8:30pm.  We started out following the river and taking rights at every intersection, yielding a couple hundred feet of elevation gain.  We returned back to our cars at 8:30pm on the nose.  

Everyone (people and dogs) got along great, a few people commented that their dog had the time of their lives.