What I did instead was take both pups and Zeke and drove up to the upper trailhead of Miller Creek and walked down the entire trail to the lower parking lot, then looped back up. This is a 2.8-mile walk under shade and with water. The parking lots were both crowded, so I knew I'd be meeting plenty of people.
I had both pups on leash the entire time. Zeke was offleash but he's cool and stays by me. I wanted this to be a training walk, so we went slowly.
The dogs are doing well onleash. They no longer panic. They continued to sniff the flora along the trail, stopping a lot to explore. That I granted them. I also rested at least three times by the water to let them cool off, as it got hot today, hitting 88F by 111am and topping off at 96F by mid-afternoon.
Gretel barked and lunged at every hiker she saw. I stayed near the water and off the trail so that she wasn't a perceived danger to anyone, but she definitely kept me busy. Hansel also barked, but not as intensely. By the time I was done with this nearly 3-mile walk, I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I was also very thirsty. I don't remember any of the other dogs being this reactive in their early years. What brought this on? They were so gentle two months ago.
I met up with Susan again at 5:15pm by the river, this time with all six dogs. Sadie's legs were holding up well today, but I knew I couldn't make her walk far. She walked slowly and cautiously. She is still enjoying life and enjoying her walks. We waded in the river for a total of just one mile, just long enough to give all the dogs some exercise.
The big news for me today was getting a text from Eric at 3:20pm, and then two hours later from his wife Margaret saying that they are having to evacuate from their apartment in Fairfield, CA due to the fast-growing LNU Lightning fire that had crossed Interstate 80 by Vacaville earlier today. California had over 11,000 lightning strikes over the weekend that caused these merging fires and winds are turning these small fires into growing infernos.
Margaret told me that the fire is now three blocks from their apartment complex. There are currently over 24 fires burning in the state, 6000 firefighters are engaged, and over 40,000 acres burned. The fires are 0% contained.
Eric and Margaret are now staying with her cousin in Woodland, CA, 15 miles from Travis AFB. She is there with their cat Archer, but Eric has to work on base and help his airmen evacuate. He's naturally worried that his apartment complex will burn and he loses everything he's worked up for. I know he's an adult, but I can't help but worry about both of them.
I thus spent the rest of the night watching updates via media streaming on CBSN Bay Area news (KPIX). It's all about the fire, smoke and bad air over the Bay area. The fires are affecting my friends Darlene (with whom I backpacked the John Muir Trail in 2010) in Napa Valley and Karen in Santa Cruz. Both are safe, but are smelling the bad air. Karen sent me a photo of the burned-out visitor's center in Big Basin State Park, the state's oldest state park. The last big fire in the North Bay area was in 2017, when some Napa vineyards were consumed by fire. Normally the hot, dry season is September and October; this year the fire season has come early.
There's a tropical storm coming north from Baja, CA, TS Genevieve. She's approaching Cabos San Lucas right now. Hopefully she will bring rain to both California and Arizona, as we need the rain, too. She's expected to continue northwest and weaken to a tropical depression, but should also bring moisture along the coast. This is one of the driest monsoons I can remember in the last 15 years. Perhaps we will at least get some good winter rains, like we did last year. Those winter rains got us through the first six months of 2020.
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/08/19/lnu-lightning-complex-firewildfire-blazing-toward-vacaville/?fbclid=IwAR2o8VhFJ4TGA8ek_L9_2uRYcIrhjy2uklbN5ddJKjCcxjNSfNgiixrbWvw
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Global cases: 22,609,385
Global deaths: 794,432
US cases: 5,701,113 (+43729)
US deaths: 176, 342 (+1266)
AZ cases: 195,557 (+637)
AZ deaths: 4634 (+101)
IN cases: 82,336 (+489)
IN deaths: 3180 (+15)
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