Annual Dog Mountain hike

TWO YEARS AGO...

...the hubs and I did our first hike up Dog Mountain.  I stopped at almost every switchback (which equates to a ton of stopping) and did a lot of huffing-and-puffing.

The hike was "sooooo steep" that I even lost both of my big toenails from the descent (and my toes jamming into the front of my shoes).

LAST YEAR...

...I kicked Dog Mountain's butt on the way up.  You might remember from this post that I was incredibly proud of myself for the progress I'd made on my fitness.  While the ascent went swimmingly, the descent ended in severely spraining my ankle causing me problems all throughout summer.

THIS YEAR...

...was third time the charm!  With Crossfit 3x per week and our hiking regimen, hikes like Dog Mountain seem like another walk in the park (a hard walk in the park, though, with lots of heavy breathing).

The wild flowers were in SERIOUS full bloom!  And with full bloom comes full crowds.

The hubs got off his10:00pm-8:00am shift, came home, and we booked it to the mountain.  He's such a trooper :-)  I was super proud of our early start and expected to have pick-of-the-litter for parking spots.

Wrong.

The trail head was a ZOO.  We had to park in the overflow parking which is AT LEAST an additional half mile away from the trail head.

But that's ok - because it's wild flower season and this girl was STOKED.

We brought primcess Polly who was a total champ until the last uphill stretch, and a majority of the downhill portion.  We passed a man with his pug in a front-body-carrier aaaaand I may or may not consider purchasing one for Polly.
Don't judge me - she's my babe.

And on that note - here are photos from this year's Dog Mountain hike!  We may or may not have had a mini-photoshoot of Polly in the flowers.  My sweet hubs is such a trooper.