Beau and I traveled to Kalamazoo, Michigan to partake in the festivities of the UKC Premier. This was our 8th appearance. We showed in the Top Ten Breed Finals, COBRA Breed Specialty, and all three days of the Premier.

In Saturday's show Beau earned the Grand Champion Award of Merit under judge Karen Johnson. There were three dogs in the class including Beau.

In Sunday's show Beau showed under judge Joe Allen. Beau won his class as he was the only Grand Champion entered. He went on for Best of Breed over ten Catahoulas. Later in the day, during a thunderstorm, Beau earned a Group 2 placement in the Herding Group. I can't remember for sure how many breeds were represented in the Group ring, but it was at least 15. He defeated approximately 200 dogs that day.

I got a book in the mail today, Dog Park Wisdom by Lisa Wogan. Lisa contacted me last year about putting my site in the book as a place to get info on hiking with dogs. It's plugged on pages 110-111 (via a plug for backpackgeartest.org), with a bio in the back for Beau and me, plus some of our online friends from the Traildog email list (member since 1999, mod since 2001).

It was really nice to look in the book today and have a mention of Lucy. The book went to press just before Lucy passed away.

The author has a site here: http://dogparkwisdom.wordpress.com/ with the May 10 entry linking to my site (the instructions for the poop baggie dispenser, specifically).

I met a couple of guys today doing trail maintenance to qualify for the Western States Endurance Run (aka WS100). This is a 100 mile wilderness trail run through the California mountains (Squaw Valley to Auburn) to be completed in 30 hours or less. The two guys I talked to are attempting to complete the run in less than 24 hours. Wow. This is completely amazing to me since my best time for a trail (so far) is approximately 75 miles in about 4.5 days. Their pace definitely makes me look and feel like a turtle.

I should have put this up last week when I first heard about it, but it slipped my mind.

Author Jeff Alt is coming to Green Township, Ohio tomorrow night, January 15, 2008. He will be covering his Appalachian Trail thru-hike and book "A Walk for Sunshine."

I attended his talk about his John Muir Trail and Ireland hikes and not only is Jeff a great author and speaker, but he's a very friendly person. I encourage those in the area to make the trek in to see Jeff.

For more information, including dates and times of his upcoming talks, please see: www.JeffAlt.com

I'm sure by now most news hound hikers have heard about the death of Merideth Emerson, the 24-year-old hiker from Georgia.

I wasn't sure if I would—or for that matter, should—write something about the incident. On one hand, this is mostly a nuts-and-bolts kind of site, with some input from me on various topics. On the other, this is an incident isolated to one perpetrator* against a "traildogger" who is like many who visit this site.

This case hits home for me in a way that many other trail-related crimes haven't. Yes, I've heard of trailhead break-ins, trailside thefts, and so on. In my mind those are crimes that could affect anyone. This case, however, is so much closer to me. In this case the victim is very much like me—early-mid 20s, female, solo with a dog.

2008 Entries

As is normal for me, I'm a little late with the breaking news.

I found an article about the passing of Frank Hall of Hall's Dog Sleds fame. He made the dog sled I owned during high school/college. He was a talented craftsman and left a legacy in the world of sled dog sports.

He was from my home state of Michigan and his original home town is not far from where I was born.

More information can be found here:

Frank Hall's Obituary at Sled Dog Central

Today I found an article in The Torontoist about snowshoeing--much more popular there than here in Southeast Indiana where we've lost most of this year's snow (40 degrees for Christmas, baby!). They linked here for the pattern about making your own wooden pack (swiss-army) snowshoes.

Some of my readers may remember when I started UberPest.com and it was ran out of a dorm room in Southeast Michigan. It's definitely been through a ton of changes to grow and improve. I'm hoping to get more photos and articles up in the next year. Some of the articles have been a long time in the making, but they're coming.

If you are at all involved with trail construction or maintenance, please take a look at the USDA Recreational Trails Program publications. Even if your involvement with trails is only as a user, it's interesting to see why things are built the way they are. It might even make you pay better attention to how you use the trails you love-- and take better care of them. You can get free copies of various USDA trail publications by filling out the order form here.

Beau showed this weekend at a United Kennel Club dog show hosted by Canine Activities and Traditional Sports in Danville, Indiana. Here are his results:

Saturday, Show 1, Judge Diana Allen: Group 4 of 5

Saturday, Show 2, Judge Joe Allen: Group 1 of 5

Saturday, Show 1, Judge Jeanne Heger: Group 3 of 5

Saturday, Show 2, Judge Richard Klatt: Group 4 of 5

 

2007 turned out to be a pretty good year for Beau, considering we missed a lot of shows for health problems (I missed two from my broken ankle, one from having the growths removed from Beau), and two or three from the schedule conflicting with our moving for the new job. He finished his Grand Champion, had nine Group placements (four 2s, three 3s, & four 4s), in addition to two Group 1s! He also had enough Breed wins to be ranked in the Top Ten for the second year in a row (the official rankings aren't out yet, so I'm not sure where he finished in the rankings). Not bad at all. He also finished a backpacking title, I just haven't received the certificate yet.