2 days 4 lakes 3 hikes 1 dog..... Huh?!!!??

On friday evening I made a call and invited somone to go on a quick hike with me. It's a fast hour up and 20 minutes back down hike, to this little lake. I got turned down for the friday, but they were super psyched to go on saturday. Anyways I went out alone, riged up my running shoes and shorts, and light hydration pack with a quart of water. When I got to the trail head I realized I could extend it about 2 more miles by taking the long route and adding a couple of additional lakes to the hike and I set off. I did a great pace, ran about half of it. I'm realy close to the summit of the hike, and I run across some people who are in border melt down mode(AKA ready to quit). They ask me, like little kids "are we there yet?". These people were ready to turn around 150 yards from their destination. I gave them the proper motivation, and sent them on their way. It was a good fast hike, lot's of fun, and a great workout.

Saturday happens, Stupidly they didn't want to get up early, Let me tell Y'All something about the weather here when it's this hot. If you can get up pre dawn and get on the road as dawn breaks, it's unbelevable. It's the coolest time, the weateher is in the 70's and 80's and it's just perfect. To be honest that is the best time of the year to be outdoors here, but.... people are tired, they have a hard time letting go of the impulse to suffer a little by getting up earlier. Then the trade off is, they suffer A lot, when they go out in the heat of a 10am-1pm hike, but did get that extra hour or two of sleep.... Well that's what we did. What also get's charming with "You People"(this may not include you). Then is when your 20 minutes from the summit and you start making excuses, "I don't feel well", "It's hot", bla bla bla... You know, your excuses are your own. I'm never sure how aware people are of their self defeating attitudes.... So, there we are nasty part of the hike is over and it's "oh, I need to get home by noon. I have to meet somone." Internaly I'm saying to myself "so, show up at 9, hike 2 hours then go home. this is all the time we had today? you said nothing about that when we left." so we quit, and start going down. BTW once we got down, there was no hurry to tell this person who was "Waiting for them" that they were going to be late, and no rush to get back.

On the way down, we come across a couple and their kids, one of the kids is totaly dragging, and starting to whine.
"This is steep, I'm tired..". Dad gives him a pat on the back and gets the young boy going again. This is a charming trate that this person has that I'm with, they have an ability to demoralize everyone they come across. Sure enough, they pipe up to this 7 year old kid,
"Well, it only get's steeper.".... I totaly come unglued, almost pushing my hiking partner down the hill and start going at them.
"Are you kidding me!!!!" I reply, " That father is doing everything he can to keep the moral of those kids together, to get them up a hill, the very one that you whined and cried even worst than that kid was doing. And you tell the kid that it's going to get worse. That guy is going to get that kid another 50yards and the kid is going to quit. All Thanks to you. It would be awefully tough for you to get up this mountain if I spent my time telling you how bad it was going to be. If I ever have you make a comment like that to another person, you will be hiking alone." BTW all of this is going on within earshot of that family. Course being alpha dog you have to keep the rest of the pack in line, and even nip at them every once in a while...... Next hike with this person, we will be working on developing some decending social skills.
I go home, drink another quart of water as I try and get myself into the shower. The hike was mellow enough that I just had a nice salad for lunch. I fell dead asleep....
Flash forward 30 minutes, my phone rings..... I ignore it, then it rings again, this time I pick it up. Same person from the earlier hike, her sister is stuck with a lame dog up the bowman trail... I compleatly tried to beg out, Then I realize how skrewed they were, and I rigged up and got back out there. Long story short, I pulled a 90lb dog out of the canyon. Making that the 3rd hike in 24 hours, probably over 10 miles.