For nearly the past four years, I’ve been blogging about our adventures. Hiking, backpacking, motorcycle trips. In short, traveling. So all that’s been on pause, right? Welllll… kind of. The first couple weeks of shelter in place, we really tried to stay home. There are a few rainy weekends that are just blank stretches in my mind. I can’t remember a single thing we did. Plus, my motivation to get outside was pretty much zilch. Then, we started exploring some dog-friendly local parks we’d never been to. At one park, we found out just how much Denali loves digging. At another, we learned that she’s got a solid doggie paddle.
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| The aftereffects of a digging bender |
One weekend, we branched out a little farther to go backpacking in Los Padres National Forest in Big Sur. Denali was a trooper, hanging in there for seven uphill miles the first day. We were all feeling it by the time we got to camp. She dozed by the fire that night, but when it was time to go to bed for real in the tent she was wide awake, sitting up every time she heard a noise outside. They say huskies aren’t good guard dogs because they’re too friendly, but I swear if a squirrel or mouse approached our tent she would have crashed through the mesh to “protect” us.
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| Soaking up the sun in Big Sur after the clouds burned off |
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| Goofing off along Highway 1 |
Then, a new shelter in place order was issued, which scared us back into hunkering down again. But after a weekend or two in the Bay Area I was itching to get out. When a coworker passed along intel about a remote spot to dispersed camp in Tahoe National Forest, I took it as a sign that we just had to go. We went full-on glamping: we brought our new 3-person tent which felt like a palace and we had a three course meal: bruschetta for hors d’oeuvres, stuffing with turkey and cranberries as our main dish, and s’mores for dessert. Don’t worry though, we’re still grungy at heart: we sat in the dirt and picked pine needles out of our food. It was a pretty low-key weekend so we had plenty of time to relax at camp and decided to work on Denali’s recall training. Huskies are notoriously challenging to train to be off-leash so we’ve been taking baby steps. But after a couple hours it seemed like she wasn’t going to stray from our camp, so we tied her long leash to a heavy branch and called it good. You can imagine my surprise then, during a bathroom break, when she came bolting towards me. Apparently she got nervous when I walked away and couldn’t see me. The “heavy” branch that was supposed to slow her down snagged on a tree and broke off instantly. The whole thing was really sweet but also pretty scary, and we’ve since been more careful with her.
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| Tahoe National Forest |
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| Denali is sitting in a hole she dug out for herself! |
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| Our watchdog approves of our new tent |
Feeling inspired by our first Tahoe National Forest trip, we went again the next weekend to a different spot. We picked a lake on the map and steered our trusty Toyota Yaris north. We’ve had pretty good luck taking her on dirt roads of all kinds, but this time she put her foot down. The road to Bowman Lake was described online as “very rough, rocky and narrow. A high clearance vehicle is needed.” So it wasn’t a huge surprise that we couldn’t make it all the way there. Instead, we found another neat spot tucked off a dirt road that even had a few melting snow patches nearby for Denali to take a snow bath in. Like last weekend, we had lots of time to chill. I had a minor emotional breakdown (the stress of shelter in place finally caught up to me, I guess), we all took dirt naps, and we again had a three-course meal. This time: sundried tomato goat cheese and crackers, a dish aptly called “skillet potato mess,” and s’mores. The next morning we explored some nearby lakes and rivers swollen from the spring snowmelt.
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| Fuller Lake |
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| Our trusty Yaris |
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| South Yuba River |
Undoubtedly, some people reading this will totally disagree with our choices to camp. But we’ve gone to some extremes to avoid interacting with anyone during our trips...even stopping for “bathroom breaks” on the side of the road during the drives there and back. I know we’re not being perfect, but it’s what’s been keeping us sane these past two months. What else has been keeping me sane? Running through the fields of our neighborhood park with Denali at night when the sprinklers are on, watching her stalk squirrels, going for walks when Owen gets home from work, having impromptu dance parties, just normal, silly stuff. I haven’t taken up any new hobbies (unless dragging myself out of bed daily at 6am to run with Denali counts), I’m not doing any house projects (besides coercing Owen to put his stuff away), and I haven’t perfected a recipe for chocolate chip cookies yet (first attempt was a failure), but I am feeling pretty appreciative of the extra time I get to spend with my little family.
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| Peering out at her kingdom (btw Owen made the artwork on the wall!) |
In case you are wondering, we are grateful to be staying busy 9-5, Monday-Friday: I’ve been working from home, Owen's National Guard unit got activated and he’s been doing logistics for them, and Denali is enjoying her approximately four naps and six walks each day. It's been a little shaky at times, but we are getting through it. I’ll sign off with this: I was on a video call with my parents and sister a few weeks ago, and apologized that I had to hop off early because Denali was literally clawing at the door, desperate to get out for a walk. We all looked at each other and laughed… it’s exactly how we feel too sometimes. Stay safe and stay sane out there, friends!
