My Life and Travels
We spent the last day of vacation setting in the sun at Starvation State Park on northeastern Utah.
Didn’t do much, walk in the morning and that’s about it.
Hank is focus of pictures again:
Another
Did you want to rub a tummy?
Humans do have at least one purpose for being here.
Got here this morning drove all but the last 30 miles yesterday. We are 475 miles north and East of Zion.
Here is the visitors center and metal dinosaur which is out front.
The dinosaur,
I took a few pictures at the dinosaur display building but we’ll have to wait until I got them off my camera.
Here’s a hot Hank, he threw his ball as far as he could and fell over.
Or maybe he is starting to melt.
Forgot to put in campsite pictures:
I’m working on learning new things about WordPress. I have a subscription of Lynda.com and I’ve been working through some of the WordPress lessons.
Here is a picture of Hank with the picture actually residing in my Google photo albums. The goal is to the amount of disk space I use on WordPress down to a minimum.
To link a picture from Google Album use the Embed Image information and web address only from https and the picture’s original ID/name information section. The embed image information has several https’s in it.
Now so good, when I tried another picture I could not get it to link. Need to check “image only no Link” and then it worked.
This is a picture of Brian taken during our time at Bryce.
By the way I started dating each post because several times my phone has not posted when it was supposed to post. When we’ve been traveling the posts have gotten out of sequence.
Here’s a motivated Hank, motivated for a nap.
More signs Hank is becoming a dog.
When we first got him he was impossible to walk on a leash. The trainer we took him too recommend a harness which actually allowed him to be manageable to walk. The challenge being getting it over his head and hooked under his chest. We could get it on Hank by one of us putting food in their hand, while Hank was trying to get the food out between our fingers the other person could get the harness on and hooked. Not the easiest or safest thing to do. He was very interested in trying to take your hand off.
We quit using this harness a couple of years ago since he had gotten better at not pulling all the time. With a lot of time walking on his leash he stayed at a fairly decent level to manage. This winter I purchased one of these harness again to use while on vacation. Sometimes he goes crazy when he smells a deer or other animal.
This spring has been really cold with snow threatening most weekends, we did not get out very much and Hank didn’t get much time on a leash. He likes to walk about 4 inches beyond the length of the leash. This morning’s walk got to be a real pain with him pulling most of the time. After lunch I decided to go out and take some pictures. I got out the new harness for Hank. He let me slide it over his head and hook it under his chest. This was truly amazing. I even went the next step and he let me put a muzzle on him. He is becoming a real dog.
We got the muzzle because a couple of times Hank has gotten thorns in his paw and I have had to pull them out. The first one was fine, he had no idea about what I was doing until the thorn was pulled out. The second one was a little iffy and the third one I just let him get it out. I figured the next thorn would mean a trip to the vet. I think we are set for walks in the desert, I’ll put the muzzle in my day pack.
This is what Hank and I did this morning.
This is where we were. We will spend most of the spring at Flagler.
We all need goals. My current goal is to take Hank back to what looks like one of his favorite places.
When we first got Hank four years ago he was a real challenge. Most of the time he would just as soon take your hand off as not. He had real resource issues. This means once he had possession of an item he’d take your hand off if you tried to get it back. We worked with he for a long time and today he went to a new vet and offically achieved real dog status. When we got him he didn’t know how to play. He’d just lay in the corner. We started by teaching him to sit, than lay down. We taught him to play ball and now he loves to play fetch. Last week we went from getting him to drop the ball in my hand to me being able to take his favorite ball out of his mouth.
He visited the vet today with no drugs. Vet gave him three shots, checked his teeth (by putting her fingers in his month). We had to change vets because when he was really sick a couple of months ago our previous vet refused to treat him.
Hanks been a family member for four years and is deeply loved Jean and myself. He’s a joy to have in the house and great fun to be with. As of today he’s TRULY, “Hank – the Dog”.
I’m sure glad our cold summer ended before we got all the way to September. We have received 0.67 inches of rain today and the high was 56.
Hank and I were playing ball tonight and he put his ball in my hand every time. Oh, it’s 0.68 inches now.
At Silver Springs again this weekend, it was 53 inside the motorhome when I got up.
The sun is out and Hank is going to take me for a hike.
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Saturday August 28 Hank and I want on a hike up the original road into the Crystal Mountain ski area. This was originally called the Old Mine road and was the one I first went up in 1958 with my dad and Jim Hoggin to fish the Henskin Lakes. I think Road #7176 is the Old Mine road because I remember it going up the east side of the valley and this very old road still has the power lines into Crystal Mountain on it.
This is the sign at Half Camp which is 1/4 mile before the Old Mine road reaches the new(er) road into Crystal Mountain. This is 3.5 miles from the Silver Springs campground.
This is looking up the valley where the old road reaches the new road.
This is looking down the valley from the same place. This would be coming into the valley.
Hank is in the lower right hand corner, just a shot of the old road.
View a little farther down the road.
It’s a great trail but not much of a road. Jeep or small pick-up would do just fine, larger vehicle would get the paint scratched pretty good. It’s still in good condition and 2-wheel drive is all you’d really need to get up this road.
Here is the ever willing to go for a hike Hank.
This is a happy hiking dog (Hank).
The white line going from the middle towards the bottom of the picture follows this week’s hike. The line going towards the top of the picture is the first part of last week’s hike.
Hank and l hiked down to Ranger Creek air field. It’s just over 3 miles from here. Nice day for a walk in the trees, only about 25 feet is out in the sun.
On the way back Hank decided he’d gone far enough. He started to slow down and as soon as I stopped he laid down in the trail. We set there for 15 minutes and he was ready to go again. He didn’t stop again until we got back to camp, a tired puppy.
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Here are some maps and pictures from our hike.
Green Trails map I made to carry in my pocket.
We are camped at Silver Springs Campground. This week we hiked to Ranger Creek air field trail 1199 and last week we took 1199 and 1196 to Noble Knob. Last week we got within 1/2 to 3/4’s of a mile from the top, elevation 5340 which is off this map.
The following two maps I made with Google Earth.
Ranger Creek and the sign.
Ranger Creek sign.
Noble Knob trail fork.
The bridge just before the trial heads up hill towards Noble Knob. It’s at Deep Creek
This is the trail head on the first turn of the Coral Pass Road.
Right above Ranger Creek air strip / Buck Creek.