Idita-Walk 2013

Our friends over at You Did What With Your Weiner? are big into keeping yourself and your dog fit. Jessica also owns two dachshunds, Chester and Gretel, who I've mentioned here before. She is also the creator of The Adventureweiner^TM Club.

For the month of January, Jessica created the 30/30 Challenge, which was to walk 30 minutes a day for 30 days. I kind of got behind on my blog reading and didn't find out about the challenge until it had already started. Yes, I realize I could have joined in halfway through, but I was too lazy. So when Jessica introduced us to the Idita-Walk, I decided to join in.

The Idita-Walk, according to their website, "is an event to promote physical fitness in the spirit of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race." The goal is to walk a total of 1049 minutes between February 1 and March 31, symbolic of the 1049 miles between Anchorage and Nome, where the Iditarod goes. It's only $10 to participate in the Idita-Walk, and all proceeds will go to the Boy Scouts' Camp Bronson. You also receive a collectible lapel pin.

If you decide to join in, please be a part of our team! When you register, put "Dogventurers" as your company name. You can put a copy of the badge that Jessica created on your blog. (She has detailed the code here.) (UPDATE: Jessica did not create the badge. Gizmo's mom of Terrier Torrent did. I apologize for not giving credit correctly.)

You can also create a ticker to detail your progress. I think this is what clinched it for me! I really wanted a ticker on my blog, but I needed a reason for one. What better reason than to participate in a fun walk and get healthy?!

To create your own ticker, visit TickerFactory.com. Choose your background and icon. Set the Unit as Minutes, and put 1049 as your Target. If you want, put a title for your ticker as the Message. Create a pin or password, so you can update your progress. Grab the code to put the ticker on your blog. You'll have to update your ticker manually and put the new code on your blog each time - it won't update automatically.

Jessica will be posting her updates with a linky tool you can connect to at the end of each month. Go visit her blog post for details! I'm excited to do this and hope you'll all join in with us!

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Greenlake Walk in Pictures

I must admit these pictures are from a walk from last year. I took a ton of pictures on one of our meetups at Greenlake. Here is just a taste of one of our crazy walks.

Making new friends

Swift and Kool meet a new buddy

Swift knows Jessica's holding out on him...

Chester and Gretel, two of our besties

Swift got distracted...probably by a treat

Surrounded by wieners!

Ardie! One of my favorite wired-hairs

Another gorgeous wired-hair

Two new wired-hairs to our groups

Gorgeous long-hairs

Ardie again

I love dachshunds with beards!

Gretel and Marshall patiently waiting for a treat

Just look at that coat!

I think this is our friend Penny from My Life in Blog Years

Rufus and Porter worn out from the walk,
hanging out on mom's lap (Gretel snuck in there, too!)

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Always Stretch After a Hike!

Several weeks ago, during one of our rare sunny weather breaks, I took the boys on a hiking adventure. We hadn't been out in the woods on a "real" trail for several months. We've been around Greenlake and done a couple of urban trails, but this adventure took us out to Snohomish County near Monroe - Lord Hill Regional Park. It's close to where Janis (Lindsay's mom) lives, so we drove out to meet her, Tag, and Amber and head to the park in a convoy. We met Jessica, Chester, and Gretel at the park.

As I mentioned before, the weather was perfect. It was early February, but we always get gorgeous weather for about a week or so, and we picked the right weekend. It was sunny but not hot. The dogs wore coats but we weren't too worried about them getting overheated or too cold.

Showing off their coats and sweaters!

Well, hello, there, Kool! Are you ready to go hiking?

We took a lot of pictures. Chester and Gretel are so used to Jessica taking pictures, they just stand patiently and wait for her.

"Okay, mom. Whenever you're done, I'm ready to go."

The scenery and view were great. I thought these trees were pretty cool. I loved all the moss hanging off the branches. It was nice to go on a hike to a new park where we hadn't been before. 

The trail map was a little confusing (even for expert adventurer Jessica), so I'm not quite sure which trail we took. I do believe this is Beaver Lake, though. Unfortunately, we didn't see any beavers. I'm not sure what the dogs would have done if we had!

Beaver Lake

I really love my boys. I love watching them hike. They're just so cute in their matching red sweaters. They are great hikers, but we do have some problems working with the leash doubler. I keep saying I need to get a longer one, but I haven't yet. It might also be nice to get one where you can adjust the length of each side. Swift always pulls Kool along. Although in this picture, it looks like Kool is the one in charge!

"Come on, Swift! Doesn't that look like a beaver to you?!"

At first, I thought this water was part of the lake we saw earlier, but looking at the trail map, I'm pretty sure these pictures are of Temple Pond. So beautiful.

When all was said and done, we probably hiked 4 miles. As I mentioned in the title, you should always stretch after a hike. Did we? No. I just got in the car and drove home. I stopped to grab a pizza on the way home, and my legs were so stiff that I could barely get out of the car. Obviously, I hadn't been hiking in a while. For almost two weeks after that hike, I had trouble sitting down and getting up and walking up and down stairs. Man, am I getting old! It is now my responsibility to make sure everyone stretches after our adventureweiner meetups.

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