| 
16 June ~2008
Me and Ben have gone backpacking twice this spring, once out to a hidden canyon in Western Colorado, and last week up a trailless valley that was still covered in snow. My daughter Amy was kind enough to allow me to take her border collie Drift along both times, and watch Maggie while she is recovering from her ACL surgery. Drift and Ben are both intelligent and spirited, and the two are the best of buddies, like brothers.They play constantly, competing to be the temporary owner of balls or sticks I throw for them. Sometimes they growl and act tough during tugs of war battles over a stick, then lie down beside each other when their energy is spent. It is entertaining just to watch them.
Drift is three, and about four times as fast as Ben. When I throw a stick or a ball and they both start after it off Ben slows up pretty quickly, because he knows he doesnt have a chance. He has old dog wisdom and craftiness though. Ben waits until Drift brings the stick or ball back to me and drops it at my feet so I will toss it again, then He then rushes past Drift and snarfs it up. He takes it a little ways away to lie down and chew on it, hopefully with Drift watching him.
Drift follows behind Ben wanting his stick back, but has found a way to take total victory away from Ben. Drift goes and finds another stick and brings it to me. I have seen Ben stop chewing on his and raise his head to watch, like this stick doesnt taste as good as it did a second ago.
I had to laugh out loud when I saw what Ben started doing on a warm afternoon when I was throwing a stick into a lake for Drift to swim and retrieve. He would stand at the edge of the lake and wait until Drift was just rising out of the water, and grab the stick out of his mouth. I saw the clever old dog repeat this several times. Poor Drift.
Drift is good-natured though, and a very special dog. In spite of Ben's tricks he loves going with us to the backcountry. When I strap on his backpack he makes little happy whining sounds, because he knows we are heading up a trail for an multiday adventure.
At some point on every trip I photograph me playing the harmonica and Drift singing. Here is a video of us doing it a month ago, at the end of our journey to Western Colorado. Also check out the collage of us three guys below.
(if the video above doesnt work, try this link)
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|