March 30th Dutch Hollow adventure

Aloha Friday,
Holy summer like conditions with out the leaves and flowers in Dutch Hollow today. The trails were 99% dry and the stream that was flowing huge last year was totally dry. Well there is a good side to all of this, we will be riding much earlier this year and hopefully enjoy a long spring, I am liking the idea of that.
Enjoy the weekend. Michael

March 29th King Road & Colony adventures

Aloha,
From spring to winter as the story goes these days in the mountains of PC. King road trail and the actual King road were mostly clear with some snow on the trail and looking like an early bike season?? Well I for one am getting over tired old man winter and ready for happy shiny spring, how about you.
The colony was totally different from the earlier hike. We skinned up whitepine canyon through the forest and ended up in a bowl full of snow and some pretty fun turns at the top until we hit the slush and it was slow going from there on out.
Peace. Schwaby

March 27th Round Valley showing the dirt.

Aloha,
It's that time of year when one can ski in the morning and bike, hike or run on dirt trails in the afternoon on the same day. And that is just what we did today. Round Valley's west side is almost dry and the trails are great for the for mentioned activities, and we did see a lot of dogs and runners along with a few mountain bike tracks as well. It was the first day of the season that I had my sneaks on just after having ski boots on, CRAZY! Is it going to be another wet snowy spring? I have to admit that biking season is sounding really good right now, just may have to disappear into the desert soon. It is what it is folks, WEATHER, SO COOL!!
Enjoy the ride. Peace..Schwaby

March 27th Empire pass

Aloha,
Another day out skiing with the dogs, and I get paid for this? It's awesome and my four legged buddies love the skis! It's a speed thing and the only time I can out run them if you know what I mean. Today the snow was totally different from the previous day with wind swept hills that were crunchy on the bottom with a layer of light snow on top making for sketchy turns but still fun. Again today I fell on my ass twice on the ice, DAMIT that hurts!! I guess I deserve it after laughing out loud watching Reo take a couple really good end over end diggers the other day. That boy takes some good ones I tell ya! Another fun duo to watch is Roxy and Dryfus, they have become very close buddies and go at it big time as you can see. Notice Zoey is a spectator in this one, smart girl. Let's hope it dumps my friends, we really need it.
Rock on! Schwaby

March 26th Daly Canyon winter adventure

Judge Mine & Smelter

Let's wrastle!!

Aloha,
The snow is back , even though just a couple of inches, we appreciate the white stuff to stave off the mud season. The snow has been manky mashed potatoes to say the least lately, making for unstable conditions so I brought my snowshoes and I'm glad I did because we were post holing big time getting fresh tracks off of the Empire link trail. Even with the shoes I took a couple good diggers flat on my face. Roxy, Zoey and Reo were gung ho today and were going for it in the fresh pow pow, running, jumping and tackling one another, always fun to watch, they are so agile and quick! Never a dull moment when it dumps. A dogs life is good!
Peace...Schwaby

March 23rd Homelite adventure

Aloha Friday,
Well I hope everybody had an awesome week, we sure did, and to top it all off I was able to make some incredibly fun sugary turns down the ridge of Homelite with Roxy and Dryfus. Once again from the Colony side we hiked up a fairly easy and short route to amazing views and no tracks, oh yeah, we had the whole place to ourselves and the conditions at the top were phenomenal!! Roxy and Dry were stoked as well, ending the week with big happy smiling faces. Life is good:)
Go big or go home. Peace..Michael

March 22nd adventures

View from the ski chair in Pinebrook at the top of Jeykll and Hyde trail

Aloha,
Wow, what an extreme temp change from earlier this week! From the 30's to the high 50's in just one day and the conditions were spring like and once again the sun prevails and old man winter goes back into hibernation. We had no real complaints and just stayed high in our wonderful mountains. First hike in pinebrook up spring trail to Ski chair and back down again. Second hike was a casual walk up the guard road to the three way and back making for a sort of rest/easy day for Schwaby and da pack. Nice!!

March 20th Robs Trail and skiing in whitepine canyon

Aloha,
Our second day after the storm was really nice on Robs trail in Sun Peak with Roxy, D-bear and Dryfus. There is a loop that takes about one hour and twenty minutes up Robs trail and down the semi private steep trail through the scenic pines and aspens. The photo at the top of this fun descent if you look closely is actually a picture of a moose hanging out at the top, always a sign of good luck.
For our second hike Roxy, Jasper and I hiked up through the forest in White Pine canyon up a slope that I had been checking out for awhile this year. It was so peaceful and quiet and absolutely beautiful. I love my job, especially when we find new adventures. After reaching the peak, which is on the west side of Limelite, we made some super fun turns down some fairly decent snow that became soupy at the bottom but still good and the dogs had a great time as well. What an awesome day!!
Peace...Schwaby

March 19th BIGGEST DUMP of the year Summit Park & Daly canyon

Aloha
HELLO snow, welcome back!! Wow, it was an awesome day, probably the biggest storm that I have seen this year and we took full advantage of the sweet conditions with some AT gear that I was testing from Whitepine touring. Fresh turns on the skis happy dogs, its all good. Yahoo!!
Spring skiing here we come!!
Life is good! Peace Schwaby

March 16th Empire pass Bonanza flats

Aloha
With the snow disappearing at such a rapid pace we are having to stay high to be in the snow and to avoid the mud. Empire pass is one of the go to spots right now and the dogs always have a good time and so do I. The conditions were a bit crusty but still skiable and we made a nice loop up Empire ridge down to Bonanza flats in the aspens and back up the cat track to the Guard road for a two hour jaunt. Terrific dogs today! Thank you Roxy Zoey and Dryfus, you make my job easy and fun!!
Peace. Schwaby

Aloha Friday March 16th adventure

10-4-20
Aloha Friday,
Aaaaagh, the weekend is here and it's St Patricks day, what a great holiday to just have fun eating and drinking with family and friends. We ended the week on a high note with our super fun adventure up the Guard road to Empire pass with a good lookin' 3 pack. Roxy, Dryfus and Zoey are such good dogs and we just had a really nice time. The weather was nice with some high winds on the Empire ridge that swept everything smooth making for great hiking conditions on the north side of things and slushy slush on the south side. Zoey and Roxy were sliding down like otters and loving it. I was able to make a couple of tele turns on the south side before my tips dove sending me summersaulting to a dead stop, good thing it was soft. The rest of the hike after sitting for a couple minutes admiring 10-4-20 was really cool in the aspens and more down hill fun. There is always a fun variety of ups and downs in Bonanza flats and today we practically had the place to our selves.
Peace...Michael

March 15th Daly and Pinebrook adventures and training tips

Aloha,
More warm weather and slushy conditions made for a tough day of hiking for everybody. Daly wasn't to bad as long as you stayed in the middle of the packed trails so I recommend once again to take the snowshoes or skis to avoid the post hole syndrome, it's not fun but always a true test of character, stamina and patients. All the dogs were good sports about it and had awesome attitudes despite the really tough conditions. Our second hike was especially brutal in Pinebrook because Schwaby was in curious adventure mode and went the wrong way but eventually found his way and all was good. We were relieved to be back on the main trail tired and happy to be done.
Training tip- Relationships with our dogs. When working with humans and their dogs my goal is to strengthen their relationship through communicating with one another. We do this with love, trust and respect, energy, tone and body language. The human is the pack leader and the dog is the follower. Consistency, persistence and patients is the key to success when working with your best friend. The pack leader needs to be calm assertive and the dog calm submissive. We all will have different relationships with our dogs, from wife to husband to kids, boyfriend to girlfriend to trainer to dog hiker to groomer.
Live Strong. Schwaby