Arty, Arty. I love my dog. There, I've said it. Arty came with me on a short hike last Saturday, his first since his paw injuries of a couple of weeks ago. It was good to have his company on the trail again. It wasn't a hot day, but it was sunny, and I was continually feeling the trail to experience what he was experiencing. The trail was pretty cool, and the air temperature was perhaps only 75 degrees or so, but Arty nonetheless seemed uncomfortably hot on this hike. His paws were fine, but he bopped from shady spot to shady spot along the trail, and was in extreme panting mode, you know, when the dog's eyes are nearly shut because the tongue is out so far? I guess it was just the black dog on a midday hike syndrome. He seemed to enjoy himself, though I on the other hand was pretty much wholly preoccupied with observing his condition throughout the hike. I still had a good time too, though.

We hiked at the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve, just 5-10 minute drive from my house. There are a couple of access points; one is right on Sir Francis Drake, but the one that seemed preferable to me was up Glen Drive near White Hill School... the access trail seems nicer, and you can park in the shade. We hiked up the Smith Ridge Fire Road to the edge of the Open Space Land... a decent climb through open oak woodland with some nice local views of Mt. Tam et al. The trail continues on private land on an easement all the way over to Lucas Valley Road, then crosses Lucas Valley Road, skirts Skywalker Ranch(George Lucas' place, for the out-of-staters) and hooks into the Loma Vista Open Space preserve all the way up by Novato. I'm pretty excited to do a shuttle hike, or just get dropped off at one end and picked up at the other, to hike this trail... it feels like you traverse a fair bit of Marin County in doing so, though it's probably only 10 - 12 miles or so. It's a project for this fall. Anyway, we backtracked to Gunshot Fire Road, and took a breather under a big spreading oak. I poured water on Arty's back and neck and waited for his temperature to go down, as we had just completed a particularly sunny stretch. Fortunately the rest of the hike had more shady spots. We continued down Gunshot Fire Road into a canyon-y, oaky area and came out on Pipeline Road. There's a waterfall here during times when it's not bone-dry and the middle of the damn summer... it looked like it would have been pretty nice. Pipeline Road took us back to the truck, though not before first stopping at a conveniently placed mud puddle for a refreshing high-noon wallow. Arty, dear to my heart that he is, got to ride back in the front seat despite his mud-encrusted exterior. All told the hike was a brisk and pleasant 4.7 miles with a 1200' elevation change.