Shanti reports…

Towards the beginning of the year, Mum discovered that Further Faster had a Mountain Dog Challenge. After joining the group Mum read up on the walks. We started on Trig M which wasn’t part of any of the challenge routes, but mentioned on the site, because it sounded like an easy introduction to walking for me and a good way to rebuild fitness for Mum.

We passed the start of the trail up Foggy Peak when driving back from Trig M, so Mum was confident about where to go and… Foggy Peak was on the challenge list.

It didn’t take long before we were in the car just going to have a nose around. Well, a nose here and a nose a little further up the trail… and we were on our way up.

Foggy Peak was initially living up to its name. It was foggy, but a light wind was blowing and Mum was sure the fog was lifting.

I wasn’t so sure, but we were climbing, albeit slowly. There was a lot of waiting for Mum. We eventually got to a huge cairn in the mist and Mum thought it was the top. But once we were there we saw a stretch of rocks outlining either side of the path that continued into the mist. That’s where I first learnt about false summits (and a few new cuss words I wasn’t supposed to hear).

Up we went. To Mum’s credit, we did overtake a couple who were walking up, if you can still overtake someone at a snail’s pace. Let’s say they stopped to rest just a little more often than we did, so we moved into the lead.

The sun did start to break through on the last stretch and we were rewarded with clear skies on the summit.

The trip back down was a lot faster. It was pretty rocky with lots of loose stones, but I managed. My healing paw was in a boot and all went well - except that Mum was pretty stiff and sore the next day or two.

Now not only an adventure dog, but a mountain dog in the making. Sounds grand, but truth be told I’d rather play ball if given the choice. But - let me hasten to add: walking with Mum is also far better than being left alone at home!