Fierce Asparagus: Day 19- Duck Feathers & Bear Messes with Tyler and Joel

October 3^rd 2010 Day 19 Sunday

This morning I walked Hanz again along the shores of Steamboat Lake. This time we saw a deer grazing in the large riparian area. When I got back I went out on the speedboat with Tyler, Rayne and Bear. We cruised around the lake and saw a buck and a doe grazing on the banks across the way. They were so beautiful and quiet.

Deer Grazing by Steamboat Lake

The only disconcerting thing was that we had heard gunshots yesterday from duck hunters and certain sections of the lake were strewn with feathers. Obviously somebody had hit their target. Some of the ducks had obviously landed fairly far from the shore and it's amazing to think that retriever dogs swim that whole length and back. Hanz can swim but I think it would be pushing it to send him several hundred feet from land. His head is so low in the water because he hasn't been bred to be an efficient swimmer so he ends up swallowing a lot of water. If you watch a lab or another dog bred to retrieve game they swim with their heads far above the water and their short coat makes them have less resistance while they swim. It is interesting to be in a situation where you can actually see a big difference due to selective breeding in dog species of similar size.

Aside from feeling a bit bad for the ducks who met their end in the waters surrounding our canoe we had a good time. It was chilly on the lake, especially when the boat would speed up and the breeze would rip the heat away from our bodies. Tyler, Hanz and I lounged on the front of the boat and I was happy that Hanz looked to be enjoying himself. He would tip his snout up in the wind and sniff sniff sniff. He's a very curious dog.

It's Chilly!

For breakfast we went back to Hahns Peak Café because supposedly they have the best eggs benedict. It was indeed a very delicious breakfast. I would highly recommend it to anyone who visits that area!

Hahn's Peak Cafe has delicious food and is very close to Steamboat Lake

After breakfast we crossed the street to where the remnants of the town of Hahns Peak still stood. Unfortunately the jail that normally can be toured as a museum was closed for the season. I suppose that because the summer weather ends fairly early around here, and it's not uncommon to have snow in early October, they weren't anticipating many crowds at this time of year. Oh well, I'll just put it on the list of places to which we have to return.

Hahns Peak

We got our trailer all ready and then went back out on the boat, this time it was me, Tyler, Joel, and Bear.

Joel and Tyler decided, even on this overcast day, to go tubing off the back of the speedboat. Tubing in my mind is getting in an inner tube, hopping into the river, drinking a beer and relaxing but lake tubing is obviously something quite different.

Joel and Tyler getting ready for extreme tubing!

Tyler and Joel both got onto tubes but since Bear wanted to mess with them as soon as they got far away enough from the boat he ramped up the speed until we were whipping across the water, both Tyler and Joel holding on for dear life. Bear would wait until it looked like they were starting to get a handle on things and then make an abrupt turn, throwing them over the wake and cackling at their struggles. At the same time Joel and Tyler were trying to knock each other off of the tubes. It was a crazy enough ride being on the boat so I couldn’t imagine what it was like for them out on the water! Hanz and I were sitting in the boat holding on for dear life. Or rather Hanz was staring at Tyler and I was holding on to him so he didn’t go flying out of the boat! Normally Hanz would have been terrified but he had never seen Tyler do something like this before so he was too busy staring at him the whole time to make sure he was okay to really be scared. It was only after Tyler got pulled back in and onto the boat and Hanz knew that he was okay that he started to show that he was a bit nervous. He’s such a good dog, our little adventurer.