On Sunday, we decided to take a family trip up to Harriman State Park for a day of hiking.  I never realized that there was this HUGE park just 30 miles north of NYC.  With more than 225 miles of marked hiking trails, you could go a ton of times without ever having to repeat a trail.  We invested $10.75 in a park map, which we would highly recommend - the trails are well marked, but there are lots of them and we would definitely have gotten lost without our trusty map.

Oscar loves city living - the dog parks, the sidewalk butt-sniffing social scene, etc, but he’s also a big fan of the great outdoors.  He loves going for walks in the woods, but this was our first official “hike”.  Even though he’s technically a Toy dog, he’s a pretty sturdy 20 lbs, so we were hoping that this could become a regular family activity that is fun for everyone.

When we first started out on our hike, Oscar was beside himself with excitement.  Some of the trails were pretty strenuous for the little guy, but O was a trooper - he scrambled up the rocks like a tiny billy goat!!  We did have to create a Brussels Griffon fire-brigade to pass him down some of the steep rock areas. 

Poor Oscar got a bunch of nasty looking bug bites on his belly and apparently he is also a little tick magnet.  The good news for other hikers is that I don’t think he left any ticks behind!!  So, we got to spend a good hour or so after the hike inspecting the O-dog and removing ticks.  We use Frontline, which will kill the ticks within 48 hrs, but since he sleeps in bed with us we do a full tick check whenever we go in the woods.

So, I was starting to feel a little bad towards the end of the hike because I wasn’t sure whether the crazy grin on his face was happiness or panic!  The temp was only in the low 70s, but he was panting pretty hard (even with frequent water breaks).  We finally soaked him down with some stream water which seemed to help, although he HATES getting wet.

Here’s a picture of Oscar, mid-hike…

What do you think?  Is he thinking, “This is the greatest day ever!!” or “Get me the h$@^ out of here!!”? 

 Here he is again, taking a break on a nice rock next to a lake…all hail King Oscar!!