What a great adventure Louie and I had together! I had been wanting to go back to this lake outside of Bend for at least a couple of years, and hadn’t gotten the opportunity, so I went ahead and booked a campsite in the middle of the week to scout it out. We almost didn’t go because of me doing a dumb thing at the gym and hurting my back, but I have actually never gotten the chance to camp without any other people with me, and I couldn’t deal with passing up the chance to do this with Lou, even though it definitely hurt to move! It was immediately stunning right when we arrived, so Louie gleefully chased sticks around for an hour in the gorgeous sunset while I freaked out about the amazing light and surroundings. And groaned about my injured back, lol. We slept (well, he did, not me!) in our van together and because I couldn’t sleep, I kept opening my eyes and would see shooting stars almost every time and the Big Dipper would be a little lower in the sky each time. I told him all about it, but he just snoozed away.
The next morning we went on an epic tour of five different lakes, each with their own marvelous vibe and beauty, and all spectacular. I was impressed to calculate at the end of the day that my sweet old pupper had hiked over 9 miles with me, which thrilled me to no end. A couple years ago Lou started having seizures- at first they happened every couple weeks, and then they tapered off and eventually stopped over about a year and half. When his seizures stopped, then his back legs started shaking quite a lot, and often after less than a mile he would refuse to walk any further. He’s doing way better now and most of the time his legs don’t shake at all, although they did a bit on this trip from all the extra running around. Overall, I’m so completely amazed about how he has recovered from both of these things- both of which I just thought would get worse and worse. He does need extra time to rest these days, but my bones are getting older too, haha, so I’m happy to oblige. On our journey in between all the lakes, he would instantly fall asleep in his bed in the van, and I got to listen to his sweet snores while I drove.
Enjoy some of my favorite photos of Louie that I got on our trip 🙂 What a completely magical and amazing place Oregon is.
