Buster's Anniversary Hike

I picked Willamette Mission State Park as our birding destination today.  We parked at the Mission Lake Boat Ramp, which we recalled was where we took Buster for his very first opportunity to hike.  When I got home this afternoon I researched in Cascade Ramblings to find when that took place.  Turned out to be eight years ago on March 3, 2006.  This was before the Cascade Ramblings Blog, back in the days when all the reporting took place in the Trip Journal.  You can read the entry here. There was quite a contrast in these two hikes.  On his first trip it took a lot of encouragement to get him to take a few wobbly steps along the trail, and you can see in the photo above his furrowed brow indicating his concern over this strange situation.  By contrast today he was the first one out of the car and off exploring smells before we could even get our boots on. Hiking is now his favorite pastime.