10. Take that faint deer track down to the creek.

9. With Otterpop in tow.

8. Using her string on her harness to try to hoist her over the rough spots down the cliff.

7. Which also rips my pants and fills them up with dirt and redwood pokies.

6. Although we find two baby waterfalls.

5. And a new swimming hole.

4. With lots of mosquitoes.

3. And a cave den that smells of cattish pee.

2. So we need to get back up to the trail immediately but we can’t because, cliff that we all barely made it down anyways, so we have to tromp up the creek which is nearly impossible from all the downed trees and being in a ravine and all and I have an Otterpop in my arms most of it who is now at this point quite unhappy about the situation I’ve got her in with her little back legs that don’t hardly work, but I just keep keeping on and the other dogs think this is absolutely fantastic because bushwacking is usually frowned upon and maybe a big cat lives down here and did I mention creek and new swim hole and who cares about running up the side of a gulch and one wet foot from slippery creek rocks?

1. Next time we just take the trail.