Kayaks be me. And Lola. And Julie and Molly.

As planned, I took the doggies camping AGAIN.  This time we tried Woods Canyon Lake, which is an hour closer to Phoenix than Fool's Hollow, and a little higher, so it was actually cooler (got to wear long pants in July - yeah!) than our last trip.  And less windy.  Thank the Baby Jeezus for that!

So this trip was much easier -- two hour drive, I've already got the car half packed (because I left most of the stuff in the car from last time), and I'm all prepared with my new, front-yard-tested Alps Moutaineering tri-awning, which beat the Kelty medium Shadehouse structure all to Heck for ease of solo set up and functionality.  Met up with friend Julie and her dog Molly at the check-in hut around noon Friday and proceeded to set up. (Wound up setting up two separate and, it turned out, unnecessary, camp sites, because we thought another friend was joining us for Saturday night.  [They have a two car maximum per site.]  So I had this lovely HUGE camp site all to myself.  Well, me and the doggies, anyway.)

My first visitor?  A big ol' elegant elk.  She was beautiful.  And tall.  You can't really appreciate it in these photos, but she was a pretty tall girl.

So, once I got over the whole "Wow, there's an elk in my camp." thing, I set up all the shit.  The tri-awning is smaller in square footage than the Embark square shade, but the ability to set it up solo more that makes up for any size limitation.  In fact, it's so cool, that I ordered a second one (being shipped to me as I type) to set up next to it, and make a veritable domed wonderland!  WHO's got the most shade in camp?  That would be me.

Here's the WCL camp:

So that's the excitement for the first day/night.  Julie came over and we hung out and roasted marshmallows, which gave Lola (previously in my lap, but still tied to my chair) a chance to attack.  Under cover of darkness, Lola attempted to murder, or at least seriously intimidate, poor Molly, who had done nothing to deserve such treatment.  Fortunately, between Julie and the leash and the chair, we were able to wrangle the insane toy poodle into submission without any damage to Molly.  But Lola still gave Molly the evil eye and the occasional rabid-poodle-charge for the rest of the trip.  (I'd really love to know what kind of life Lola had for the 10 years before I got her.  She got issues.)

Saturday was yoga and go-to-the-lake day.  Gorgeous day, with fluffy clouds in the blue sky.  I hit the lake and tried my new solo sit-on-top inflatable kayak, which is not as fast as a regular kayak and more susceptible to wind, but oodles easier to transport and store.  And it was fun!

And Lola was a trooper again.  She's not a big water dog, but her fear of my permanent departure is so curiously strong (Altoid, anyone?), that she will risk death, or at least a little sun and water, to be with me.

Land-loving Lola on a break.

So it was a beautiful morning at the lake.  I saw a crawfish eat a small frog.  (I'd show you the photo, but all I got was a picture of a stick under water -- it was sunny and I couldn't see the screen, what can I say.)  And then a gorgeous blue heron came by to fish.  He was there again on Sunday too and was too cool soaring above the lake.

I got about two hours of exercise in (Did I mention it was NOT as windy as Fool's Hollow?  And I think the new kayak would be less susceptible to the wind than the inflatable row boat.) before heading back to join Julie and Molly for lunch.  

And then our friend Mary J. came by for a glass of wine and a long walk BACK to the lake (it's right around the corner by car, but is a decent hike on foot), so we got some exercise in before it began to rain.  The afternoon was just a light rain (with excellent lightning and thunder) and we were all dry under the tri-awning.  Mary headed back to Phoenix, Julie went back to her camp, and the doggies and I ate, and walked and read, etc. until marshmallow roasting time (there was a break in the rain just at the right time, so we burned the rest of our firewood).  And then the wind ushered in the serious rain, and it was time to head to the tents.  My new tent and awning got their first test by rain and passed with flying colors.  I couldn't even hear my ipod with all the rain noise!  Very nice.

Connor trying to get me up for his breakfast.

Lola and I trying NOT to get up.

I meant to yoga with the Ye again on Sunday morning, but stayed up too late reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (still didn't finish the frickin' thing), so I was tired when the Connor dog went off at 5 am and demanded a walk (which he got, but then I went back to bed and TRIED to sleep).  I finally gave up at 6:30 am and dragged Connor into bed with us in an attempt to shut off his continuous autobark feature. 

I didn't think we'd get any more kayaking in, but Julie was actually up for it on Sunday and she took Molly out and then I took Lola out for a spin on the lake before we packed it in and packed it up.

Here's Julie kayaking with Molly:

Molly seems to be more of a sea dog than Lola!

So that was it.  Or so I thought.  The last bit of excitement happened at literally the moment of my departure.  I was walking Connor to the car and couldn't figure out why he was walking kind of diagonally.  Until he collapsed, had a few seizures, and passed out.  HOLY SHEE-ITE!  I thought my beloved Connor Dog was dead.  Really and truly dead.  He was completely limp, he was not breathing, nothing.  I grabbed Connor and put him into the back of the car (had to throw Crazy Butt back into her front seat to get her out of the way, but she knew I wasn't messing around) and didn't know what to do other than give him mouth-to-muzzle.  And I don't know if the M-T-M worked, or if he would have come around anyway, but after what seemed like a long time (and was really probably 30-60 seconds), Connor came around, put his head up, and had a few more seizures, but at least wasn't dead!  Thank GOD.  The seizures stopped after maybe another minute.  I gave Connor's head a wet down to make sure he was cool, gave him a big bowl of water, which he did start drinking, and he was fine.  Connor was back home and trying to eat his own poop within a couple of hours.  Tragedy averted.  Man, that would have been a bad camping result.  I thought maybe he had a stroke, but my sister said it was probably low blood pressure combined with the altitude.  Makes sense -- I also have low blood pressure and was dizzy myself while de-camping with all the bending over and then standing up.

Anyhoo, that's it from kind-of-damp camp. 

And what up with the squidge, you ask?  Well, the squidge is disappearing at an alarming and highly-pleasing rate.  Since I stopped eating dairy, eggs and wheat (the V + M diet) and eating almost nothing but fruit, vegetables, and some meat, all the fat has just melted away and I'm down to 105.6.  Yep.  My fighting weight from the late 20s before I got all squidgy.  Wow.  How cool is that?  Only downside so far is I have to get new bras!  (As my GP told me years ago when I asked why my boobs were getting bigger: "Well, they're all fat, you know."  Thanks.  Beeotch.)  But, since I got rid of my eczema, rhinitis, weird skin issues and other food-allergen reactions, I started focusing on other things, and it turns out I have a chronic strep and gardnerella infection and maybe that accounts for my chronic fatigue.  Anyway, I decided that in light of those continuing issues, I would cave in and do what Dr. Braly (the food allergist who wrote the book that saved my life:  Hidden Food Allergies) recommends, which is to STOP drinking all alcohol for three months and use probiotics to heal my gut.  So instead of taking a bottle of champagne (I specifically bought a cooler tall enough to house a bottle or two), I drank my green tea and Emergen-C over the weekend.  In fact, I kicked off Alcohol Abstinence on July 5 (the 4th was out of the question).  I've already gone one week with no alcohol -- only three days short of my personal best  So I'm hoping that my immune system will come back to life and kick some bad bacteria ass.  Wish me luck.  Cuz I don't think it's going to be easy.  I mean really, my last and only vice?  Dang it.