Castle Rock

 When I found out there was a mountain near our campsite called Castle Rock - as a massive Stephen King fan I knew we had to check it out!

It was a smaller and easier climb than most mountains in the Adirondacks until the last section.  That involved scambling up bare rock, squeezing through rock passages, climbing up roots to get to the summit.

Not surprisingly, the dogs were much better at this than the humans.  There were a couple places where we gave them an assist - not sure they needed it but we wanted to be safe.  One guy at the top had blood running down his arm from a fall and we saw a family where mom was sitting and crying because she had twisted her ankle.  If one of our boys had slipped and broken a leg??!!  I can't even think about it.

We made it safe and sound to the top but readjusted their collars and made sure the leashes were secure as the top has a large rock outcropping and a fall would be deadly.

We use the command "Wait" a lot.  That tells our dogs to, well, wait to do something.  We used that term a lot both times we dexended the mountains - for both their safety and ours.  Both did great at not jumping off large rocks or barrelling down a path until we were ready and had checked to make sure it was safe.

At the bottom:

Tonight we enjoyed our last campfire - although it was so warm we really didn't need it.  A nearby town must have been having fireworks - we couldn't see them but could hear them.  The dogs weren't bothered but they weren't that loud so I'm not going to assume Booker won't have a reaction in the future...