Our recent adventure with Kyndall in northern California wasn’t all hookers and road hell. She also got a bigger dose of Nature than she’s had in a while. One morning Steve and I took her on a four-hour hike up to Shirley Lake and the “High Camp” above the floor of Squaw Valley. We left Tucker in his kennel in the cabin; the 2000-foot elevation gain would have killed him. (Or us, given that after he collapsed, we would have had to strap him to our backs and haul him down the mountain.) But Kyndall handled it brilliantly, never flagging and leaping effortlessly up the steep rocky passages.
At first we kept her on the leash; we were unsure how well she would stay with us. But after a while, we freed her. At one point, she found a pine cone and raced around with it in a manic frenzy. But mostly, she stayed close and managed to avoid any snakes.
She seemed entranced by the lake (as were we). Unlike her, we restrained ourselves from jumping in the water. (And she stayed in only for a minute. It was cold!)
When we reached the High Camp, I immediately took the tram down to the valley floor — 2,000 feet almost straight down. But Steve and Kyndall explored the
facilities, where many of the 1960 Winter Olympic events took place, before taking the next tram down themselves.
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