Still A Happy Puppy

These pictures were taken sometime in mid-February and Cody WY looks now, nothing like it did only a month ago.

A few days ago I went back and skimmed through some of the pictures I had taken last winter while still living in Idaho.

We had SO much snow last winter.

This winter was nothing like the last.

This year we had frequent snowfalls that dropped two, three, sometimes as much as six inches or more.

The world around us looked like a beautiful post card for a short while and then the snow all melted.

Rinse and repeat over and over throughout the past five or six months.

It's gone again.

All of it and although there is always a chance for more snow over the next few months, we have been enjoying temperatures in the 50s for the past week.

Everyone has spring fever.

Everyone including us.

The above picture is a look back at the Tahoe as we begin to climb a trail, with a snow covered Heart Mountain in the background...............

These pictures were all taken while the world was still white, and at places that are close to town where all three of us love to wander.

They are places where Kory can run free and where LC and I can hike and enjoy the freedom we feel since moving to Cody.

 Four miles from the center of town (heading out the Greybull Highway) is a turnoff that leads to rutted out dirt trails and eventually a series of quiet hills.

Hills filled with interesting rock formations, endless pine trees and views of all the surrounding mountain ranges.

Hike the trails to the peaks of these hills and you are rewarded with views of the wide open Oregon Basin that is located on the back side.

Kory and I have wandered this place often, enjoying the freedom and enjoying the rhythm that we have established between us over all these years.

The rhythm of traveling together, exploring together, wandering in different directions but reconnecting often on the trail.

She loves it.  

And so do I.

And we love it together.

For a long time in Atomic City we wandered without LC, but he has been joining us more and more often since we moved back to Wyoming.

The exploring duo is now occasionally an exploring trio.

And that's OK.

Actually, it's more than OK................

Cody is a tri-level city.

"Downtown" is on the center level.

"Up the hill" contains the arena, aquatics center, recreation center, post office, library, Beck Lake, air port, memorial park, golf course, multiple stores and restaurants, and multiple old and new subdivisions.

At the end of a very ritzy subdivision you cross over a cattle guard and immediately find yourself at Red Lake.

Red Lake is an old dry river bed that is surrounded by open, hilly, mountainous land.

Some of it is public lands.

Some of it is a huge expanse of private land and the owner has granted permission to the residents of Cody to use and enjoy it for recreation.

In effect, once you pass by the last mansion and cross over the cattle guard, you have access to tens of thousands of acres of public land.

In the winter LC, Kory and I were the only people who wandered through the snow.

Now that Cody is slowly beginning to move out of hibernation we are learning that it is also a popular location for four wheelers, dirt bikers, horse back riders, and other dog walkers.

We were spoiled.

All winter we had this place to ourselves, but we are now begrudgingly beginning to relinquish our monopoly on the place................

The vast emptiness and sheer beauty of our new home has been cathartic for both LC and I over the past months, during a time in which we have experienced so much change.

After we sold our home in Idaho we spent a few days in a motel in Rexburg before heading over to Wyoming.

Then we spent over a week camping on BLM land, another week and a half in a motel in Meeteetse, four months in a cottage in downtown Cody and then finally a move into the house we are currently renting.

It has been a time of constant change and quiet turmoil, and at first we were both worried how all of those changes would effect our dog.

We understood what was happening in our lives and why.  

But Kory did not.

As long as Kory had known us we had lived in the same house in Idaho.

She had played in the same back yard.

Walked the same neighborhool.

Driven on the same dirt trails and explored in the same BLM hills.

For everything she has been through in her life (some of which we know about and some of which we have no idea) Kory is an amazingly well adjusted dog.

Consistent love and attention from us, consistent walking together and consistently allowing her to run in safe places out on BLM land, and she has come through this entire adventure apparently unscathed.

Still the happy, adventurous, loving puppy we have always known.

Endless mountain views taken while wandering with Kory at Red Lake............

Kory running to catch up with us..............

Heading back towards town after a long, cold walk.

The ever-present Heart Mountain in the background.

The first homes are located just beyond the trees..............

Dogs, on the other hand... dogs have pure souls. Look at me." I grab her chin and look straight into her eyes. "Dogs are always good and full of selfless love. They are undiluted vessels of joy who never, ever deserve anything bad that happens to them. Especially you. Since the day I met you, you have done nothing but make my life better in every possible way. Do you understand?..............Steven Rowley