Yesterday was a struggle. Hiking Mount Jackson without success with 5 children and my sister as well as her dog, Stella. The kids have gotten tired by the time we made it to Bugle Cliffs. However, we are very proud they made it that far with postholing and soft snow the whole .8 miles. At this point it was about .5 miles from the second river crossing that we came across. We dropped Stella's leash back there and she has not returned which is highly uncharacteristically of her to do. On the way back, we called Stella's name all the way down, asking any hiker we came across if they saw Stella, with no avail. As the kids were getting more tired and more tired the more we hiked, our worries for Stella grew. Me and my sister trades backpacks as she turned back to search for Stella and look for dog tracks that went off the trail. She paced from Bugle Cliffs and back for the next 5 hours with finally finding a light set of dog prints that went over an embankment. She found Stella stuck in the river, her statement later that day, "I found her stuck in a river, she was holding on to a sheet of ice with her front paws but unable to get a good enough grip to get her whole body up. I am so lucky I found her as she was a few hundred feet of the trail and the river was very hard to follow with steep banks on both sides and snow thigh deep. I thought she was dead as I saw the footprints that showed her fall in but something told me to keep going. She was very stiff at first but I dried her off the best I could with my winter jacket and it didn't take long for her to be running around and showing me the "play" pose which she never does so I think it was her way of saying thank you. I have literally never cried so hard in my life as when I found her and realized she was alive. thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, and shares." We learned many things that day. Not only that the rivers were tricky for a dog to spot but maybe next time we will take turns crossing the river with Stella instead of one on each side helping the kids cross but also we learned team work and listening skills. The kids learned this also as well as learning about hypothermia and how sometimes it results in amputation. With family time of hiking we grew not only as a whole but also individually and as a team. And for Stella, all I can say is that I'm glad she was found and I'm glad she was not lost. Stella is part of our family too. Mount Jackson will wait another day...maybe in the summer.
