Well, after returning home from my road trip to Colorado over New Years (52 hours of driving in an 8 day span, whew!!) I felt very inspired to get outdoors and do some hiking! Living in the suburbia of NJ and spending most of my time in Philadelphia, I don't see much nature in my daily routine, and neither does Maya. Fortunately, we have a decent backyard surrounded by a woodsy, tree filled area... even so, Maya and I both need to get out more and stretch our legs! So, I rounded up a bunch of friends and we caravanned up to the beautiful Lehigh Gorge State Park where Glen Onoko Falls is located. The nice thing about living outside of Philadelphia is that there is an abundance of beautiful hiking spots within only a few hours driving distance! Boy, being as out of shape as I am, Glen Onoko is an INTENSE hike! Rough, steep, rocky terrain... my muscles were sore for almost a week after the hike! Maya had an absolute blast, though. She was the only dog amongst a group of about 12 or so people, for most of the hike. Towards the end of the hike, a couple other friends showed up, and Maya got to play with her 4 month old Doberman friend Isis, as well as her two new Boxer friends Sophie and Gus! Maya was an absolute delight to hike with. We finally got to put our off-leash recall training to some good use... being away from busy roads and city streets, I felt comfortable enough to let Maya run... and she stuck with the pack the whole time! She would often run ahead to the front of the group of hikers... stop and wait until I caught up... and then bolt ahead again! I was so impressed by how agile and nimble she was, effortlessly leaping up huge, steep rock formations that took me easily twice as long to climb! Anyway, here are some photos from the hike!

i miss that area so much (bucks county gal here)! good for you on getting out with Maya. great pictures.

Looks like so much fun!

Looks fun! I love seeing pictures of Maya, she's so pretty!

Aw you shoulda told me! JT is only an hour away from me!

Thanks guys! Ceara-- next time I will definitely let you know! In fact, I would really like to get out hiking somewhere this weekend, if you are interested! After work, I'l go back to the NJ/ PA husky meet up thread that I started and see if I can generate any interest in a hike for this weekend? Or perhaps the following, if people have obligations already this weekend.

I believe I'll be in Maryland this weekend =/ maybe next, though!

Ah, next weekend will be better for me anyway. After a couple days with a sore throat, I finally went to the doctor, and sure enough, it's strep. Yeck! This weekend will be filled with rest and hot tea for me!