The Adventure Begins

Our pack is made up of Lilly, Terra, Jasper and Gus. Most of the time when we adventure or travel all four come along for the journey because they love being able to go and explore new places even more than we do.

We started adventuring with the dogs regularly in 2018. At that time the pack included Morgan, Lilly and Terra. Jasper and Gus hadn’t found their way to us yet.

Morgan had rediscovered his love of the mountains when we started visiting our dad’s cabin at the young age of 9 years old. The pack would spend the weekend climbing the mountains on the property and enjoying the fresh air. Soon after they were restless hanging around the house all week. We weren’t able to go to the cabin every weekend, so we started hiking locally.

We are quite a sight on trail, Lilly usually leading the way with Morgan hot on her heels with Beth in tow. Terra was always begging Kathryn to go faster so she didn’t have to be so far behind.

Jasper, Lilly, Terra and Buster

We would often get questions and astonished comments about the dogs, their trail manners and usually shock that they were all making it up and down the trails.

As Morgan aged our hiking slowed down to match his speed, a week before his passing he merrily went for a mile hike on a local fire road.

Jasper joined our family a few months later when Beth was matched by our favorite rescue group. I don’t think we had ever seen a dog who was so excited to get out and about as Jasper.

After the initial period to let Jasper settle into the family, learn some much needed manners, and make sure we felt confident in his abilities we started adventuring again.

Now we admit that we attract attention, as Jasper is a lovable fluff ball who everyone wants to pet. Lilly draws her own crowd as people are amazed at her stunning coat, and happy eyes. Terra brings joy as a small dog with a big personality and cartoon features. Gus usually goes unnoticed until someone notices the yellow eyes staring back at them from the backpack or he pops his head out the top of his bag like a periscope.

But even with all that to draw people to us, we are continually surprised how often people would comment they wished they could do this with their dogs as well.

Years of those comments, and hearing the same things over and over lead us to starting this podcast. Our goal is to help people adventure with their dogs and cats more confidently.

We share our stories from how we pack and what we carry, to suggestions for training. We also talk a lot about what can go wrong and how to be prepared for that.

Adventuring with the pack is an amazing experience, they remind us continually to look at things with fresh eyes, to enjoy all the little moments and stop to smell… well everything!

Welcome to the adventure!