When I (hopefully) head out moose hunting later this year, I will need Henry with me. That might not be practical so I'll have to ask him to bless my lucky hat. I say ask loosely, knowing that all I need to do is dangle my cap within his grasp and Hank will promptly slobber all over it. Whatever it takes, because Henry can undeniably sniff out the moose.

Saturday found south central Alaska in a full blown heat wave. It wasn't quite breakup, but 35 degrees is extremely pleasant. We layered up Henry, pulled out the sled, and headed off to do a lap around the bog behind our home. Henry is always a good sport and made no fuss when he was carefully strapped and snapped into his sled. We tugged him along through the patted down snow and smiled and greeted the dog walkers that were out enjoying the day.

Thanks to the Alaskan winter we were able to take a few scenic short cuts across the pond in the center of the bog.



As we neared the halfway point of our loop we had a spring in our step due to the warm weather and Henry's happiness and curiosity at the surroundings. Despite our best intentions, a full loop around the bog was not to be. Henry sniffed out another moose. After a few pictures we decided that passing the moose would put us in a proximity to potentially create a stressed moose. Nothing doing on that front so we turned around and enjoyed the scenery all the same.



Moments after we began crunching across the snow towards home, Becky noticed that the party animal had hit the wall. Becky and I had hoped Henry would return home exhausted and prepared for a long nap as we settled into preparing our steak dinner. As is always the case, we can encourage and hope that Henry's schedule best fits with ours, but in the end any and all flexibility comes from our end of the equation. The nap happened on the trail and no amount of scraping or squeaking of snow would disturb it. After the moose, all of the excitement had deflated.

More pictures here (as always).