My Not So Rainy Day in Fryman Canyon

You will see over there a picture of me, Heidi, watching the weather report on Channel 4 at my house on Tuesday night, with Fritz Coleman telling me what was going to happen in the sky before morning.  A 100% chance of rain, Fritz said.  Oh, no!  100 is a lot of percent. And on the TV window was a swirly picture to prove it, a big, scary glowing thing headed toward us right here in Studio City, Los Angeles.

What would happen to my trip to the next morning? Diane promised me!  But that’s before Fritz came to our house and showed us the scary picture.  And then there was Diane saying we would have to think of something else for the column because it was going to rain.  She wasn’t thinking about me, Heidi, being bored and sad tomorrow -- just the column. Writers are more a little selfish than dogs are.

There’s a song I hear on the radio in the car sometimes about do you like penis coladas and a walk in the rain.  I have never had penis coladas, but a walk in the rain is great unless it’s so hard raining that I can’t see. I particularly like being dried off afterward with my very own beach towel. I wear it like a hoodie and then pretend to run away.

And I was so lucky –it was wet out when I went to fetch the paper in the morning, but not really raining anymore.  So I followed Diane around the house until I she figured out that she should put on her hiking boots. She told me she couldn’t get them on unless I moved my face out of her lap. I’ll bet she could, but I moved just to be sure, even though I was anxious to go before she forgot.

So off in the car to Fryman! I go there not too often, but a lot.  You have to pay $3 to park but Diane only had one dollar bill so had to count out enough round silver things from her wallet to pay the rest. I hear people complain about paying $3. I think it is OK because it helps Fryman, except I think you should still be able to park there if you and your dog really don’t have $3.  That would be more fairer.  If you don’t have $3 they should let you just write a note and leave it in your car. 

Not many people were hiking Fryman on a cool, gloomy day, but everything smells super good after the rain, so extra-delicious that I kept taking detours to sniff.  And guess what, I was the only dog there that day, which never, ever happens. I like meeting other dogs there, all sizes, but I was proud that I was the only dog who wasn’t too worried about rain to go hiking. 

We went up, up, up -- but at the top, halfway, the trail turns to dirt.  Today it was mud.  I was thinking it would make us laugh to get sticky feet, but there was a woman people who was coming back the other way and her running shoes were caked with mud.  “It’s treacherous,” she warned.  “Very slippery. I don’t know why I did it.  I wouldn’t take a dog down there today.” 

Well, I’m a dog for sure.  But even for her own self, Diane didn’t seem too unhappy about going back down the way we came, maybe because there was hot coffee at home and she wouldn’t have to get the mud off my feet. And I still found new, different things to sniff on the way back.

And then, just when Diane was fighting with me to get me to jump in the car – I saw a squirrel so I was too busy – we found another dog brave enough to go hiking in the rain: Rosco who is a puppy was there with his Dad, Ruben Reyes of North Hollywood.  Rosco was a little afraid of me at first because he’s small and I’m big, but we made friends fast. 

Diane asked Ruben why they came on such a gray kind of day. Ruben said Rosco had been cooped up inside for a few days “and it made me feel bad for him.”  Ruben said Rosco did just fine in a hike in hard rain at Runyon Canyon not too long ago. “I’m the weak link,” Ruben said, laughing. 

So off they went. I am glad that us dogs help peoples get over their fear of getting rained on.  Maybe someday I’ll see Rosco again at Fryman and I can ask him if his Dad let him do the muddy part and then laughed about having sticky feet on the way home.