Francesca's First Volksmarch of 2016 - Frenchman's Bar in Vancouver

Here I am wondering what the huge ship
was doing in the middle of the river.
And, would it do anything to scare me?

Hi. It's me, Francesca, terror of the volksmarch trail! Well, I don't think I was all that bad because I didn't have near as much fun as I wanted to!

This morning started out really good. I got my harness and leash on and Cinnamon just stayed on the couch all rolled up in a coonie ball. It had rained all night and she predicted more rain. But I didn't care. I was up for adventure, any adventure.

We got in the car and traveled all the way through Vancouver out to a huge park on the east side. Soon I saw signs to a Volksmarch! I'd been on some of those and they were fun. It meant walking and jumping on people and maybe barking at a dog or two. I could handle that.

So we parked and walked over to the registration. Brrr... it was cold. The volunteers were all wrapped up and looked absolutely miserable. But they were kind to us and registered us anyway. We got our start card and looked around. I was looking at a huge ship anchored in the Columbia River wondering what it was doing there. It looked a bit scary.

Then I spied the beach. Now, I've been to the Oregon Coast and had a great time on the beach. I pulled toward the beach and was hoping to do some wading when our friend Nancy came along. I tried jumping on her to greet her but that was quickly stopped. Drat! So we were off on the trail even if I didn't want to be on the trail.

There were all kinds of things to sniff. Garbage, goose poop, dirt and grass. But they made me keep walking straight ahead. All of a sudden I saw a dog ahead in a pink coat. Perhaps we could play? I pulled and barked and thought I should be let loose to go investigate the dog. But no.... we had to keep walking straight ahead. Then we saw our friend Walking Wendy and Lana. I wanted to jump up on Wendy but nooo, it wasn't allowed. I was getting rather bored by the time we got to the turnaround point. I was being subjected to TOO MANY RULES! No jumping, no pulling, no barking, no stopping to sniff. Grrrrr.

Despite my growing frustration with the rules, many people complimented me on my appearance. I guess I was pretty in my pink harness!

So we turned around and soon, thank goodness, we were back at the Start/Finish point. My owner got her book stamped and on the way to the parking lot, I got all wound up about a black and white dog. I barked and pulled and so did the dog. My owner was NOT PLEASED. After that I spied something on the beach. It was something I'd never seen before. I got all freaked out thinking some sort of animal was hiding inside it. But we walked on....

Once we got to the car, I was oh so good. I jumped right into my crate and slept all the way home. Volksmarches can be exhausting, especially if you don't follow the rules.

I told Cinnamon that I completed 6K and she was proud of me. I got this volksmarch listed in my "Francesca's Volksmarch Log." I didn't tell her about my behavior. And she didn't tell me what she had been doing while we were gone.