Francesca Racks up 8K on the Washougal Volksmarch

Hi, it’s me, Francesca, Staff Writer for Coonhound Tales.

I have another volksmarch story for you today. The All Weather Walkers held a walk in Washougal, Washington. That’s usually where we do the walk along the Columbia River on the dike. But today they surprised us with a brand new route.

When we pulled in to the parking lot, I got all excited. I was barking and the people could hear me! As soon as I got out of the car, I ran over to the registration tent so we could sign up and GET GOING!

So what do you think about my new harness?
It's kind of like a tracking harness... really strong, like me!

Between you and me, I have to share that we started about 5 minutes before the walk opened. I was that wound up!

The first interesting thing we encountered was a dog. A big dog. But this one didn’t move. I went up to sniff him and check him out. He still didn’t move. I found out that this was a statue of Seaman, the dog that accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition, including a stop in Washougal. So I got my picture taken with a famous, historic dog.

Here I am checking out Seaman. I couldn't understand
why he didn't move. Then I read the plaque

This was a town walk but there were some parks and schools and a little bit along the Washougal River. So I kept my eyes peeled for wildlife. Mostly we saw gardens filled with flowers. Then we walked past my old dog park. I wanted to go in but we were following the pink arrows so we kept going.

We saw lots of homes and gardens on this walk.

I was pretty good and kept up the pace. I only stopped for water once. I looked longingly down at the Washougal River but the route didn’t take us to the banks. We were just out of the park walking down a street when the excitement happened. I smelled a cat! I put my head in the bushes and there he was. A dratted cat! I barked and pulled but my owner didn’t let me chase him.

Just down the block there was a REAL REASON FOR EXCITEMENT. I saw a squirrel cross the road. I went bananas. I barked, I pulled and I wouldn’t stop. My owner had to get a friend of hers to stop and divert my attention… which worked. We walked with them for a little while and I was behaving myself. Yep!

After I calmed down, we could stop and smell the roses.

Just about then the walk was finished. I lapped up some water that the All Weather Walkers had left out for dogs and looked forward to the ride home in my crate and some sleep.

We had walked 8K and I was tired!

Love, Francesca