One last hike in the mountain pass

Snow is falling on the mountain passes already so we thought we'd better get out there for one last hike before the trails become impassible. The leaves are turning and falling; the alpine meadows are bright with color. The air is crisp - just beautiful...

(You know those TV or movie sound effects that take you abruptly from 'good' to 'bad?' The ones that sound like a needle scratched over an old phonograph? Insert one of those here.)

We got charged by a vicious dog on the trail. Why do these things always happen to us? Mark says they happen to other people too but...

They were around a corner, quite far away really, when the dog heard our voices and started to run at us, barking angrily. She ran around the corner at full speed and just kept coming, flanked by two slightly smaller versions of herself. Mark started yelling at the dog to stop - still no sign of the owner - and no sign of the dog stopping or backing down in any way. Mark pulled out his knife (where was the pepper spray?) in what seemed like the only possible way to deal with the situation of a big, angry dog attack... still no 'responsible person' in sight.

The dog finally stopped, only 5 or 6 feet from Mark, teeth bared, still barking and growling, then slowly advanced again with her head down, feet apart - fighting posture. (Mark, it must be said, was by that time in his own fighting posture, reaching for the second knife with the left hand, reluctant to hurt the dog, obviously, but finding other choices to be increasingly limited. And me? The only thing I can say is that I wasn't screaming - too afraid to put Mark in more danger than he was already in.) Finally a man peered around a corner on the trail, silently, no effort to help, just sort of looking to see if there was blood yet. Mark yelled to him that he needs to call off the dog NOW and the guy finally started calling. No response from the dog. I mean, really! (Remember, there were three dogs - the full-grown female and two mostly-grown pups. The pups ultimately seemed harmless but the female was quite decidedly not - and in any case, three very large dogs charging together in a pack basically is just not a reassuring scene.)

It took the guy several minutes to get the dog under control. Then he acted like he thought we could just walk on by them while he stood there on the trail with the dog on its leash, finally tethered as it should have been all along. Once he looked up at Mark, though, he seem to realize that we weren't really in a trusting mood and backed his menagerie off the trail enough for us to go safely by. Good grief.

One other negative here - boy am I sore! I have those MBT shoes that rock and roll and wobble so as not to put too much pressure on your feet - which actually works - but they cause you to balance yourself using your inner thigh and abdominal muscles instead of your feet. Six and a half miles of that...

Maybe it's a good thing winter is coming.