Doggin' ' Baltimore - 13 cool things to see, if you are using your dog hiking

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"If your dog is fat," the old saying goes, "you aren't getting enough exercise." But walking the dog need not be just about a little exercise. Here are 13 cool things you can see in greater Baltimore while you hike with your dog.

AIRPLANES. The BWI Airport is the only airport in America that features a recreational trail. The Thomas A. Dixon Jr. Aircraft Observation Area on this 12.5-mile paved trail, opened in 1994, provides an ideal spot to watch the planes land directly in front of you. You won't be able to see the rubber hit the ground here but can see it from other spots along the trail. To get the feel of a big jet soaring directly over your head walk down a half-mile to the east (you'll see stop signs) and stand here. It won't be only jets using the airport either - you can spot an occasional propeller plane as well.

AMUSEMENT PARK RUINS. Although only 20 acres in size, the Bay Shore Park was considered one of the finest amusement parks ever built along the Chesapeake Bay. Built in 1906, the park featured an Edwardian-style dance hall, bowling alley and restaurant set among gardens and curving pathways. There were rides such as a water toboggan and Sea Swing. Visitors would come out from Baltimore on a trolley line. Most of the park was torn down after its closure in 1947 but you and the dog can explore the remains of the turn-of-the-century amusement park, including the wood-framed trolley station and the restored ornamental fountain, in North Shore State Park. Complete your tour with a hike down the old Bayshore Pier which juts almost a quarter-mile into the wind-swept Bay - a diving board once operated here where benches are today.

BALD EAGLES. With nearly 13,000 acres of undeveloped space, the Patuxent Research Refuge is said to be the largest patch of green space remaining on the East Coast between Boston and Raleigh. Research done here was used by Rachel Carson to argue that the pesticide DDT was weakening the shells of bird eggs, especially bald eagles, causing them not to hatch. Her book, Silent Spring, led to the banning of DDT and launched the modern environmental movement. Today more than 250 species - 8 of every 10 birds that can be seen in the Baltimore area - have been sighted at Patuxent, including a pair of nesting bald eagles in the North Tract in Anne Arundel County. These representatives of America's national symbol quite possibly could be the bald eagles living closest to the White House. Don't let your dog dig around at the North Tract - this land was once a testing ground for Fort Meade and may still harbor live ammunition.

If you aren't lucky enough to spot the eagles in flight at the refuge, try hiking the Hashawha Trails at the Bear Branch Nature Center in Carroll County. Here is the chance for your curious dog to look a bald eagle in the eye. The Nature Center maintains a M.A.S.H. unit for raptors who have been injured too badly to be returned to the wild. The cages for eagles, kestrels, hawks, owls, turkey vultures and other recovering birds of prey are on the Vista Trail.

CANAL LOCK. Near North Park in Havre de Grace, the 444-mile Susquehanna River is busy emptying 19 million gallons of fresh water every minute into the Chesapeake Bay that it has drained from 13 million acres of land. The rocky river upstream from here, however, is not navigable and the 45-mile Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal opened for barges, pulled at 4 miles per hour by mules, to haul goods between Havre de Grace and Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. The first of 29 locks operated here and it has been restored to its original appearance including a pivoting footbridge that swung open to allow barge traffic to pass. The handsome brick Lock House, now a museum open on weekends, dates to the canal's opening in 1840. The large grassy lawn can be used for a first-rate game of fetch.

CHOATE MINE. The first chromium mines in America were opened in rural Baltimore County in 1808 and from 1828 to 1850 just about every scrap of chrome in the world came from here. Along the Choate Mine Trail in Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area you can stand in front of the entrance to the Choate Mine and look into the slanting hole kept open by half-timbered posts. So close the cool air will rustle your dog's fur. The mine once ran 200 feet deep and 160 feet across.

DAMS. After a long hike at Robert E. Lee Park around Lake Roland you can sit on top of the Greek Revival valve house completed in 1862 and look over the stone dam. Lake Roland, created after plugging up Jones Falls, was Baltimore's first reservoir. This smallish dam is just an appetizer for the dams yet to come that were built to quench Baltimore's thirst. Others to see include hiking to the base of Liberty Dam at the end of Feezer's Lane in Patapsco State Park or using the Gunpowder South Trail in the Hereford section of Gunpowder Falls State Park to see the Prettyboy Dam, built in 1933. No tour of Baltimore's dams would be complete without a visit to Conowingo Dam, America's longest concrete slab dam across the Susquehanna River. You can take the dog to gaze out at the Conowingo Dam in Susquehanna State Park.

FORTS. At Fort Howard Park your dog can climb into an actual gun battery and scan the Patapsco River just like gunnery officers who once aimed guns capable of accurately firing 1,000 pound projectiles eight miles. Ruins abound at the former "Bulldog at Baltimore's Gate," including remainders left over from the 1960s when a mock Vietnamese village was created for training at Fort Howard. Batteries and magazines that once formed the coastal defense of Baltimore in 1899 can also be seen at Fort Armistead Park and Fort Smallwood Park. As for Baltimore's most famous fort, dogs are also welcome at Fort McHenry National Monument. Unlike the others, your best friend won't be able to explore the actual fort but there is plenty of fresh grass to romp on outside the bastion walls.

HENRYTON TUNNEL. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad built its first line west along the Patapsco River and the trails at Henryton Road in Patapsco State Park follow a particularly historic stretch of the Old Main Line. On a rainy night in 1830 Irish laborers, tired of waiting for back pay, rioted and managed to destroy all this track for five miles to Sykesville. The disturbance prompted the first ever American troop transport by train when the Baltimore militia rode out to squelch the rampage. When the trail crosses this section of railroad track look to the west and see the Henryton Tunnel. Opened in 1850, it is the second-oldest tunnel in the world that remains in active railroad use.

MODEL TRAINS. Thomas Winans made his fortune building the Russian transcontinental railroad for Czar Nicholas I. He learned railroading from his father Ross who invented the swivel wheel truck that enabled trains to negotiate curves. Their railroad heritage is preserved at Leakin Park in Baltimore by the Chesapeake & Allegheny Live Steamers who maintain three miles of track for miniature steam trains that carry passengers (sorry, no dogs) free of charge the second Sunday of every month. Capable of speeds of 25 mph, the trains rumble along instead at a passenger-friendly 6 mph.

MODERN ART. The natural beauty of Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis is augmented by the outdoor sculptures that grace the grounds. Sculptures are chosen by jury from national and international artists working with a variety of material and installed on a rotating basis. When your dog tires of sniffing the statuary, you can take her to Anne Arundel County's first dog park at the back of Quiet Waters. Not only are there two large fenced-in enclosures for big and small dogs but there is a dog beach on the South River for serious dog paddling.

POT ROCKS. From the parking lot on US 1 at the Big Gunpowder Falls there is great canine hiking on both sides of the river in either direction. On the opposite bank heading downstream on the Big Gunpowder Trail, about a mile down, are the Pot Rocks. You and the dog can walk out and examine the conical depressions created in the bedrock by swirling waters armed with millions of years worth of grinding cobbles. These unique potholes can be a foot or more deep. Keep hiking another two miles down the river and you reach the last series of rapids on the Gunpowder as the water leaves the hilly Piedmont region and slips into the flat Coastal Plain.

RARE TREES. Growing unobtrusivley beside the parking lot at Tridelphia Recreation Area is one of the rarest native ornamental trees in the world, the Franklinia Alatamaha. A relative of the camelia, this flowering tree is prized at any time of the year - in the winter for its striped bark, in the summer for its palm-sized snow white flowers, and in the fall for its deep red leaves. The Franklinia was discovered by Philadelphia botanist John Bartram in 1765 in a remote corner of Georgia along the Alatamaha River and named for his friend Benjamin Franklin. It has not been found growing in the wild since 1790.

For a true arboreal education however, treat the dog to Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore, one of the few such tree museums that permit dogs on the grounds. The collection at Cylburn features several Maryland Big Tree Champions including an Italian maple and a paperback maple. Two easy champions to see are on the lawn in the right front of the mansion: a castor aralia with large glossy leaves and an Amur maackia. Both trees are native to Asia and are resilient to pests. The maackia is a member of the pea family discovered by 19th century explorer Karlovich Maack along the Amur River between Siberia and China.

UNUSUAL BRIDGES. Hiking in Gunpowder Falls State Park in Harford County, downstream from Jerusalem Mill about 1/2 mile, is Jericho Covered Bridge, one of only six remaining covered bridges in Maryland and the only one of its kind in Baltimore and Harford counties. Old folk wisdom held that these bridges were built to resemble a barn so as to entice a wary horse across water but the bridges are covered simply to protect the expensive wooden decks. The ford at this point across the Little Gunpowder Falls dates to Colonial times; the bridge was constructed in 1865. Builder Thomas F. used three truss types in its construction: the simple Multiple King Post; the horizontal Queen Post extension; and the Burr Arch, patented in 1804 by Theodore Burr, for stability. Renovated in 1981, the Jericho Covered Bridge still carries traffic.

In Howard County's Savage Park, on Foundry Road at the trailhead for the Historic Mill Trail, is the last remaining Bollman Truss bridge in the world. Your dog can trot across the first successful iron bridge used by railroads, patented by Wendell A. Bolman in 1852. This example, a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, originally carried traffic on the Baltimore & Ohio main line but was disassembled and put into service here for Savage Mill in 1887.

copyright 2006

I am the author of over 20 books, including 8 on hiking with your dog, including the widely praised The Canine Hiker's Bible. As publisher of Cruden Bay Books, we produce the innovative A Bark In The Park series of canine hiking books found at http://www.hikewithyourdog.com/ During the warm months I lead canine hikes as tour leader for hikewithyourdog.com tours, leading packs of dogs and humans on day and overnight trips. My lead dog is Katie, a German Shepherd-Border Collie mix, who has hiked in all of the Lower 48 states and is on a quest to swim in all the great waters of North America - [http://web.mac.com/crudbay/iWeb/Katies%20Blog/Katies%20Quest.html] I am currently building a hikewithyourdog.com tours trailer to use on our expeditions and its progress can be viewed at [http://web.mac.com/crudbay/iWeb/Teardrop%20Trailer/Building%20A%20Tour%20Trailer.html]

10 Cool things to see on Berkshire tracks with your dog

"If your dog is fat," saying the old, "you are not getting enough exercise." Walking the dog must not only to a little practice. Here, 10 cool things you see in the Berkshire hills while you are walking the dog.

CCC BUILDING
During the great depression of the 1930s, thousands of unemployed men in the civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) working set President FranklinRoosevelt. Work camps were set up across the country with a mandate and build roads, reforestation exposed to construct countries and recreational facilities to the public. Some of the greatest legacies of this "tree army" are in the Berkshires, including Bascom Lodge at the Summit of Mount Greylock. It was designed by the architect Joseph McArthur Vance Pittsfield, rustic accommodation in the countryside with local materials of stone (Greystone Slate) and lumber (red spruce and Oak).

GLACAL FINDLINGE

The large ice melted ice age from Massachusetts 15,000 years ago, scratch the last rivers and landscape and a fair share of rubble left. Strange rock formations of retreating glaciers are known as boulders. The biggest curiosity in Pittsfield State forest is an ice age erratic as balance rock. The massive 165 tonnes of limestone Boulder staggers precariously on a small, 3-foot piece basis.

GRAZING CATTLE

Has your dog all herd instincts? Tyringham-cobble the canine walk begins in an open field, where you can find, herd have done hiking with your dog through a free ranging from Hereford cattle - as 200 years.

MASSQUATCH

A canine walk in October Mountain State forest may be your best chance before the place Massquatch, New England's version of Bigfoot. There were occasional sightings of a hairy, oversized, humanoid creature in Massachusetts over the years across from the Atlantic beaches in the Berkshires. The Berkshire Eagle twice encounters reported in October mountain in the 1980s, including one up close and personal in a former Boy Scout camp near the town of Felton Lake.

MODERN ART

After the second world war interrupted his career as a librarian Williams College, Lawrence bought Bloedel former Nathan field to farm with his wife Eleanore. 1948 Retained that build on their growing collection of American contemporary art pair Edwin Goodell. He replied with a modern, window dominated decorated design with simple lines. 1966 Delivered Ulrich Franzen a shingle Beach Victorian house for the Bloedels's grandson, known as the folly. The Bloedels their blend of architecture and nature to trustees donated reservations in 1984, and if you can you today hiking with your dog on field to farm to go under 13 modern sculptures including works by Richard M. Miller, Jack Zajac, Bernard Reder and Herbert Ferber.

MYSTERIOUS VALLEYS

Nathaniel Hawthorne called the ice Glen, a cleft in the rocks between bear and mountains behind the town of Stockbridge, "the most interesting column in all Berkshire." It is a canyon without a stream - all the water to ice Glen flows along the South North axis is aligned during the Gorge from East to West. In fact, the Glen was filled with stacked rocks and draped with Hemlocks, once a glacial Lake. Tucked away from the rays of the Sun, hence the name melting season snow here. Further west, via West Stockbridge, Stevens Glen was once one of the busiest tourist destinations in the County. In the late 1800s Romanza Stevens built bridges and stairs at the Glen and its waterfall and in one of the 25 cents for tourists who show the magic of Lenox mountain Brook.

RARE DAMS

One is etched in natural bridge State Park, the site of a marble quarry until 1947, completely of marble blocks, in black at the edges. As Ed elder, which operates the property as a tourist attraction on the roadside, they describe, "This is only marble dam outside of Athens, Greece."

SACRED RELIGIOUS SITES

Shaker communities were required to turn off the top of a nearby Hill for worship. Close to Hancock to 1842 was this page on Mount Sinai, now known as Shaker mountain. Today, the trail leads to two sacred sites of the Shaker, the top of Mt. Sinai and holy mountain have been leveled. When the Shaker here worshipped the unbelievers not these reasons were allowed.

SHEATH, AUSGIEßER and cascade

Everywhere in the Berkshires can your dog show and swimming under Hydrospectaculars. Some are hardly a walk (Campbell falls, Windsor post, Wahconah falls), the other with a little effort (the notch Brook Cascades, bash Bish falls, tannery falls) and other waterfalls are rewards spirited canine hiking as sages ravine in Mount Everett State reservation.

WALLS BUILT FOR ETERNITY

The stone walls in Massachusetts found are some of the most beautiful walls, which ever built. The fact that so many in Berkshire confirms the ability of Woods used in construction. You could accumulate not only rocks around your property found and call it a wall. As a stone wall finished it required was to be reviewed by a fence Viewer. If a wall sound as might the owner be animals not be liable for damages to his crops from other farmers.

Doug Gelbert is author of more than 20 books, including the canine Hiker?s Bible. To his free newsletter on hiking with your dog, subscribe and get a copy of the rules for dogs in 100 of the most popular National Park Service countries, in the warmer months, which he leads hikes for hikewithyourdog.com tours canine, dogs and people on hiking adventure, visit http://www.hikewithyourdog.com/. Tours of excursions up to several days exploring, visit parks, historic sites and beaches.

Doggin' ' Reno, Nevada: 10 things to see while you are using your dog fun

"If your dog is fat," saying the old, "you are not getting enough exercise." Walking the dog must not only to a little practice. Here are 10 cool things you can see in Reno, Nevada while you with your dog hiking.

COLORFUL FISH.

Walk with the dog down the stream profile Chamber track on Taylor Creek visitors center leads to cut-away view of the Creek and the underwater inhabitants. In the fall, spawning Kokanee Lachs tinted a brilliant red, swimming past the trail. Another colorful fish up close viewing River Bike Trail in Tahoe City is on the Truckee. In the water from the side of Fanny bridge peer and rainbow trout in the headwaters of the Truckee look at.

Famous streets.

In the mid-1800s, the Reno area was somewhere else just a stopover on the way. Many roads were car trains, pony express, and others reaching the California including Hawley's grade, through dog Valley and mountain station passes like roller pass, Donner pass and Carson pass. Today, many of these historical routes are hosting canine public ways hikers. Keep an eye on the rocks which are souvenirs of the wagon wheels of Western migration for weak Grill brands.

GEOLOGY.

The geologic origins of the region show up in many respects local due. At cascade Creek if ridges on both sides of the cascade are Lake visible glacier retreating debris by themselves was placed in the rock. This depression as other similar pits scraped out of the rock, filled with snowmelt and rainwater to form-Tahoe Lakes.

GRABSTEINE.

Cemeteries are good targets for an off-beat canine walk. Virginia City the nation largest federally historic district, reminds of the BoomTown strictly separate cemeteries structured society. Walk among the tombstones, the markers from a time when Virginia City, Nevada was the largest city.

HISTORICAL BUILDING.

Some of the oldest buildings of Reno/Lake Tahoe region. Moved Bartley Ranch is the a-rooms-Huffaker-Schule, the earlier also Reno itself as. At Idlewild Park, the building of California is built in 1927 and now home to the Reno Art Center. Same time, close to the base hole is Levens Lake the Rainbow Lodge, built by hand hewn logs. Older, from a century of the Wilson Commons Park are rustic farm buildings from the trail seen from.

INTERESTING FELSBROCKEN.

The Reno/Lake Tahoe-region is with souvenirs from the glaciated past. Many were the boulders of the Washoe Indians used, grinding food look you for smooth depression in the granite as an indication, that it a crunching Boulder. The Lam Watah Washoe is a good place to see, these stones, their history heritage site. Pyramid Lake was for a triangular shape with the name.
Rock that can be seen by hiking trails along the southern shore. And on Peavine mountain hikers visit the boulders, canine that University of Nevada-student in 1913 in a symbolic "N" arranged, and they continue to annually.

BEAUTIFUL ESTATES.

Their dog walk up close and admire three estates in the historical site of Tallac - the Pope estate, the Heller estate and the Baldwin estate. Wooded hiking trails connect the Villa sites. You can see, but not with your dog, Vikingsholm in Lake Tahoe at Eagle Falls and the Bower Manor House in the Davis Creek State Park visit.

RUINS OF THE OLD FORT.

Fort Churchill State Park are the ruins of the 1861 border fortress built on country migration routes to secure. Fort Churchill lasted only a decade and has since been arrested in a State of decay. The remains of the Adobe building can be seen of routes in the State Park.

TV AND FILM LOCATIONS.

Your dog can in the footsteps of famous Hollywood actors at locations in the Reno/Lake Tahoe-region to film TV shows and movies foot. The lower prey meadows on the eastern shore of Tahoe was a prime location for the production of recordings of the great Western by NBC, "Bonanza." Hoss and little Joe, Adam and Ben Cartwright can often be seen by this meadow in the shadow of the towering mountains. Dayton State Park hike brings you all dogs in nearby locations for the misfits, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe's last film.

WATERFALLS.

The Reno/Lake Tahoe-region is certainly not in the picturesque waterfalls which you can visit with your dog. Some, like Heath falls, ask for significant way time, but others as cascade Creek can be enjoyed falls and Eagle Falls, which only waterfall empties directly into Lake Tahoe, with very little purchase.

I'm the author of more than 20 books, including 8 on hiking with your dog, including the General, the canine hiker praised's Bible. As editor of CRUDEN Bay produce books we the innovative A bark in the Park series canine hiking on http://www.hikewithyourdog.com/ during the warm months I found canine walks as a tour guide for hikewithyourdog.com tours, lead dogs and lead people on the day and overnight trips. [My dog lead is Katie, a German Shepherd Border Collie mix, has migrated to the lower 48 Member States and is looking to swim in the large water Nordamerika-[http://web.mac.com/crudbay/iWeb/Katies%20Blog/Katies%20Quest.html] I am currently a hikewithyourdog.com tour trailer on our expeditions and its progress can be viewed at [http://web.mac.com/crudbay/iWeb/Teardrop%20Trailer/Building%20A%20Tour%20Trailer.html]

Doggin' ' Shasta and the Rogue River: 15 cool things to see while you are with your dog

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"If your dog is fat," the old saying goes, "you aren't getting enough exercise." But walking the dog need not be just about a little exercise. Here are 15 cool things you can see around northern California and southern Oregon while you hike with your dog.

ENGINEERING MARVELS.

Between the town of Dairy and Sprague River, On the OC & E Trailyou will pass an odd-looking section over a hill. This is a
railroad double switchback, which enabled trains to be split for navigating the hill. The original plans called for a tunnel through Bly Mountain, but as funds were low it was decided the cheaper double switchback-solution was good enough. Prior to the 1990 closing of the railroad, this unique engineering landmark was last of its kind in the United States.

FASCINATING BIRDS.

Shasta Lake is a popular nesting spot for bald eagles, offering an opportunity to see them hunting and nesting in the wild. At McCloud Falls,be on the lookout for the little American Dipper birds that patrol the tumbling waters. These tiny birds, also known as water ouzels, zoom around over the surface and plunge in and out of the cascading water in search of food. They use their wings to "fly" underwater and can even be seen walking on the stream bottom pecking for larval insects, fish eggs and even slow fish just as if they were walking on the trail.

FRESH TASTING WATER.

Tub Springs was a popular stopping point for travelers on the Applegate Trail to refresh with a cool drink of fresh mountain water from tub springs. You can still do so today. A stone water fountain at Hedge Creek Falls dispenses "the best water on earth," according to townsfolk in Dunsmuir. You can have a taste and judge for yourself at the gazebo on the top of the trail.

GOLD.

People have come to the Shasta/Rogue River Valley for 150 years to search for gold and it is probably not all gone. You can rent a pan for $1 and chase gold in the creeks in Whiskeytown Recreation Area. Prior to 1900, the City of Redding operated a gold mine in Blue Gravel Canyon, the only town in California to do so. The mine is long gone of course, but the trail remains and has relics from the gold era along the path. Did they get all the gold here?

GREAT DAMS.

Shasta Dam opened in 1945 and flooded 35 miles of the Sacramento River valley. One of the biggest dams ever conceived when construction began in 1938, the building of Shasta Dam established several "world records." Among them was the Southern Pacific Railroad's double decker bridge that was the highest ever built and the construction of the world's longest conveyor belt system - 10.5 miles - to bring sand and aggregate to the building site from Redding. The water spilling over Shasta Dam created the largest artificial waterfall ever seen - three times as high as the drop at Niagara Falls. The Trinity Dam, rising 466 feet from bedrock, is one of the highest earth-filled dams in the world.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS.

Fire has claimed many an old building in the West but there are still some significant wooden buildings left standing in the wilderness. In Trinity Recreation Area stands the Bowerman Barn, painstakingly constructed with hardwood pegs and one of the most representative 19th-century hand-crafted structures in California. Also in the park is the orignal log house from the Stoddard homestead, just off the Stoddard Trail. In Ah-Di-Na Campground in Siskiyou County, canine hikers can study an historic cabin that was restored by volunteers in 1990 using only traditional tools such as long axes and chisels.

INTERESTING TREES.

In TouVelle State Recreation Site is one of the largest granary trees in southern Oregon. A granary tree is a special tree targeted by acorn woodpeckers to store food. This ponderosa pine is estimated to have as many as 50,000 holes! On the Blue Canyon Trail you can see a tree where Judge John Waldo from Salem, Oregon and his party traced the route that is now the Pacific Crest Trail, becoming the first to cross the crest of the southern Cascades in 1888.

LOFTY LOOKOUTS.

Mountain trails often climax at Forest Service lookouts with dramatic views. At Medicine Lake, Hoffman Lookout was built for fire surveillance in 1924 and started out as a tiny 8 sq.ft. cabin. The cabin is available for rent ((530) 964-2184) and is quite popular. Herd Peak Lookout sits eastward of the main Cascade fault line, overlooking a magnificent valley of hills created from pyroclastic lava flows off Mount Shasta. During fire season, the lookout is manned from 9:30AM to 9PM, and the person in charge will be sitting in the tower watching over the valley, ready to report any sign of a fire to firefighters by radio. The rustic Marble Valley Guard Station, completed in 1928 , is an early example of simple stations built by the Forest Service as fire lookouts. Trail crews and wilderness rangers still work from Marble Valley today - still with little concession to modern comforts. The guard station is reached by a difficult climb at the juncion of trails PC 2000 and 11W014, about 2.5 miles southwest of Lover's Camp Trailhead.

LOGGING HERITAGE.

You can't come away from a canine hike at Collier Memorial State park without a greater appreciation for the logging industry. The paths through the outdoor museum wind from the days of oxen and hand axes through the age of steam and up to today's diesel
machines. You'll find railroad heritage here as well. Look for an old Baldwin steam locomotive known, more or less affectionately, as GOP - "Get Out And Push." The engine strained so much hauling redwood logs in and out of the mountains that it was constantly derailing.

MYTHICAL CREATURES.

On the hike to the summit of Collings Mountain you will find the world's only known Bigfoot trap. Constructed of wood with a heavy metal door reinforced by metal bolts by the North American Wildlife team in 1974, the idea was the lure an unsuspecting Sasquatch into the 10-foot by 10-foot pit from which it could not escape. As you hike along the trails of Mount Shasta keep an eye out for tall, graceful folks with long flowing hair dressed in white robes - and a walnut-sized organ protruding from the center of their foreheads. These would be Lemurians, most probably from the massive lost continent of Mu that once lay under the Pacific Ocean and helped explain how lemurs ended up on the island of Madagascar. One of the more well travelled folktales associated with Mount Shasta, some believed the Lemurians came to live in a city called Telos inside of the volcano.

OLD ORCHARDS.

Joseph H. Stewart State Park

is built on an old homestead from the 1940s. Fruit grew here in grand orchards, in the beginnings of Oregon's commercial pear industry. You can still see some old pear trees and apple trees and walnut trees scattered around the park. You will find historic fruit trees along the trail at Wolf Creek Inn State Heritage Site as well.

UNUSUAL BRIDGES.

The Sacramento River Trail is and ideal hike for studying bridge architecture. Classical arch bridges transport vehicular traffic across the Sacramento and theDiestlehorst Bridge is a prototypical 19th century pier and girder iron bridge. The Ribbon Bridge is the first of its kind in the nation - a 13-foot wide, 420-foot long concrete stess-ribbon structure. The Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay is the first American project for the celebrated Spanish bridge architect, Santiago Calatrava. The focal point of his design is a 218-foot curved tower on the north bank of the river that doubles as support for the bridge's suspension cables and as the world's largest sundial. The bridge sports a glass decking that enhances the natural light and enables unobstructed views of the mountains at the horizon and the salmon at play below.

VOLCANIC SOUVENIRS.

This landscape was formed in many places by volcanic eruptions. The trail around Brown Mountain provides dramatic glimpses of lava flow. At Black Butte, a small group of inactive "plug dome" volcano craters dot the landscape. Plug domes have a type of lava flow that too thick and stiff to flow normally, but instead is squeezed out the top like crusty icing. All that remains of the mighty 12,000-foot volcano that once dominated the southern Cascades are eight protruding peaks in the Mountain Lakes Wilderness. And there is the odd Oregon Desert, a pumice-covered landscape in the Sky Lakes Wilderness. Ash from Mount McLouhlin's last eruption sits fifty feet deepa across the area.

WATERFALLS.

This trail at McCloud Falls reveals three waterfalls in little more than a mile: the Lower Falls (a powerful, ten-foot drop into a wide pool), the Middle Falls (a classically wide, 50-foot waterfall), and the Upper Falls (a water spout squeezing through granite cliffs). Two hikes in the town of Dunsmuir also find different types of falls: Hedge Creek Falls cutting through basalt rock and Mossbrae Falls dripping through moss and ferns.

WRITER INSPIRATIONS.

The best-selling Western writer of all time, Zane Grey, used the Rogue River as the centerpiece of many of his stories. His cabin can still be seen on the Rogue. Jack London wrote Valley of the Moon while a guest at Wolf Creek Inn.

I am the author of over 20 books, including 8 on hiking with your dog, including the widely praised The Canine Hiker's Bible. As publisher of Cruden Bay Books, we produce the innovative A Bark In The Park series of canine hiking books found at http://www.hikewithyourdog.com/. During the warm months I lead canine hikes as tour leader for hikewithyourdog.com tours, leading packs of dogs and humans on day and overnight trips. My lead dog is Katie, a German Shepherd-Border Collie mix, who has hiked in all of the Lower 48 states and is on a quest to swim in all the great waters of North America - [http://web.mac.com/crudbay/iWeb/Katies%20Blog/Katies%20Quest.html] I am currently building a hikewithyourdog.com tours trailer to use on our expeditions and its progress can be viewed at [http://web.mac.com/crudbay/iWeb/Teardrop%20Trailer/Building%20A%20Tour%20Trailer.html]