His Name is Marshall Church

His name, Marshall Church, loosely translated means American Wilderness. Read on for a little history lesson on why there was a continuity to my naming scheme.

Bob and George Marshall built the American wilderness movement in part based on the adventures of their youth in New York's Adirondack Forest Preserve; Senator Frank Church turned that movement into federal law protecting millions of acres with the Wilderness Act of 1964, which was heavily based on Article 14 of the New York State constitution -the Forever Wild clause.

If we peel away one more layer: It was Verplanck Colvin's surveys and lobbying for creation of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and Forever Wild that allowed the Marshall's to adventure in the Adirondacks in their formative years. The Adirondacks were in essence the birthplace of the federally conserved American wilderness and the modern conservation movement.

In total the Marshall and Church names have 3.4M federally protected wilderness acres including my favorite place that isn't the Adirondacks, the 2.3M acre Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. However, the scope of land preserved thanks to my trail dogs namesakes (Colvin Harrison and Marshall Church) is in the millions of acres and a good part of why the US has 12% of the world's IUCN protected wild lands but only covers 6% of the earths surface.

Colvin in a Moment

Gotcha Day 2/14/2010 

Left this Earth 1/14/2023

Missed but not forgotten

Introducing Seneca Ray, our 3rd generation trail dog

I'd like to formally introduce Seneca Ray Serpico. She's a rescue with some trauma that we hope will become a wonderful trail dog. She's our first female dog and very dainty and gentle. Dainty and gentle as she may be, she has giant snowshoe sized trail paws and an inquisitive nature. And those eyebrows! Most importantly is her shepherds lantern (the white tip on a herding dogs tail), something I've grown accustomed to over the last 13 years motivating me to finish the hike even on days I'd rather turn around. 

Seneca's namesake was Seneca Ray Stoddard. Stoddard was a naturalist, cartographer, writer, poet, lecturer, and - most famously- a landscape photographer known for his images of the Adirondack Mountains. His works helped popularize the Adirondacks; America's first wilderness. Verplanck Colvin created the New York State Forest Preserve and Seneca Ray Stoddard help put it in the hearts and minds of America. 

Colvin, our 2nd generation trail dog, visited 37 states, spent hundreds of days in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine, but like his namesake Verplanck, the Adirondacks were where he spent most of his life exploring the wilderness. 

Seneca will be just as lucky to travel the Northeast and the US, but the Adirondacks will always be home base for adventures big and small.  

Goodbye Caney "Wonder Dog"

Born: January 20, 1999  Died: July 31, 2009 at 5:25pm

Justin was his person:  June 8th 1999 - forever.

Love you, and thank you for showing us Wonder Dog one more time last weekend. You are indisputable proof that no matter how bad things are that there is no such thing as a bad day on the trail.

I miss you already but I know you are arrogantly leading the pack somewhere. Go play with your best friend Russell. Say hi to Mom (just try to pretend you know/want to heel when she walks you).  Go find Madi, she wanted a white dog, and now she has a really good one.

I always felt like you were a person trapped in a dogs body. If that is true, I will gladly be your dog next time around.

Right now I can't imagine having to go so long till we spend time on the trail together again, but we will always be closest to you when we are in the mountains.

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Hike and Swim at the Kayaderosseras

Thursday Caney had that bored Border Collie look on his face, he isn't feeling better, and he is less and less mobile each day but he still
has plenty of life in him to get out on the trail.



Friday we just spent a few hours on the grass chillin but it was hot humid and unbearable, and Saturday we didn't do much of anything but watch baseball and movies with the weather being much the same, so he was due for a day out if he was up for it.



After last night when he wanted to play with the random 150lb Bull Mastiff, we realized how boring we humans were and needed to get out and be more BC like.



So today we are hiking and swimming at the Kayaderosseras Creek south of Saratoga Springs. He isn't swimming much because I think it hurts him, but he has been wading chest deep in the creek before and after we walked a mile on the trail. His big thing has always been to herd water surface bugs by swimming after them, or looking in the water for frogs or fish, ever since his first backpacking trip. For a second he even showed us a glimpse of 1999 Caney from the Buffalo River at Kyles Landing when he dove for a group of bugs on the water.



For the last 20 minutes he has walked and waded a 200 foot stretch of shoreline and gravel bar over a dozen times. Before the hike he spent another 20 minutes wading in the water.



He just took a break for 10 minutes where he laid on the gravel bar and intently watched the creek flow by
as he scanned the forest for birds and animals.

Sometimes it amazes me how much we are alike. I'm not a gym rat or a neighborhood jogger. I enjoy walking around town at night when it is peaceful to think and relax, but other than that I get most of my exercise on the trail or water, and am most motivated to be active in preparation for those days.

I remember pre surgery in 2000 being in constant
pain most of every day, but for a few days a week when outside in the
mountains my pain was so much more manageable that it was either gone or at least not overwhelming. I think Caney is very much the same.



We forded the creek to the wide gravel bar on the opposite shore,which made for a nice place to layout and watch Caney explore the Kayaderosseras. Unlike the trail walk above the shoreline and through the open fields, the mosquitoes, whom have been as bad this summer as I can ever remember, didn't bother us a bit.

....

After an ice cream, and a stop by the grocery store to get Caney some food (steak and chop meat which he is eating between 1.5 and 2lbs of a day), we rented a movie from Red Box. First time we rented from the "Futurama" style machine, and I forgot how bad upsampled DVD is on a 60in DLP. We usually rent 1080i via the cable box but Red Box is $1 per night, or $3 cheaper. Caney doesn't care about the visuals, he loves the surround sound (as do I), so he was plenty happy with the sounds of Indiana Jones. As usual when the movie was over, he got up and went to bed. Some things never change!



(photos from palm pre...video Panasonic FX01)

-- Sent from my Palm Pre wireless device

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