Daisy goes Ötschergräben

 Today I decided to take Daisy for her first Canyon Hike. The main reason was that it was going to be very humid and the temperature was going to be 100+ F. So I chose a easy hike into the Ötschergräben. My parents decided to join us. We left around 10 am and got to the trailhead around 11 am. It was already starting to get hot, but luckily large parts of that hike go through forests and that makes it way more enjoyable. We made goo progress and about 30 minutes later we got to the part where the trail starts to descend into the canyon. The trail is very easy and I was interested to see how Daisy was going to react to the bridges and creek crossings. At the first creek crossing she checked first the right and then the left side. Since there was no getting through there she looked to me for advice. I walked across the bridge and Daisy followed me without hesitation. All the other bridges and creek crossings were no problem at all. Daisy acted as if she had done that her whole life long. We made our way further down and saw for the first time the main canyon. That's always an impressive sight and usually pictures don't do the canyon justice. After about 45 minutes we reached 'Ötscherhias'. The closest US term for the 'Ötscherhias' would proabably a snackbar. We stopped and had a snack and something to drink, while Daisy relaxed under the table. There were quite a number of dogs out there and Daisy was quite curious about them.

She even socialized with 2 of them and ignored all the crazy ones. After we had a snack we continued with the ike upstream. Once we got to the parts where the trail gets quite narrow at times I was interested to see Daisy's reaction to that. For here that was no biggy at all and it looked like as if she had done that here entire life. Of course there were tons of places to check out new scents and smells. We followed the trail for a little over 1 hour to the next trail junction. If I had been by myself I probably would have hiked all the way to 'Vorder Ötscher' roughly 1 more hour. But you're only as strong as your weakest link. It was hot and my parents were kinda tired we decided to turn around and head back. We stopped for a drink at 'Ötscherhias' before hiking back to the car. Considering the heat, the humidity and the fact that Daisy is 14 years old she did an awesome job during the hike and she definitely had a blast.
You can check out more pix from the hike on my Facebook Page in the photo-album 'Ötschergräben 2011'!!