Meet Gus, our newest addition!
This Beagle-American Staffordshire cross joined our family as an 11-pound 3 1/2-month-old in late November. One month older and a few pounds heavier, Gus went on his first real adventure showshoeing up Bear Creek in the Bitterroot Mountains on Christmas Day.
The outing was a fitting tribute to our old dog Belle, a 12-year-old black Lab-hound that died last summer not long after her final hike at Bear Creek.
While we snowshoed only the first 1 1/2 miles west to the small waterfall, keeping up with Josey – our 6-year-old, 85-pound Rottweiler-hound cross – was no easy task for Gus. He ended up wrapped in a fleece blanked in my backpack after getting chilled when we stopped at the overlook.
In the end, he made it out on his own four legs and slept in the back of our SUV the whole way home – proving he was up to the bigger adventures to come.
Here are a few more pictures from Bear Creek.
Distance: 3 miles round trip.
Trailhead: From Victor, the Bear Creek trailhead is 3.3 miles south on U.S. Highway 93, 2.3 miles west on Bear Creek Road, 0.8 miles north on Red Crow Road and 3.2 miles west on Red Crow and Bear Creek roads.
TRAILS + TRAVELS 