Saturday, April 10, 2010

UTDX track - Blustery day

This track was done in North Bay on Friday, April 9th. After gorgeous "hot" weather, this was blowing and blizzardy at times. It's often hard to see the "perspective" on maps or google earth with these tracks; so hope this gives you an idea. Trust just moved off the scent pad above. The blue arrow on the left points to an open pavilion way over in another area where we were about 1/2 way along the track. The middle arrow is the arena out by the street where we tracked behind. The arrow on the right is the building we moved out behind and around, ending the track.
This is the first of 3 bridges we crossed. We are on the 2nd leg here, after going through a sandy area with playground equipment. There was a plastic article in the send, we were upwind and totally missed it! Interesting, Trust had NO problems at any of the bridge crossings.
Coming off the 2nd bridge, crossing gravel, asphalt walkway, into grass - over near the previously mentioned pavilion. Very open here and winds were horrendous. She nailed the corner, but had a hard time getting going on the next leg. I figured it was the strong winds, but also found (after) a truck had been driving around this area - see next 2 photo descriptions!
She finally got the direction to go, crossing another gravel area and heading towards the large playing field. We were on our fifth leg here.
Almost the same spot as the previous photo above. I am rewarding Trust here as she has indicated another plastic article. It was totally smashed to bits, with big tire marks over this are

We've now moved out along the side of the field. She shortly moves up towards the track (she is left of it here) and will search out the corner, a right turn onto leg six.
You can see some snow flurries in this picture; she is almost at the corner here. In both this picture and the one below, the line appears slack due to the strong wind blowing it. It was impossible to keep an even tension on the line.
Trust is tracking strongly into the wind here, and I can't keep my jacket hood on!
Sock article here, she nailed this one, I'm picking it up. She's anxious to get going again....
We move off the grass, over a running track where a lady just ran past while we waited, and out into the gravel parking area for the arena. Not far ahead is a right turn down a very long stretch of gravel driveway until it changes to paved parking near the end.
This building to the left was shown in the first photo, and the building way ahead of us (here)was the one shown on the right in the first photo. This was a long, long leg (7th) on gravel. Up near the end, past the building, was a metal article. Again, she was tracking upwind, had come out of any protection when passing the building, and completely missed it. I was watching her body language closely, and not even looking for articles (dumb!) but she was working so well, I was very happy with that.
We have moved off the parking area and followed a curved pathway which goes around this building (the far right one in the first photo). I guess this would be a 'curvey' leg 8. It made a couple of curves to both the left and right as we moved around it. We then crossed another bike/walkway before coming to the final bridge crossing. She was still working really nicely.
No hesitation, right up and over the bridge, two ladies passed us on the bridge, and we waited for a fellow on a bike to go on. I knew she had missed articles, but was happy with her enthusiasm. Conditons were awful with the high winds, some areas were very tricky, and it was aged over 3 hrs. Of course, if it had been a test, we would have failed for missing articles!
Curious: The one article driven over - but she indicated - was smashed so much, & driven into the dirt, I didn't even consider trying to pick up all the tiny pieces - would I have if it had been a test?????
The track curved slightly to left to the article pointed out with the blue arrow. I stopped at the base of the bridge. She had been scurrying along over the bridge, and had to stop and turn toward the scent from the article.
What a great girl!!!! It was hard work, this track. The final article is a piece of white leather which looked like another "letter" of the 'Keep Right' sign painted on the bike/walk way. Of course, we came right through the middle!!!!