Windy UTDX Track

The location I had planned for Tuesday was completely covered by Canada Geese! Having done one there last year at this time (migration), I wasn't about to walk on or dodge so much disgusting squishy poop again...so moved to second choice. Turned out to be very good and worthwhile. A couple of good distractions, and extremely high wind off Lake Nipissing in North Bay.
Trust had a very, very long first leg in grass, except for this little sidewalk crossing. Lots of cars, people, dog walkers, ducks and gulls out; track aged 3 1/2 hours.

We had just finished standing and waiting for a man and a little dog walking towards us on a flexi, and dog having frequent 'pit stops'. I decided to wait, rather than push her through, as it was also barking at us, annoying, and he seemed fixated on watching us. Trust was distracted, and then as you see with the broken yellow line, she tried to go over where the dog had "been".

I turned and took this picture after they went by, and darned if he didn't turn around and come back behind us, more or less following along behind. I had to sternly remind Trust a few times to get back to work, as she was a little uptight about them coming up behind us.

She had found a wood article earlier on this leg, you can sese the wind is blowing the line across to the left. I made the turn purposely ahead of what was obvious...the change and a crack all the way across the road. She turned to cross, and a nice driver stopped and waited for us to run over the road. She was nearly right on the track across the road, and hitting the other side. I was surprised how close she was due the winds, which were then strong behind us. Always windy by the lake, but had increased immensely from laying time.

The wind whips across here, over the steps and down into a tunnel area. Quite a difficult place to work in even without high winds. I was standing on top and without the wind, this line would have been a straight line down to her. The plastice article was blown about 3' to the right on the second step down, from where I had left it. She made two circles here, one not far enough, one past it, and then came back up to get it. It was white plastic, so couldn't be seen.

Before this shot, she had to work out on an acute angle from the last picture and curve into a paved walk/bike path along the road and then turn up this hill of sparse veg. The gray car is now parked right over the track into a large gravel parking lot. Again, the wind (blue arrows).

When we reached the car, the lady rolled down her window and called to Trust. I told her we were working and the track went under her car....she was going to move it...I said, no, if she was still there, we would come back and tell her all about what we were doing. The track makes a left turn in the parking lot, and there's an article along the next leg.

And there it is, a metal article which she had almost gone by, as she was following the scent close to the fence. At the last minute, she turned her head and rushed to it. I think she wants a treat, don't you?! She got one!

Further along, the gravel turned to asphalt and we went between two large cement dividers hitting strong gusts again. Look at that line, even Trust looks like she's being blown sideways.

This was not a strict corner but a long sweeping turn following the driveway now, in the middle.

She had moved towards some grass and another fence at this point, but was surprisingly quite close to the track.

All of a sudden, she turned and trotted over to the track and just zoned right in to the article.

All things considered, especially the unexpected high wind, I was pretty impressed with her today....well, she always impresses me, but she seemed really happy about working on this track today with the difficulties. The only issue really was the strange man and his dog, she was too focused on them. We did go back up the hill and had a nice talk with the lady in the car who was most impressed about all this 'tracking stuff'. Had I seen the man later, I also would have spoken to him. He may have just been curious and not realized that he and his dog were a bit of a problem for us.