We have a bunch of no-tresspassing signs all over the property for liablitiy reasons. However, Mr. Wild Dingo felt it was important to warn any trespassers that NitWit Bridge is not engineered. He posted this sign on both ends.  Now if I wasn’t a home builder, I’d be all like, “What the hell does that even mean? Who cares if it doesn’t have an engine? As long as it’s stable enough to hold me up, I’m crossing.”  Because I’m a little like the Sibe when I hike and would probably ignore this sign.  Still, I think it’s funny that Mr. Wild Dingo thinks everyone knows what “bridge engineering” means.

“Mom, we read the sign Pop put up but we’ve crossed this about 87,000 times now. So let’s go!”

“Oh but before you do, would you mind sweeping the pathway? Wet leaves on the planks are dangerous!”
I leave a broom  near the bridge with good intentions to sweep it regularly. Regularly for me is about twice a year.
“Princepessa, if I had opposable thumbs, I would sweep it for you!”

“Hey Daddy-O. Quit your squirrel patrol and lift your dogs. We ain’t got all day.”

“I don’t know cupcake. Let me noodle it out. Those rapids are lookin’ a bit scary.”
“Retardo,I don’t buy your cheap act. Two bully sticks says you’re whistling through the graveyard.”

“You’re right Princepessa. I fear nothing.  But I will proceed with caution on this slippery plank.”

“Ladies first!”

“

“Err, Mom?  Why do you look so queezy?”

That’s why.

We like this bridge much better. It’s called “Not NitWit Bridge.”

During an emergency, a Siberian always knows how to quickly utilize ”all” food sources.

“Blue tape! A rare delicacy!”

“Hey, who turned out the lights?”

“Oops, guess that would be me.”

“Tastes like chicken!’

Yesterday, we checked out NitWit Bridge and Trail.

Remember the rope hand rails that Mr. Wild Dingo made for descending steep terrain? Remember how much slack he left in the rope? I thought it seemed silly that he left so much slack, until I saw this:

The ropes were tight as guitar strings. They shrunk heavily in the rains. The “before” photos did not even show the true amount of slack he left, as he had gone back and made more slack so they dipped very low. Mr. Wild Dingo’s a “thinker.” He knew that rain would make them shrink!

And NitWit Creek is flowing at class 2 rapids. Hopefully we’ll see more this winter and we’ll see at least class 3 or 4 by end of the winter so our well will be full year round.

 I can never understand why nobody ever wants to hike NitWit Bridge with me.

“Oh boy, a new tug toy. Now THATS what I’m talkin’ ’bout!”

“Um, err … Pop … err … Ranger, that’s not what I had in mind for my new tug toy.”

“Hey there Ranger, where ya goin’ with my new tug toy?”

“Hey Sweetpea, lets say you and me take off with this new tug toy and show the bi-peds how to properly use it.”
“Dude, whatever, I’m only in this for the walk.”

“Hey there Pop … Err …  Ranger Nitwit … whatchya doin’?”
“I’m looking for my loose screws that I dropped Loki.”

“Hey cupcake, did you know Pop had a few screws loose?”
“Takes one to know one, big boy.”

Mr. Wild Dingo is annoyed. Having just ridden his bike 60 miles, he now has to pose for a mug shot. Life is ruff.

We start out on the trail. Note, it’s a climb. Nothing annoys Loki more than being 2 paces behind. And nothing pleases me more than to annoy my FMD.  Bowhahahah.

 Typically we walk down with the twosome, but lately I’ve been working their obedience and leave them at the top. The poles to the left were just put in. In tomorrow’s post, you’ll see why.

If you squint you can see the 2 at the top of the hill.
“Hey, cupcake, did you hear them say ‘come’?” 
“Yes sirie daddy o, I think I heard “treat” too.”

“Last one there is a rotten egg!”

Entrance to NitWit Bridge. It takes all of Juno’s greatest strength to sit and wait for this shot. Note the red wood tree below the planks and the black hose for our water line. We are true hill billies.

Since you’re all familiar with NitWit Bridge, we’ll skip right to the stairs. Just because they are stairs doesn’t make them any easier to climb. They’re pretty steep! Who puts stairs in the woods anyway? Princesses do!

After the stairs, there’s still more climbing to do. Loki’s whining is about to make me jump off of NitWit so I let him go to Scott. No sooner does he get there, he begins to whine because I’m not up there with them. Damn dog can’t make up his mind.

Another mini bridge. This shot is included purely for lighting reasons.

Loki being “loki.”

Guard dogs keeping out the Interlopers. 
This is where our trail ends and we get to choose from a variety of places to explore and continue our walk, school grounds, tree farms, long deserted roads.

On the way home and on the way back to NitWit Bridge. To the right, there is some old foundation from an old home burned to the ground in the ’89 earthquake.

Posers. Mr. Wild Dingo still looks curmudgeonly and less than pleased to pose. Sigh. Now I know why I married him.

On the way “down” to NitWit Bridge. Again, poles in place to the right. Dogs are really well behaved about walking behind us and not pulling ahead. Those skillet beatings really pay off.

“Hey Retardo up there, whatchya waitin’ for? Ahhh hahahah… huskies are faster than Retardo Montalban!”

Top of the stairs leading to the bridge.

Nothing worse than being left behind. Especially in Loki’s case. That’s what his first owner did to him.

After the bridge, the walk back up.

When I’m walking them both, I’m usually pretty happy to have a sled dog about now. I throw out all “heeling” obedience and just let her pull.

Home again.
“Hey Retardo, I totally kicked your butt on this walk today.”
“Muffin, it ain’t over the the fat husky sings. And I’ll have you singing in about 30 seconds.”

Here are two videos of Loki doing a “down during a recall” exercise. One thing I learned is that it’s a lot harder to handle your dog and video at the same time than it seems. Body language and consistency is important so Loki hesitates in the second video because he can’t understand what my hand signal is telling him behind the video cam.

Loki & Juno get their awesome training from The K-9 Clinic in Correlitos. Go check them out! (Guess who built and maintains their site??)

Read more about NitWit Bridge’s story, how it got it’s name and with photos.

Loki’s First Try at Night: He pretty much nails it. Sorry for the dark video. There was no natural light at 7 PM!

The next day we went back to get a video in the day time:

When he’s not traveling, Mr. Wild Dingo calls me a few times a day and asks, “Are the dogs using the treehouse?” Well, now he’s been in Asia all week and has emailed me, “are the dogs using the treehouse?”

No Honey, I don’t think they’re using the treehouse:

Read more on the treehouse and it’s remodel (1-week later).

This month’s masthead feature’s NitWit Bridge. I’ve mentioned NitWit bridge a few times to friends and occasionally on this site. I even featured a few of the photos in an old gallery that no longer exists. But I never really told its story. I’ve neglected featuring photos or mentioning it because it was so closely tied to Maggie, the dingo and founder of Wild Dingo. You see, NitWit Bridge was aptly named by Maggie, as told in the story and photos below.

The bridge is located on our property and was “engineered” (insert tongue-in-cheek) in 2006 by our home builder for a few reasons. Firstly, our good-producing well was located about a quarter mile away from our home site and we conveniently needed to find a way to pipe the water to our home. Secondly, we had the dingo, Maggie, who loved the outdoors and loved to hike and walk. Building a trail from the top of our property to our home through the Redwood forest was always on our agenda and the well gave us the perfect excuse to make a trail for the pipeline. But there was one snag. The trail had to cross a creek that was about 40 feet below the trail and 90 feet across to the other side. Our contractor found a fallen redwood tree and there, we “engineered” our suspension bridge: 2 planks over the fallen redwood held taught by cable wire which was posted into the ground on either side in cement. The contractor found outdoor flexible pipe for the waterline and ran it under the redwood tree while he built our bridge.

Maggie, my late dingo and founder of Wild Dingo,  gives the bridge a first inspection. She looks down. Now Maggie was a brazen dog with incredible agility who used to walk on house roofs and leap a 6-foot fence from a standing position. But she took one look below and didn’t get further than three or four feet. The entire bridge is roughly 90 feet long. She gave up and refused to cross the bridge. Because she was old and more frail, I didn’t make her cross it.

Another day Maggie takes her friend ShyGuy, the basset hound seen at the end of the bridge. Maggie looked on and said, “Hey ShyGuy, are you crazy? Only a NitwWit would cross this bridge. Oh wait, I forgot who I’m talking to.”
As much as she liked ShyGuy, Maggie was a bit critical of other canines and felt intellectually superior to any she met.

So Mr. Wild Dingo chose the hottest day that summer to go out to NitWit Bridge and stabalize its safety with pirate netting. In the event a paw should slip off, the netting would catch it. Maggie came to supervise construction. The stairs in back lead up a very steep section of the trail. To the left, you can see the black flexible pipe for the water.

“I am Wild Dingo and I approve the safety netting on this bridge. I hearby name it NitWit Bridge.” Maggie crossed the bridge the first time that day, with netting in place. Smart doggie.

This spring (2009) took its toll on the brige. When its wet, one has to be extra cautious in walking the slippery bridge.

Because look what awaits you, should you fall. But you’d surly have to jump over the netting and cable to really “fall” off this bridge. Unless…

A tree like this happens to fall while you cross the bridge. Thankfully the tree fell on the stairs and not on the bridge, because it would have taken out our waterline too. It took out our stairs, which Mr. Wild Dingo later repaired. But for a while Loki and Juno had to do some agility work to get around the fallen tree. And people at school wonder why our dogs have good agility and a good bond with us! Its because we make them do this stuff! Booowhahahah!

Ah, who are we kidding? These two love the trail, the bridge and the stairs and don’t have any complaints.

They love it so much, they pose for me in the middle of the bridge to show you that it isn’t as bad as it looks. Still, they seem to have the same opinion Maggie had and every day we cross the bridge, they take great care and caution.

When Wild Dingo’s ISP service is in better shape (it only took 13 hours to get this post published in my slow ISP shape), I’ll feature one of Loki’s Training for NitWits videos, which are appropriately shot on location of NitWit Bridge. Also, I’ll feature a few walking trail photos so you can all sympathize with how difficult the walk is right outside our door. (No joke, it’s a workout!)