“It was the call, the many-noted call, sounding more luringly and compellingly than ever before.” Jack London penned that line in the voice of Buck, a sled dog in his famous novel, ‘The Call of the Wild’, a book I adored as an adolescent and which still occasionally stirs my soul on a frosty morning at a trailhead.
The books ‘The Call of the Wild’ and ‘White Fang’, coupled with movies like ‘Homeward Bound’ and ‘Benji’, shaped my worldview, where dogs had almost as much agency as humans and oftentimes made better friends. So when my life settled down enough to take on a canine companion, I found a trail dog to be my partner.
For the last 11 years, from TN to TX, MacGyver has been my companion on and off the beaten path. This lanky, scruffy, 45-lb mutt rescued from Austin Pets Alive has run the entire Austin Greenbelt, braved the Pecos Wilderness, summited the Pinnacles Firetower trail six times, and explored every trail in San Marcos. So in the spirit of Buck and Jack London, I turn the rest of this article over to MacGyver to recommend some of the best trails for dogs in our area.
Thanks, Christian, and might I add the new brisket- flavored dog treats you’ve switched to are delightful. But I digress, let’s talk about what makes trails great for dogs and where to find those kinds of trails.
The number one thing I look for in a daily amble is pee-mail. For the uninitiated, pee-mail is a scent marker left along a path for us canines to sniff, interpret, and“reply all” with a lift of the leg. The best pee-mail route around here is the Dante Trail starting at Lower Purgatory trailhead. From trash cans to all those wonderful sign markers, I can hardly go twenty yards without hearing the latest gossip from the Village Green or Cottonwood Creek.
Almost as enticing is wildlife to chase. Nothing brings me more joy than feinting after an inattentive squirrel, bed-down deer, or haughty skunk prancing about with its tail in the air. I find myself beside myself with excitement to hike the Doline Trail in the River Recharge Natural Area. Throw in an armadillo carcass to roll in near the road, and this hike has the potential to be an olfactory paradise…something you humans still struggle to understand.
The last quality I seek in a trail is rompability, that is, the ability to frolic with a human at high speeds for the sheer joy of moving together in the wilderness. Christian and I can’t get enough of running the Bluestem Trail at Spring Lake Preserve. Whether it’s scampering through the eponymous grass tinged with frost or gamboling amongst the year’s first bluebonnets in the primavera sunlight, Christian is a regular twinkle toes to my jazzy paws.
…and that’s enough, Mac. Thanks for the recommendations. I’ll leave the people with one of my own. Much like my time with Mac, what began with the exuberance of Jack London has aged well into the wisdom of Mary Oliver. So if your young Buck has survived to be an Ole Mac, pick up a copy of Dog Songs, which rightly recognizes, “Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased... what would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?”
