魯胖肥妞白木妹

**********TICK WARNING*********

The second week of April, we were out for our little trip, again :)
Felt refreshing after getting back~ we should definitely go out more!!!

I planned our trip to Big Sur, realizing we haven't visited there before even though its close to us
(5-hr is close?  XDD)

Unfortunately, there is no Motel 6 in Big Sur so we had to drive all the way up to Carmel Valley
And we were lucky enough to visit this FABULOUS place in Carmel Valley!!!
(we almost decided to skip it...)

But unfortunately....this trail is full of TICKS TICKS TICKS TICKS
When I say full, its really crazy......

I guess V and I would not be going back to this place...ever......
Anyway, the views along the way are just incredible. One of the great places I would love to come often provided there are no ticks....
Still, join us and enjoy  :)





Garland Ranch Regional Park sounds to be a really LAME place, thats why I wanted to skip in the first place.
A park? Then why should we drive all the way up???

This is what we first encountered!!! Wow, trails with streams!!! Another wonderland from the city.





It wasn't really hot on that day, but the doggies still preferred to soak themselves into the water.
Ok, a good start, let's head up!





Another view of the stream, I really wanted to dip myself into it. Luckily I didn't? Would I bring ticks home if I had =  =





We headed to the visitor center hoping to find a map of the trail. 
Amazing, there is a garden full of Lupine! We didn't get great chance to see wild flowers this year.
This was like an extra bonus to us. The little sisters are so short  lol 





Tinker seems to be even shorter than the North Cali Lupine! Hahaha...





Honestly, we did not do any homework (again) before visiting this place.
It turned out to have ALOT of different trails, we had no idea which one to go for

So needless to say, we headed for the SHORTCUT TRAIL  XDDDDD





We missed the Poppy season this year (yes, I missed alot of events...)
Another extra bonus that we saw a few poppies along the way.





The trail is one of the best I ever encountered in the States. 70% in shade along the way. 
It was cool, decent amount of people, and ppl were friendly to our paws!

It exactly looks like the place I miss alot back in Taiwan! 





Although we were not walking along the river, the doggies still have a few chance to get water along the way
Ha, their moms didn't bring them water....





The scenry is just breathtaking along the way!!!!!





We figured out a few trails that suited us by asking a passing-by along the way.
We followed Mesa trail to the top (not the end of the trail) and walked back through Waterfall trail which is steep so we won't suggest you to get up from there.





After about 1 to 1 and half hour of hike, no great elevation so was fairly easy for us.
We finally made to the first top which we would call it the day  XDDDDDD

Water fountain is provided up there, totally suited for parents who dont bring water.
The trails are actually shared among ppl and horses. 

We encountered few horses along the way. We have to leash them up so that they wouldnt chase the horse and having the person on it falling off all the way from cliff? 





I have never experienced horse riding before!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was like a movie to me!!





The height of the water fountain is especially designed for horses even with a hook on it.





Wow, we made it to the first top!!! The weather was chilled, the view was spectacular, everything was perfect!!!





Patches of Lupine along the way.





We enjoyed the atmosphere so we decided to do nothing and just relaxed.

Actaeas is the leader of the pack!!





My dearest, having spent the whole 13 years with me. I am looking forward to your 14th birthday!





Group pics with the moms, ha.










We all love here and would want to stay for the whoooole day.





Find another mini lake just 0.75 yards from us. It was tooooo dirty to let them get into the water.
(and actually no one likes getting into the water unless I made them? by throwing the crab into it..ha)





We decided to go for a mini loop before heading back to our car.





The loop turned out to be reallllly looooooooooooooooop....we walked for more than 30 minutes to get out of it....
I almost wanted to give up and walked to same way back, not sure if it going to have an end or not...





Finally, we found the Waterfall trail and followed the Lupine trail to get back to where we started.
It took us about 3 hours to complete the hike. The humans thought they had exercised enough and ate alot that night...Ha.

On our way back to motel, I noticed a small tick on Tiffy and threw it immediately out of the window.
And that's where our nightmare started.......

We went back to the motel and I was checking on them when I noticed blood spots on Tiru. It looked pretty bad and honestly I was a little freaked out.
I checked her carefully and I found at least 3 ticks!!!! No no no, they were already sucking blood on Tiru *fainted*

I almost wanted to take her to the vet ER because of the blood spot (the blood spots turned out to be bite from the ticks and were resolved in a couple days)


V and I were terrified with the ticks, afraiding they would get blood transmitted diseases (Lyme, etc...)
So we took all 5 of them immediately to the self-service dog wash! Wahsed them all and put on the tick prevention meds.

All five of them are using fleas and ticks products regularly, but still, we weren't able to prevent what happened that day.

Unfortunately, we found 3-4 bites on Tiru, 2 on Tinkerbell, and 1 on Tissue.....
There were ticks on Tiffy and Actaeas, but due to their thick coat, the ticks were still on their way through and we got rid of them.

Finger crossed that the 3 of them won't develop any tick-borne diseases in the coming months and years *sigh*
I guess V and I were not going back to there anymore  TT