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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

Back at home after our recent vacation, we find that spooky things have begun to appear in the local woods! #Huskies #DogsOfMastodon #Fungi #Spooky

Husky Tonttu cranes his neck out to sniff cautiously at a large white orb on the forest floor, its dimensions greater than his own head! Several other orbs, not quite so large, sit nearby, and one in the foreground has been split apart, revealing smooth white flesh inside.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

UP Vacation: the end. Thursday night was our last in this cozy little cabin in the woods. We'd have loved to stay longer, but we had to make room for new guests moving in over the weekend. So, Friday morning we packed up and cleaned up, removing the husky […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Zeena rests on her dog mat to the side of the arched fireplace in the cabin. The scene is dark, lit only by the gas fire burning brightly.

A narrow tripod light stand with shelves holding knick-knacks. The top shelf holds a wooden tree cutout with a moose in front and a laser-etched block of clear plastic with trees and a bear. The middle shelf holds a Tonttu, a house elf with a traditional tall pointy red hat showing only their big nose poking out underneath and two long braids of yarn. the body is squat, made of Nordic sweater patterned material, and a couple of wooden paddle feet sticking out the bottom. The bottom shelf holds a stuffed deer with tall stick legs, the body made out of black and white gingham fabric and a white scarf around its neck. This animal was one of the toys Zeena decided to play with on arrival, and survived vivisection only by spending the rest of our trip on the top of the refrigerator.

The creepy unfinished basement under the cabin we stayed. At the bottom of the bare wood stairs is a washing machine and two dryers, a cheap fake wooden cabinet and a round wooden table with a plastic card game surface on top, 8-sided, with a green fabric center and indentations on each of the 8 sides for players' chips and a drink.

The other corner of the creepy cabin basement has a low octagonal bumper pool table, a foosball table, a dart board mounted to the cinder block wall, surrounded by carpet foam (whether to protect the wall or the darts or both, who knows), an old stacked tool chest with wide drawers & other junk.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

UP Vacation Day #4! We're a couple days behind. Thursday was our last full day of vacation, and we headed east to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness for a hike around Summit Peak. This is a familiar 5-mile loop that can be sloppy in wet weather, but was […] [Original post on mountains.social]

A Toyota 4-Runner covered in stickers and hand-painted designs is parked in a busy lot at the trailhead to Summit Peak. "More Zessin Less Stressin" is painted across the rear window. "S P A G H E T T I" is spelled in individual letter stickers on the tailgate under Wisconsin license plates. Also a selection of bumper stickers reading "Time isn't real. Money isn't real. Raccoons are real." and "Whatever happens to the water happens to the people." and "Reform Pangea" and "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness." There's also a big round sticker with Jake the dog from Adventure Time "Makin' bacon pancakes."

Husky Zeena leads the way down a wooden walkway with hand rails and a set of stairs that descend out of a forest opening to a platform looking out over wide low hills, the remains of ancient mountains, covered in dazzling orange and yellow leaves with scattered evergreen patches. Beyond the hills, Lake Superior can be seen, a wide blue-gray expanse to the horizon. A handful of people enjoy the view, one looking out through heavy metal binoculars mounted to the railing.

Another shot of the view from the observation platform, taken a bit farther out so you can see more of the vista and less of the trees on either side. The sky is covered in wispy horizontal clouds, but the sun shines bright from the left onto the autumn colors below.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

UP Vacation Day #3! Yesterday we decided to scope out the Wolverine Nordic Ski Trails in Ironwood MI. They're one of the VERY few places that allow dogs on all trails! The trails are open to hiking and mountain biking in the summer. This was a great chance […] [Original post on mountains.social]

A wide trail heads straight away from the viewer from a field into woodlands that are orange and yellow with autumn color. Three orange traffic cones block the way, we presume to keep mountain bikers from this particular trail, though we're not sure. We hiked through anyway!

A wooden sign along a trail, consisting of three horizontal slats reading "Stairway", "To Heaven", "Jack Polich 1953 - 2008". The lettering is in vibrant blue paint that seems to shimmer against the polished/lacquered wood and the yellow autumn leaves that form the background.

Hikers Jeff and Zeena casually descend a wide trail towards the viewer, surrounded by bright yellow leaves with hints of green, and a coating of red and brown leaves on the trail. It's a wide, flat ski trail, waiting for snow.

Hiker Jeff pauses on a green field at the base of a steep hill covered in trees of various autumn shades of red, orange and green, with a vertical cut through it, up to a wooden structure that is an ancient, gray ski jump, no longer in surface, that barely can be seen through the wedge of trees at the top. The sky behind is bright blue, with a few white clouds, and the sun lights the foreground brightly. Jeff is hiking with Zeena, who can't be seen, pulling the lead attached to his belt tight off to the right.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

When you're comfy, but you also don't want to miss out on any snack-related opportunities. #Huskies #Snacks #DogsOfMastodon

Tonttu, an Alaskan husky with dark markings on his white face and outlining his big white triangular ears, stares at the camera with his icy blue eyes from behind a pile of pillows on a couch, nose alert for olfactory information on food. The couch is covered in a blue and red plaid sheet to protect it from husky fluff during his short stay in this rental cottage.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

UP Vacation Day #2! Another day along the Black River: this time we entered at the North Country Scenic Trail trailhead just north of the Copper Mountain ski jump and the headed north, downstream towards Lake Superior. It was a very pretty hike through […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Husky Tonttu pauses on the trail next to a Solomon's Seal plant, dressed up like a series of banana slugs for Halloween.

A trio of hikers follow a wooded trail that parallels a river on the left bank. The woods are green hemlock with low maple seedlings showing autumn colors that range from green to orange and red. The hikers consist of two huskies, Tonttu and Zeena, with human hiker Jeff in the middle, being led by Tonttu. Zeena leads the photographer.

The hikers are further down from the previous photo. More maple colors fill the scene, though lacy green hemlock still border the trail in the foreground. More of the river can be seen, wide and flat, with the bed a flat jumble of reddish-brown rocks between which the low reiver flows.

The hikers have ventured out into the middle of the wide shallow river, which is bordered by green evergreens and maples just turning to yellow here. Fluffy white and gray husky Zeena skips through the shallow water, throwing up splashes with her feet.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

My phone's wide-angle lens is intent on turning Tonttu into a borzoi. #DogsOfMastodon #Huskies

Wolfish Alaskan husky Tonttu stands on a flat swath of conglomerate rocks that make up the Black River above Conglomerate Falls: it's a bunch of large rounded pebbles set into a sandy substrate and compressed into stone, over which the river flows, on the right and the left. Green and yellow trees rise from the bank on either side. Tonttu's butt is in the middle of the frame, and he's angled to the right edge, the exaggeration of the wide-angle lens stretching out his nose to near-borzoi-proportions.

Tonttu hikes along a very primitive trail at the base of a wall of stone rising amid deciduous woods in autumn colors. His nose points just out of screen to the lower left, the wide-angel lens exaggerating its length to full-borzoi proportions! He has a happy doggy smile and doesn't seem to care.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

UP Vacation Day #1! Today we drove straight north from our cabin to Black River Harbor, where the Black R. empties into Lake Superior. It's just West of the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness where we've done a LOT of hiking over the years, but a place we've […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Zeena approaches the Black River Harbor suspension bridge. Tall wooden supports on the near end are anchored in stone bases, while a foot bridge with a gentle arch disappears into forest on the other side, highlighted with spots of bright red autumn color.

Pretty, but do not touch! Tonttu passes some poison ivy along the stone retention wall on the far side of the suspension bridge. The triplet leaf clusters are bright shades of orange and red.

Zeena wades in the eastern (right) side of the Black River, heading toward Lake Superior in the distance. A breakwall of the harbor creates a barrier on the horizon between the harbor and the lake. Low scrubby plants line the shore on the near (right) side.

A trio of hikers explore a bit of bedrock exposed in the harbor at the end of Black River, before it enters Lake Superior. The rocks are low and flat, barely poking out of the calm water. Hiker Jeff stands in the middle, watching his charge, husky Tonttu in the shallows on the left, while husky Zeena explores the rock on the right. Jeff just happens to be posed between the east and west breakwalls of the harbor, where access to Lake Superior can be had.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

We're finally on a proper vacation! Autumn is here, and we appear to have totally lucked out on hitting fall colors as they approach peak brightness. Temps are cool, perfect for hiking. Yesterday we drove from the Twin Cities across Wisconsin to Bessemer MI […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Husky Tonttu, with icy blue eyes, looks excitedly out from the back of the car through the windshield, mouth open and ears alert. He's going on an adventure! Jeff is at the wheel, wearing a plaid shirt and weathered baseball cap . Farm fields under an overcast sky can be seen in the background through his side window.

A sturdy green metal door on the outside of a restroom building in a park. This is the men's entrance, with an appropriate sign, another sign saying "Please No Smoking" and another more verbose and exasperated sign reading "If bathrooms continue to be vandalized / feces not deposited properly, bathrooms will be closed."

Bright red, orange and yellow trees line a rural 2-lane highway on an overcast day. Some trees back from the road are still green, but the edge is full of bright colors.

Bright red, orange and yellow deciduous trees line the sides of a rural 2-lane highway, as seen through the windshield of a car. A few green evergreens break up the warm colors, as well as a few deciduous trees not yet turned.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

It's nice to have a bed warmer on these crisp autumn nights before we turn the furnace on.

Alaskan husky Tonttu lies on the left side of the bed, with another human cropped out of sight on the right. He's relaxing happily with his head on the pillow, facing the warm light of a bedside lamp, out of view, but illuminating the scene from the left.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Hi! We've been kind of scarce lately because of work, so it's time for an update! As summer turns to fall we've been hiking the open prairies, here UMore Park (Vermillion Highlands), Afton State Park, and Nerstrand Big Woods (which has a prairie as well as woods!). 🧵 1/x #Hiking #Huskies #Prairie

Zeena and Tonttu lead the way down a low hill on a wide mowed trail through prairie with scattered stands of trees. In the right foreground is a tall reddish stand of Big Bluestem grass, and the tracks in the trail show sand underneath: the hill is probably of glacial origin.

Zeena and Tonttu lead the way down another grassy mowed path through a prairie towards a stand of trees on the horizon, and some old stone posts that mark the gate to a former farmstead. Two hikers are approaching from the gate. This is the north eastern corner of Afton State Park.

Hiker Jeff is led by huskies Zeena and Tonttu through yet another prairie, with woods on the left horizon. The sky has scattered bright backlit clouds spreading low across a blue sky.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026

Ugh. The dewpoint is nearly 80F. There's so much moisture in the air, but very little of it has fallen here as rain, so the local lake is very very low. At least the water is still clear and free from algae blooms! The amount of sweat I generated from just […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Huskies Zeena and Tonttu wade in a medium-sized lake with deciduous trees around the far side, green under a blue late-summer sky. The lake is low, exposing mud flats along the shoreline on which lily pads remain, beached. A wooden ramp angles down gently into the water on the right, used in winter for deploying a lake aerator.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

Rediscovered this video of Gypsy (RIP 😢) and @sofawolfone stalking a bunny in the back yard. This was way back in 2015, before we had a proper fence around the yard. #Huskies

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Cesare Forelli @cdf1982.iosdev.space.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026

Thank God for rivers and creeks #Husky

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/08/2026

RE: mountains.social/@DaleTrexel/117147… Starting to increase the frequency and length of runs with the huskies as autumn approaches! Wish I'd gotten out an hour earlier, when the temps were still in the 50sF, but both Zeena and Tonttu held up well to today's pace!

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/08/2026

This morning was cool enough for a light jog down around the local lake. Water's getting low this summer, but so far no algae bloom, and Tonttu was able to get out far enough to soak up some of its cooling wetness! #Huskies #DogsOfMastodon

Tonttu, an Alaskan-type husk, is caught mid shake, head and fur twisted, scattering sparkling water around him as he stands in the shallows of a lake mostly covered with lily pads around him. He's creating circular waves expanding out around him, textured with thousands of little points of light reflecting the sun high above.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/08/2026

A light covering of clouds kept things cool for a hike around the southern prairie at Frontenac State Park over the weekend. Despite the hot, dry summer, the prairie was doing quite well! #Hiking #Huskies #Prairie

Husky Zeena checks for possible pounceables in a stand of low sumac on the edge of a wide prairie. In the foreground is a spread of yellow and black black-eyed-susans. At the edge, where Zeena stands, is a large swath of sumac, with green fern-like leaves already turning dark red down near the ground. Beyond that is the rest of the prairie, tall grass big bluestem, with a maroon cast due to the purplish "blue" in the stems and especially seed pods. The distant edges of the prairie are wooded, and the trees rise to a low line of bluffs, in the middle of which, an open bit of prairie rises between the trees.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

Yesterday we took advantage of cooler, drier air for the long(ish) drive down to Whitewater State Park, which sits about half way between Rochester and the Mississippi River. This is a very crinkly bit of landscape, with steep valleys cut through karst […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Jeff and Tonttu stand on the edge of a flat rocky bluff outcrop looking over the Whitewater River valley, through which 2-lane rural highway 74 cuts, with a bit of flat prairie in a wide area of the valley to the right. Zeena snuffles at the grasses in the foreground.

Hikers Jeff and Tonttu proceed down a path that follows the edge of a bluff, so covered in low sumac and other vegetation that you can't even see Tanttu in the lead. Zeena follows, leading the photographer, on a path that disappears before her nose. The bluff falls away steeply on the right, and the valley below curves left, then right between steep slopes on the other side.

Zeena looks out from a small rocky outcrop, facing south across the valley. The Middle Fork of the Whitewater River is far below, with a low auto bridge crossing it. The steep slopes on the far side are covered in deciduous trees, but a bit of rock can be seen where it's too steep for trees.

A screenshot of Google Maps' "terrain" layer of the land surrounding Whitewater State Park. It's a gently rippling flat landscape cut with squiggly valleys that funnel from the west, south and southeast to a widening of the river, where the main campground is, at the top of the map. Whitewater Highway, #74, follows the valley wandering south to north, through the park. Chimney Rock is marked at a high point on the right, and there's also a marker for Berea Moravian Church on flat land to the right.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/07/2026

Zeena may be sad that it's raining and she's stuck inside, but her humans are delighting in the change in weather! July has been a hot, humid slog with little rain and many nights with the house closed and the AC running. But today it ends with a steady […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Fluffy gray and white husky Zeena rests indoors on a hardwood floor, relaxed but listless, bored, eyes half open, staring at nothing in particular. A movie poster of one of her celebrity heroes can be seen out of focus down the hall behind her.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

Good morning internet! Zeena got a bath before 7 AM today because she managed to pull a possum through the fence, kill it, and then roll in the blood and excrement that it left on the lawn. How's your day going?

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/07/2026

On Wednesday we took advantage of the cool temperatures and clean air for a nice long hike at Willow River State Park, across the border in Wisconsin. It was great to stretch our legs after a long stretch of hot, smoky weather! Being the middle of the week […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Huskies Zeena and Tonttu explore a rippling pool on the side of a medium sized river that's cutting its way through rocky cliffs. Behind them is the main falls, a wide shelf over which water tumbles in a frothy spray, with smaller shelves further down on the left. The pool on the side is bordered by a large boulder, a jumble of driftwood and rocks in the middle of the flow covered in green grass and other vegetation.

Tonttu leads Zeena across a narrow ledge in the midst of a slippery slope on the side of the falls, slick with a sheet of water and brown mossy growth underneath. Plants grow on the steep slope above, through which a cut holds a big pipe, walled off at the bottom, some form of old, disused hydropower.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2026

A couple of cool, calm, quiet moments from a trip to the Porcupine Mountains, in northern Michigan, back in October 2024. 1/2

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Cesare Forelli @cdf1982.iosdev.space.ap.brid.gy · 27/06/2026

Today’s resting spot is approved #Husky

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Cesare Forelli @cdf1982.iosdev.space.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2026

One of Milla’s favorite spots, when one day or another she will defeat her sworn enemy “the waves” #Husky

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Cesare Forelli @cdf1982.iosdev.space.ap.brid.gy · 01/07/2026

Naaa, she’s actually happy. And so so pretty! #Husky

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Cesare Forelli @cdf1982.iosdev.space.ap.brid.gy · 01/07/2026

She truly appreciates me waking up at 3:45 a.m. on a workday to take her to some place less hot. You can tell by the distance she keeps from me. #Husky

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2026

After two days stuck in the house because of wildfire smoke, things cleared enough for us to escape back to the woods! It's still hot and humid, so we chose a shady hike at Nerstrand Big Woods, and routed our hike to pass Hidden Falls on the way out AND […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Two huskies investigate shallow water above a waterfall. The bedrock creates a flat shelf over which the water flows in a thin surface, then drops over a sharp line straight down to a pool below. Husky Zeena stands at the edge in full sun, looking down, while Tonttu investigates the shallows in the shade. The surrounding trees cast shade over much of the scene, except the middle of the stream and some clumps of branches and leaves that shine green on the far side.

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Cesare Forelli @cdf1982.iosdev.space.ap.brid.gy · 12/07/2026

A most perfect weekend 🥰 Both days woke up at 4 a.m. 🙃, yesterday for a lake adventure and today for a much less 🥵 mountain. Plus steak was shared, so happy #Husky. Oh, I’ve also finally cracked Onvif, after years fighting SOAP 🤬 on and off #IndieDev Still […] [Original post on iosdev.space]

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/07/2026

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/07/2026

RE: sunny.garden/@Paws2Spindle/11686490… A reminder that our huskies' fur gets turned into yarn and garments over at @Paws2Spindle Other dog breeds too! That account has been mostly knitting for a while, but with #TourDeFleece running in parallel to the Tour de France, we're […]

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Original post on mountains.social

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

Tonttu would probably compete well in Dock Dog if we were allowed to put Canada Geese at the far end of the pool! #DockDog #Huskies

Husky Tonttu swims back towards shore after being thwarted from his effort to catch a Canada Goose by the long Flexi lead attached to his harness. He's swimming in Lake Nokomis, a medium sized lake in Minneapolis, with a wide, low bridge crossing the far left side of the shore. A bow of geese swim away in a wide arc, all looking back to keep an eye on the predator, who looks a bit like a long-eared and pointy-muzzled otter, sunk down to his spine and tail in the deep water.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2026

Saturday was the last nice day before we got hit by the Eastern US Heat Dome, so we headed out to William O'Brien State Park for a hike! Sunny and a bit warm, but breezes helped out a lot, and there were several strategic places for the pups to cool off […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Human hiker Jeff heads out on a hike through a prairie with husky Tonttu, who bounds through the taller grass and flowers on the right side of the mowed trail. A single-story visitor center with solar panels on the roof nestles in the trees on the far edge of the prairie, below blue skies.

Husky Zeena pauses on the edge of a trail mowed through a prairie with woodlands and hills on the far horizon. A narrow, patchy swath of reddish wispy grasses borders the edge of the trail, with scattered white Queen Anne's Lace type flowers and yellow daisies scattered in the taller grass. Zeena looks back at the camera, happy to be out exploring but wondering when the photographer will be done and the hike can resume.

A wide expanse along a high point in a hiking trail, where grass quickly turns to low sumac, which falls away into a deep valley, with a flat horizon of trees on the other side of the valley far on the horizon. The St. Croix river flows somewhere down below, and that's the eastern Wisconsin side of the river in the distance. It's a bright, sunny day, with mare's tails clouds drifting across the sky and husky Zeena investigating smells and sounds in the sumac on the right side of the image.

Husky Zeena investigates a beaver pond mostly covered with water lilies. Her body parts the tall grass on the edge of the pond, and tall cattails border the far side. There are spots of clear water among the water lilies, which also sport a number of white flowers.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/06/2026

Clouds created extra dramatic lighting for our huskies as they were entranced by the fluffy cows (bison) at Spring Lake Park on a recent walk. #Huskies #Bison

Two huskies in the foreground strain against the leads attached to their hiking harnesses as they watch big brown blobs graze in a prairie. A matrix of clouds and blue sky spreads across the scene, and one of those clouds casts a shadow on the bison and the far half of the prairie, causing the huskies to shine out in bright sunlight.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2026

Yesterday we returned to Frontenac State Park for a morning hike. It was gorgeous weather! While the sun was bright, we're cooler than normal for June, and there was a nice breeze to boot. The last time we visited here we'd intended to hike to Waconia Bluff […] [Original post on mountains.social]

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2026

It's Zeena's 11th birthday today! Please join Tonttu and us in wishing her a happy, bouncy birthday. 🎂 #Huskies #DogsOfMastodon

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2026

It's Zeena's 11th birthday today! Please join Tonttu and us in wishing her a happy, bouncy birthday. 🎂 #Huskies #DogsOfMastodon

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/06/2026

Not all fluff is husky fluff! At least not when it's springtime in the river bottoms where the cottonwood grows.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2026

Zeena approves of the new pools in the stream habitat "improvement" at the Minnesota Valley Nat'l Wildlife Refuge. (Humans are not so sure: this used to be a nice shady stream with overhanging trees, great for warblering during migration. Now it's much more exposed.)

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2026

RE: mastodon.social/@tenzochris/1166587… Not our traditional husky paws-to-trail content, but still gorgeous art!

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/05/2026

A comment reminded us of the great Duluth Flood of 2012, which liberated seals and a polar bear from the local zoo and swept away part of the suspension bridge in Jay Cooke State Park. A friend of ours on the state highway department spent several years […] [Original post on mountains.social]

A nighttime snapshot of a dark colored seal on a residential street in the rain, lit up by the headlights of a car behind it.

A collage of flood damage images from the linked article. The first is a 2-lane highway severely washed out on the side of the valley that has the St. Croix River down to the left. The next three show the Jay Cooke Park suspension bridge, first partially submerged by raging flood waters, the second showing the main suspension portion survived, but the portion leading up to the tall supports washed out, and the last after it was rebuilt, a low bridge with rustic log railings leading up to the suspended portion. The footings and supports are constructed out of large dark stones.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/05/2026

Yesterday water was out in our neighborhood (for utility work), so we escaped north to Duluth and cooler weather. It was gorgeous! Like spring was down in the Metro a month ago. Lots of warblers singing, including many Mourning Warblers that are rare back […] [Original post on mountains.social]

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/05/2026

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/05/2026

I'm sure Miyazaki could do it with traditional 2D animation, but you really need 3K video to fully capture the depth of cottonwood fluff floating down on an early summer day.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/05/2026

RE: mastodon.social/@DukeDuke/116614658… Thinking about camping with the huskies lately. Love the idea! Not sure how much anyone would enjoy it with dogs that we don't trust off leash. Zeena might enjoy having her own tent, but Tonttu would insist on sleeping in the main tent […]

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Original post on mountains.social

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/05/2026

Yesterday we made a loop around the SE corner of Afton State Park, checking for the latest warblers and other avian migrants to have arrived. The trip back paralleled the St. Croix river, with a staircase down the steep bank at the end, allowing access to […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Husky Zeena stands on a shallow spit of sand projecting out into the wide St. Croix river, with low hills of Wisconsin on the far side. There is a large, smoothly-eroded piece of driftwood in the sand in the foreground, with a circular hole from a knot now gone. The sky is gray and overcast with bits of blue poking through on the horizon.

Hikers Jeff and Tonttu take a break on the edge of the St. Croix river, Jeff standing right on the sandy edge of the water, and Tonttu out as far as he can get with the lead tied to Jeff's belt. The water is shallow here, but Tonttu is hunkered down in the water, getting his belly and haunches nice and soaked. Tree-covered fluffs rise above the beach behind them, and another hiker sits on a large tree trunk washed up on the waterline.

Zeena leads the photographer down a dirt path through the woods, with Jeff and Tonttu leading the way far ahead. Trees are now leafing out, casting shade, which gets deeper down the path where the others are leading.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/05/2026

We took the day off Thursday to head north to Banning State Park (half way between the Twin Cities and Duluth) for hiking and birding as migration picks up. The huskies would have loved a faster pace, but they permitted their humans to stop and look/listen […] [Original post on mountains.social]

Tonttu cools off in the Kettle River. The water is coppery brown due to tannins in the water, but is also murky from silt buildup in the shallows where a small stream empties into the river.

Zeena and Tonttu peer down into a dark hole drilled into the rock on the edge of the Kettle River. You can see the river below in the background, clearly a steep drop from where they stand. The hole has been drilled straight down, and the sides are mysteriously dark in contrast to the bright surface of the rock it penetrates.

Husky Zeena peers down into a dark hole in solid rock b ordering the Kettle River. Here an ancient kettle cut by swirling rocks angles down and left into the river, creating a stone arch over a dark smooth-edge pit with water in the bottom. The bridge no longer spans the water 100%, but has a small gap at the apex that Zeena could jump if she were not held back by her hiking lead.

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Paws to Trail @paws2trail.mountains.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2026

It was already getting warm by the time we finished a 5 mile run through the neighborhood on Saturday, but apparently Zeena and Tonttu were still had plenty of energy to burn! Zoomies start around 0:25. #Huskies #Zoomies #DogsOfMastodon

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