Lost Dog Hike

After a decent week's work, you always want to fly Saturday. Today would have been flyable, but there were some 'issues' with the forecasts (high winds aloft, deterioration in the afternoon). It seemed better to hike and take in the fall colors.

I headed to a little hamlet to the SE of St Andre called Ubraye. Exploring new areas is fun in its own right, but it also lets you look at the XC issues (how many LZs are there in this valley?).

This is the hunting season. It's easy to assume paragliding is dangerous and hiking is safe; but at this time of year that may be inaccurate. I've lunched in restaurants with hunters many times in France; they don't go easy on the wine (who does) and you can't help but feel that afternoon hiking has its risks. But today, all I heard were some distant shots going off.

There is another, more civilized, form of hunting at this time of year. I met four guys with baskets filled with mushrooms. I don't know what is edible and what is certain death, but what they carried looked really good. Prime mushroom gathering spots are closely guarded secrets in this part of France; 'foreigners' are taken along only if they wear a blindfold.

Early on in my hike, I was joined by two dogs - I suspect they had been spooked by shotguns going off. They 'followed' me, but stayed ahead all the time - waiting at intersections of trails. Then one got lost when they were excited by something - maybe a boar or some other animal. The other stayed with me throughout the hike - my cell phone wasn't working and I couldn't phone the number of the dog's collar.

Back in Ubraye, I talked to the first person I met. He didn't know the dog but he turned out to be the Maire (mayor); we went to the Mairie, he phoned the number. There was no reply but he left a message and was happy to look after the dog until the owner came to collect it. I left him with the details of where the other dog got lost. The mayor said dogs often got lost at this time of year (alarmed by the shotguns) and almost always got home. Here's hoping...

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