King of the Mountain, King of the World

The L-spar did it's magic on Leo's neck. Almost immediately it was less swollen, and he seemed to be a lot more comfortable. I was expecting a rather poor weekend - the L-spar can knock him out, and he was going to have to start the prednisone (his neck lymph nodes were still palpable, but small, by Saturday).
So, after shuttling him back and forth Thursday-Saturday, Sunday morning I picked him up for an "easy" hike. Well, ok, a "Moderate" hike, according to the trail guide.

Majestic!

 Whoops.

Never was terribly good at contour maps...

So, we did the Stillman trail to the top of Storm King. Yeah, it's a bit of a climb - 1300+ feet in just under 2 miles. Plus, the trail winds along the side of the hill for a bit, and let's just say you wouldn't want to fall off.

Looking at a new-school map, on my phone. Leo for scale.

Of course, I'm doing this hike with my 11 1/2 year old dog who has cancer and just had chemotherapy. What kind of monster am I?

This kind of monster.

Well, Leo did great. He did better than great, jumping up some of the bigger steps, scaling his way down the steep grades, and peeing on everything in the park. He took a few breaks, and had to be coaxed to keep moving once or twice, but after his breaks he was back to being Leo - wanting to be out front, scouting around, and having fun.

Tired? A bit. Happy? You bet!

The payoff was a great view.

See?

I was very happy. Not only did my boy make it, he seemed to enjoy it. And we got some terrific pictures (see the first one) at the top of the Mountain. King of World, indeed.

And Leo - he liked it.

Happy dog.