A warm windy day in St. Charles

It was warm and very windy in Saint Charles for our May meetup. The dogs didn't seem as "into it" as they normally do likely because of the heat. Even Ares and Brutus didn't do too much sparring like usual. I saw a lot of long tongues hanging out. There were about 8 Great Danes out there. Two I had never met before and they left early without any introductions. Maybe we'll see them again.

May 2011 - St. Charles, IL

A lot of first-timers out in Deerfield in April

We had a fun meetup in April at Jaycee Park in Deerfield. There were about a dozen or more Great Danes who made it out with several first timers including a few puppies. Jager and Dynasty were two of the Danes making their first appearance.

April 2011 - Deerfield, IL

Schweitzer Woods in March

We had a good turnout for the March meetup. We welcomed Ares to his first meetup and he and Brutus seemed to hit it off with a lot of running and jumping. We had at least 8 Great Danes make it out to this meet.

March 2011 - West Dundee, IL

Our first meetup in the snow!

We had the December meetup at Schweitzer Woods on Saturday December 11, 2010. Trooper, Riddick, Kuno, Stella, and Milo (a visiting guest) made it out for the cold meetup in the snow. The dogs has so much fun running in the snow and tracking on the trails. We are going to try an inside meetup for January. See you then.

The November meetup was back at Schweitzer Woods

Based on the results of the survey for the date and location we had the November meetup back at Schweitzer Woods Forest Preserve in West Dundee. Although that specific date along with the day of the week, time of day, and location was chosen by the most people on the survey, we didn't have our biggest turn out ever. There were six Great Danes there. Riddick is getting BIG! The weather held out again. It was about 45 degrees, but the rain held off so it wasn't too bad. See you next month. Will there be snow???

We Hiked Starved Rock State Park

We went to Starved Rock State Park on August 12th. It was 92 degrees Fahrenheit and quite humid. It wasn't the best place to take a dog who is used to laying around 24/7, but we did it against our better judgement and we all survived. We explored the following trails within the park: Starved Rock, Lover's Leap Overlook, Eagle Cliff Overlook, French Canyon, and Pontiac Canyon. Our favorite was French Canyon. Then we went to the campground and camped out in a tent (also not recommended on such a hot & humid day).

While hiking we saw Leopold Island, and Plum Island, and the Illinois River. We did not see any waterfalls because of the time of year we chose to go so we definitely intend to go back. I'd like to experience the park in each season. The Spring for the waterfalls, the Fall for the fall colors and cooler temperatures, and the Winter for the snow-covered trees and ice falls. Another reason to go back is because we hardly scratched the surface of hiking trails and there are other state parks in the immediate area I'd like to explore too such as Mattheissen State Park. The trip took us about 1.5 hours to the park (it is approximately 94 miles from Chicago and approximately 54 miles from Aurora/Naperville.