This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Pyramid Mountain Dog Hike Brings Out Area Canines

A dozen dogs and owners from the area hiked on Pyramid Mountain.

Over a dozen furry Fidos and their families scampered, climbed and trekked Pyramid Mountain Natural Historic Area at the park's first dog day hike Sunday morning, August 8.

Rottweilers, labs, daschunds, pure-breds and mutts met and hiked for nearly two hours on the moderate-level Bear Rock trail in the Pyramid Mountain as part of the park's first community hike for dog-owners and their four-legged companions.

"It was awesome, it was a really great time," said Steve Sobczak, one of Pyramid Mountain's naturalist who led Sunday's excursion "People were asking me when the next one was."

Find out what's happening in Montvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Dog Day Hike was the first organized communal dog hike for the park. Attendees registered in advance, and the dogs had to be friendly with others and kept leashed during the walk. Dogs of all shapes, sizes and breeds gathered outside the Visitor's Center at 10 a.m. to get acquainted before the walk.

"It was awesome, it was a really great time," said Steve Sobczak, the Pyramid Mountain naturalist who led Sunday's excursion "People were asking me when the next one was."

Find out what's happening in Montvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Families from Montville, Kinnelon, Boonton and other nearby towns came to hike including Frank Alai, the President of the Morris County Dog Owner's group and his two daschunds Leo and Oliver. Alai wanted to take the hike and see if his organization would be interested in holding similar events.

"We have tried to get something like this going with our group," Alai said. "So I came down to see how this is done."

Though dogs are allowed on the trails and can be seen regularly with hikers, some of Sunday's hikers were unfamiliar with what Pyramid Mountain had to offer.

"The idea was to get folks out with their dogs and give them a reason to come to Pyramid Mountain," Sobczak said. "A lot of people didn't even know about Pyramid Mountain or didn't know they could bring their dogs, so we gave them a new place to walk their dogs."

The hike, which lasted two hours, was of moderate difficulty Sobczak said, so as not to tire out the animals or their owners. According to him, there were a dozen dogs present for the hike, well within the park's target cutoff of 20.

Also in attendance were several volunteers from the Newark Associated Humane Society and their rescue dogs. The volunteers gave out a few fliers for the humane society, which is the largest animal shelter in New Jersey.

Sobczak was pleased with the turnout and enthusiasm from the hike. "I would put it back on the calendar in a heartbeat," he said. "There aren't really a lot of other places that offer this kind of thing, and it was a good way to get some people out on our trails."

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?