Dogs, shotguns and the great outdoors… sounds like a good time, right? Well that’s how we spent our Labor Day Weekend at a “hunting camp” in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania! The “camp” is actually a private fishing and hunting club that my step-father’s grandfather helped to found back in 1913. One hundred years later it is still a rural paradise complete with a large house that sleeps 20+, a beautiful lake and – the best part – hundreds of acres of quiet, uninhabited woods. The camp is surrounded by other similar hunting clubs and a huge state forest, making it one of the only places in the world where we feel comfortable letting Bailey run off leash. Bailey absolutely loves it there, as demonstrated in this photo of her wallowing in a mud puddle after a long run in the woods!
Happy as a pig in mud!
Bailey’s not completely off the grid when she’s at the hunting camp, however. We learned a few years ago that it’s nice to know roughly where in the wilderness she has wandered to, so we now strap a GPS collar around her little neck to keep track of where she is and how many miles she’s gone. On our first day there we arrived at lunchtime and Bailey ran 10 miles before dinner. The second day she covered 17 miles and on day three she was a little tired so she only did 14 miles… She’s nuts!
Bailey showing off her GPS collar and its really long antenna. We had to tie her up occasionally for mandatory resting time… otherwise she never would have stopped running!
Bailey had lots of canine friends to play with at the hunting camp this year. My family brought along a whole pack of pooches including Hershey the chocolate lab, Ganon the 9 month old puppy, and Clyde, the adorable newfie-lab mix. All of the dogs had a blast running through the woods, swimming in the lake and cooling off in mud puddles mid-hike.
When we weren’t hiking with the dogs we enjoyed playing in and around the camp’s beautiful lake, riding ATVs through the woods and shooting clay pigeons with shotguns. We also made sure to spend plenty of time relaxing in the rocking chairs on the hunting camp’s big wraparound porch!
After a fun-filled Labor Day weekend at the hunting camp we headed home with a VERY tired Bailey. I can’t wait to go back next summer!
Bailey catching some Zzzs after a weekend at the hunting camp.
The Little GSP 
What kind of GPS collar do you have? I want one now! Do you love yours?
We have a Garmin Astro DC40 GPS collar. It actually belongs to my brother – we just borrow it for the hunting camp when Bailey will be loose. I love knowing where she is (she’s a bit of an independent long-ranging pup!) and the GPS collar definitely makes that possible.
Our collar and GPS receiver work well but they are a few years old. I think Garmin has since released newer models that might have lighter weight collars and better maps for the GPS receiver. Ours doesn’t have any maps loaded onto it (at least not for the region that the hunting camp is in) but it’s still pretty easy to figure out where Bailey is because her position is always shown relative to our position.
Hey, I had trouble finding an email address. Can you email me so I can ask you a question?
–Shaye
shayewalsh1@gmail.com
Hi Shaye – I’m sending you an email right now. Talk to you soon!
~Annie
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