My eldest dog Rocky passed away earlier this week back in Winnipeg. I hadn’t seen him in over four years. Rocky had lived a good long life and it was time for him to go so Leanne did what she needed to do for him. While it’s never easy to lose everything as I did in Winnipeg several years ago, nothing was more difficult than having to place my dogs with good friends because I could no longer keep them. All my boys ended up in wonderful families and Rocky was eventually returned with his mom Leanne because that was the very best place for him to be. He lived out his life with a loving family who cared for him better than I ever could and I thank Leanne for that. Rocky had a great big pack that loved him and helped care for him during his amazing life. To everyone that cared for him along the way, Carmen, Cat, Joanne, Darci, Val and many more, I’ll forever be grateful to all of you for having loved him as your own. Life was good to Rocky… And Rocky was good to us.
I had named him after the Beatles song Rocky Raccoon but he also answered to Rockdog, Rockhead, Rockstar and a few other names that Gavin used to call him that I can’t repeat here today… Rocky was the original and best trail dog ever. He trained Reeko who then trained Davis… wait, who are we kidding, Reeko never trained anyone on anything except perhaps on how to escape… but I digress, here was I? Oh yes, after training Reeko, Rocky then trained Davis in the fine art of being a good trail dog and then he trained Boomer who then trained Sherman… And with the lessons I learned from these guys I trained Schaefer and Jack-Sulu. If the force was applicable to dogs, Rocky would have most certainly been a Jedi.Rocky was a legend in the trail-dog business. He was instinctive, he was focused and best of all he was a great riding buddy.
There’s one particular Rocky trail-dog story that I’d like to share with you, and no, it’s not about the time we almost lost him at Rainbow falls, it’s one that everyone who rides Ingolf MTB Trail Network should appreciate… It’s the one about that time a long time ago when we returned to our favourite trail network in the early spring only to find that a large section of the Ingolf trail network had been clear-cut beyond recognition during that previous winter. When we crested that hill, I still remember how we just stopped at the gut-wrenching sight of complete devastation. we were flabbergasted and stunned… We didn’t even know where the original trail network was anymore, the entire area had been decimated… Until Rocky found it. So we followed him for the rest of that day, marking the way and starting the reconstruction of that epic trail section… Rocky’s soul belonged on that bike trail, leading me through every ride I led.
I’ve been missing him for quite some time now, always hoping I’d get to see him again… Until I recently heard of his passing. So now I guess I’ll see him in my dreams instead. He’ll be happy to know that the same day he passed I initiated Jack-Sulu to his first real trail ride … And while we may have lost the world’s best trail dog this week, I find solace in the fact that we added one more trail dog to his lineage. He’d be proud.
Long live long rides, long live trail dogs.
Rest in peace Rocky, thank you for leading the way.
JF® 