An adult male riding a mountain bike with his Jack Russell Terrier in a lush forest setting during spring or summer under natural daylight.

9:13

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At 13, Raven watches the young trail dogs run

Name: At 13, Raven watches the young trail dogs run
Uploaded: 2021-04-26T07:00:05Z
Duration: 9 min 13 s
Description: Raven is thirteen, a retired trail dog. She doesn't run as far or as fast as she used to, so these days she mostly watches the young dogs do it.

Raven is thirteen, a retired trail dog. She doesn't run as far or as fast as she used to, so these days she mostly watches the young dogs do it. more

Her trails wind through deep green forest, past running rivers, wide open and full of twists. In a short film from Shimano, Raven tells it herself. She still finds freedom in the forest, with her pack around her and a thousand different smells to follow.

A man in a helmet holds a dog in a forest; both look upward with their mouths open. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — A rider holds his dog in the forest, and both look up.

The young dogs have endless energy. They are impatient and always excited, the way every dog is in the years when they're fast as lightning and beat their humans down every trail. Raven misses those rides. The forest blurred by, with no time to stop and smell the bees. You just ran until you couldn't pant any harder.

A white dog with brown patches runs along a dirt path beside green trees and bushes. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — A white dog with brown patches races down a dirt path between the trees.

Now the young ones run flat out to keep up with the bikes, and a few manage to stay out in front. Some of them live way out in the country, close to all that open space. Raven calls those dogs the real lucky ones.

Those trails never made themselves, so sometimes the dogs chip in and help. A day in the hills with their best friends is hard to beat, and the next best thing is testing out the fresh trail.

A person rides a mountain bike along a dirt trail through grassy ground. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Next comes the fun part, a ride down the new trail through the grass.

Running is one thing. Flying is another. Dog after dog takes off over the rollers, the low humps in the dirt, and for a moment each one hangs in the air. Some just have a knack for it, Raven says, even the ones you'd never expect.

Not every dog is happy in a fenced-in park. Some just need to be free. And there's no such thing as a fair-weather trail dog. Rain, mud and puddles only make it more fun, and nothing beats that wet dog smell.

Raven never did reach the end of the trail. There was always more. As the years went by and she slowed down, she saw that the trail was only one part of it. Having her friends along for the ride made it all the better, and not a day was wasted.

To be a trail dog, she says, means you were lucky enough to find a human who loves the wild places as much as you do. Someone to share adventures with, and grow old with. If anyone wonders why dogs are so loyal, Raven has the answer. "We have the best friends on earth."

An adult male riding a mountain bike with his Jack Russell Terrier in a lush forest setting during spring or summer under natural daylight. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Raven is thirteen, a retired trail dog.

The last word goes to a dog with a one-track mind, whose thoughts run "trail dog, trail dog, trail dog" until, with no warning at all, they become "squirrels, squirrels, squirrels."