With its gray, nondescript sky that drizzles down rain, today is one for small beauties. Evidence of such is not hard to find on this mountain meadow. On both sides of the trail muskeg meadowland spreads toward the mountains. Reddening moss and blueberry plants form patterns with yellowing deer cabbage plant on the muskeg—a Persian carpet that would be stunning on a sunny day. But today it looks like a carpet ruined by flood.

Aki follows me off the trail and through thickets of blueberry brush weighed down with accumulated rain. She stops for a minute and gives me a hard look before moving in behind me. Little dog, sometimes you just have to explore new ground when the sky is gray and the land is already going to rest for the year. She knows that her fur will soon be as soaked as my pant legs but still joins this pointless expedition through the wet.