Expeditionary Service Dog River Roux and Melanie Boling on expedition in Olympic National Park, Washington.

Expeditionary Service Dog River Roux on expedition while handler Melanie Boling scouts the Northern Pacific Coast for the elusive Coastal Sea Wolf in the Northwest corner of Washington State.

Boling’s research is part of her Graduate Studies at Harvard University where she examines “extreme environments” and how they can have a potential negative impact on humans operating in the extreme environment. Implementing “expeditionary service dogs” are a way of mitigating negative variables such as abnormal behavior and abnormal psychology that can play a role into conservation team degradation.

Melanie Boling and Expeditionary Service Dog River Roux spent nearly a year in the field while training out in the South Cascades Mountain Range of the Pacific Northwest. This particular scouting trip to the North Pacific Coast of Washington was the first that Expeditionary Service Dog River Roux and Boling had accomplished together “on expediton “ over the course of a week in August of 2020.

Just Look Up | Hawaii Adventure Travel Photographer

“Woods are not like other spaces. To begin with, they are cubic. Their trees surround you, loom over you, press in from all sides. Woods choke off views & leave you muddled & without bearings. They make you feel small & confused & vulnerable, like a small child lost in a crowd of strange legs. Stand in a desert or prairie & you know you are in a big space. Stand in the woods and you only sense it. They are vast, featureless nowhere. And they are alive.” 

― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

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Hiking the Aiea Loop, a five mile trail that moves through lush green valleys, dense forests, and spectacular views. But beware, there's mud, lots and lots of mud.