Editor:

To wish all the residents well as Idyllwild recovers from the Cranston Fire, we’d like to share the story of our experience with Ambassador Sully.

Idyllwild is justly famous for being a dog-friendly town, but we also found it to be a friendly dog resort. Our party of four met Chris and her dog, Sully, in the Silver Pines Lodge office. We asked Chris how to get down to Strawberry Creek. She said to follow the road down to the dirt path and continue downhill.

We started on our way and to our surprise, Sully quickly took point. He maintained about a 10-yard lead through much of our walk to and along Strawberry Creek but looked back frequently to make sure we were on the trail.

A short way upstream, Sully stepped down the 10 feet to the creek and plopped down in a cool pool of water. He looked up at us with a slight grin as if to say, “Come on down, the water is fine.” We grudgingly declined and after a few minutes, we moved to continue down the path. Sully climbed out of his pool, shook off and took point again to lead us further down the shaded trail.

After about 20 minutes, we had to turn back. Sully was just then heading up a rise in the trail and Randy literally said, “Thanks, Sully, but we have to head back.” He turned to return with us, but he did not retake the lead. Instead, Sully walked behind us as rear guard and kept watch as if to make sure none of us got left behind until we arrived at the office.

We were so pleased with our guide that we asked Chris for a treat that we could give to Sully. She let Judy pull a scrumptious treat out of a bag. Sully’s eyes brightened and he chomped on the strip of doggie bacon. We thanked our new friends and said goodbye.

It’s no wonder some of the local residents of Idyllwild that we met call Sully the ambassador. Our tour guide was just one of many gracious hosts we met during our stay in the best mountain resort town in SoCal for dogs and their people.

Randy Gust, Judy Li, 

and our Shelties, Conor and Posy

Covina