On a warm Friday afternoon in May, I took my Leonberger dog, Lemon Magnolia, for her first hike in the Slim Baker Area for Outdoor Living. The hiking trails lie within the two-million-acre Quabbin-to-Cardigan (Q2C) Initiative, a two-state partnership focusing on the conservation of the Monadnock Highlands of north-central Massachusetts and Western New Hampshire, northward to Mount Cardigan and the White Mountain National Forest.