Advice for 1000 Island hike

[Jedi5150]

Very cool article Kpeter, thanks for the link. I agree, the medical version sounds better. It does, however, seem like in a pinch you could get away with the ordinary kind if that's all you had available.

Well, I took the family on a "shakedown hike" this morning. This was my first hike in a while (been a busy year) and my first in preparation for the Sierras. Here was the result...Total time hiking was almost exactly 4 hours (it could have gone quite a bit faster but my 9 and 11 year-old daughters were with us as well). It was an out and back hike, with 80 degree heat, sea level elevation to begin (170' ASL), and total mileage was 4.92. So not a long hike mileage-wise, but we did gain 1550' in elevation in 2.46 miles and then obviously lost the same on the way back down. Highest elevation was 1720' ASL.

I need to weigh my pack but I did carry 1.5 gallons of water (mainly to add weight), small misc. items, a 3 lb sleeping bag, almost 6 lb tent (not the same gear I'll be using for my Sierra trip), etc. The pack itself is 1000 D cordura nylon and not a super light pack. As I said, I'll have to weigh the whole set-up and see how much weight I'll be adding for the trip. All in all, it went well, particularly for a first time out practice. Vixen did get a little pooped towards the end and she and I will both benefit from a summer of hiking in preparation. Of course we were also at <2,000' elevation the entire time which will make a huge difference. At least now we have an idea what we need to work towards.

Vixen (laying in the foreground), Ari (standing) and me:

[hikerduane]

Get that doggy out and in shape. I took a 10 week old Dobie on a week long trip with her dad, she did great, kept heading for shade at ever op though and got numerous yellow jacket stings one day going under a log, ahead of me. Poor girl. Great that Vixen is trained. My late Yellow Lab X, Pooch was partially trained for SAR, fun working with dogs then when they alert for the first time is a very neat feeling.

[rlown]

Nice report. Your dog needs to understand the pack and the weight, and i'm afraid the altitude will affect performance. If you see her faltering, you need to stop. Sea level with a 2k approach is way different then at 10,000'.

They always want to please. Sometimes, too much.

I liked the pad treatment approach. just remember that if it doesn't work, who carries her out. check her pads often. booties might save you.

Russ

[Jedi5150]

Well, on my way back from a family reunion in Utah last week we decided to spend a couple nights in Mammoth Lakes. We just left there yesterday morning as a matter of fact. The road to Devil's Postpile is still closed for both snow and repairs so I didn't take any of my backpacking gear. They are still skiing on the slopes at Mammoth, although brown patches are showing through in some places.

My daughters, along with Vixen and Ari got plenty of time to play in the snow, which they all loved. The dogs couldn't get enough of it. Anyways, as we were driving back from a day in Bodie we passed a cool looking road at the Conway Summit, called "Virginia Lakes Road". We followed it up to the end, where it stopped by the Virginia Lakes and Trumbull Lake. I figured, "what the heck", and took Vixen on a short 2.5 mile hike to see how she did at altitude. Granted, neither of us were carrying any gear aside from a few small supplies and emergency gear on my part. The hike went well, Vixen was off-lead almost the entire time and put in about 4 times the mileage I did. She had a blast and showed no signs of getting tired. I think part of what wore her out on our hike in Carmel was the hot weather. She absolutely hates warm weather.

On this hike the weather was sunny, 45-50 degrees, and absolutely perfect for hiking. We were at 9,800-10,000' in elevation and there were still a lot of snowy patches to cross. We went up past Blue Lake and eventually turned around and came back since I'd left my wife, kids, and Ari in the truck and didn't want them to worry. Vixen and I could have kept going for days. Hehe.

I'll post some pictures but before I do I have a quick question...If we do a late season hike like end of September or even beginning of October, will all these little creeks and streams we saw be dried up? That would be sad because they were beautiful.

Oh yeah, and there were ZERO bugs.

Vixen at a little stream above Blue Lake:


At a pond below Blue Lake:





Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the camera lense had a smudge on it until I downloaded the pictures at home. I forgot to add, at one point she took off after some small critter but came back very well when I yelled at her. I guess her recall has been improving without me realizing it. Haha.