First, let me says thanks to the forum for your general tolerance of my errant behavior- more on that later. Let me reply to the few points, and questions that have come up:
Question: is the line the same path of the up-route you took 25 years ago? Hobbes.
Sorry to say I don't recall the exact line we took way back when. I do recall that one of my crampons loosened up at a critical juncture, and how very uncomfortable I felt with only one good foot on the slope until I had hacked out a sort of platform. So that means I was probably on the steeper slope, nearer to the summer path. The reason I drew in that line is because I could see that others had used it, and it was definitely a lesser angled slope under this year's conditions.
Kudos to you Hobbes for your good advice and assistance to the PCT'ers. While I too appreciate good steps where I find them, what I really appreciate is pair of light aluminum crampons, and an ice axe. I'll go weigh that stuff now .... okay, the light crampons weigh ~2lbs., (my heavy steel ones weigh 3lbs+.), and the light axe weighs 2lbs. My super light Stubai helmet (good for one small rock hit only) seems to float, but the 3 light items together weighed 5lbs.
I know those folks like to go light, but I'll take safety gear over lightness every time. 6 trips over Shepherd, eh Hobbes? I wonder where all you explored on those trips- ever get up Wallace Creek to see those beautiful lakes?
Does your dog overheat with his dark fur? Do dogs get sunburn? Those days on snow can really bake a person. Daisy
"Bear's" coat is one outer layer only Daisy, so I worry more about keeping him warm at night. No sunburn for hairy dogs, I hope, but we are right now considering shaving half the fur off "Wolfie"- our Mountain Pomeranian, to keep him cooler on our upcoming trip to the wide open- no shade anywhere- Humphrey's Basin. My real concerns for Bear are dehydration, and burnt eyes. For all I've been told not worry about his eyes, I get a visceral reaction when I see him squinting in the light. I will look further into that, and please- any advice from this forum will be appreciated.
My other concern is about over-work, and dehydration (for both of us!) You're dead right about the heat. As you know, there is often no open water available for days up there, and eating snow provides precious little water- less than 5% water to snow in the high and dry places. I constantly offer Bear boiled water, but he rarely drinks it!? Mixing warm milk in with his food has proven to be the best way to get fluid down him, and I will continue to do it, even though Russ thinks I am ridiculous! And now that he knows I warm up milk and Bailey's Irish Cream for "Bear," I am really in for it!
Okay, now for my defense, beyond Bear's "
nolo contendre" :
I can honestly say that this was the first and only time I have ever taken one of our dogs into a National Park. I wasn't sure I would go through with it, right until I was up there on Kearsarge Pass- the very boundary between right and wrong. My legal option was to ski back down the lovely slope, and spend four more days exploring Onion Valley, or I could go back to my car and drive up to Bishop Creek, and explore that even wider area of legal National Forest land. That appealed to me, and to my clouded conscience, but you may recall that I had spontaneously arranged to have couple of guys drive my car around nearly 15 desert miles to Symmes Creek, immediately below my exit route. Perhaps that tipped the balance- I don't know; I believe I was pulled literally over the edge, and into my life of crime by the stirring landscape of the King's-Kern Divide- land of my dreams. Every trip to Kearsarge Pass is like a pilgrimage to sacred ground for me- being the place where I first viewed the High Sierra, which became such an important part of my life.
So off I went. I would move with Bear over very well-traveled ground, for just 18 miles. I might not have taken Bear into a more remote area, nor would I have been so bold had it been summer, and full of people, some of whom surely abhor seeing dogs in the wilderness. I have thought long and hard about all the contending issues, and my painful decision is probably not to do it again. Thankfully, there are endless possibilities in the dog-friendly Eastern Sierra, right up to the summit of the passes, and there is that legal zone from Glacier Divide to the Yosemite boundary. We'll live there, and in the wild country west of Mt Shasta, the Trinity Alps, the Ruby's?, and many parts of the Rockies- our very favorite being the dog-friendly Wind River Range- the most beautiful range of all, save for that stunning little pocket of peaks- The Tetons.
But for now- for 18 miles, I was guilty. The issues re. people were negligible- I met almost no one. Bear does not chase, (I roped him up for the many deer in Symmes Creek) nor does he bark. I dutifully buried every **** I saw him do, and he did not roam far and wide, so the habitat disturbance factor was minimized.
That brings me to my last point, the real reason I feel guilty is not to do with the human impacts, but one that has not been mentioned per se so far in the posts- that is, the impact of a dog on wildlife. The myriad signs a dog leaves, and the immediate presence of the dog in the area can cause habitat displacement to local wildlife, and that is something I can't condone. I told myself that winter and early spring are the time of least disturbance, but it could still be significant. Interesting questions to pursue farther are whether or not a single dog's presence presents more disturbance than seven raucus humans? And how far can we take the wishful concept that a domestic dog is similar enough to the gray wolves who formerly roamed the Sierra, not to cause such an unnatural disturbance? To me the main stumbling block there, is that domestic dogs are much more likely than the former wolves to carry diseases, worms, and other parasites that can harm the native wildlife.
Again, I thank most all of you for your tolerance, for not casting too many stones at me. I hope you see that I am not the renegade I might have seemed.
I am always happy to carry on a respectful discussion, with the caveat that I will respond badly to any rudeness. All the best, Harlen.
No dog!
Properly trained, a man can be dog’s best friend.
