[pct-l] hiking with a little dog

[Rena Johnston]

Hi, and please don't think I am trying to be a spoiler. This message is for
the lady planning on hiking the PCT with her small dog this year. I really
want to see her succeed with her dream! That said, I am so worried about her
and her dog on this hike. I have a son who hiked the PCT in 2006. I live in
the foothills of the Sierras, I have had a dog (had to put him down last
May) about the size of her sweet little guy (we have hiked the easier trails
in the Sierra National Forrest area together) and so I know the challenge
that we met only on day hikes. There are big problems for little dogs on the
trail...big animals (bears, mt. lions, coyotes, and snakes etc.), large
rocks to transverse, fallen trees, really  truly deadly rivers to forge
(they are from snow melt, and so if you read some of the journals they are
very, very cold) not to mention that they are raging and scary. The fact
that she does not hike with poles also worries me. They saved my son many
times from loosing his balance or kept him from falling off the side of a
very narrow trail, and kept his balance in the ice cold rivers. Remember you
have a very large pack on your back that can throw you off balance, so with
your little guy in his carrier you will have even more problems keeping your
balance. The snow pack should be pretty significant this year like it was in
2006, how will you protect him when you are up to your waist in snow. The
sun in the desert is another problem for him, humans can use sunscreen, but
what will you protect him with? Water is a problem for humans, and is at a
minimum, how will you keep him hydrated? How will you store his food from
the bears, or for that matter him? He seems like a real trooper, and I know
how much you must love him and would miss him while on your journey, but
please consider what you will be exposing him to. Plus dogs are not allowed
in the National Parks, how will you get around that, and if you run into a
Ranger on the Yosemite part of the PCT , he will make you get off (have had
this happen), and I imagine they will in the other NP's too. I realize that
you have way more hiking experience than me, and I could be crazy for
bringing this up, but for someone who lives in an area that has some of the
hardest climbing of the PCT and we have had a record snow fall this year,
which will make the rivers really fierce and the snow hard to climb, I am
worried and just needed to say something. Please know that if you have
figured all this out, I apologize! And if anyone else feels I am being too
negative, again it is with true concern that I am writing this, not with any
wish to be a spoiler of anyone's dream!!! Just a concerned observer.  A
proud mom of a thru-hiker.
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