[pct-l] Will I miss scenery while hiking with my dog?

[Eric Lee]

Night Moves wrote:
>
I am in the planning stages of a PCT thru-hike, just wondering if anyone has
hiked with their dog, and if while going off trail to deal with dog
restrictions any good scenery is missed out on?  I don't want to leave my
dog behind, so I'm trying to map out nice route.
>

This tends to be an argumentative topic that results in almost no one
changing their minds, which is why you got no public replies with useful
information.  Maybe you got some private ones.

The short, hopefully objective version of the advice given in the past is
that doing a thru-hike with a dog is a lot more complicated for you and
especially a *lot* harder on your dog than you probably think it is right
now.  A few people have attempted it in the past and even fewer have
succeeded.  I know of a couple of hiker/dog pairs that did complete the
trail, though, so it's not impossible - just very unlikely.

The major reasons why it's very difficult:
* Dogs don't handle extreme heat well at all (they don't sweat for cooling
purposes).  A lot of the PCT can be very hot, and it's even hotter close to
the ground where a dog's body is.  A dog can easily die in those kinds of
conditions.
* A lot of the trail is composed of abrasive rock and sand which will
quickly wear out a dog's pads.
* It's more difficult to hitch rides out to resupply points with a dog.
* Large sections of the PCT are closed to dogs, most notably (but not
exclusively) in the Sierra section. You'd have to have some plan for
shuttling and boarding your dog while you do those sections, or just skip
them yourself.
* Dogs are usually very loyal and will follow you until it drops from
exhaustion, but it can't talk and can't tell you, "I'm not having fun, let's
go home."  Is it fair to put your dog in that position?  Walking 20+ miles a
day every day for five months is a lot different than a quick weekend jaunt.
No, seriously, it's not the same thing *at all*.  A lot of dogs enjoy hiking
for a few days at a time.  Not many enjoy the same thing for month after
month.  Domestic dogs aren't built for that.
* Thru-hiking is hard enough when it's just yourself you have to worry
about.  Less than half of the people who start manage to finish in one
season. Adding a dog to the mix drastically lowers those already low odds.

Look at it this way - you need to decide what is your number one goal here.
If you're passionate about doing a complete one-season thru-hike then you
really should leave your dog at home.  You don't need the added complication
and responsibility and it's probably not fair to your dog to grind it like
that.  On the other hand if your number one goal is to spend a lot of
quality time in the mountains with your dog, then by all means do that -
just put aside the idea of a thru-hike.  There are lots of ways to arrange a
long-distance hiking trip so that both you and your dog have a good time.  A
thru-hike is probably not one of those ways.

Eric