Just got back yesterday from our seven day backpacking trip with Miles in the incredibly beautiful Gila Wilderness. We are so lucky to have this area virtually in our back yard. Even if you live back East you should consider a visit if you love the back country. Drop a few bucks with our local merchants on the way in.
There are so many memories from the trip it's hard to pick one to get started with. Miles had a wonderful time of course. There is nothing quite like the unfettered freedom of the wilderness for a dog like Miles. We were fortunate to have had some test runs with him and we used all that learning to good advantage.
We kept him on a lead most of the time and that proved to be a really good idea. Besides the frequent encounters with lizards, toads, chipmunks and squirrels, we saw a mature Black Bear on the third day. Miles saw him too and I'm sure he assumed this was just a big dog like many he's seen at the dog park. If he had been loose it could have been a disaster. A wild bear will run from a dog most of the time, but who wants to test that theory? They will turn at some point and an encounter will invariably favor the bear. I remember patching up a dog back in Montana that had tangled with a bear. Not a pretty sight.
On the food front our preparation was right on. We estimated that Miles would need seven cups of food a day as opposed to his usual allotment of five cups. He snarfed down the extra food and his body condition at the end of the trip was excellent. He did the pre wash on our dishes after breakfast and dinner too. His tongue is a great scouring pad and we took too much oatmeal. Miles made sure nothing went to waste.
We covered a little over fifty miles in six days of hiking including climbing the two tallest peaks in the wilderness. That's a lot of physical work and the daily hikes Chris takes with Miles were very good preparation. We hiked four to six hours a day with one layover day to rest up and fish for the elusive Gila Trout (not so elusive if you can fish like Dr larry). The fact that Miles was in shape made all the difference. His feet held up well because they were accustomed to rocky, uneven terrain.
His back pack worked very well for him too. He started out with a little less that 15 pounds, slightly more than the recommended 1/6 of his 80 pound body weight. I carried 40 pounds the first couple of days and that's much more than 1/6 of my body weight. He's stronger than me too. We had to do a little work every day making sure that each saddle bag carried the same amount for good balance.
Even with all that preparation, Miles developed some abrasions under his front legs from the straps and daughter Claire carried his pack out on the last day. One reason for the abrasions was the fact that we had to cross the West Fork of the Gila river about 73 times on the last two days and being wet underneath caused some chafing.
All in all it was a great experience. We saw both species of deer, wild turkeys, elk, grouse, eagles and the bear I mentioned. We caught and released the endangered, but legally fishable Gila Trout and we ate some fresh Rainbows too. We picked wild raspberries for our oatmeal on one morning and we had just enough food for all of us.
Go backpacking with your dog. Use common sense and be prepared. It's really fun.
Happy Trails.
Wow Miles it sounds like you had alot of fun! I love to hike too but since I"m a little dog I only go a few miles at a time.
Posted by: Preston | July 28, 2010 at 04:48 PM