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| Back Packing Tune up For Miles Posted: 12 Jul 2010 10:33 AM PDT
I really wanted to nail down how much food Miles would need and make sure his new pack was working out well. We learned other valuable lessons, too. The new pack worked well. We've had problems with other packs. We bought one from REI that looked really good in the store, but didn't hold up well on the trail. Both Miles and Alice have torn the saddle bags off these packs by hanging them up in brush. Our new Pack is a Wenaha Pack and has some great design features. First, it comes in two parts. The first part is a sturdy, padded saddle that fastens snuggly to the dog high on the shoulders where it should be, by three padded straps. The saddle bags fit over the top of the saddle and adhere to it by velcro straps. This allows easy removal of the bags at rest stops and a tear away feature for times when the dog is screaming through the brush in hot pursuit of some poor critter. More about that later.  We put about 12 pounds of stuff in Miles' pack. That comes to about 1/6 of his body weight and that is a good place to stop. Miles is a big strong boy and he's in great shape from his daily hikes, but 12 pounds seemed to be enough for him. It's mainly his food and water in the pack, but our four pound tent fits nicely in one saddle bag and that leaves more room in our packs for human food. The big learning for us was that we can't let Miles run free without some form of restraint. Twice he was off the trail chasing deer and he lost his saddle bags both times. We were lucky to find them and Miles and the deer were lucky to escape unscathed. While it's unlikely that Miles would actually catch a deer, it's not fair that they have to run for their lives from some goofy dog.  We had a very close call on an early morning hike, too. Miles and I were checking the condition of a spring on the North facing slope of Hillsboro peak and as we approached the spring I could tell Miles was getting excited. Fortunately I saw the elk calf lying motionless not ten feet in front of us. They are taught by their mom's to lie motionless, as flat as possible on the ground, to avoid encounters with danger. I quickly grabbed Miles by the collar and when the calf got up it was a real rodeo for a few seconds. I hate to think what would have happened if Miles would have seen the calf first. We're going to buy a long lead for Miles and use it on the trail. He'll be off leash around camp, but on the trail he'll be under physical control for his safety and the safety of elk calves everywhere. I wish more back country dog lovers would do this, too. If your dog can be controlled by voice commands good for you, but Miles is not there yet. It's way too tempting for a young Lab when something wild takes off in front of him. And what if the critter chased is not something the dog wants to catch? Like a bear? We saw plenty of bear sign on our hike. We're going to err on the side of caution.   |
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