Thanksgiving Hike 2010

Most people like to spend holidays with family. I am not anti-family, I just need some time on the mountain to refresh and recharge my batteries. Holidays make a great time for this as the rest  of the world is usually inside with their families. Gena and I took this year as an opportunity to go play around in the snow on the coast.

Don't get all worried that we didn't get our vitamin T (turkey). We had done that the night before and even had left-overs to come home to after our hike! Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without a few of the traditional fixings after all!

We thought we would hike from Keenig Creek to Elk Creek but learned that would have been almost a 20 mile day. In the snow, we were pretty sure we wouldn't make that so we aimed instead for Jones Creek. The snow got pretty deep at about 1200 ft so we didn't make that either, but it was a great hike just the same. I am not sure how far we went, but we walked for about 4 hours. By our pace, that's pretty close to 10 miles with breaks.

Looking West

My mother-in-law was worried to no end when I told her I was getting a Pitbull. "Pitbulls eat children. They are only good for eating faces of people!" OK, that might not be a direct quote, but it's pretty close. Jane was to bring the horsemen of the apocalypse to here her tell it.

Now, years later, she likes Jane, despite not being a dog person. It may be the fact that Jane is a big softie who lets the cat beat up on her. To add insult, she can often be seen sporting a baby blue backpack. On rare occasion, specifically in the winter, she may be seen sporting a pink knit sweater. The other dogs in the neighborhood laugh at her, but she is in our pack, not theirs.

Big Bad Jane

 We were the only human tracks on the trail. We weren't the only tracks on the trail. Early in the hike we stirred a pair of deer so watched them spring up the side of the valley. On our trail were many tracks of deer, elk, and several spots of bunnie tracks like these..

Be Very, Very Quiet...

 Hiking around Tillamook anywhere near hunting season can be a bad idea. Gena thought it would be a good idea to carry a sidearm. I thought I should carry a rifle. Having never hunted for recreation, I have no idea what the laws are and didn't want some ODFW officer harassing me for something I had no intention of doing. So I kept with the pistol hoping that if some inbread idiot thought I looked like a deer or elk and shot me that he would not get a kill shot and I would be able to fire a few rounds off to let him know I am not a tasty and delicious woodland creature. Usually deer and elk don't carry Glock.

Big Bad Jane and Me

 As it turned out, there were no tracks anywhere near us. I didn't feel the need to worry after about an hour on the trail.

Cool Frozen Stuff

Nice View

Pretty New Boots

 Jane is such a good puppy. She lets us dress her funny and even put boots on her, thus limiting the effectiveness of her naturally evolved feets. After getting her new boots on she would run and run. Once or twice she couldn't stop but rather would plant her feet and slide with her front legs sprawled like a child learning to plow his skiis to slow to a stop.

At one point, one of her boots fell off. I decided to let it remain off so she could have one good connection to the earth. This seemed to put her at ease a little more which I felt was good for the training. I am not sure if I will use this tactic on volcanic rock but it is worth considering to rotate paw protection while letting your dog maintain a feeling of connection to the earth.

The boots we are currently testing are Barkin Boots Grip Trex. We picked them up at REI when the last pair wouldn't stay on Jane's feet around Three Sisters. Two things I have noticed so far. The first pair had no grip. The bottom of the shoe was a sort of synthetic leather. Grip Trex has a Vibram sole on them with lots of grip. The other thing is that the size was wrong. I had looked at the fit scale on the package before I bought the first set and thought I had the right size. On Jane they fit like a glove and seemed perfect but kept falling off. The velcro closures just didn't seem to grab high enough on the leg. This new pair seems too big around the paw but stay on way better. I believe the reason the one fell off was due to the sock we had on her that had gotten wet in the snow. This had happened to one of the other paws also so I removed the sock and the boot stayed on just fine after that.

Another thing to watch for is where the thumb or dew claw is on your dog. On Jane's front paws, there is a thumb that rides a little high. I had to make sure the velcro strap was above this joint to keep the boots on just right. Before I figured that out she was slipping all over and didn't want to put her foot down. This was due to that claw rubbing on the top of the shoe. Contact me if you have questions, I will try to keep on this.

Prancing

Beautiful Ice

All in all, it was a wonderful, beautiful, quiet day.