The Year Of The Dog

This is part 6 of the “Why We Hike” Series

Ah, the best laid plans…

In March our cat died from a nasty cat virus and triggered a series of events. I couldn’t stand seeing Kelly sad and we had been talking about getting a dog for quite a while so this seemed like a good time as I hoped it would fill the gap that Kitty left.

One of the reasons we thought of getting a dog in the first place was because I am actually losing my hearing. I’ve inherited degenerative hearing loss from my father who was almost completely deaf by the age of 60. Through a combination of coping techniques, I hide my poor hearing relatively well but it gets worse each year. Having a hearing service dog would be of great help to me, especially as I get older. Therefore the plan is to get a puppy and train him ourselves.

I found a top ranked Australian Cattle Dog breeder in the Southern California  area and on March 18th 2008 we picked up little Zachariah from JonVers ACD. He was just over 13 weeks old when we got him.

The strongest draw to getting an ACD (Australian Cattle Dog) is their durability and intelligence. We had big plans for our little dog that included a lot of hiking miles to go with his service dog duties.  I knew that we’d have to wait a year or so to start training him but that didn’t mean he couldn’t go hiking with us. In fact, when he was only 4 months old he had already accomplished a 4 mile hike with a gain of about 1,600 feet!

On my birthday I got to pick what to do, so Kelly, Jaz and I grabbed the latest addition to our family- Zach.  Tossed him into the Jeep and drove up to the Kern River Valley; it was just a day to goof off and explore an area that I had never been to.

Zach got to see his first river.

Needless to say, in the process of getting Zach we cancelled “The Plan”. Not only were we not going to hike 1000 miles this year but we were effectively banned from the National Park’s trails unless we were willing to leave Zach behind. Service dogs in training (SDT dog) would be allowed but he had not started his training yet.

That left us with the option to go back to day hiking, except at least this time we would go into the deepest part of the Sierras we could access. So the new plan would be to use our recently purchased Adventure Trailer’s Chaser and base camp at lakes or streams near trailheads. From there we could head out each day for as long or short a hike as we wanted to. We also wanted to add kayaks to our plan once we could afford it, but for now we put were happy to put together the Jeep and trailer for their maiden excursion.

It was June before we took our first trip of the year that took us deep into the John Muir Wilderness. East of Fresno, you take an average mountain highway road for about 2 hours. Then take Kaiser Pass road which is a narrow, rough single lane paved road for another hour to Florence Lake. Finally you head down a very easy “Jeep” road to remote campsites along the South Fork San Joaquin River. We arrived late and set up our camp right next to the river.

I was a bit clumsy setting up the tent the first time but it sufficed. Holy crap that tent is huge! Coming from our little ultra light tent, the Overland was palatial.

The next morning we put Zach’s dog empty packs on him so he’d start getting used to them and headed back to Lake Florence. Man, was he excited once we started down the trail.

We took the Florence lake trail, a 3.5 mile rolling hike that traveled the slopes above the lake from one end to the other. Zach did really well considering this was his first “real” hike. He discovered that he loved splashing through the cold stream crossings. He learned that drinking from them was tasty. Most of all he found out that jumping in a deep near-freezing stream up to his “transmission” is going to cause some.., discomfort. After performing this little stunt he came up to me on the other side then looked up and whimpered.

With true compassion I told him, “Yeah, I know”.

Later down the trail we had to cross another stream that was a little deep but not as deep as Zach had kamikazed before. He pitched a major fit and would not venture into the stream. Obviously, a lesson had been learned. Never-the-less Kelly grabbed the harness handle and gave him some encouragement through momentum.

The far end of our hike was where the South Fork San Joaquin River flows into the lake. Man, was Zach wiped out. He crawled into the shade and immediately went to sleep. Kelly and I snacked on energy bars then I went to try my hand at fly fishing while she read a book.

On the way back it was clear that Zach was being powered by pure love. He really wanted to please us and was willing to suffer through this unbearable hardship of hiking back a few miles just to prove himself. That dog was SOOO happy to see the Jeep at the trailhead.

The next day Zach was resistant to moving. Taking his hint, we decided to take the Jeep and explore the surrounding area. Back in camp we plotted our next trip while Zach snoozed in the Jeep, popping his head up occasionally to see what we were up too. If he only knew! The next morning we packed up and headed home, but we already had plans to return in just 2 more weeks.

Continued here: Return To Florence Lake