This is part 24 of the “Why We Hike” Series
Saturday, May 23rd / 14.5 miles / Elevation gain: 4,842’
East Fork Mission Creek to Mission Creek Camp
We started out on the trail at 5am with Ryan (The Gipper) being the only one beginning to stir in camp. It was going to be a day where we were to climb up 5,000 feet in elevation gain and out of the desert so we had a lot to look forward to.
The morning was relatively cool, especially compared to the day before. There had been a big fire in this area in 2006 so most of the trees were gone but the trail followed Mission Creek up in the shade of its canyon so we stayed cool for a really long time.
We were only a few miles out when The Gipper caught up saying he’d like to hike along with us. We told him that although our moving pace was decent that we made frequent stops for Zach. Apparently he was nursing a few injuries and despite his ultra light gear was looking to slow his pace down.
It’s about that time when Kelly got a rattlesnake surprise from a medium size fellow hanging out next to the trail. I “coaxed” him into leaving the trail so hikers behind us won’t stumble on him.
It was about 9 miles when we got to Creekside Camp that it finally started to get warm enough to switch Zach over to the cooling vest. I really didn’t think it was that hot yet but Zach seemed to be slower this morning and I attributed it to possible heat stress during the previous day. The water here wasn’t much more than a trickle so it took a while to filter it and during that time the others from last night’s camp caught up with us.
With The Gipper in tow, we headed out of Creekside Camp and away from the creek with only 2,000 more feet in elevation gain to go before we get to the top of this climb. We finally leave the shade of the canyon and it immediately gets hot, but the promise of shade is in sight. The burn area looks like it ends not too far ahead and keeps us moving with a mission.
Zach has been needing more and more coaxing to keep moving at a good pace. I still believe that it’s because of yesterday’s heat and urge him on, knowing that cool mountain shade is getting very close. It wasn’t until we made it to the stream at Forested Flats that we started to wonder how bad off Zach might be. Now it was looking more and more that it wasn’t a fatigue issue but rather a paw problem. Kelly did a thorough inspection of his feet but couldn’t find a problem so we tried no boots then boots again. We found that boots were better and decided to hike the short distance to Mission Creek Camp where we would take a long break and use Super Glue on his pads. We weren’t sure if that would fix it but if necessary we would stop and camp there if Zach needed the extra recovery time.
At Mission Campground we put some glue on the little guy’s pads and then I went to filter 14 liters of water for the next extended dry section. It was during this time that Kelly makes a grim discovery. The center pad on Zach’s left rear paw was ripping loose, much in the same way a large blister would tear loose from a person – only this is paw pad. Since the tear was around the edges, we hadn’t seen it earlier. This changes everything; to go forward now would be too painful poor Zach. Luckily it was Memorial Day weekend and the campground had a few car campers out for the weekend. Kelly talks a couple into giving us a ride back to the Jeep on the following morning. So we toss up the tent, spoil poor Zach and just relax the rest of the day. Sleeping late the next day was a treat for all of us.
We had a lot of time sitting there to evaluate what happened and it all points back to his new boots. Apparently the boots were bothering him from the very beginning but since he wasn’t limping I completely missed that and assumed the heat was giving him grief. The tough little dog just kept going and I had no idea that he would have been so much better without the damn things. Anyhow, we have made the decision to design and fabricate boots of our own for future hikes. For now we will take a few weeks off and let Zach heal completely up.
The series continues here: Doble Trail Camp