When It’s Your Hike

“Hike your own hike”

This is the advice any hiker will give to another during a crisis of hiker-faith.

If you’re struggling with the decision to catch up with a group, or to set up camp at the next spot you see, or to modify your trip in any way, the correct answer is to hike your own hike.

All this means is to do what is going to be safest and most enjoyable for you. Everyone gets enjoyment from different things at different times. Some people enjoy taking down miles, and won’t stop after covering 20 or more in a day. Others want to find the perfect scene at the perfect time of day. Maybe you want to just smell the different scents of soil, trees, and air.

The point is that your hike is your hike, and your goals and desires can change by the minute.

When you hike your own hike, you’re honoring your wants and needs on the trail. When you hike your own hike, you are doing for yourself what no one else can.

When It’s Not Your Hike

It’s not always your own hike, though. Sometimes you end up being part of a group, and sometimes you end up needing to help someone else.

At those points, you need to take the collective good into consideration. Wouldn’t you want someone to help you, if you needed it?

Before we continue, let’s get one thing straight: if your dog is too young, unvaccinated, or not cleared by your vet to hike, don’t take them.

Hike Your Dog’s Hike

It’s most notably not your hike when you’re hiking with your dog.

We have an obligation to protect and nurture our critters, it’s just the right thing to do. It’s part of the social contract, it’s the law, and it is even in every religious text to take care of our animals.

Part of this is being preparing them for the hike and part of it is adapting the hike to their needs. If they start slowing down three miles in, slow down, don’t push them, and give them some extra water.

Preparation

Preparing your dog is critical. While many dogs can run around like crazy for a bit, then flop down, sleep, and do it again the next day, backpacking takes a lot more out of them. The distances are greater, the ground is more tiring, and the weather will sap them.

Just like you experience fatigue from exposure to sun, heat, and cold, so do they.

Preparation is helpful, even critical.

Find a Trail

Find dog friendly trails in your area. Many people use AllTrails. I use them to source new spots and then cross reference with Google and the following sources.

• The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
• The National Parks Service (NPS)
• The US Department of Agriculture Forest Service
• Whatever state park it might be in

 The list above is critical, because often they’ll have information not on AllTrails. Water access might be limited, and the Ranger Station available from the Forest Service site can tell you more about it. Or there could be a feral cattle warning (yes, it’s a thing).

The governmental sites will be able to tell you about permits you need, most of which are free and just to monitor how many people are using any area. They also often have tips on how to stay safe on a particular trail, wildlife or plant life warnings (take tick and poison oak/sumac/ivy warnings very seriously), and interesting history or trivia.

Some trails even span multiple uses, like going from NPS to Forest Service.

Personally, I love BLM trails the most. They’re the least restrictive and you can usually set up camp anywhere that strikes your fancy. They also give you the most opportunity to practice leave no trace and pack out trash others have left.

Prepare for the Trail

Once you’ve found a trail, if you’re not already doing so, take your dog hiking with you.

Before, not the day of.

Move all your training hikes to dog friendly trails and bring your pooch. They’ll love it, it’s good for them, and you’ll both be healthier for it. Bonus: it also tires them out enough where they’ll be able to focus more on training, if you’re working with them on anything.

If your dog is a free feeder, get them on a twice-daily feeding schedule. Feeding whenever you stop is not only inconvenient, it can leave your dog without enough calories for the day.

If you want to get your dog a pack to carry some stuff in, this can’t be skipped. They need to learn how the pack feels and get used to a modest amount of weight.

They should never carry more than 33% of their weight, and I recommend keeping it at 25% or below. Start them with an empty pack and walk them, then add a little weight, like a small baggie of rocks. Keep adjusting the weight and making sure the fit of the pack sits right behind their front shoulders.

Eventually, they’ll be able to handle the pack weighed down. And you won’t have to carry that extra weight.

The most important thing here is just to prepare your dog for the trail. Two of the three: distance/time, weather, and weight is idea, but as long as you’re getting them fit like you get yourself fit, you’re good.

Be on the Trail

Once you’re on the trail, you’re hiking.

If you’re backpacking, I recommend cutting the mileage you want to do daily in half the first day. Ease into it.

So if you’re planning on 15 mile days, do seven on day one.

Why plan for fewer miles? Because then you won’t accidentally overdo it, and you won’t regret not sticking to your plan if you have to do less.

Planning to ease into it protects you, your dog, and you from having to carry out your dog to save them.

Be Present

One of the most important things is to pay attention to your dog. They’re probably going to behave differently on the trail than off. There is a uniquely different mix of stimuli than what they’re used to, and that will cause them to act differently.

You have to use your best judgement to make sure panting is from excitement and exercise, not from overexertion.

Give them water breaks every hour until you can establish a pattern of when they do need water and they’re adapted to the new rhythm of backpacking exercise.

Most importantly, if they need to stop, stop.

Don’t be afraid to pitch camp early to let them rest. And if they get strained, don’t push them too hard. Your dog knows their body, and they communicate their ability through how they act. When you’re nowhere near a vet, you need to listen more to them than you do any other time.

Finally, if they need to turn around, do so. Either turn around then, or set up camp, replenish them, and head back in the morning.

When you hike with your dog it’s no longer your hike, it’s their’s. And just as you want to protect them, they want to protect you.

Wrapping Up

Using these tips should do two things: it should protect your dog, but more importantly it shouldmake your trek better. When your four legged partner is going strong, you have that much less to worry about and their hike becomes your hike.

What’s something you did that helped your dog hike their hike?