I would love to say it went fantastic, but it did not. We had planned on two nights but came back after the first night primarily due to my intolerance of mosquitoes. I failed to make a proper judgment on her paws so she ended up with sore feet. The trail turned out to be a poor trail for a dog’s first trip (11 month old border collie).

I specifically inquired about a dog-friendly trail when I got my permit (Desolation Wilderness, Sierra). Unfortunately the information was not good. Glen Alpine to Suzie Lake, was really too rocky for a dog’s first trip. We left the trailhead at 11AM and it was quite hot. Lupe did fine all the way to the lake. There were plenty of opportunities to jump into the nearby streams en route. In fact jumping in Suzie Lake and swimming was one of her favorite activities.


Lupe swims!

I used the leash all the way up and this was not great- she pulled me up! Fine for me, but it really wore her out. She does not pull the leash on town walks. I think the uphill nature of the trail, needing to jump up over a lot of rocks, caused the pulling. I wanted to camp near the inlet on the opposite side of Suzie Lake so that we would be well off the trail and I could leave Lupe off-leash. We finally reached Suzie Lake.


First sight of Suzie Lake

My mistake, I tried to go around the north side and we got stuck in very rocky off-trail travel. Lupe slipped while crossing a stream and may have bumped her back leg. We had to turn around and go around the south side, which involved some bushwhacking which Lupe did not like. My watch battery died so I do not know exactly how long we hiked. It is 4 miles to the lake with about 1300 feet gain. It took about 1 mile of off-trail work to get to the other side of the lake. It was quite hot. I think it took us 4-5 hours or so which is longer than any walk Lupe has ever done.



Mom, I am so.. tired!

The campsites were scarce and we set up in a marginal site and then day-hiked to the inlet. She was reluctant to move on the return to our tent. She jumped onto a snow bridge over a small stream and got surprised when it collapsed. The mosquitoes were bad so we came back to the tent and went inside to get out of the bugs. I then first noticed a round “hole” in one paw. She had not favored that paw at all. She liked her little “bed” that I made by taping a piece of fleece to a cut-up Z-rest. We hung out in the tent napping until the sun was low and then cooked dinner on a rock overlooking the lake. Then I noticed that Lupe had sat and lay in a bunch of pine pitch! I then pulled off as much fur as I could that was covered with pitch, in addition to tons of pine needles. Given the Lupe is a very furry dog, next time I will bring a brush! She eagerly ate all her dinner plus half of mine!



Dinner at Suzie Lake

Neither of us slept very well. Lupe was comfortable but spooked at every sound in the woods at night. I got a bit chilly because I took a 50-degree synthetic bag because I did not want to use my expensive down bag with a dog in the tent. Lupe was cozy and warm.

The next morning I checked her paw it looked a lot better. I then found a second “hole” in her other back paw. She had licked the dead skin off during the night. I thought about wrapping each hind paw but she did not limp or seem to have any problem. Our original plan was to do a short hike up to Aloha Lake or Glimore Lake and spend the second night there. Given the mosquitoes I could not see any fun in spending a day in camp plus I did not want to add mileage to what was already too long a trip for her. At breakfast the mosquitoes would alternately swarm me or Lupe. I put a head net on her for a while but she did not keep it on long. I decided that we would just return to the car. We stopped often getting photographs as we rounded the lake.


Suzie Lake in the morning

After about an hour on the trail, Lupe was ready for breakfast and a swim. I let her go off-leash down the trail until we got to the Grass Lake trail junction where there were too many day-hikers with their dogs so I put her on leash again. She behaves perfectly off-leash. It is awkward on-leash because the trial is so rocky. Lupe does not like jumping down large rock steps so I had to lift her down several times. On the return I looked more closely at the trail and it is NOT a good trail for a dog’s first trip. She slept all the way home and after bathing her and cutting off more hair mats full of pitch, I noticed that all her paws were really red and the two “holes” looked worse. In hind-sight I should have taped her paws or used the booties on the return trip.

I am feeling terrible now thinking that I am a horrible doggie “mom”. For some reason I thought it would be easy to tell when she needed the wrap or booties. This was not the case. Other than being very tired, she never once yelped or limped. I am not sure if the mosquitoes bothered her. In the late evening when the wind picked up, she wanted to go outside and sit there and make a game out of snapping up the mosquitoes! So far she has not itched so I do not think they bit her much, only on the nose if at all. I definitely made mistakes. I am wishing I had planned this trip with someone else along who had backpacked with dogs before.