From: jjk@astro.umd.edu (Jim Klavetter)
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry
Subject: Re: No dogs in Natl Parks
Date: 30 Aug 92 19:56:45 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: U. of Maryland @ College Park, Astronomy

In article <28AUG199205464835@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov> redd@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov (Dale Redd -- MP-6 Operations) writes:
>
>Finally, a question:  Does your pet enhance your backcountry experience, or
>have you just convinced yourself that it does?
>
Does your pet enhance your backcountry experience, or
have you just convinced yourself that it does?

This is a very good question.  As another poster pointed out there are
basically 3 options for your pet while you vacation in the
backcountry:  1) kennel, 2) dogsitter, 3) take him/her with you.
Considering some of the people I meet on the trails and how they treat
their dog(s), I sometimes wonder if #3 isn't simply the default
because they are lazy or cheap!  

In any case, the question is does a pet enhance the backcountry
experience.  Let me state that this is NOT another pro or anti dog
post, but just my personal experience.  While some would disagree on
both sides, most reasonable people would agree that the
appropriateness of a dog in the backcountry depends (on the
person/dog, place, time, etc).  This posting is NOT about dogs in the
backcountry, it is a personal note about how Athabasca and Reudi have
enhanced my experience in the backcountry.

Athabasca was rescued from a shelter when she was 5 months old.  At 6
months, a friend and I went with Athabasca to Colorado for a month.
It was my first real experience with a dog in the backcountry.  The
first thing that was apparent was how much quicker she learned than
humans!  I remember getting out at Independence Pass and she could
barely make it over her big feet along the wheelchair-accessible path.
It was only a couple of weeks later that we were at a stream crossing
with a log across; while we were discussing how to get everyone across
safely Athabasca just trotted across with her packs and all!  

This is perhaps the greatest general thing I've learned from Athabasca
(and less so from Reudi): if you set aside your fear, you can do much
better (of course, in the case of Athabasca and Reudi they either are
too ignorant to have fear or simply don't have the same fears as
humans).  In one sense, of course, this is trivial, but it was lessons
similar to the one above which helped me to sometimes take a deep
breath and realize that the position I was in wasn't so bad and
allowed me to either go on safely or back off.

On that same trip, I remember camping by a family of 5 (which was
squeezed into a 2-person timberline tent!), the two parents and kids
aged 3, 5, and 7.  We stopped early that day, as did the family (they
could only go a mile or so they said) and talked.  As usual, the puppy
Athabasca had her ball in her mouth and wanted to play.  As I was
talking with the parents, I casually threw the ball for Athabasca to
get.  The kids went wild!  They thought that was the coolest things
since kool-aid.  Needless to say, the three kids alternately threw the
ball for about 2 hours!  In a sense, my backcountry experience was
enhanced some, but for the kids in the other family, it certainly was.

Everyone knows how much better a dog's sense of smell is.  Certainly
they can smell things which are beyond human's smelling ability.  Or
is that always true?  When hiking by a marmot's home, the smell is as
obvious to me as it is to Athabasca or Reudi.  But when I see either
of them (seemingly) pulled aside by their noses (like a human doing a
double-take, sometimes), I wonder how it can be so obvious.  Well
every so often, I will get down on my hands and knees and try and find
the smell.  The surprising thing is that often times I will be able to
smell the scent!  Although I know (by experimentation as well as
"common knowledge") that their noses are better than mine, the human
nose isn't too bad if you get closer to the source.  I doubt I could
track something the way they can, but I can sometimes identify what
they smelled.  

Along those lines, there was a time John and I had camped about 5
miles in by a nice lake up a valley.  The next day, we walked further
up the valley to the divide, explored a bit, and then John fished.  He
loves fishing.  I sometimes think he would rather fish than have sex.
Although I never quite understood this fishing thing when you could
pack in perfectly good minute rice, he fished and fished and fished
some more.  It started to get dark.  He fished some more.  Finally, I
got him to leave this lake right along the divide just as twilight was
ending and we had a 3 mile hike back to the tent.  Now of course there
wasn't a trail up to this lake, but we made it down the talus before
it got really dark.  Now this was before I always brought my headlamp
(I now actually do take the ten essentials with me).  Well instead of
my stupidity leading to a twisted ankle or an unpleasant night, I just
let Athabasca lead us home and I followed her and John followed me
(sometimes Athabasca got ahead of me, but I called her back and then
went on again).  Of course, she just followed her/our scent back home.
We were back without incident.

I remember the first time I slept out with Athabasca with no tent.  I
guess I had assumed before that point that beyond the occasional
satellite or meteor, there wasn't much going on around me.  Athabasca
taught me how wrong I was.  She didn't get ANY sleep that night (she
still doesn't get much).  She was up all night, very alert to any
sound (or smell or motion).  I awoke frequently to see what was so
exciting and to my surprise is that it often was very interesting.
There are all sorts of sounds.  It was on this night that I started
teaching her not to investigate things, too, without permission (I
remembered the porcupine I had seen the year before).  Years later, I
hiked with her in the Sonoran Dessert near Kitt Peak, AZ.  The amounts
of things going on is even greater in the desert than the
forest/tundra!  I would never have guessed, but luckily Athabasca kept
me informed of various things around me.

Which brings me next to wildlife.  Although the general thoughts of
bears and dogs is that dogs will bring the bears back to you after
exploring, MY experience is different (remember, this isn't intended
to restart the bears/dogs thread).  The most important thing about
dogs in bear country is that she has saved my food from being eaten.
Remember, she is alert at night, especially out of the tent.  A couple
of years ago, I was in the tent and mostly asleep when Athabasca
growled her low, silent growl.  OK, I thought, I better go check the
pack of food we hung.  Not well, as it turned out, as there was a bear
snacking on it.  Well, we lost the cheesecake and gorp (why do they
always go for the sweets first?  Or is that a stupid question?), but
we were able to save the rest of the food.  The only thing that kept
the bear away during the rest of the night was that Athabasca and I
slept outside and she was alert and kept the bear away, although it
came back 3 times during the night.  (Obviously, it wanted more
dessert.  Just as obviously, it was a black bear.  With grizzlies, I'd
have to rethink my strategy).  On another trip in the same area, I
never saw a bear, but again I think she saved our food since I slept
outside and she was unusually vocal.  I think it was a bear that never
came near enough for me to see since it hadn't yet gotten a taste of
our food.

The other "truism" with dogs is that they scare the wildlife.  Again,
this might be true of most dogs.  Not necessarily, true, though.  As
I've indicated above, my pups alert me to the presence of animals all
the time (not just at night).  While hiking in AK, we awoke one
morning to some sheep not too far away.  Still, we wanted to get
closer so we did.  Steve was in the lead with the zoom lense, but
Athabasca, Reudi and I weren't too far back.  As long as we (all of
us) didn't make any sudden moves, they just looked at us.  It is
obvious that if the dogs would have barked or rushed them, this would
not have been the case, but dog owners know if their animal(s) will
chase anything and will hopefully act appropriately.  In fact, the
Caribou were even ATTRACTED to us because of the dogs.  They seemed to
be curious and just kept circling.  After talking with a ranger and
other hikers, I was convinced it was because the dogs were with us
that we were so interesting.  More times than I can count, a paw is
raised and one or both stay perfectly still and that leads me to see
the deer or elk or whatever nearby.  At least with my pups, I see MORE
wildlife, not less, because of the dogs.

But perhaps the biggest enhancement is the pure unadulterated fun they
have.  Whether it be swimming in a high country lake, climbing talus
that makes mere humans hesitate, or even diving in snow over their
heads for the toy thrown there, they respond to the "call of the wild"
and certainly do have fun.  Even though I make them carry their own
food in (and garbage out), they obviously would rather do that than
anything else.  Even when the going gets rough, or I make them stay in
some spot for a while for some reason, they are always ready to go for
the next thing.

As for a few practical reasons for having dogs along:  1) You will
never get lost.  OK, maybe this is a bit of an exaggeration--they
didn't do so well on a glacier during a white-out once--but in
general, you will be able to retrace your steps--EXACTLY trace your
steps.  Even in some incredibly wild and untouched places in the
Yukon, where "backcountry" maps are at some horrible linear and
vertical scale (like 100 METER contours, and a corresponding 
inadequate linear scale) I was never too worried about getting back
because I just told the pups to "go home" and soon we were on our way
back.  

2) Warmth in the winter.  IF you have the kind of dog that likes to be
out in the cold and can handle extremes, you can gain some advantage
from your dogs' warmth.  Athabasca, for example, is 1/2 labrador and
has even gone swimming when it was 5 degrees below zero (F) (a stream
that hadn't frozen).  One of my friends called her "weatherproof."
Perhaps the best example was one VERY cold Feb morning in ME.  It was
about -20 in the morning when we started from Boston and without going
into the whole story, had car trouble and a group of 5 of us and
Athabasca started our hike at 2p when it was a balmy -8.  Needless to
say we didn't make it the 6 mi to the shelter before the darkness of
winter descended.  My tent was left in one of the cars!  Of course,
the wind picked up as the temperature went down and we were left with
one 2-3 person tent.  The four others packed in the tent sideways and
I had a cheap bivy sack that Athabasca and I stayed in.  It got down
to about -25 or -30 that night (no wind-chill factor included).  We
all survived and Athabasca was fine and frisky in the morning.  If you
have the type of dog that does well in the cold, s/he can be very
comforting, especially in a tent.  Of course, I carry half of an
ensolite pad for each of my pups, but they give off lots of heat to
the tent and make the night just slightly warmer (without adding
significantly more condensation in the tent).

There are other possible advantages I could list (seeing wildlife,
safety, etc) and there are MANY other examples of how the pups have
enhanced my backcountry experiences, but this is getting to be very
long.  I just hope that everyone who takes their dog(s) into the
backcountry be as courteous as possible to the environment, the
wildlife and to others you meet AND that you have more than just a
companion who carries his/her own food, but another entity with whom
you share experiences.

jjk@astro.umd.edu also for Athabasca and Reudi
Jim Klavetter
Astronomy
UMD
College Park, MD  20742

PS.  Don't think there aren't disadvantages too!  I have a smallish
2-person tent and two biggish dogs and two people make it a very cozy
affair.  You have to decide if things are worth it for you.
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry