CherryCoke and I are all settled in up here in our new place, we just need to get cable and internet hooked up, and then it will be home! We went for a hike on Wednesday up Mt. Washington. We took the Lion's Head Route up, it's a steep trail that goes up the ridge between Tuckerman and Huntington Ravines. It's a short trail, only about 1.3 miles, but it gains close to 3000 feet of elevation 
. The hike went great until we were on the summit cone (AKA The Rockpile), about 1/2 mile from the summit, and we couldn't push Ullr along anymore, and we decided to turn back. It took us about 4 hours to reach that point, and it took us close to 6 hours to get down 
. It was a loooooong process to get ullr to go from one rock to the next. At this point, we both thought that he was just tired. About half way down the Tuckerman's ravine trail, he just stopped completely, and I couldn't bring myself to literally drag my poor dog off the mountain, so I carried him over my shoulders for 90% of the way down. Mind you, this is treacherous terrain when you have your hands free and/or are using hiking poles, so doing it with a 65 pound squirming dog on your shoulders is quite the task if I say so myself. My legs are still mad at me on saturday night, but at least I can walk up and down stairs again.
The worst part of the whole ordeal is that CherryCoke and I both know better from first hand experience. The last time that we brought Ullr on a hike without his boots, he broke his dew-claw and had to go in for a very painful vet visit. This time, his pads got cut to hell on the rockpile...we're idiots, and hopefully we learned our lesson this time so that next time we go out the outcome isn't worse. My genius brain didn't even register the fact that not bringing a first aid kit wasn't a good idea, or that I really should have brought a flashlight despite leaving at 10:30am, or enough food for an overnight, or basically anything that I should have brought. I took a risk in going light and fast, and it came back and bit me in the ass in a big way. What was I thinking?
The good news is that I like my new job here in the Valley!
. The hike went great until we were on the summit cone (AKA The Rockpile), about 1/2 mile from the summit, and we couldn't push Ullr along anymore, and we decided to turn back. It took us about 4 hours to reach that point, and it took us close to 6 hours to get down . It was a loooooong process to get ullr to go from one rock to the next. At this point, we both thought that he was just tired. About half way down the Tuckerman's ravine trail, he just stopped completely, and I couldn't bring myself to literally drag my poor dog off the mountain, so I carried him over my shoulders for 90% of the way down. Mind you, this is treacherous terrain when you have your hands free and/or are using hiking poles, so doing it with a 65 pound squirming dog on your shoulders is quite the task if I say so myself. My legs are still mad at me on saturday night, but at least I can walk up and down stairs again.
The worst part of the whole ordeal is that CherryCoke and I both know better from first hand experience. The last time that we brought Ullr on a hike without his boots, he broke his dew-claw and had to go in for a very painful vet visit. This time, his pads got cut to hell on the rockpile...we're idiots, and hopefully we learned our lesson this time so that next time we go out the outcome isn't worse. My genius brain didn't even register the fact that not bringing a first aid kit wasn't a good idea, or that I really should have brought a flashlight despite leaving at 10:30am, or enough food for an overnight, or basically anything that I should have brought. I took a risk in going light and fast, and it came back and bit me in the ass in a big way. What was I thinking?
The good news is that I like my new job here in the Valley!