Backpacking with Dogs Basics: Part II

Dogs and Outdoor First Aid

Luckily, I’ve been able to avoid having to do any significant first aid on my dog while hiking or backpacking. That said, I always have a first aid kit with me that includes basics for both dogs or humans. Things like gauze and scissors, medical tape, Neosporin (I used to use this for my Dalmatian’s skin issue and since found it works for many minor irritations.)

Other resources that I’ve looked at before and would recommend, include this dog first aid book and this free PDF download on Ruff Wear’s website. Of course, your first step should always be to consult a professional such as your veterinarian.

Dogs and Camping Etiquette

Camping etiquette depends greatly on where you end up pitching your tent. If you are at a busy campground near a popular destination- I would say be extra polite and careful with your dog. I can’t tell you how uptight people can get about dogs, no matter how extremely well behaved they are. I’ve had several dogs, and Misty certainly takes the prize for being the most mild mannered and calm, but we have even had incidents where people have been absolutely over reactive to how long her leash is and if she was off leash for, like, a second.

Others times when we are actually backpacking or hiking we let her off leash and generally have no issues. Most of the time the other off leash dogs we bump into are other dog owners that are forgiving to another dog that jumps or barks.

Needless to say, we never leave her behind and that may be the most helpful etiquette tip I can give you.

Dogs and Where to Sleep While you’re Camping

Choosing where your dog will sleep while you are on a backpacking trip is individual to the dog. I’ve heard of people doing everything from- leaving their dog at home (sad!), tying them to a tree, letting them roam free, and letting them sleep in the tent.

Our dog, Misty, typically arrives at camp and promptly digs herself a little hole. She’ll spend quite a few hours literally “in the hole” sleeping while we cook, set up camp and eat. After that, she joins us in the tent and is an excellent tent camper. She has her own blanket for the foot end of tent, but she eventually worms her way up in between us.



More Dog Backpacking, Outdoor Skills, and Pointers to come! Subscribe to my feed so that you don’t miss any.

Chicken and Gravy with Potatoes Camping Recipe

I picked up this simple and tasty backpacking recipe from a friend. This one is easy to do with one pot and isn’t too messy.

Ingredients:

Precooked, dehydrated, or canned chicken
Dry Mashed Potatoe Package- we choose butter and herb
Water
Butter

Steps



Precook chicken and cook your first night out or use chicken from a can or dried chicken



Heat chicken with some oil, butter or plain water



Use instant gravy package and follow directions.



Ours required one cup of water and removal from heat.





Place in your bowl for hang time and to free up the pot for a shake.



Boil water and a bit of butter if you have it (works fine too if you don’t have the butter)

Cook up one package of instant mashed potatoes. We choose butter and herb. Yum.Serve and enjoy.

Everyday Adventure and Stay-cations

We've been having a stay-cation. Yeah. I am so sick of that word too. Really our stay-cation has pretty nice. Yesterday, I snuck out early for a road bike ride. It seems summer has finally decided to show up. Forgive me for constantly complaining about the weather, but that is what we do in New England.

For the most part our summer in New Hampshire has been super, super wet- raining for days and days and days. Now, it's very buggy from all the rain. And our "normal" summer weather of 95 degree days with high humidity is back.

So it has been early morning bike rides, all day swimming, and late afternoon hiking. We went up a nearby, very popular peak around 6 p.m. last night. It was great to find that all the tourists decided not to bear the heat and we essentially had the place to ourselves.

A short list of things I am excited about:

• I'm getting a complete blog redesign by some talented peeps.
• Hiking with Adam
• Eating ice cream for breakfast
• Pink pens

How to Write with your Headlamp at Night

This is great camping or late night entertainer. Write with your headlamp, flashlight, or sparklers.







Steps:

Place camera on nearby, steady object, try a picnic table or treestump



Set on low ISO like 200 or 100. This slows down the shutter speed giving you extra time for spelling.



Use a fairly open aperture, something like a 4.0-6.3.



Set self timer and run



Spell your word. Keep in mind the word will seem to you, the writer, backwards. But it will be right in the camera.

It takes some trial and error. Even for us college grads.



It can be fun trying to guess what someone just wrote.



When you’re sick of spelling try tic-tac-toe or drawing











Fun words to try:

Bike
More
Love
Hike
Camp
Dog
Jump
Jet
Be
Do
more

ENO Double Hammock Product Review and Video

I’ve been holding onto this ENO Double Hammock for years and just never got around to trying it. It’s tough when you are an apartment dweller. Finally I was able to try the ENO Hammock out this weekend for naps and weekend camping. Full report to come and hopefully an overnight hammock report



ENO Double Hammock and Slap Straps Initial Thoughts

I selected this pink double hammock as my bounty for selling the most ENO Hammocks at my last job. Since then the hammock has sat in my closet. It's not for lack of interest. I've spent time perusing the ENO website and been totally inspired by their photos. It's just hard to pack extra weight when you are backpacking. I also needed to grab a pair of the Slap Straps that basically enable you to set up the hammock between any two trees. Now that I had the basic ENO Hammock kit, I was ready to try this thing out.



Weight restrictions

The Hammock is rated up to 400 pounds, but the Slap Straps are only rated to 200 pounds max. I’m not sure if that means I shouldn’t try two people in the hammock. So we tried one 200 pound adult and one 45 pound dog. Seems to be holding up well.

ENO Double Hammock Specs from ENO

Dimensions: 6' 8" x 9' 10"
Weight: 22oz
High Strength Breathable Woven Nylon
Super Strong Nautical Grade Line
High Grade Nylon Triple Interlocking Stitching
Maximum Weight 400lbs

More ENO Double Hammock Product Review to Come

Ease of Use
Comfortablity/ Sleepability
Hammock Camping

Ruff Wear Dog Approach Pack II Product Review – On the Trail Report

We're back from our backpacking trip, where Misty sported for the very first time her own backpack- the Ruff Wear Approach Pack II. How did she manage carrying the Ruff Wear dog backpack and what are her thoughts on fit, size, and more? Results are in:

Ruff Wear Dog Approach Pack Fit

Initial try-on sessions went well and the pack seemed to fit Misty perfectly. Ruff Wear does a really nice job with extra reinforcement and padding in all the right places. Once packed up with her backpacking gear I found that the pack seemed to shift around a lot. This was mainly because it’s hard to evenly balance the weight on both sides of the pack. (It didn’t hurt that my friend S was sneaking weight into the dog’s pack!)

Ruff Wear Dog Approach Pack Size

The Ruff Wear dog backpack was the perfect size for a several night trip. Misty was able to carry her own items and few add-ons from my friends.



Things I Never Thought About

This isn’t necessarily part of the product review, but wearing a backpack completely changed my dog’s hiking style. It seems that with the extra work of carrying something, and noticing that we were all carrying things, made Misty stay very close by. Normally she runs around, sprints through the woods, and eagerly greets fellow hikers. With her backpack on she stayed right next to us and at times didn’t even go say hi to other hikers.

It may have been that the extra weight that tuckered her out, but I think the Ruff Wear Approach Pack may have some sort of dog whispering device on it. It’s amazing, and I am sure that it can’t be guaranteed with every pack.

What Misty Thinks

Ruff, ruff, sniff, ruff

Camp Cooking and Writing with a Headlamp

We're back for bit- off and on again this week. This weekend I tried some camp recipes and discovered some great easy recipes, as well as some killer messy recipes. What can I say- I'm your Guinea Pig. I seriously burned some cobbler into my Jetboil too. So I'll be trying to rescue that pan today. In the mean time, some camping artwork. I'll have a fun how-to tutorial on this soon.





(You know you should)

GSI Java Drip and GSI Water Bottle Coffee Maker Product Reviews- Upcoming

If you didn't know- I am on the constant quest for how to make coffee while camping. Being outdoors shouldn't stop me from having my morning coffee- I'm convinced, I just haven't found the perfect method yet.

Recently I've been picking up more and more gadgets for morning brews and I'll be reviewing a few of them this week. First up will be the GSI Java Drip product and then the GSI water bottle coffee maker.

GSI Java Drip

Early this summer, one groggy morning after not having enough coffee I picked up the GSI Java Drip. It seemed perfect- easy to fit on filter holder, a reusable cloth coffee filter and a large container for a few cups. Sure, it wasn't the kind of rig I'd carry on a bike trip or backpacking, but we like car camping as much as the next guy.



Full review this week.

GSI Water Bottle Coffee Maker

This little coffee maker by GSI probably will get a few chuckles out of you. You actually tighten it to the top of your water bottle to brew. The packaging demonstrates two method for making coffee this way- the cowboy method and the infuser method. I'll be reviewing multiple ways to use this coffee maker this way- including the self deemed Betty Method.



Full review this week.

Out Again

Out to the woods for a couple of nights. Be back soon. We'll finish up the series on how to find a comfortable bike seat, backpacking with dogs, and a new seven nights of camping recipes. Thanks for reading!