Tag Archives: Adirondacks

Gear Review: Outward Hound Dog Backpack

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In the summer of 2008, Pico had his first trip to the Adirondacks.  We made a stop in Piseco Lake, and did a couple of warm-up hikes in the southern Adirondacks.  At the end of July, we hiked into Jockeybush Lake.  According to my trail log, “there is an easy way to cross the outlet across two logs.”

I remember this crossing well (but still had to look it up in my log book), because as we were walking across, with Pico in front of me, he decided that he just didn’t want to go on the logs any more.  He stepped off to the left onto what must have looked like solid ground to him, but was in actuality a field of lily pads.  As the scrawny wet dog looked up at me with that pitiful and helpless (and honestly, pathetic) look that he gets, I grabbed the handle on the back of his pack and lifted him right back onto the logs.

The Outward Hound Dog Backpack was one of the first things I bought when Pico pounced into my life, and it is the most durable thing I have ever bought for him.  He has carried it hundreds of miles, sometimes through snow, streams and mud, often filled with food and water, and he loves the thing.  Nothing makes Pico better behaved than when I start packing his bag, because then he knows we’re heading out.

The handle on the back has come in handy numerous times, mainly while lifting him out of the water and up rock faces.  I have used it to hold onto him during countless stream crossings as well.  Plus, the large clips make it easy to put on and take off, but Pico has never once been able to work it off.

There are two downsides to this pack however, especially if your dog is like Pico, and just can’t stay dry on hikes.  It is not waterproof.  Just be aware that anything you put in there will, in most likelihood, get wet.  The second is that you have to keep the two sides balanced.  Otherwise it starts to shift to one side or the other, and it seems to be pretty uncomfortable for the dog.

I use Pico’s pack to carry his food, bowl, an extra length of rope, as well as bags to clean up after him.  And the best part is that I put the full bags right back in his pack so that I don’t have to carry them!

I got the bag when we lived in Florida, and as training for our Adirondack hikes, I would fill two Nalgene bottles with water, put one in each side pocket, and have Pico carry that when we went for walks.  The first time I put the bag on him, this was the setup I used, and he initially hated it.  He kept walking into things and startling himself.  I decided to just start putting the bag on him while it was empty, then put small things in it to build up the weight a little bit at a time.  Now, I could put two bricks into the bag and he’d still be happy to go hiking.

Check out my Flickr Photostream to see pictures of Pico and his backpack…  He’s wearing it in pretty much every picture.

Hiking the High Peaks

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The Adirondack 46r’s is an organization that is only open to people who have climbed all 46 of New York’s highest mountains, and I intend to become a member of that club.

The High Peaks were originally surveyed by Verplank Colvin, and his crews found that there were forty-six mountains with summit elevations above 4000’.  Later, and obviously, more accurate surveys found that of the original 46, four of them were actually under 4000’, and one “new” mountain was above 4000’.  By this time however, tradition had set in and nothing really changed when it came to hiking the High Peaks.

Some of the High Peaks are well known, such as Whiteface Mountain, home of the 1980 Winter Olympics alpine events, and Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in the state.  And then of course, some of them are less well known, like Couchsachraga, which to be honest, I can’t even pronounce.

Twenty of the peaks are “trail-less,” meaning that there is no officially designated route to the summit.  So far, I have climbed Boundary, Esther, Street, and Nye Mountains, with absolutely no problem finding the herd path to the summits.  Enough people climb the High Peaks that the paths are pretty well defined.  I’ve run into a couple of instances following these paths when I wasn’t quite sure which way to go, but was able to figure it out with no real problems.

Up to this point in my life, I have hiked 14 of the 46 peaks.  The first one I climbed was Cascade Mountain, a short and pretty easy climb not far from Lake Placid.  Just below the summit of Cascade, the trail splits and goes over to Porter Mountain, another High Peak.  Unfortunately, due to a sick friend, the first time I went up Cascade, I didn’t get to do Porter.  A few years went by, and it bugged me the whole time that I basically had to climb Cascade again just to do Porter.  Finally, in the summer of 2008, I re-climbed Cascade and made it to the summit of Porter.  That was Pico’s first High Peaks experience, and he slept like a dog that afternoon.

During college I also hiked Algonquin, Wright, Iroquois, Boundary, Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, and Big Slide.  I cross country skied almost to the summit of Whiteface, but decided not to count that.

I began the summer with 10 peaks under my belt, but after five years in Florida, my legs were just not accustomed to carrying me across a non-horizontal surface, so Pico and I again climbed Cascade and Porter just to get ready.  Since then, there’s been four more peaks crossed off the list, and plans are in the works for a five-peak day.

14 down, 32 to go!