Date: April
22, 2015
Location: Oceanside
to Upper Uso Camp GroundDistance traveled today: 0
Distance traveled total: 0
It took about 6 hours to get to the campsite. Between traffic, stopping at Costco for
backup poles, bathroom breaks, and more traffic. The directions if you put in the address will
take you to the wrong place but if you just follow the roads/signs it is
easy. There is a little creek/river to
drive though in order to get to the camp ground and I stopped for a minute to
try to figure out how deep it was before crossing. We pulled in about 6:30 and found our
spot. It was right next to the bathrooms
but very private. The campground is
awesome. We went for a walk, set up our
tent, and made dinner. Got all my stuff
ready for the next day, and opened my new poles (a backup pair from Costco
because I have lost my normal ones).
I found out I really need to practice starting a fire
without a fire starter. I got a small
fire going but it didn’t last very long.
It was okay because I was tired and ready for bed shortly after
sunset. Once in the tent I was a little
worried about Reecy because we could hear a lot of the people around. She sat very alert in the beginning but by
the time I got in my sleep clothes she was curled up on her bed and
snoring. I had a little jacket for her
just in case she got cold. I originally
set an alarm to try to get an early start but ended up talking myself out of it
and turning it off.
Date: April
23, 2015
Location:
Upper Uso Camp to Santa Cruz Guard Station Distance traveled today: ~11 Miles
Distance traveled total: ~11 Miles
Our journey
started out on a dirt road and I wasn’t very excited thinking we were going to be
on the same dirt road as ATVs. After
about a mile the Santa Cruz Trail breaks off to a single track dirt path. There is a place to register however all the
pages were filled out and it looked like it was never looked at with a lot of
people writing random things. I decided
to skip this part. I made sure to watch
the time so that I could be sure to give Reecy enough water. We took a short water break about every 30
minutes and she was drinking a lot of water.
It was already hot but thankfully there was a lot of shade. Once we got to the fields of yellow flowers
there was very little shade and getting pretty hot. This was around 5 miles. I kept saying we would take a longer lunch
break at the next shady spot but there wasn’t much. Reecy was starting to fall behind so I took
off her pack and attached it to my bag.
She had already gone through the water she was carrying so it was pretty
light. When I did this I must have
dropped her water bowl or left it sitting on the rock. Thankfully one of the guys who I saw when we
first started came up when we were resting and had picked it up for us! I was super thankful. I had an extra one but of course love her
pink one!
Reecy was
tucking herself under a bush and so I took off my pack and sat under my
umbrella for a bit and waited for her to cool off. By looking at my InReach it said we were at mile 7… so I was thinking
we would have 3 more miles even though the map didn’t look like we would have
that long. What I figured out later
that night when I was reading the instructions is that my tracking was set so
it would only track every hour so it was doing a lot of straight lines and
missing a lot of what we hiked. We
really only had about a mile left to go!
We got back in a tree covered area and it was all downhill to a creek
that we crossed to get to camp. It was
on these switchbacks we saw our 2nd person of the day, a girl who
was running to camp and all the way back in one day. She had dirt all over the front of her from
slipping on one of the areas where there was a lot of loose dirt. I thought she was crazy. Once at camp there were already 3 guys there
and the guy who picked up Reecy’s bowl, John.
We choose a secluded spot that was next to John. Our two spot where farther away from the group
sites which was good because it looked like a small boy scout group came in
about 2 hours after we got there. Reecy
and I filtered water I was noticing how much poison oak was around. I avoided it as much as possible but think
this is where she brushed up against it.
John came over and said hello and introduced himself. He was from Santa Barbara area and just
getting away for the night. We talked
about gear, he had a lot of fancy stuff – come to find out he was a doctor, and
our next trips. He would be doing part
of the JMT with his 19 year old twin kids this summer. He went back to his camp area and Reecy and
I rested in the shade watching the lizards.
She didn’t successfully catch one.
I made
dinner for me and rehydrated some extra dog food Nature's Variety Instinct Raw. She approves of
this! Expensive but felt she most likely
needed the extra calories.
I was super
tired and watched the sun start to go down and crawled in the tent with
Reecy. She was on her bed and I was on
my sleeping pad and we covered up with my sleeping bag. We were nice and toasty!
Date: April
23, 2015
Location: Santa
Cruz Guard Station to Upper Oso Camp to home Distance traveled today: ~11 Miles
Distance traveled total: ~22 Miles
I had an
alarm set so we could start before it got to hot. I hit snooze a few too many times. I started to pack up my sleeping pad and
change clothes and Reecy wasn’t moving much.
She got up, took about 10 steps, went potty, and went back to her
bed. She was pretty sleepy. I made us both our breakfast even though I
wasn’t very hungry, I did enjoy my Starbucks white mocha mix! It didn’t mix perfectly and had little clumps
but still was delicious on the cold morning. Reecy was shivering so I put my down jacket on
her while I packed up the tent and the rest of the bag. John said bye and good luck on my JMT trip
and was off pretty quickly. I guess that
is a benefit of not having a tent that it takes less time to pack up. I am sure I will eventually get quicker at
it. Once everything was ready and
cleaned up, I took off another layer and Reecy’s jacket and was ready to go! The climb out of the camp was pretty
challenging. I forgot in just the one
night how many switchbacks there were.
We stopped often to break. Once
to the top going around the mountain was easy and it was nice that it was still
shaded and much cooler than the day before.
There was also a lot of cloud cover.
We were alone for about the first 3-4 miles until we passed the 3 guys
who had left a bit before us. I got one
of them to take a picture of Reecy and I which was nice not to have to take a
selfie! We saw a lot more people today
on the trail than yesterday. About a
dozen or so mountain bikers… thankfully most of them had bells so we could hear
them coming.
We made it back to the car – Reecy jumped in laid down and didn’t move. I tried to have her walk a bit and eat more so she wouldn’t get to stiff. At the very end of the hike she stepped on a sharp rock and hurt her paw, so I washed that out and she didn’t seem great. I checked her again and found a few more ticks that I removed. Once home I looked her over even more and found 5 more ticks. I got them all out but was still worried about her. I tend to worry about her more than myself.
Poison!
Later that
night I started to notice a rash on the right side of my stomach and right
arm. It was super itchy and I knew I had
the dreaded poison oak. After a few
google searches to make sure that Reecy was okay I found that the oil can stay
in animal fur and transfer! Well… that
makes since because the majority of the places I had it was where we cuddled
together under my sleeping bag. I took
another shower and washed even more, bathed her, and started to wash everything
we may have touched. I was pretty miserable with day 3 being the worst. It has been over 2 weeks and I still can see
a color difference and wake up scratching in the middle of the night. I was really hoping I was the small percent
that doesn’t have a reaction.
Overview:
I love backpacking with Reecy. She is an awesome trail dog and stays right behind me. She is super quiet and I ended up putting a keyring on her collar so I could hear that she was still there and hadn’t stopped to take a break or go potty. I would like to get a little bell or something that jingles for when we hike. I also love her sleeping pad/bed Ruffwear Highland I got on REI’s outlet one year. It is not super compact but soft and helped keep her off the ground and a little warmer. I would like to get a bag that could be used for her more and possibly double as my summer bag so we do not have to share.
The trail
was really beautiful in the spring but would not attempt it in the summer
months. I cannot wait to do more trips
with Reecy!
