Dog walk AAR

The beagle and I went for a walk in park last Sunday afternoon. We walked along the bike path for 55 minutes. Wilma the Arctic beagle (the moniker her vet gave her) did not much like the heat I guess and I had to let her go in the creek 3 or 4 times to cool off and get some water. At one point she just flopped down along the path in the grass on her side and told me she was going to rest for a few minutes. One of her creek expeditions she decided to lay down in the mud, so she had to be hosed off when we got back. I was planning to just walk along the trail which more or less comes back where it starts but it did not appear she was going to make it so I took the shortest route I could think of to get us off the path and had my wife come get us there instead of where we started.

[added trail map 10-6-10]
 My planned 4 or 5 mile walk ended up being maybe 1 and a half miles.

So what did I learn.

First off, make sure your hiking companion is up to the task. Wilma loves to walk but she just can't deal with the heat. It was only about 85, with a nice breeze and plenty of shade. I was sweating but not uncomfortable. Of course I did not have a fur coat on.

Second, you just can't have too much water. If we had not been walking along the creek, Wilma would probably have needed to drink the entire quart of water I had brought with me, or maybe I would have needed to use it to cool her off. It turns out that there just is no water along this trail other than the creek, and it was just lucky that I started our walk there.

Most important, don't be so stubborn that you won't change your plan if something goes awry along the trail. There is always another day you can go for a hike.

In response, I purchased a new day pack. I have been putting it off hoping I could find my old one, but it seems to be lost for good. Even though I have not been a fan of, nor ever used one before, I also got a water bladder for the pack. The pack was $14 and the bladder $10 at WalMart. It's probably not the greatest pack, but for $24, I figure I can't go wrong. It's only a 64 ounce bladder, but it fits well in the bladder pouch in the pack.

My plan is to have Wilma's water bottle along with some backup water in addition to the bladder.

I have only tried it once. That was this morning on our normal walk around the neighborhood. It was a bit cooler this morning so we went for 2 miles. It got up close to 80 by the time we were done walking, and she was dogging it a bit (pun intended). But she did OK. I drank maybe half a quart out of the bladder. The pack was pretty comfy. The tag promised it would breath. The tag lied. Maybe my back fat filled in where there was supposed to be airspace or something, but my back was sweating under the pack. Not real awful.




[added 8-19-10]
According to their website, the bag is called the Morph and the dimensions are 19in H x 13in W x 6in D / 2,100 cu in.

The bite valve is leaking air back into the tube. I sent an email to the email address they show in the instructions for leaking bite valve replacement, but it bounced. I went to the web site and they now have a web form to fill in for warranty issues, so I filled in the form. I got a reply shortly thereafter and a promise of a replacement bite valve.

[added 8-29-10]
I got another email from them a day or two later saying that leaking air back into the tube is normal. The leaking they refer to is water leaking out. I have been using the thing everyday while walking the critter and learned this myself. I was getting wet spots on my tee shirt and thought the bite valve was leaking, but it really was that after drinking from it I was leaving a few drops of water on the valve. So now I make sure I suck the water off the bite valve and let a little air back into the tube just to make sure. I actually find that it works pretty well.