You never know what you might get yourself into during a hike
“You never know what you might get yourself into during a hike. When I was returning to the parking area on my hike yesterday, I came across this old fellow along the trail. His owner said his legs just gave out on the steep climb out of Opossum Creek Falls. There were three women with him and they had tried to tie a shirt around his hips to help him along, but it wasn’t working.
I hiked on to the car and helped one of the women rig up a tarp. We then hiked back to the dog and got him in the tarp and carried him the rest of the way, which was tough considering the amount of blow downs we had to deal with. Needless to say, we got him back to the parking area. He was very happy to see the back seat of a car. I do have to say, I was pretty happy to sit down in my car after all of that.
One of the ladies reached out to me through this group and said she had spoken to the dogs owner. She said he had a long sleep and when he got up the next day, he was ok except for soreness and stiffness. That’s great news!
This was definitely a group effort to help the dog. I have always said some of the best people you will meet are on the trails. This is a prime example of that. A group of total strangers coming together to help a distressed hiker, in this case a four legged one, get back home. We all busted our butts to get the dog out.
Now, there have been some pretty harsh comments towards the dog’s owner. I do not know the lady. I had never seen any of these people before that day on the trail. I can tell you she was very upset about everything. She said she almost didn’t bring the dog but he really wanted to go with her.
She didn’t know he was going to have so much trouble. I think it was a wake up call for her. She saw first hand that her loyal adventure buddy just can’t do the things he could do when he was younger. For a dog owner, that can be a VERY hard pill to swallow. Just keep that in mind before judging this lady.
I always say hiking changes you. It changes you for the better. I think this hike changed all of us involved a little for the better.
Happy hiking! “
