Going to bed late means you get up late too. I'm not a morning person, so getting up when I wake up and getting moving is not my strong suit. We weren't the last one out of the camp, thankfully, but we were the second to last. We just weren't moving quickly. I take a lot of the blame for that. We also finally took a look at Lucky's paws, which was when we noticed that one of them had worn off part of a pad. Yep. We (and by we, I mean me) should have been checking those sooner. A lot sooner. He had been licking at it and had been limping around. We got it all wrapped up and covered in a bootie so we could get out, because he wasn't going to let us carry him out.
Once we broke camp, I really wasn't doing well. I don't know if it was being tired, PMSing, or just all around, no good, very bad day. We had missed the cool of the day, we had to do a big chunk of arid, sandy, quick-gaining elevation right off the bat, and I just wasn't feeling it. I knew that I had to hike out, but that wasn't something I was looking forward to doing.
Within the first quarter mile, I pushed Damon to take Lucky and head for the campground. I wasn't doing well, but I didn't want all of us to be out in the heat if we could help it. I knew I was going to go slow, stopping a lot, and emoting a lot. We carried walkie talkies for this reason, so we could split up and do our own trails. That worked until Lucky kept splitting the distance between us and laying down. I finally had to keep him with me while Damon went on. He was good to keep me in the loop about shady spots along the trail, though they were few and far between.
We stopped at one really nice rock cave for a while. It was cool and pretty great for crashing, though it was still really early in the day. We stopped there for a while. I went back and forth about if I wanted to keep pushing on to another shady place or not. Looking back, I probably needed to have stayed there for longer or shorter, just not the amount of time I was there. My attitude also shifted back and forth, which didn't help.
By the time I decided to keep going, it was hot enough that we weren't able to make it to the next rock cave Damon had told me about without Lucky getting really lethargic. We crashed under a decently covering tree for a while, both of us napping some and me trying to get Lucky to drink more water. It wasn't so much an issue of him being dehydrated as much as overheated. Black, double coated dog in the almost desert. Yep. I did have a better outlook after a nap and everything, but it seemed, in retrospect, to be pushing Lucky a little bit faster than he wanted to go.
We were finally able to get going a little bit further. During this time, I asked two hikers who were passing by to help me put Lucky's pack on my pack, since that seemed to help him yesterday. They were more than willing to do so, as well as hike with us for a while. I finally was willing to have them take Lucky's pack with them ahead of us to the campsite. They also walked with us to the rock shelter that Damon pointed out over the radio a while back. We crashed out again, this time staying until Lucky was no longer panting or giving any signs of being overheated.
We started out again, finally making it up over the ridge. It was so wonderful to hear Damon's voice come over the radio, as it had stopped working as soon as he had dropped over the ridge. It did help me keep going, though I was hiking Lucky's hike at this point. I let him stop when he wanted to stop and lay down and let him stay down as long as he wanted. That did make us slow going, but it did help me in that, I wasn't slowing us down, it was Lucky. I felt better about the whole situation when he was the one dictating it.
We kept hiking, finally running into Damon, who, after reaching camp and cooling off, had dumped his pack and headed back to see if he could help out with Lucky by taking his pack. Lonestar, one of the other hikers, had been willing to come back with him, though once he found out just how far back we were, he took Lucky's pack back to camp. Damon took my food bag, which lightened my load, as well as took the lead, which meant Lucky was following him, rather than Lucky walking ahead of me. It kept him walking more, which got us into camp more quickly. It was still slow.
We finally made it in to Lake Morena, where Rod, a wonderful trail angel, had cold drinks and hot dogs for all. He also let us stay at his campsite, which meant we could camp for free. Small, but very profound gifts. He has plans to hike the PCT in 2019, so he was trying to build up good trail karma so there would be someone to hand him a cold drink and food when he made it over the ridge.
Damon probably has more notes of who all we ran into while we were there. I remember Rosemary, as she was the one who has been making all of her gear, as well as having to hang out at Lake Morena while her foot healed. I was able to help her out with that, taping it up and helping her rest it. That felt really good.
Reaching camp meant I was better able to take care of Lucky's paw, which wasn't looking any better. We taped it up with gauze and tried to get as much water into him as possible. He was really lethargic, though very appreciative of any pets he could get.
It was super emotional for me to have reached there, since it was somewhat of a pressure release to have made it, as well as the weight of the decision to keep going or not. Obviously, with Lucky's paw, we would have to look into it more and potentially send him home. It really was the kinder choice for him to send him home. Then the question was who was going back with him? Both of us? Just me? We chose to take a little bit of time to process.
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