Alternatively titled: A birthday to remember.
My dear pal Caitlin recently turned another year older. When I asked what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said she wanted to go for a hike. We didn’t necessarily want to go far from home, but we did want to do something new to us. We discovered there was a looped version of a trail we had both done many times, but neither of us had ever done the loop.
This was a no brainer as this trail would take us on new terrain, we would pass by a lake, and it would give us a solid 11 miles of hiking. We set out on the Mount Townsend Loop trail around 0930, and we had the trail to ourselves for nearly the entire first half of the hike. After a few miles we got to Silver Lake where we planned to stop and possibly swim.
It was here I decided to surprise Caitlin with a birthday cupcake.
It took me longer than expected to submerge my skin into the frigid water, but as always I am glad I did. Caitlin jumped in too, ate her cupcake, and we ate some food to prepare for the steeper sections. As we continued on towards the top of the loop the trail became familiar, and the sun felt significantly hotter.
This is when things started to get a little hairy. We had checked the temps before starting this hike because Caitlin wanted to bring her dog Poncho with us, and both of us saw that it was supposed to be a high of 65 or so. It turned out to be much warmer than this, and when Poncho started to slow down we worried it might have been because of the heat.
(Poncho has gone on many hikes with us, she is a seasoned hiker dog, so her slowing down is always cause for alarm.)
We managed to find a section of the trail with snow, and Poncho came back to life almost instantly. We were certain we were out of troubled waters, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. We blissfully savored the views from the summit of the loop without a second thought of the chaos to come.
We managed to get a bit of a way down the summit towards the back half of the loop when we started having troubles with Poncho again.
It started with her slowing down, and eventually she wouldn’t walk at all. She would sit and have little interest in continuing on, and we both still thought it was due to the heat. Caitlin would cover her fur in water, give her extra breaks to drink water, and eventually Poncho would start walking. This continued on until the stops got longer, and this is when both Caitlin and I started to worry.
We were still 3 or so miles from the car, it was getting later in the day, and Poncho did not want to move. Caitlin tried carrying her over her shoulders a few times, but ultimately Poncho was too heavy. We played a game of start stop and gave Poncho as many breaks as she needed, but during one of our breaks Caitlin noticed something was wrong with Ponchos paw pads.
We later learned that what had happened was essentially like the human version of a blister. Her entire paw pads on two of her paws were peeling off, leaving a tender layer of exposed skin underneath. We didn’t know this at the time, and all we were focused on was getting Poncho back to the car. After multiple hours we got to the end of the trail onto the gravel road where we still had a mile walk to the car. From here I let Caitlin stay with Poncho and I booked it to get her car.
I was on such high alert from the anxiety of my mental spiral that I had my bear spray in my hand the entire time. I was convinced a cougar, or a bear, (or a man lol) would find me walking alone and my wandering mind got the best of me.
I got the car, I drove back to the gals, and all was well in the world again. Poncho was down and out for a few days, but the vet wrapped her paws and gave her some happy drugs to help with the pain. She is good as new now, and thankfully Caitlin decided on the warm days of summer Poncho will stay home for these hikes. She also bought some doggy booties which I can’t wait to see her in.
This trail was beautiful, a 10/10 and likely one of my favorites in this area, but it was skewed by the scary moments with Poncho. Both Caitlin and I would like a redo. Caitlin will remember her 31st birthday likely forever, as the one where Poncho had a rough go. I skimmed over this day in a very brief blog post, but in the moment it was really scary.
We finished this hike around 1700, over eight hours after we started. Thankfully we both stayed calm and managed to get pupperoonie out safe and sound.
Q: Have you ever spent your birthday in a less than ideal situation? My most recent was 2024 when I had to take Little to the ER on my birthday. Thankfully birthday are less exciting the older I get.
Blissfulbritt 