Hiking with my dog is one of the things that makes me feel like I’m living well. I grew up in North Carolina, playing in the woods and the creeks, and even as an adult I need to be surrounded by old-growth trees once or twice a week.
It's what we did on weekends
Back in the 1970s, divorced dads didn’t have a lot of options for taking the kids out on their weekend visits. It was pre-Chucky Cheese, not to mention pre-anything better than that. Sometimes my father would take us to Old Salem to watch the candlemakers and the butter churners. Then we went through a phase of going to old cemeteries to make charcoal rubbings of gravestones, which was actually more fun than it sounds. But our default Sunday afternoon activity was hiking with my dog Rebecca, a black and brown mutt I adored. We’d wander the woods beyond Forest Theatre in Chapel Hill, or the undeveloped land of one of his architectural sites that was yet to break ground.
The luxury of a nearby trailhead
We didn’t know this when Steve and I bought our house 25 years ago, but we’re five minutes away from a dirt road that leads to one of my favorite trailheads along the Chattahoochee River. Since our office is also five minutes from the house, I can leave work around 5:30, get home, change clothes, load up Daisy and be hiking with my dog before 6.
When I see Daisy leaping over fallen trees or racing up a steep hill in hot pursuit of a squirrel, it’s impossible for me not to grin ear to ear. She has excellent recall, so even if she spots a deer, she’ll come loping back to me if I whistle. Of course, strictly speaking, dogs are supposed to be on leash there, but on weekdays we can go an entire hike without running into more than a couple of people — and when we do, I can quickly snap Daisy’s leash back on.
Making it easy to go hiking with my dog
These are the things I keep in my car to make it super easy to go hiking with my dog — with almost zero prep time.
1. Waist pouch
I use this zippered waist pack to carry my phone, car keys and a couple of poop bags.
2. Hands-free leash
I started using these waist leashes when I did a lot of trail running instead of hiking with my dog. When your dog is on leash, your hands are completely free. When you let them off leash, you just wrap it around your waist and snap it into the second clip.
3. AirTag and AirTag collar attachment
Daisy has a phone number embroidered on her collar and is microchipped, but just in case, I also use an AirTag connected by a collar attachment when we’re in the woods. There’s enough connectivity where we hike that I could at least see which direction she was in, if something spooked her and she didn’t respond to my recall.
4. Benadryl and syringe
We have a lot of copperheads in Georgia and it’s not uncommon to see them on the trail, especially in the summer. Their reflex is to freeze or flee, rather than attack, but still, I like to have a plan for worst-case scenarios. I keep (needle-less) syringes filled with liquid Benadryl in the car to squirt into my dog’s mouth if she’s ever bitten — and then my plan would be to drive as fast as possible to the emergency vet. Guidelines I’ve read suggest 1 to 2 mg of Benadryl per pound of dog, so I keep two 20 mg syringes ready to go for a 32-pound dog.
Knock on wood, we’ve never had to deal with a snakebite, even though I’ve been hiking with my dog throughout the Chattahoochee trail system for the lifetimes of three border collies. Let’s hope I never need that Benadryl — and that those syringes just sit there in the seat pocket.
The rewards vs. the risks
A life well lived is not a life without risks. And being out in the woods alone with a dog of course carries some risks. I try to be safe, and although I love exchanging a few words with other hikers, I keep a physical distance that leaves me room to run if some nefarious person tried to grab me. And sure, anything could happen out there, to me or to Daisy. Each of us has to decide what types of risk we’re comfortable with, but for me, the risks are well worth the joys of hiking with my dog. (For more on how to make your dog happier, you might like this post.)
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