We're getting ready for our backpacking trip to Russian Lakes on the Kenai Peninsula. It will be my first overnighter with Champ. All indications are that he will be an excellent trail companion but I haven't yet exposed him to a crowd. There are about twenty people signed up for this hike and half of them will have dogs with them. A good test for Champ.
While trying to decide what tent to take, I remembered the last time I had spent a night in a tent with a dog other than Max. Its been awhile. If my memory is correct it was summer 1989, and the ex and I decided to car camp at Sea Rim State Park on the upper Texas Coast. We had the youngest (Ryan) and one of his friends from little league, Jake. Come bedtime the boys bedded down in a cheap two man tent. The wife and I and our Golden Retreiver made our bed in the back of an old station wagon we borrowed for the trip. We went to bed with the wind blowing from the water and were almost cool. Sometime in the night, the breezed died down and we were assaulted by several legions of mosquitos. We fled into the tent. There was enough room for the ex to lay down alongside the boys while Ginnie and I lay (sort of) across their feet. If that wasn't bad enough, sometime during the night the dog learned to open the tent. When I finally went to sleep, it was with one arm around her neck to stop her from opening the zipper. Was I ever glad to see the sunrise.
Here's hoping for no mosquitos.
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