Deuce's First Camping Trip

So Ali and I enjoy hiking and camping, but one issue we've always had is what to do with our little Jack Russell mix dog aka Deuce. He's about 9 years old and has some back problems where he can only hike for about 20 - 30 minutes at a time before it starts to hurt him.

So off I went to Google looking for dog backpack carriers. I couldn't believe the amount of possibilities that came up but unfortunately the majority of them were for really small dogs and Deuce is a solid 25 pounds with a longer body frame than what most of the dog carriers could handle. After reading quite a few reviews and weighing the cost vs. functionality, I ended up settling on K9 Sports Sack.

So the day came when the Sports Sack arrived and Deuce gave us a "what the" look. It was pretty interesting getting him in and out of it the first few times but Ali and I finally figured out a system that worked pretty good with minimal complaints from him. The best advice I could possible give is to get your dog as tired as possible and then they won't put up much of a fight.

So now that we had a backpack for Deuce, it was time to head out. We didn't want to head too far from Denver in the event it was an utter failure so we decided to go to Mueller State Park. We got everything booked up and ready to roll and the night before we headed out, we found out that Mueller State Park allows dogs in the campgrounds but not on the trails. So after some quick research, we just decided to camp there and drive 10 - 15 minutes to Pike National Forest and hike there.

I won't go into a lot of details but we started out with Raspberry Mountain and Crag's Trail the first day. Raspberry Mountain was a good easy starter hike with nice views at the top of it but I really enjoyed the views from the top of the Crag's trail. Below is a picture of Deuce and I at the end of the trail.

The next day we started out at the Horsethief Falls Trail. This was a fairly easy hike with a small waterfall at the end of it. It wasn't anything special but was a good hike to take Deuce on since it wasn't too steep. After that we decided to branch off to the Pancake Rock. After looking up the trail online, it said it was 6.9 miles down and back with 1,814 elevation which isn't much at all. At that point in time I definitely wasn't wanting to hike too much with having an extra 25 pounds on my back. So off we started. I just want to say that either I was really tired that day or someone was drunk when calculating the distances because that was the longest 6.9 miles of my life. It worked out in the end though and the views weren't to shabby either.

The last day was pretty low key and we just did a few hikes around Mueller while Deuce slept in. Mueller is pretty nice overall for seeing deer, elk, etc. but it doesn't offer the waterfalls and sweeping views that a lot of other parks in that area do.

All of that being said, let's go back to the K9 Sports Sack. Overall I would recommend this for anyone wanting to take their dog on extended trips. The sack did a very good job of keeping Deuce stationary and at no time did I feel like he was going to fall out or wiggle around too much even when scrambling up rocks. Below are a few issues I did have with the sack and hopefully they will correct them with future models.

• I wish the straps on the bag were larger and that it had supports around the waist area. After hiking 25+ miles over 2 days my shoulders were killing me. This may not be as much of a problem with a lighter dog but it was with Deuce.
• There needs to be some additional padding between the dog and your back. There were a few times where he pulled his paws in and his body legs were poking me in the back.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. I just wanted to quickly describe my thoughts on the doggy backpack in case others had the same situation as me.