PCT Prep 8: How to Pack your gear for a Dog Friendly Thru Hike

The Pacific Crest Trail is a daunting adventure, stretching 2,650 miles (4,265km) from Mexico to Canada. While my partner Seth plans to complete its entirety; I plan to hike the longest dog friendly stretch that spans half the country. We will walk 1300 miles with the great company of my dog, Chloe Rue. While this hike will begin next summer in 2023, Chloe and I have begun to take strides (literally) to improve our strength and endurance for the undertaking! Do you want to learn more about our planning? Keep an eye out on our Pacific Crest Trail series as we dive into our physical, mental, and dog-knowledge training program to help prepare us for this grand adventure.

If you’re interested in our previous posts related to PCT prep, check them out right here:

Human Gear

Well you all know I’ve done my fair share of dog friendly backpacking for- you know- a week, a weekend, a few days here and there. Yet we are about to barking embark (hehe) on our first ever thru hike! The gear I am bringing looks a little different, mostly because it’s significantly lighter. I have a new backpack, sleeping pad, and new shoes with little smart covers to avoid getting rocks in them. Otherwise you’ve seen this gear before, but here’s a brief review.

10 essentials: I upgraded my knife, headlamp but the rest is the same as I have always had. I am super excited about my headlamp upgrade, that is supposed to last SEVENTY HOURS. It will be so amazing for sunrise hikes!

Sleep System: The sleeping pad is an upgrade to a thermarest with an R value of SIX, but the closed cell Nemo continues to be amazing, my Puffle Quilt investment that allows me AND Chloe to snuggle (and we can button in to Seth’s bag) is also amazing and our zero degree bag for cold weather is holding out for the past several years!

Tent: I have my 4 season tent for the sierras, but we did find an ultralight tent called the Big Agnes for the rest of the trail and she is a beast! Holding out to wind, rain and snow already she’s a tight fit with 2 humans and 2 dogs but we make it work. I also have my hammock with, in case I prefer to be in the trees with Chloe some days.

Poopstagram: I LOVE my ultralight trowel and more than that I love my bidet and kula cloth. Having a special bidet for the trail is SO awesome. I didn’t want to invest in a special pee cloth but after trying it out, it was worth it. Also, Kula is SUCH an amazing company! Their promotion of art work, poetry and spreading love to everyone is definitely to be admired.

Backpack: I did get a new ultralight pack this year! Did you notice? It’s extremely comfortable so far, and easy to pack everything I need.

Clothes: I also upgraded a few clothing items, including an spf sun shirt that has a HOOD! I have a bra from icebreakers that’s both comfortable and helps with the sweat situation substantially. And I will be wearing Coalatree brand pants in this flashy green color. You know I’ve never been a fashionista (Purple and Green- dinosaur colors?) But I AM pretty proud of my purple theme going on with this hike. For underwear, I usually wear men’s athletic boxers, but I tried out “woxers” and they are so great! I am bringing seal skin socks for water crossings and snowy situations to help my feet stay dry.

Extras: You guys, I totally found a pen-sized Expandable fishing rod that is PURPLE and I am SO excited. I really don’t have a lot of other extras, just some bathroom items, contacts, glasses holders for the hard stuff. I got some coffee in tea bags from an oregon based company called Caravan Coffee too! Overall, everything has been an absolute win.

Dog Gear

Now is the moment you’ve been waiting for! A list of Chloe Rue’s gear, why I am bringing it and how it will be beneficial.

Dog 10 EssenTAILS: I did upgrade Chloe’s dog tag, her medical info on google drive, and I have a new water bowl that is not quite as ancient and has NO holes to be seen in the entire bowl. We have the same Ruffwear beacon we’ve had for ages.

Emergency harness: Ours is from Fido Pro airlift and is extremely lightweight. I weighed it on a food scale and it’s literally just under ONE HUNDRED GRAMS of weight, which is 4 oz or 1/4 of a pound- I love the thing. It is the same emergency harness we’ve used for years; and that Chloe has practiced/trained with over this duration of time.

Dog Leash: I am using the Ruffwear hitchhiker expandable leash. It expands, does not retract- you have to reel it in; which honestly is very nice for safety reasons anyway. I LOVE this leash, because it works around the waist, belt loops, or attaches to my backpack if I have to run inside a store or step off trail for a pee break. It also has a perfect sized pocket for treats and poop bags! Plus it is very well made, so if Chloe sees a delicious mushroom morel in Oregon and drags me over to try to eat it, my pants will stay on; which is always nice.

Treats: For day to day treats, Chloe LOVES her dried liver delights. She will do pretty much anything for a piece of liver and they are extremely lightweight. We supplement her treats with joint supplements from Dasuquin with MSM to keep her pain free; as well as peanut butter packets. We do have coconut oil and bone broth in our resupply boxes that we can share with our girls, if they are needing some extra encouragement.

Mushers Secret Paw Wax: This paw wax is absolutely AWESOME. With very thin daily application, Chloe’s paws have had no problems in our adventures so far! While this adventure is more than anything we’ve ever done in the past; it will be amazing to see how much the paw wax helps her her paws happy.

Doggy Toothpaste: Another important hygienic item for Chloe on the trail is her toothpaste! While we typically brush her teeth with toothpaste less often than we are supposed to, she does enjoy her daily greenie- BUT while we are on the trail, we will not be having our daily greenies anymore. Chloe will desperately miss them. Thankfully she also loves her toothpaste, and while she thinks teeth brushing time is actually the best time to flood my hands with a million doggy kisses, it is also important for her oral health to keep her teeth clean. While some may think I am beyond crazy, I am also an occupational therapist with a very in depth knowledge about the links between illness and oral health. The incidence of people experiencing pneumonia when they have poor oral health is ASTONISHING, and while I am sure it is slightly different for dogs (like most medical things) there is some major overlap. Therefore Chloe’s toothpaste is in a tiny contacts holder container, with her refills in a tube coming once a month in our bounce box.

Sleeping Gear: Chloe and I share a puffle sleeping quilt, which withstands temperatures to 40 degrees or warmer. While we also have a zero degree sleeping bag for our colder temp experiences; we hope we will not have to use this on the trail and can stay warm with 2 humans and 2 dogs in a big agnes tent. I do keep a nemo pad to protect my sleeping pad from her claws; and it is helpful for Chloe to have a place to just lay down for a little while outside at camp.

Poop Gear: Oh yes, dogs need poop gear too! I use the compostable poop bags to pick up Chloe’s poop, then I keep it in a very large gallon sized peanut butter jar. It clips on to my backpack on the outside so it does not fall, or make my pack smell. This technique is AWESOME; as I can just dump out the poop every time I see a garbage. Yet, I can easily fit a week’s worth of both Chloe and Freyja dog poop in the gallon sized peanut butter jar. While I use a trowel and bidet, Chloe uses poop bags and jars.

Weather Gear: Chloe Rue is a dog who is not a huge fan of rain, or heat. I know; that is basically the entirety of Oregon. BUT when she is wearing her rain coat, she is the HAPPIEST little clam. Maybe it’s because she knows how cute she looks, with her tail sticking out and her rain collar up. Or maybe she’s just extremely happy to be warm and dry when wearing her raincoat. Either way; it is 100% coming with us on the trail- both for her comfort, and to protect her pack and everything inside of it.

Chloe also has a cooling buff, that of course matches mine. We usually use a whole swamp cooler on summer backpacking trips, but since this is so far I was not excited about the extra weight. So we tired a small cooling buff and she MUCH prefers it anyway (since she doesn’t like wet things, the swamp cooler is usually pretty wet- which also makes it heavy). The buff is awesome because if we are exposed, dogs CAN actually experience sunburn and dogs with black fur are at a much higher risk! The buff is light colored and UV proof, keeping her cool and free of sunburn on all our adventures.

First Aid: Your dog is safest when they have a first aid kit! It can truly make the difference of getting into town, or losing your pup on the trail if you have a few important items that you can use for their safety. I keep a few key items in our first aid kit, which includes quick stop bleeding, pedialyte, silver nitrate, medical grade super glue, coban wrap, non-stick gauze/regular gauze, a sharp scissors, tweezers, emergency blanket, trazadone, antidiarrheal meds, dog pain medications, medical tape, and honey (antibacterial, wound and burn soother that doesn’t smell like alcohol because Chloe is very afraid of alcohol but does not mind when I put honey on her at all). Overkill? Maybe. But the weight is worth it to me.

Doggy Backpack: The most difficult piece of gear that Chloe and I had to dig for! Doggy backpacks. Our story started way back when we first began backpacking together. I do not keep a lot of items in Chloe’s pack, yet I know she looks forward to hiking SO MUCH and whenever I gathered her pack together she would get SO excited. So we started with the Kurgo doggy backpack, and it did not last us more than 1 trip before a clip broke; and it didn’t fit very well anyway. Then we upgraded to Ruffwear, loving the packs that allow you to remove the bags, so your pup can run around with just the halter. We have had this pack now for some time with no issues, except for the fit. Chloe did not have the support she needs in the rear strap the entire time we used this pack together, and I am not very good at sewing to have adjusted the strap smaller. See Chloe has a large chest, and a TEENY tiny waist; and she is also a rather tall girl. The combination made it so difficult to find the right fit, and even when we tried different sizes and brands at the store, nothing would fit her right.

Insert- an awesome Dog Adventure Advocate who lives in Switzerland with his dog named Thunder! Shout out to Dog Pak who is putting ultra light, weather proof, gorgeous looking backpacks on the market. We are triple crossing our fingers that the pack will be ready on time for our thru hike! We did pre-purchase one and are SO excited to give it a try if it gets here on time.

In the meantime, I needed something better than Ruffwear if the Dog Pak was not ready in time. I couldn’t have Chloe making this long trek with an ill fitting pack, I just couldn’t. After some research, I found Groundbird Gear, which is another awesome company who makes dog packs by HAND in the United States. Many thru hikers will invest in this pack, knowing it will last the entirety of their dog’s life, even if they do many thru hikes. So I went ahead and invested in it, knowing that Seth’s pup Freyja would also benefit from a new pack if Dog Pak arrives in time- and we can just choose which one fits/works best for whichever dog.

I guess that is the perk of having two good girls around, is that we can switch up their gear whenever we need to!

Well that is EVERYTHING, absolutely every last drop of gear that Chloe is going to have on our Pacific Crest Trail hike this summer. We had so much fun filming our dog gear video for youtube! I hope you guys can check it out, and experience my crazy girls zooming around the yard, in and out of the video- it is SUCH a blast.

What is something you always bring with you when you go on a hike (or a walk) with your dog? Have you ever been in the same shoes as me and Chloe on our epic hunt to find the right dog backpack? Thank you SO much for following us in our journey! We are thrilled to be heading north! Thank you so much for following! Many happy trails and happy tails to you all.

Barking Embarkers