Porcupines

My poor Millie has been stung by Porcupines twice :(  First time it happenned, I was near the end of Perseverence Trail and she came out of playing in the bush with two quills.  She wouldn't let me near her to get it out, so I gave up and hiked 3 miles back with needles stuck in her nose.  Once home, I had my husband pin her down and I managed to pull them out.  I was not there the second time.  My husband was couple miles up Salmon Creek Trail when she got stung.  She didn't learn from the first instance.  This time, she was practically crippled with 12 quills stuck in her paws.  She was lying on her side, probably from pain, and could not move.  Brad had to carry all 62 lbs of her down the trail and rushed her to the vet.  They had to sedate her to ease her pain while pulling them out.  She was quite loopy afterwards and took couple of days before she was moving around like her old self.  I was away on a business trip during that time and was really sad I could not look after my baby.  For future reference though, here is what my husband says about how to pull out porcupine quills:

Let's start out with some facts and fiction...

FICTION:

1.) Porcupine Quills contain Poison. False! The American Porcupine does not. The Indian Porcupine does. Guess which country the Indian Porcupine comes from?

2.) Porcupines shoot Quills at enemies in Projectile fashion. False! They wave their tail and back when in distress and must physically touch an enemy for the Quill to stick in it. Likewise, if a dog touches a Porcupine, the Quill will stick in it. Quills do not "shoot out".

3.) Porcupine Quills are pressurized and must be snipped at the end before they are pulled out. False! This is utter bullshit. They are very slightly barbed, but not pressurized by any means.

FACT:

1.) Getting a Quill in you is very painful. True. Even one hurts like hell. Like a little dagger sticking into your skin.

2.) If your dog looks like she is in pain, take her to the Vet. Don't try to remove Quills yourself unless there is only 3 or 4 of them. Your dog may need sedating to kill the pain.

3.) If your dog has less than 5 Quills, you can avoid Vet fees by trying to remove them yourself. Read below for directions.

REMOVING QUILLS YOURSELF, WITHOUT A VET... (if there is more than 5, see a bloody vet!)

You will need:

1.) a strong grip.

2.) disinfectant (hydrogen peroxide etc)

3.) a set of balls

4.) a second person would help to keep Millie still.

First, have your disinfectant handy.

Now grip the quill as far down as you can, closest to the skin of the dog for best grip. What you want to do is very slightly turn the Quill at a very slight angle as you pull it. Don't pull it straight. The barb is not very big, but to avoid excess damage to Millie, pull it out quickly at a slight angle. As soon as the Quill is out, place it away to one side and do the next one.

Once all of them are out, dab the affected areas with disinfectant on a tissue to stop infection

That's it! All done. She'll be hurting for the rest of the day. Just let her rest.

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Hope this helped.

Granite Creek Trail

If it feels like it's been a while since I've posted, it's because it's been a while since I've done anything worth blogging about.  Since early May, it has been raining practically non-stop.  I knew it was coming, but I didn't realize it would be so soon.  I was quite disappointed at how short the summer was, and I expected to not see sun again until March.  I started off being quite bummed about the weather, but I decided to try to deal with it by looking for new ways to entertain myself besides hiking.  I joined the gym at work, went swimming couple times at the city pool, and let my husband talk me into going halves on an Xbox.  Just as I had finally found ways to cope with the bad weather here, I get a weekend full of blue skies.  I spent the Saturday checking the Eagle Crest Ski area and found that to be a great place to hike also.  I didn't hike all the way to the top though because I knew I had a long hike the next day on Granite Creek Trail.  I had heard it was a nice trail, but I didn't realize what an understatement that was.  It was an absolutely gorgeous hike.



The trailhead to 3.5 mile Granite Creek begins about 2 miles into Perseverence Trail.  Once turning onto the trail, you go up some narrow switch backs until you get to a snow bridge (pile of unmelted snow over the creek).  The trail from here gets a bit muddy in places, like most Juneau trails, but it's not too long before you gain elevation and start getting some nice views of the mountains.  Your first wow factor comes at the large water fall.  After admiring the falls a bit, you continue on until you reach what looks like your destination - an open view of lakes, creeks, and mountains.  Then you realize you've only travelled about a mile in so you know you're not there yet and keep going.  However, the view is just so amazing I kept taking photos. 



A little more ways in, I turn around and am amazed at the view again.  We stopped for lunch, but had to keep going afterwards since we weren't at the end.  We weren't quite sure how far to go, but we saw another big waterfall ahead and went closer.  There was a steep trail that went up to the top of the falls, and once there, it was just wow again.  Maybe because we just had so much rainfall, there were waterfalls everywhere and a large stream flowing.  I would rank this hike up there with those I've done in Banff, New Zealand, or Nepal.  I don't think my pictures do it much justice, but I thought it was just beautiful. 



I think we reached about 2300 feet (from 83 feet at start of Perseverence Trail), but we still had maybe a mile to go and another 200 feet to climb.  Unforunately, we spent too much time enjoying the scenery and had to turn around because my friend had to get back by a certain time.  I'm not sure what's up there at the end, but I'm looking forward to finding out next time I go.  I'd also like to try to get out there a bit earlier to see more wild flowers.

For those of you who are quite fit, there is an option to hike up Mount Juneau (trail up also starts from Perseverence), hike along the ridge, and come down the Granite Creek basin to the trail.  I bet that would be an awesome hike.