Hiking in altitude is tough and it’s even tougher for a 12 year old chihuahua. Fortunately, my dog Maru loves to walk. This little guy can walk about 2 miles everyday.
So we decided to train him to hike at Lone Pine Lake in the Sierra Nevada. This trail is a part of the Mt. Whitney trail, the highest mountain in the lower 48s. The hike to the lake is a 6.5 mi hike out and back at an altitude of 10,050 ft. We started by doing a couple of low elevation 2 mi hike every weekend leading up to the big hike. His first high elevation hike was 2 mi at 5k ft (Ice House Trail).
To further better his experience we spent a night camping at Lone Pine to get acclimated at 7+ft elevation. Then we spent another night of camping at Whitney Portal, 8k elevation.
The day before the big hike, we did a 1 mile test hike at Mt. Whitney Trail to give him more training for elevation gain.
Lots of breaks and h20 along the way to prevent altitude sickness. We also carried him when the trail gets super rocky. He made it to 10,050ft without any complications ♥️.
My dog is amazing!!
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