by AlmostThere » Thu Jul 16, 2015 7:18 am
Yep, no dogs allowed. I've seen people bring them anyway and get walked off the trail, and fined, and escorted out of the park for it.
Routes with plenty of shade are out there, but they will not tend to be the ones with a lot of great views - high open areas are nonstop vista views. Consider bringing your own shade - a broad brimmed hat, umbrella, loose long sleeve, sun gloves, long nylon quick drying pants, are my companions for high Sierra trips. I never regret it. There are sections of trail in areas still recovering from fires that have destroyed acres of trees, too.
On that note - bring a stove and don't light fires. California will thank you for it. Too dry, too dry, too dry, too dry. The forest is a tinder box thanks to the drought. Just a spark and thousands of acres could go up in just a few days - as it has in the recent past. Sure, the park allows campfires between 6000 and 9600 elevation - that doesn't mean you have to have one.
Dog friendly areas will be the NF wilderness areas - Emigrant, Hoover, John Muir, Ansel Adams, Dinkey, Kaiser wildernesses and general national forest are all okay. Do your dog a favor and keep it under control no matter what. Raw fish guts buried around waterways can kill a dog.Trout is a salmonid, trout are everywhere, a bacteria common in salmonids is deadly to dogs, don't feed your dog raw trout or salmon. Being frightened by a thunderstorm and taking off, getting lost, and never coming back is also known to happen - that nearly happened to a dog in Sierra National Forest - she spent 24 days out in the woods, surviving eating god knows what, and her owner went back until he found her - but that's an unusual occurrence. It's not often that lost dogs are found out there.