Quad Dog with Captain Defiance, aka Mayhem and Justin Wright

24 miles of hiking • 11000' elevation gain •

Quad Dog Challenge 2011 -

Arundodonax aka Chris, double dog dared Justin to do a 4 Dog Mt hike. Mayhem must have seen them having the convo over on WH.com and wanted in and texted me Thurs. night for a invite. I said yes. :) I'm crazy.

Got up around 3:10 am to meet Justin and Mayhem at Dog MT.

Was suppose to be a 5 am meet up. I made it there about 5 after 5, Justin was already there and looked just about ready to launch but someone was a little tardy. You know who you are! Tardyhem! Was all good though, we had a lot of daylight to get a 4 dog in, so you're in the clear Mayhem :D

Justin and I were pretty much ready by 5:30 while Mayhem was still gearing up, he said "go ahead guys and I'll catch up". Justin and I busted it up past the first junction where there is a split for steep and less steep. We took steep for the first lap up. Soon after, Mayhem was right on our tails and took over the lead spot and started booking, whoa, it was on! Made it up the first lap in 1 hour and 25 minutes. Was so nice that early up there, nice and chilly and windy, stayed just a little while and started back down.

Took the less steep and longer route down to save ourselves for the next 3 laps. The less steep way adds about 4 tenths of a mile over the steeper side leg.

The story is pretty much in the pictures with the captions. Total round trip on lap 1 was 2.5 hours, the times listed are the times for my GPS, so they are my times which are slower than Justin's and Mayhem's.

First lap break time at the cars was about 20 minutes, since I was a little slower my break was just a tad shorter. My slowness on lap 1 to the cars was nominal though, just a few minutes behind.

Looks like lap 2 started at about 8:20 am. We deiced to take the less steep up for lap 2 so it added that 4 tenths of a mile on us. My GPS says getting to the top of lap 2 took us 1 hour and 30, just about the same as the first lap, again I was slower and a few minutes behind them again. Break on top was about 5 or 6 minutes but seemed longer thinking back on it now. Getting down this lap took about an hour. The break for lap 2 took about 20 minutes, according to my GPS we started for lap 3 around 11:20 or 11:25.

Lap 3, things started to slow down a bit for me, heh. We went back to using the steep route for lap 3 also. Took me 1 hour and 40 to get to the top of lap 3. I managed to turn on some weird inside turbo jets to even get up there that quick, was actually in the lead on the very last half mile until I pooped out sort of and Mayhem got a shot me sitting on that soft boulder stuff with all the nice pretty flowers around me. I had the idea of picking bouquets out for us but it was just an idea, didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. :D Break time for the top of lap 3 was about 7 or 8 minutes? These breaks seem really short dudes!?! Weren't they longer? Took the least steep way down again for the last time to use it on the downgrade. Got back down for the final break before lap 4 in about 1 hour and 35 minutes. Having those bathrooms right there near the TH is awesome too!

At this point, during break # 3 down at the cars, Justin had to leave. So it was up to Mayhem and I to finish the Chris Quad Dog challenge!

Thanks again guys for sharing your great food and beverages, I only packed gross stuff like Powermax bars and Powerade. I had about 3 liters of water but way to much Powerade and it was making me kind of queasy during the downgrade of lap 3. Mayhem's Orange and dill pickle saved the day for me! I will pack a much better and diverse cooler for the next crazy hike! Justin had a killer assortment of goodies too and I got some nice cool carrot's from him! :)

Break # 3 lasted about 15 minutes, said goodbye to Justin and then we were off!

Took the less steep way to make the whole day more even, using 2 steeps and 2 less steeps. Ok, I was SUPER slow at this point and not sure how I made it except for Mayhem's constant yappin' and great sense of humour, again he saved my day and kicked my sorry but up the hill. I even mixed in a fun little 'schwack for him which he caught on video. Boy, just running up 50' or so into the ferns pooped me out though :) Something else that really lifted our spirits was when we would run into other normal hikers along the way who noticed us doing the hike again and again. People were so friendly and amazed, all the cool positive waves really boosted us up for the 4th lap. Time up for the final lap was about 2 hours and 10 minutes for me, again, Mayhem was already up at there for several minutes before I got to the top. Some nice folks took our pictures and we breaked for 2 minutes or less and headed back down. For the final descent Mayhem wanted to avoid the less steep longer way to save time so we used the steeper side. I wasn't moving too good, just trying to make it down but did hike faster when I could, almost jogging at times. It was super killer going down the steep and I was fading fast by the time we made it to the open rocky switch backs, barely walking really. Time down for the final crazy lap was about 1 hour and 25 minutes, it seemed like 2 hours but after going up Dog MT. 4x in one day hike everything seemed out of whack to say the least.

Started moving at about 5:30 am and stopped my GPS at 6:15.

Fun day guys, let the good times roll and hope to do something crazy again with y'all! :D

I'll get the videos up as well sometime this evening...

Knee - preemptive analgesic cream at 3:30 am, took 1 Aleve after lap 1 and another about half way, took 1 Pain RX, iced after lap 3, No problems during hike and felt totally perfect the next day

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