Disaster at 7000 feet

Went for a hike last night to view the full moon. This is a Blue Moon because we have two full ones this month. My dog Chester got to go along also since the trail we were on, Section 16, is an off leash trail. For the most part it was a nice uneventful night. The group I was in stopped for a little while on an overlook to admire the city lights. That's when it started to rain. Now this wasn't a really hard rain and it wasn't lightening but I had made the mistake of throwing a pair of jeans on instead of a good quick drying pair of hiking pants. That was my first mistake this tragic night.

A little cold and uncomfortable, I decided to call it a night along with about half of the group. The other half decided to push on since the rain had let up by this time. This became the second mistake I made on this fateful night. Heading down in the dark of night I made the third and final mistake that would prove my undoing. Chester was not on his leash. It was sitting comfortably in my backpack doing nothing to prevent the upcoming horror.

Going down was mostly uneventful with the occasional stumble on hidden rocks. The group was in good cheer and having fun calling out "rock" or "step" to each other to keep people from busting their butts! I could see we were getting close when disaster struck! I noticed a funny smell on the air and others started commenting on it also. It started to get worse and worse when I noticed it became exponentially worse every time Chester ran by me on the trail.

Chester had been sprayed by a skunk! If you have never smelled skunk before, consider yourself lucky. It's a horrible stench that lingers forever. Poor Chester had been hit in the face and had to be suffering for it. The worst part was we were on the opposite side of the town with a long car ride ahead for me and the now very stinky Chocolate Lab who had streams of drool dripping down the sides of his mouth. A long and miserable ride ensued with all the windows down and the heater blasting since it had turned into a chilly night. My eyes were watering and stinging by the time we arrived at the house.

Tossing Chester into the back yard I went inside, stripped and threw my clothes into the garage. I could smell skunk all around me. Searching online I found the ingredients for a concoction that was supposed to get rid of the stink now permeating from the back yard. Putting on clean clothes, I rushed to the store and bought, Peroxide, baking soda, and Dawn dish washing detergent. This mixture was poured all over Chester and worked in as best as possible. Someone had mentioned that Sprite helped so Chester got to stand on my back porch foaming and sizzling like a steak on the grill. Seems he doesn't like the tingle he gets between his toes from these concoctions and would stand there and try to lift his back feet out of the gooey bubbling mess now all over the back porch.

This wasn't enough so another trip to Wal Mart ensued, after I showered and washed my hair about six times with shampoo and hand soap. The lady I asked about Skunk Off in the pet aisle mentioned that she wondered what that bad smell was when I told her what had happened. I didn't smell so good apparently! This second trip to the store also included the rental of a steam cleaner, not for Chester, though that's tempting, but to try and get the smell of skunk out of my carpet and out of my car. Hopefully the smell will go away, sometime soon.