By Charly SHELTON

With nice weather in the morning continuing into the early afternoon, it might be easy to forget how punishing the heat can be later in the day. Many hikers take to the trails around the Crescenta Valley expecting to be back at their cars before temperatures peak. Instead, some wind up stuck somewhere along the way due to overexertion, heat stroke or underestimation of the difficulty of a hike. This becomes even more risky when taking furry friends along.

Dogs’ bodies operate differently than those of humans when it comes to temperature regulation. Humans have an internal temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The primary way of compensating for ambient temperature change is external – sweating when it’s hot, goose pimpling and shivering when it’s cold. Dogs have an average internal temperature of about 101.5 F, with small dogs running a little lower and large dogs a little higher. They have sweat glands in the pads of their feet and in their ears, but their main temperature control comes from that wet nose. When they are hot, they breathe in through the nose, picking up moisture, and exhale through the mouth. When they’re cold, they breathe in and out through the nose so as not to lose any body heat.

So when hikers are on the trail and dripping sweat, dogs are hotter and working harder to cool off. This can lead to some dogs just lying down, heat-exhausted and unable to move farther on the trail.

This was the case recently when Glendale Fire Dept. rescue teams were called to Deukmejian Park in La Crescenta to help a stranded hiker and his dog that had had enough for one day.

“Glendale fire engine 29, truck 29 and Battalion Chief Barone from the Burbank Fire Dept. arrived on scene and, with the assistance of the Glendale Police Dept. helicopter, were able to locate the dog and the hiker, who was a Glendale resident,” said Anita Shandi, Public Safety business coordinator for GFD. “Upon assessing the terrain and location on the trail, the Los Angeles Fire Dept. helicopter airlifted the hiker and his dog to safety at the helispot at Deukmejian Park. The dog, an older chocolate Lab that was experiencing heat exhaustion and had cuts and bruising on his paws, was unable to continue the hike. Upon landing at the helispot, the hiker took his dog to a veterinarian for further evaluation.”

This kind of call becomes more frequent in the summer when hiking and other outdoor recreation activities increase. Glendale firefighters are trained year-round for mountain rescues, animal rescues, brush fires, structure fires, hazardous materials incidents, urban search and rescue and medical emergencies and traffic collision extrications, Shandi said, and they also work with other law enforcement branches, as was the case at the Deukmejian rescue, to effect rescues when necessary.

For the unincorporated Los Angeles areas of the Crescenta Valley, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Dept. – Montrose Search and Rescue team responds to calls for human and animal rescues.

“Whether it’s a dog or human, we respond. We need to do the extraction to bring the dog back safely to its owner. We have the same sense of urgency whether it’s human or animal to effect a rescue,” said Robert Sheedy, team leader of MSAR.

While animal rescues aren’t as common as human rescues, they do occur from time to time. One rescue that Sheedy detailed in particular took place roughly two years ago in the Arroyo.

“Here was the scenario. A man was walking his dog in the Arroyo, and the dog ran away from him, up the hillside of the canyon, got stuck on a ledge and couldn’t get up and couldn’t get down. So we were notified of the dog rescue and we responded, and, sure enough, the dog was stuck on a ledge maybe 80 or 100 feet above the canyon bottom,” Sheedy said. “He had no way of getting down – it was late in the afternoon – so we decided to effect the rescue of the dog. Some team members set up a rappel station so team members could go down and secure the dog so that he would not fall and be further injured. Then other team members arrived, and they set up a raising system so that we could ultimately raise the dog and the rescuer back up to terra firma. And the dog was elated. The dog’s owner was so happy, he even brought the dog to the next team meeting just to thank the team members for saving his dog.”

The dog was named Bandit, and he was a perfect subject for a rescue, Sheedy said. In an unforeseen outcome of the rescue, Bandit’s owner was so impressed by the work that MSAR does that he joined his local search and rescue team in Sierra Madre.

While many of the rescue stories have a happy ending, others do not. It was hard work by team members and no small amount of luck that saved Bandit’s life. Some are not as fortunate.

GFD and MSAR both stress that preparedness can mean the difference between life and death if things go wrong on the trail.

“First of all, tell somebody where you’re going. Have a plan,” Sheedy said. “And if you’re with somebody, don’t separate. Oftentimes what happens is somebody lags behind and they get separated, and then the other goes back to find him and the person is not there. Regardless of how slow the person might be, don’t separate. If you do separate and become lost, stay where you are because we’ll find you. Take a first aid kit, extra clothes, extra water, cellphone, a compass, a fire starter, a GPS – just things that you might need in case you get separated or a hike is longer than you anticipated.”

For pets’ safety, be aware that they cannot handle the rigors of heat as well as can humans. Be considerate when planning activities for pets.

“When dealing with extreme temperatures and conditions, it is in the best interest to consider all parties in the group – pets included – in order not to overload [anyone] under these conditions,” said Glendale Fire Captain Mark Carrillo after responding to the Deukmejian rescue.

The LASD has created a hiking plan that is available for the public to download and use to leave information about upcoming activities. If a hiker is not back at the expected time, this information will give search and rescue members information to begin looking. The form can be found by scanning the QR code attached to this story or at goo.gl/uoMb5p.

  Charly Shelton