Ed'n Lauky
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It is with a great deal of sadness that I share with you news of the death of the greatest hiking dog ever in the New England White Mountains John Sobetzer’s little Schnauzer Pepper. Pepper died at age 17 after struggling with cancer for the past year. I asked John to share with me a bit of Pepper’s palmares and this is what he wrote back to me:
Pepper's "first known dog to do" included the NH 4K Grid, and then a second one, the WMG Trails (formerly called redlining) and then a second and a third, the Hike a 4k Every Calendar Day list, and 30 rounds of the NH 48 4K. He did some others that are just something I cooked up for fun that no one else would care about like a team (Pepper and Me) solo Grid, a team solo WMG Trails, an over 10 WMG Trails, and an over 10 4 Season 4K. He probably did seconds on the two team solos but they weren't anything that guided our hikes. I told him when he was old that with every added 4K he was undercutting his prior achievements, because if an old and ailing dog can hike 4Ks how tough could they be for a young dog. Of course, that applied to me even more. I consider anything I did as nothing more than just walking the dog.
Note from what John said that Pepper hiked every trail in the New Hampshire White Mountains three times. The New Hampshire grid consists of hiking all 48 of the 4000 foot and higher mountains in every month of the year that comes to 12 X 48 X 2 1152 peaks. Pepper did the 48 4000 footers 30 times or 1440 peaks. He also has a round of having climbed a 4000 footer on every day of the calendar year. And on and on it goes. Of course as talented as Pepper was, John didn’t just give him the keys and send him off, his faithful human was there every step of the way. It was the PEPPER AND ME team. The bonding that took place over all those hours of hiking together incalculable making the pain of losing him all the more difficult for John.
The most famous White Mountain hiking schnauzer is probably Tom Ryan’s Atticus. That’s because he had a great publicist. John generally flies under the radar and rarely posts. But the accomplishments of the Pepper and Me team will probably never be matched. We want to celebrate the life of that great little dog and at the same time express our deepest condolences to John for his very great loss.
Pepper's "first known dog to do" included the NH 4K Grid, and then a second one, the WMG Trails (formerly called redlining) and then a second and a third, the Hike a 4k Every Calendar Day list, and 30 rounds of the NH 48 4K. He did some others that are just something I cooked up for fun that no one else would care about like a team (Pepper and Me) solo Grid, a team solo WMG Trails, an over 10 WMG Trails, and an over 10 4 Season 4K. He probably did seconds on the two team solos but they weren't anything that guided our hikes. I told him when he was old that with every added 4K he was undercutting his prior achievements, because if an old and ailing dog can hike 4Ks how tough could they be for a young dog. Of course, that applied to me even more. I consider anything I did as nothing more than just walking the dog.
Note from what John said that Pepper hiked every trail in the New Hampshire White Mountains three times. The New Hampshire grid consists of hiking all 48 of the 4000 foot and higher mountains in every month of the year that comes to 12 X 48 X 2 1152 peaks. Pepper did the 48 4000 footers 30 times or 1440 peaks. He also has a round of having climbed a 4000 footer on every day of the calendar year. And on and on it goes. Of course as talented as Pepper was, John didn’t just give him the keys and send him off, his faithful human was there every step of the way. It was the PEPPER AND ME team. The bonding that took place over all those hours of hiking together incalculable making the pain of losing him all the more difficult for John.
The most famous White Mountain hiking schnauzer is probably Tom Ryan’s Atticus. That’s because he had a great publicist. John generally flies under the radar and rarely posts. But the accomplishments of the Pepper and Me team will probably never be matched. We want to celebrate the life of that great little dog and at the same time express our deepest condolences to John for his very great loss.
