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This subject came up on the ride during last Sunday’s hike with Joe, and I thought it might be an interest thread topic: What’s been your “closest call” hiking, as in, almost died? I would think there are two basic categories: I’m sure there have to be interesting stories that people can share. I have had about 3. The first two were before I discovered HAZ, and involved no map, no GPS. It was after I hiked all the city and county parks and started venturing in the wilderness. My most recent one, 7+ years ago, was weather related: http://hikearizona.com/photoset=3201.

None while hiking and hopefully it stays that way. A few back in my inner city EMS days

@chumley
I thought your story might involve the recent gunplay with hillbillies, but I guess that's more camping related.

chumley wrote:Well there was also that night I spent in jail in Mexico

Ever been in a Turkish prison?

@Darth Stiller
No that was 9L's closest call. He was the one running away unarmed. I was confidently relying on fotg to use his experience picking off taliban fighters to take out a couple of drunks on a quad.

I haven't had any close calls in my outdoor adventures. I guess I choose to make safety a high priority when I go out hiking.

@chumley
I was going to ask why our little OK corral incident did not at least get an honorable mention nod from you..

I've been chased twice by bulls while backpacking in AZ. One was at Mud Spring in the Galiuros, where I escaped by heading into deep mud into which he preferred not follow and couldn't have done much damage if he had. Another was on the Safford-Morenci trail, where I scrambled up a bit of cliff and waited him out. I had a much closer call dayhiking elsewhere, in which I leaped over a barbed wire fence on a dead run. I didn't have great confidence in being able to clear it, but it seemed like the best option.

@big_load
Was it a big red bull?? Santa Gertrudes breed? Used to see him on the Powers Hill and I would wack this guy on the butt with my trekking pole because he would stand in the middle of the trail with his head down. In the day we worked with bulls we ringed the noses or used clamps, snatch the nose and put a twist in the rope. You'd lead them around balling like little calves. Horses we applied a twitch, snag the upper lip and twist if we needed them still for vet work or if the farrier was by.

RedRoxx44 wrote:Was it a big red bull??

My memory of the color is dim, but I might have a picture somewhere. He was with some cows, and I wondered if made him especially territorial. Mrs. big_load and I crossed through a bunch of red cattle on the way out once, but they weren't interested in us at all.

More than a few stories here that thankfully make my worst cases seem very minor.

First hike up flatiron with zero idea of what we were getting into, running out of water probably half way up, metric ton of camera gear in tow.

Grandview trail was a good one too. Got overheated exploring cave of the domes. One person in the group was out of water, and me and the third guy were low. Had to hike down to the spring leaving the one guy at camp. I dont know how many hours it too me to trudge back up after getting water.

Most recent incident was up in the blue ridge area on an overnighter. Managed to get separated from my hiking partner. Got back to my vehicle expecting the stronger hiker to be waiting for me, but he wasnt. Storm rolled in and I was in no shape to head back in to search. A few hours later I was on a repeater on mt elden calling for a SAR team. Not ten minutes after the SO was alerted, out pops the other guy from the woods and the hunt was over before it started. Turns out he had been backtracking and searching for me the whole time.

One hilarious false alarm was on hells gate. Me and two others had just started the hike in and were moving along briskly. Suddenly martha, who was in front, makes a quick u turn and starts power walking back towards the trailhead mumbling 'oh feces oh feces oh feces...' i figured she forgot something important in the truck. She gets a good 15 yards past us and then calmly says "bear!" (So willing to sacrifice us she was...) we look ahead and finally identify her 'bear' as a large tree stump.

The real oh feces moments though have been on off road trips. Wont catch me on rug road again...

Hiking or backpacking? Can't think of any in particular, although one time about 40 years ago I was on a four-day solo backpacking trip in the Cuyamacas near San Diego, sleeping under the stars, when I was awakened at about 3 a.m. by the most horrific screaming, and very close by. Sounded like a woman being murdered. To this day I don't know if it was a mountain lion or a bobcat.

On a Grand Canyon river trip, end of July 2011, river was running at about 28,000 cfs. I'm in the orange life vest. It really wasn't as scary as it looks but it sure is a great video. The reason the guy keeps asking about Amanda is because she was his girlfriend and he wasn't aware she was going to be in the boat with us. In fact, he quit filming when he realized he'd seen two of us pop up, but not his girlfriend. He and his dad ran for their boat...and they flipped too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B41bWWxqTK4

@gummo
I find this hard to believe Snake Whisperer!

It's such a subjective perspective type of consideration. Many moments wherein we reflect on "Wow! ...that was close!" yet, we walked away... made it home. I've done plenty of death marches... 4-8 hours in the heat with no fluids. I laid down one night doing a 27 mile walk out of Big Bend during a blue norther... but, I did not stay down... eventually did get back up and walked. SAR in Ruidoso thought my 3 day wander in late November sans gear was way too close of a call; seemed fun to me.

Biking and white water kayaking... lots of for real close calls...and lots of dead friends.

I did have a snow encrusted ledge break away from under me hiking off trail... I went sliding down a steep embankment, headed for a pointed snag... really headed for it... and I recall wondering: "...will they find my body?" I arrested with the point of the snag less than a foot from my neck. That felt close.

Animal encounters inspire consideration, but bottom line, we are the most dangerous animal out there... I guess I'd want them to have taken the first bite before I'd count any of those... other than a couple of snake bites I have yet to have that happen.

I may not of yet had a legitimate close call...

I sprained my knee a little over a mile into my hike today. Was in a small canyon a few miles north of Wilhoit. Would have been very easy to turn around. No problem at all. Kept going anyway. Finished 11+ miles later. Knee was not happy. :whistle: Not deadly, but ...

@kingsnake
I hope it gets better! I did more or less the same thing in November 2004, and within a month I couldn't walk. It took six weeks of physical therapy to get me walking normal, and really another whole year to be pain-free after a long hike.

It will be fine in a few days, as I lost my ACLs years ago ...

...went into a side canyon just south of the Park Trail with John (Chapman) to show him a 60 foot waterfall. As we were hiking along a steep hillside (off-trail), John suddenly grabbed my shirt and pulled me backwards. A split second later, the refrigerator-sized boulder above me that I had held on to for balance rolled right in front of me and down the slope, destroying bushes and trees in its' path. John had seen the boulder start to move, I hadn't.

Park Trail #66, Mazatzals, Feb. 3, 2001

@Preston
...that's a close call!!!

I hiked up the rim one day behind a certain HAZer who had eaten a bag of rotten beef jerky. I thought I wasn't gonna make it but I powered through.

@Tough_Boots You win.