HikeArizona.COM

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.

A few come to mind...
The most frightening time was hiking out of Saguaro NP right around dusk, and hearing bullets whizzing around us. Way, way, way too close for comfort.
We all started screaming, "There are people over here," blowing our whistles, and hit the deck. Eventually, the shooting stopped and we heard an ATV speed away. Back at our vehicle, we could see that they (he? she?) had been parked and then pulled away from almost right beside us. The shooter had been standing just outside the park boundary and shooting into the park.

Second place was probably being struck by lightning, but that was only frightening in retrospect, since it happened out of the clear blue sky in a large valley.

@autumnstars
Did you alert the NPS Rangers?

@Jim_H
Yes, we notified the NPS. We were actually there working with them on a project.
Don't think anyone ever figured out who it was - it was an area they had been having ongoing issues.
This was a number of years ago. NPS did step up ranger presence and outreach to the local community (they figured it was someone living nearby), and as far as I know the problem fell off in that area.

@autumnstars
Can't quite see that happening on the east side, was this on the west side of the park?

@SpiderLegs
That sounds right. It was many, many years ago, and we had study sites in both units, so I don't recall 100%

I was hiking the Barnhardt Trail a few years back and noticed the entire canyon had filled with smoke after I turned around for a look back about a mile and a half in. I set a personal speed record running back down the trail my car. It turned out the winds blew a smoke cloud from a control burn 20 miles away.

I was hiking over some razor wire at some indeterminable time last yearish. I thought my pants were just snagged on the way down so I jerked my leg. Once down I noticed some darker stuff on the ground couldn't figure out what it was and then my shoe began overflowing with the same dark stuff. I then had to make it back over before getting lightheaded. My hiking buddy had a heavy foot all the way to the people fixing place. The scar was expensive but cool though.


I did feel particularly at danger once while hiking alone when I came across the 4 guys and their illegal mining operation down Lower Fish Creek: http://hikearizona.com/photoset=14921

RWStorm was leading a small, but VERY elite group of some of HAZ's most accomplished adventurers down the backside of Brown Peak following the FIRST ascent of that storied and iconic peak, when one in the group dislodged a huge (accent on "huge") boulder which had RWS right in its cross hairs. Said boulder hit RWS right in the back of his knees, and he disappeared from sight when said boulder bowled over him as if he were lane 15 at the Lucky Strike Bowlerama. At that point my life flashed before my eyes as I realized RWS was my ride home, and the incident had happened so quickly I didn't have time to warn him to protect his car keys. I might have died on Brown Peak if anything had happened to those keys. Fear not my HAZ peeps since you're reading this account it should be obvious that I survived that gruesome incident. As for RWS, save for a little blood in his urine, he survived to subsequently post many a great wild flower photo set all of us HAZer on this distinguished forum have come to anticipate and enjoy.

I was struck by a rockfall in Monument Valley in 2008(-ish). Ran out of water in 1999 at the Saddle on San Francisco Peak. Various medical emergencies have happened to others on hike's I've been along on (broken nose, sprained legs, etc.) but nothing more extreme than that which I can recall at the moment...

@SAMBA
One my other close calls was also on that east side of Brown's Peak. Very steep and crumbly over there. for us it was more of a getting lost and running out of water issue. It was before I had a GPS and for some reason I thought it would be easy to bushwhack down that side of the peak to the 4Peaks Trail and take that back to Lone Pine TH.

@SAMBA
I'm sure scientists are relieved to finally know what caused that "seismic anomaly" they recorded on April 21, 2008 in the vicinity of Four Peaks. It's hard to like this post, but I'll give you one. The worst part was after that thing sent me flying, I heard it bounce and sure enough, it landed on me again. Sheese! Got lucky that day. Not the first time I have shed some blood on that baby...always with a little help from my "friends."

When my son was in Boy Scouts we took them on a hike up a steep, somewhat rocky trail. The leaders did everything right, told the boys how far apart they need to be spaced and to call out if they accidentally displaced a rock. I was a few hundred yards below my son and I hear someone warning about a falling rock. Look up and see a rather large rock making a beeline to my son. Look away thinking the worst and I hear a big thud. Open my eyes and somehow my son is still standing. Yell up to see if he is okay and he acts like nothing happened. Get up to the top of the trail and I see him pull out his aluminum water bottle. The side of it has a huge dent on it. The rock came down, bounced off the water bottle and kept going. My son was in blissful ignorance but all of the adult leaders passed around the water bottle in disbelief. For a split second I thought I was bringing my son home in a body bag.

Later, just to see how much force you need in order to dent an aluminum water bottle, took a hammer and pounded away. Couldn't do much more than scratch the water bottle. Finally had to take a sledgehammer before I could do any damage. We signed and dated the water bottle as evidence of his brush with death and he keeps it on a shelf in his bedroom now.

@SpiderLegs Definitely don't want to throw it out: Too much good mojo in it ...

SpiderLegs wrote: The rock came down, bounced off the water bottle and kept going.

Wow, hiking body armor! Whats next?

Thoreau wrote: The real oh pumpkin moments though have been on off road trips. Wont catch me on rug road again...

Why no more Rug Road? I've ran it three times now in the last 1.5 years and although it can be pretty nasty after a monsoon storm I find that the trail isn't that hard. First time I ran it there was a group of Jeep's not far behind us, one Jeep somehow rolled off the cliff going down carpet hill and the driver didn't live to tell about it.


I could say the same about Black Bear Pass, had to do a 5 point turn on one switchback and my passenger tire at one point was hanging off cliff side. I had to replace my seat cover after that trail run

@Azbackcountry
Tempting fate.. One of the best pic sets ever posted of a 4x4 Black Bear Pass trip http://hikearizona.com/photo=86909 ..Memories?

Grasshopper wrote:@Azbackcountry
Tempting fate.. One of the best pic sets ever posted of a 4x4 Black Bear Pass trip http://hikearizona.com/photo=86909 ..Memories?

Trail has definitely gotten a lot worse since that photoset. There is no way that vehicle would even make it up to the pass now, let alone down the backside and the huge steps now. http://hikearizona.com/photo=86910 In this specific photo are now the steps I'm talking about, we were all running 3" lift with 33's and going down the steps I was still making use of my sliders and bashed the cross member quite a bit

http://hikearizona.com/trip=53251
The Eagle and I almost got flash-fried by a lightning bolt on the Icehouse Trail in the Pinals. I felt that one in my dental fillings.

http://hikearizona.com/trip=14932
I remembered thinking that the possibility of dying was very real on this hike. My roommate and I went to hike the South Fork of Deer Creek-Gold Ridge loop in the Mazatzals. The hike started out nice enough with cool geology, frogs and easy going along what remained of the trail. Lunch was at 3 o'clock under a tree near the trail head for Gowan Trail in the pouring rain, then we took a wrong turn going down the Gold Ridge Trail in the fog and creeping darkness of twilight. We got back to my car around 10 PM after bushwacking down a 45° slope through holly oak, climbing down a rock wall in the dark and rain, then walking through ankle-to-knee-deep water down the creek for about 3 miles in the rain while the waterproof flashlight rested safely on the backseat of my car at the trailhead.

In the ignorance is bliss department, I once (ok--probably hundreds of times) cut down a tree with a chainsaw while wearing shorts and flip flops, no gloves, and no eye protection. After drinking a beer. I never thought anything of it, but after reading some comments on a website I visit occasionally, I learned that apparently I've nearly died dozens of times.


I also used to play on swings installed on pavement and colored in bright red lead-based paint.

chumley wrote:play on swings installed on pavement and colored in bright red lead-based paint

That explains the Chainsaw safety problems!