Hiking Troubles

[RedRoxx44]

There's a blog called "Hiker Hell" --it's quite entertaining and sad and funny with what can and does go wrong, from mainly US but other countries like New Zealand, areas in Europe etc.

I've been thinking about my little disasters over the years. Some coulda been bad but fortune favors fools---or so they say.

Flash Flood--- Paria Narrows--just out of Buckskin. Unplanned overnight bivouac after cliff climbing out and ending up on the East Clark bench. I'll never forget sunrise and listening to the coyotes' sing and how sweet that was---

Falls-- Black eyes in Anza Borrego, skin tear with bone exposure in Anza Borrego on a solo hike and a three mile hobble out. Impaling cholla in hand leaving it non functional in Anza Borrego with bouldering to get out. Pulled 52 spines out with 4 requiring pliers to get them out. Fell in Utah and almost had my runaway pack pull me over a cliff. Fell in the Dirty Devil River with a heavy back pack. Ruined my camera on that one. Then I started using trekking poles but still fall.

Heat stroke or exhaustion--once in Anza Borrego which I really think was hyponatremia instead and once in Utah. The Utah one I ended up hitchhiking back to my car thank goodness for a nice couple from France.

Out of water---a couple of times. Lost--no
Equipment failures---nothing duct tape could not fix.
Clothing failures--Lost the skin on my heels a couple of times with poor/cheap boots. Once in Death Valley and once in Anza Borrego--fix--better fitting boots.

Caving-- rappel device incorrect rig--fortunately discovered this at the top of the drop.
Rapped into pit in cave with bad air. Good to know your rigging when your trying to ascend when addled with high C02.
Almost hung myself sliding down a crack when my helmet got caught and my body weight was hanging on the chin strap, fortunately the guy behind me helped me out quickly.
Stuck upside down, partner put rope around my foot and hauled me out.

Other--- shotgun in face with irate rancher thinking I was trespassing to do "bad deeds" we settled it with border patrol a few minutes later.
Guy giving me a little trouble at a TH. He almost got the business end of my "little friend", fortunately he backed down.
Dodging some gun toting drug runners in the Huachucas.

Animals--seen a few and no troubles, unlike the humans.


What other tales, experiences are out there???

[te_wa]

spent 8 hours hiking 3 miles in Deer Creek, after not sleeping but 20 minutes and not eating for 20 hours. Could have been worse, but the pot farmers were taking lunch.

Rubbed all the skin off my ankle while hiking in the rain to N. Fork of Deadman Canyon - then had to hike back out wearing the same bloody socks, about 7 miles.

Ran out of water after filling 2 quarts at Plow saddle Spring after the promise of water at Angel Basin. Spent the night sans water at the basin and then hiked up Rogers Trough in 90° without any. @(%*@)!!

Spent 4 hours getting my truck over (and off of) a 300# rock on a steep graded road. then used my truck as a battering ram to break a 1' diameter ponderosa that had fallen down on the road. thank goodness for Ford's steel bumpers.

back in the day, didnt realize that you'd need some bottom side insulation while sleeping in a hammock at 35°
ended up sleeping on the ground at Tony Ranch without a pad of any kind. @%*@)%)!!

hiked with some friends and my then fiance, and broke camp at Horton Spring to realize that id forgotten the tent. Im truly surprised she married me anyway.

[Davis2001r6]

Stupidity: 1st Backpacking trip at Hellsgate in December, no sleeping bag (but did carry in a 12 pack)--Mike was there.

A few scary moments climbing the 4 peaks.

Coming down Flat Iron once at the little 8' wall to down climb at was sitting on my rear and my backpack caught and about pushed my forward into a somersault off the little ledge

Letty, when I climbed that little dry waterfall on the Camino earlier this year, felt great climbing the wall, near the top the rock was dusty and slick, couldn't make it up the last 5 feet of the 30-40 foot climb without the assistance of a trekking pole.

Lots of heal blisters, caused by boots for the big mountains 90% of the time.

No good lost stories or equipment failures really.

-TIM-

[PaleoRob]

Stuck in sand up to the axles in Cane Valley, temp.on the thermometer inside of the Explorer reading 126. Lots of water but 20 miles back to the highway to hope for a ride back to Kayenta. Fortunately met a Navajo rancher (who didn't speak English) and his grandson (who did) and they were able to extricate my truck after only 8 miles of hiking. Fix: Don't drive offroad in Cane Valley with a 2x4.
Boulder I was standing on rolled onto my ankle, twisting it pretty hard while I was half way up the face of the Vermilion Cliffs last Friday, an hour before sunset. That could have been a lot worse - I just got the end of it and jerked away before it took that final plunge to oblivion. Still hurt like a #(^%. Fix: No fix possible - rocks on the cliffs are going to roll no matter what you do, its just a question of when.
No hardcore injuries from me to report, but my coworker broke her nose on top of the Vermilion Cliffs in the back of her truck and I was the only other person around. That was a fun drive. Fix: Bedliners in trucks.
Flash flood: Trapped on the wrong side of a suddenly-there river in the San Rafael Swell coming back from a dig for 5-6 hours. When we finally were able to drive across the mud was up to the bottom of the windows. I wasn't fool enough to be the first one through though. It had been dry in the morning. By sunset it was 120 feet across. Fix: Bring more food in the truck so I don't get hungry waiting.
Lost: Not yet.
Broken/lost gear: Shredded a Kelty tent boat-camping on Lake Powell. Lost my cathole shovel and TP in Grand Gulch ! Fortunately I wasn't the sole person in the group with one. Various sections of boot coming off at inopportune time, primarily from those junky Timberland boots I used to have. Dog chewed a hole in my daypack. And three of my sleeping bags to date. He's not getting his jaws on my latest one though. Sigg bottle took an unfortunate fall on the west face of the Vermilion Cliffs, leaving it more sieve-like than water-bottle like.
Worst all time backpacking trip: 1st backpacking trip ever, carrying a two-burner Coleman stove with two propane bottles in it's leather carrying case in one hand, two gallon water jug in the other, backpack filled with three complete days worth of clothes, canned soup, a four-person Kelty tent (the same one that was later shreded on the lake), with my enormous ex-Army down sleeping bag (Vietnam era) tied to the outside. My buddy was similarly outfitted, except he was carrying the spaghetti sauce jars and honey jars, along with all the silverware and pots and pans instead of the stove. That was the longest mile hike of my life! Solution: Become the person I am today...still not perfect, but I can hike all day with the pack I have now and not really complain.
Haven't been cliffed out or boxed up. Knock on wood.

[JimmyLyding]

Last September my roommate and I suffered a lot of self-inflicted troubles doing the South Fork of Deer Creek-Gold Ridge loop in the Mazatzals. Stupid.
The initial route up the bottom of South Fork canyon was pretty nice, but then it started to rain when we were about 2/3 of the way to FR 201. It started to rain harder so we went up a side canyon because we were worried about a flash flood. As soon as we got a significant distance above the canyon bottom, and became entangled in a mess of manzanita that we had to bushwhack through, it stopped raining. Then we made it cross-country to about the Davey Gowan trail, and went up towards the road. It seemed like the worst of it was over, but it started to pour as we were eating lunch at the Gowan trailhead. Around 4 in the afternoon. We started to boogie down the South Fork trail, and the sun came out to provide some beautiful photo opportunities. The clouds then rolled in, and then the fog. The trail had disappeared amongst a thick carpet of shrub live oak that we had to wade through. The lower half of my body was already so scratched that I didn't give a damn (I was wearing shorts), and I wanted to get to at least the canyon bottom before dark. That didn't happen, and we made our way at least 1,000' down from around where the Gold Ridge trail is to the bottom while canyoneering the final bit in the dark. It was also raining at this point, and South Fork was flowing fairly strong. We slogged it the rest of the way out through 6"-1' of running creek over the boulders and veering onto the bank when we could see courtesy of the lightning and occasional moon. We way overshot the return leg to the trailhead in the dark, and ran into the highway after a little detour through another area full of thorny vegetation. We had to go a mile up the Beeline back to the trailhead where my waterproof flashlight and map were waiting in the car. I have never been so scratched up before, and I hope to never repeat so many stupid things again!

[desert spirit]

Stupidly ran out of water in Canyonlands while still 10-12 miles from the campground. It was over 4th of July, and the afternoon was absolutely incandescent. By the time I made it to the campground, I was staggering. I swear I practically drained the camp water tank all by myself. But it made a believer out of me, and now I probably carry more water than I need to. But I learned that in the desert, nothing else matters if you don't have water ...

Then I was scrambling down a cliff face near the Dirty Devil on a beautiful sunny January day, and my foot slipped on a layer of ice. In that split-microsecond, I just knew that I was going down. I was only about 20-25 feet from the bottom at that point, and the landing was sandy, so I probably would have lived, but would have been one hurting girl. If I was very lucky, I'd have no broken bones, but I'd be hurt bad and it would be one hell of a time climbing back up. Well, somehow or other, I didn't fall ... I don't for the life of me know how I avoided it, but I did.

And then there was the griz in the Tetons. It was just a little overnight trip on a lovely trail that comes down from that strip between Grand Teton and Yellowstone. An absolutely beautiful trail, one of my alltime favorites, and I was thrilled to see sandhill cranes for the first time. I had seen griz tracks in the mud beside a creek on Saturday, but hadn't thought too much about it. But he was still in the area, and on the way back Sunday morning, he found me.

He stalked me for two or three miles before finally losing interest and wandering off. For an hour or more, I was stark raving petrified. But then, how are you supposed to feel with a predator the size of a Volkswagen on your tail? You are utterly at his mercy. If he wants you, he can have you anytime he wants. You know that, and you know that he knows that. You just pray that he's not hungry, and that he's just toying with you. Well, who knows what was going through his mind, but as I say, he lost interest in me. But I now know what abject, primeval terror feels like.

[Al_HikesAZ]

It seemed like a good idea at the time. But looking back . . .
our pioneering attempt at an ultralight through-hike from San Diego to Denver was probably not a good idea. We were 5 years old at the time. Jimmy wanted to visit his grandmother. He knew that she lived “just over those mountains”. That was good enough for me. We had 30cents and we took off. Doesn’t get much more ultralight than that. We drank from a garden hose. We stopped at the Big Bear market and bought a couple of candy bars. We drank from a clean puddle at a construction site just before dropping off the mesa into a canyon. This was our first introduction to bushwhacking through manzanita. We started to realize that we weren’t going to make it over the mountains before nightfall. We had no flashlights so we figured we should sleep there for the night. That was our big mistake. It gave the trackers time to catch up with us and take us home. The trackers told us that arguing over which candy bars to buy and telling the clerk that we were going to Denver were the clues that helped them. Parents and police really don’t understand adventure.

[desert spirit]

I'm partial to Butterfinger, myself ...

[writelots]

My personal worst was a severly sprained ankle 5 miles up the Romero Canyon trail with a 30lb pack on. Saw a girl once in the Gila Wilderness (at Jordan Hot Springs) who had a little too much to drink in the hot spring then fell down the short hill from her camp to the spring, breaking her arm and opening up her face - lesson, moderation is always a good idea in the backcountry. Both of these events have caused me to always carry serious pain medication on my backpacking trips.

[PaleoRob]

in the desert, nothing else matters if you don't have water

Well put.

[PaleoRob]

Per Randal's request, from my Chinle Wash trip back in April: http://hikearizona.com/x.php?I=4&UID=&O ... &tag=18237

I warn, "This feels like quicksand. We've got to keep moving so we don't get stuck." Just then Ben, slowing down to move some willow branches, stops and turns.

"What did you say?"

That does it! Behind me, Ely goes into a wild panic while Beth, still on the margins of things, spins around and retreats for dry ground. Ben topples over, sparing himself the worst of getting stuck. I'm only in up to my soles, but I know if I move, I'm screwed. Quicksand.

"Help me out," yells Ely, directly behind me. I lean on my hiking pole, and it immediately sinks up to the handle. Crappy. I try to turn, grabbing onto a willow, as I begin to go down as well. Movement is your real enemy in quicksand. I hold out the hiking pole to her, coated in slimy Chinle mud. "You can try this if you want-" and she does, her hand slipping off immediately. That mud is slick! "-but how you get out of quicksand is to lay down. Crawl or wiggle your way to dry ground." I then demonstrate, flopping to my belly beside Ben. I hope its not all a crock - I'm just going off of several accounts of quicksand that I've read, I've never actually dealt with this quicksand before, not crotch deep quicksand like we're in.

[SuperstitionGuy]

The following is from a post on another thread I made earlier this year....

My father-in-law gave me a Mexican string hammock that he had used for many years and I decided that I needed to try it out on my next excursion into the Superstitions. I first hung it up in Upper Fish Creek Canyon but after laying in it for about 30 seconds one of the ropes broke and dropped me onto the rocks. Luckily I did not break any bones but I sure had plenty of black and blue bruises that only my wife could see.

I replaced the ropes for my next excursion and hung it up in Pine Canyon not to far from the junction of Reavis Creek and Pine Creek. After about 30 minutes I heard a pop as a string broke. Then another pop about 5 minutes later. The pops then began to come faster and faster and before I could get out of the darn thing I fell through and was dumped on the ground once more! It was pitch black dark and I was under two palo verde trees so I had a soft place to land and didn't suffer to much this time except for my pride.

I lite a motif candle that I had brought along and set it in the dirt alongside me, but a light breeze kept blowing it out. I then placed my boots (cheap K-mart things) on their sides with the heels facing the candle to protect it from the breeze. I then zipped up my sleeping bag and finally got to sleep. About two AM I woke up to a hissing sound and a very bad burning oder to find my boots on fire! The flames coming off the heels and souls were two feet high! I quickly unzipped my sleeping bag, reached over and grabbed the tops of the boots with my hands and pounded the boots on the ground which put the fire out. I lay there the rest of the night trying to figure out how I was going to walk out, barefoot or what?

The next morning I found that the heels were burned away and most of the souls as well. The leather had baked and shrunk so much that my size 12 boots were now about a size 10. The laces were burned away as well so I threaded new cord for laces and tried to put them on but to no avail. Then I took off my socks and tried again and again and finally I had them on. I placed my pack on my back and walked into the creek to let the leather soak up some water, expand and give my feet some relief from the pressure of the now size 10 boots. And it was late November and the water was COLD! I slowly sloshed back down Pine Creek being very careful where I stepped as there were burned holes in the souls as well as in the leather near the instep area.

Ah the joys of backpacking! Joe you need to create a catagory called "And I learned about backpacking from that?".

End of quote...

[PaleoRob]

Kind of amazing that some of us kept on with this after some of these "my first time..." stories...

[Al_HikesAZ]

. . .. The leather had baked and shrunk so much that my size 12 boots were now about a size 10. . . .

Reminds me of a saying I heard long ago (I think it was from an old & wise Marine)

If you want to forget all your cares in the world, wear bad boots!!

Having worn bad boots on several occasions, I agree. All you can think about is how that next step is going to hurt.

[DarthStiller]

All you can think about is how that next step is going to hurt.

I've worn bad boots also, and my thinking is usually a little different. It goes like this:

gee whiz!
gee whiz!
gee whiz!
gee whiz!
gee whiz!
gee whiz!

etc.

[desert spirit]

Both of these events have caused me to always carry serious pain medication on my backpacking trips.

Same here. I saw a woman slip on a moss-covered rock in a little creek and land on her elbow. Wasn't broken, but I'm sure it hurt like the dickens and she had 10 miles to walk. I gave her three of my codeine tablets I'd gotten from my dentist, with instructions not to take them all at once. She gobbled them like candy. So I guess maybe yeah, it did hurt a little.

[Nighthiker]

Just part of hiking, some trips are better then others. Enjoy them all.

[Grasshopper]

Just part of hiking

So true, just part of the "Wilderness Experience". If you do enough of them sooner or later your number will come up! ;)

[nonot]

I've never been in a situation I consider my life was is imminent danger. 80% of my hikes I come home scratched to bits and torn up from thorns. If I am not in pain at the end I figure I wasn't trying hard enough. Haven't had anything occur to me where I felt it was out of control either, although spending an extra night in the Mazatzals with no food while still facing a punishing half-day hike out doesn't rank high on my list of things I want to repeat.

Nice story Al, I remember my attempt to make it to Africa in one afternoon, it's just a few blocks away, right

[desert spirit]

I remember my attempt to make it to Africa in one afternoon

Watch out for the rhinopotomusses.