Worst On-Trail Injury

“So what's the worst you've been hurt on the trail? I've been lucky. Other than blisters and sore feet, I once had a bug about the size of a bumble bee (except more vicious and agile) fly up from an almost dry creek I was stepping over and bite a piece of flesh out of the back my leg then fly off. Man! That stung.”

“I got an unbearable rash in the cleft of my buttocks once.”

“Just the regular old sweaty butt rub rash. I'm pretty carefull when I'm out.”

“No sh!t and only 8 seconds before mine hit!”

“It's crippling, to say the least!”

“That reminds me. Once on my last day out, I was fertilizing the soil when I felt some weeds brush up against the inside of my butt cheeks. I scooted over and didn't worry about it. The next day at home I had a pretty bad case of poison ivy. Wasn't pretty (I checked).”

“One aggressive hike put me in the hospital for an inguinal hernia. It took three months before I was strong enough to walk a mile.”

“Other than sprained ankles and blown hammies, minor burns and splinters, I've had nothing really really serious. Normally my mystery injures occur on the last leg of the trip if they are to occur at all. Lazy foot placements and not drinking enough water and stretching lead to sore and pulled musckles. I don't know if it is tendon or ligament thing but on occasions one leg (normally the lead leg )gets extremely stiff. So much so that it is painful to bend the knee. So I end up hiking with a stiff leg and having to swing around and over objects.”

“When I was about 12 (nearly 30 yrs ago) I broke my wrist when I slipped off a boulder on the side of a trail in Yosemite. Right in front of a bunch of girls too. doh!”

“Rockbuck, same injury, same age. I slipped on some ice in Cuyamacha Rancho.”

“In a span of 8 days, I snowboarded and mogul skied (heavy snow), jogged and inline skated. On the 8th day I went for a dayhike (total, about 8 kms), my knees and Achilles tendons were hurting like hell coming back down the trail. I was basically walking stiff legged for the last 2 kms. Thank goodness for trekking poles.”

“Oh yeah, my knees were shot for the whole week after.”

“Dec 29th ('97?), after a dayhike, truck got stuck on the side of the road in snow. Lotsa shoveling, bending down, up, then bang on the face, saw stars, sat down. Felt moisture above eye, 7 stitches, Mammoth ER. Jan 2 (4 days later), I was skiing and a snowboarder (big guy) hit a tree, bounced off and hit me from behind. Couldn't put weight on leg and ended up in Mammoth ER again. Feb 14th (6 wks later!), skiing during whiteout, last run of the day, faceplant, my ski hit the back of the head. Saw stars again, 7 staples. Not exactly on-trail, but on the slopes.”

“I wrenched my knee once on a creek crossing. It didn't seem that bad and I hiked another 35 miles on it that weekend. It bothers me every time I hike now, though.”

“Blisters & having my toes jamming into the front of my boots in the White Mountains. That eventually lead to loosing 4 toenails.”

“fractured metacarpal 3 weeks before playing softball, thought it was a sprained thumb as it seemed to be getting better. by the second morning on the trip my wrist ended up swollen and hand was so sore i couldn't use it for much.”

“Before I had my ACL fixed, I dislocated my knee doin a creek hop. A buddie had some Anti-inflammatory's so I could make it out.”

“a fairly serious pulled calf muscle when scrambling around at the base of a water fall in SNP - had to climb back out of the area and then hike a couple miles back to the car - I think the hiking helped cause the injury healed much quicker than I had expected - just a couple weeks and it was no longer bothering me”

“Knock on wood...nothing more serious than a blister. Now, if you want to talk about skiing or mountain biking, that's a different story.”

“Barefoot rockhopping in the dark, hopped on to a "fake" rock, stepped down hard into the water and sliced up my toes. Shoulda had stitches, but finished the rest of the trip (6 more days) without 'em. Other than that, the usual bang ups, some blisters, lost a few toenails.”

“Hey I've got loads of diaper rash cream samples I could send you Nigal and Buddur.

Nothing worse than a nasty scrape (gouge) outta my knee. I just can't seem to stay on my feet sometimes. Oh and some big ol blisters.”

“Not realy an injury but I did get the flu once while out solo. Nothing more fun than running out of your tent at 2 AM in the rain to hurl out of both ends. On the hike out I couldn't even keep water down. At one point about halfway out I passed out right on the trail. Would have been a scarey sight for someone had they come along. Laid out on my pack in the middle of the trail in the rain. Probably would have took me for dead. By the time I got my delirious butt home I had a 103 degree temp. and didn't get out of bed for two days.”

“True flu never has vommiting or diarhea as a symptom. Were you using a sweetwater? :o)”

“i haven't been hurt bad, but once my sister stepped into a big hive of bees while my family was hiking...she got stung dozens of times before my dad could get her away from them.”

“Spiral fracture of my fibula while backcountry skiing in Yellowstone. I thought it was just a sprained ankle so I stuffed some snow inside my gaiters and skiied out on it. We went to a bar after getting out, had dinner, and stayed overnight at a hotel with a hot springs. We spent the rest of the evening playing scrabble and drinking plum wine. It never really hurt, but I couldn't figure out why my ankle felt "sqiushy" when I put weight on it. I finally got home and went in for an X-ray. They ended up putting two screws in to stabalize the fibula right above my ankle.”

“Stepped on a cheap wire tent stake to push it in and the little loopy end broke off, letting the broken off wire go through my shoe and foot meat until it hit bone.

Got my finger smashed moving a big rock.”

“I got some blisters. So far, so good.”

“When my dog gets really tired on the trail she leans up against my leg as she walks. I can't seem to function this way and end up falling. Last weekend, I fell over her and ended up with a bloody hole in my hand, no stitches required, and a bruised leg. I've had blisters galore like everyone else and while descending Mt. Bross, I fell down a scree slope about 20-25' and wound up with lots of cuts and bruises and a hole in my pants to boot! Holy sh!t! Could it be that I'm a clutz?”

“Once, when hiking with General Custard, he called me a foul mouthed dinglebeery.

It hurt real bad. :(”

“Don't know if this counts, but it's pretty timely.

Four weeks ago I went hiking on the PNW trip in Olympic National Park. About 7-10 days after the trip I noticed an odd little rash on my shin just above the socks. When it turned into a circle, and didn't seem to want to go away, I decided I should probably call the doc. He told me yesterday that he couldn't rule out Lyme disease, even though I don't have "all" of the symptoms, and the incidence of it in Washington is relatively low. Since the down-side to chronic Lyme is pretty severe, and it's hard to diagnose, he prescribed a course of antibiotics to make sure that's not it. Having practiced in Massachusetts for 20 years he said he's seen a lot of it, and it's nothing to mess around with. Bummer!

Then... About an hour later I'm home and decide to go out for a run. While huffing along near the curb I suddenly found myself violently thrown to the ground. As it turns out, there was a hard (green) pine cone hiding there in some leaves. When it rolled, so did my ankle. That pitched me awkwardly forward and I instinctiively absorbed most of the fall with my wrist. Now I'm poppin' Advil and nursing two worthless extremities. It was not a good day!!”

“I also got the flu in the backcountry. Cut the trip short and went home. 103 temp!

I got stuck waist deep in quicksand in Paria Gorge. In my attempt to pull myself out I managed to stress/pull several muscles in my hip area. Managed to hike/limp out the 5+ miles in about 8 hours.”

“Quicksand? Cool!

I forgot - I decided to go on a trip even though I wasn't really feeling that well. Ended up with a case of bronchitis that took about a year to get over completely.”

“As long as we're talking trail-ailments...I came down with a virus on the last day of the RRG trip last weekend. Temp of 103 and I'm on my 3rd big day off of work. Yipee!!!!!”

“quicksand?!? i thought that only existed in *Princess Bride*...”

“heat exhaustion/dehydration. 103 fever. Non-functional. Water, rest, salt tabs . . .I was well enough to hike out the next day.”

“I love The "Princess Bride"!”

“me too! the poison wine scene is the best :-) i used to think the hero was sooo hot when i was 10!”

“Would have to be the time i took a slide on the glacier about 200 or so ft. and bruised my thigh up pretty bad. i hiked out and went home, saw the dr. three days later. Gave me some name about a mile long for what i had and told me to check with the dr. if i ever got a bruise like that again.”

“Notice how Snow Nymph and snow don't mix. hee hee”

“Cracked a rib a couple of months ago, and I can still feel it when I lie down. It was halfway through the trip, so I had some miserable nights on the hard ground. I had to keep reminding myself: at least it isn't an ankle or a knee.”

“This is one thread where I'm happy to not be able to contribute anything.”

“You have made one of the classic blunders... 1. Never get involved with a land war in Asia. 2. Never go against a Sciclian when death is on the line!

What a great movie.

Actually quicksand is quite common in desert washes up to a couple of weeks after flooding. Quicksand is basically sand or river gravel that is partially suspended in water. I was crossing from one sand bar to another and walked through about 2" of water. Next thing I know I was up past my knees and still sinking. Also it's rare for quicksand to get more than about 4 feet deep becuase the weight of the sand on top pushes the water out from the sand on the bottom, thus compressing it and making more stable.

Inconcievable!”

“First question: When havent I gotten injured on the trail? The most serious when I fell face forward with my back on in the parking lot before we even started. I was chinless to say the least. Went on hiking fo 11 days though. Used alot of Gauze. I have a lovely scar to remember the whole event.”

“Thank goodness we just have peat bogs around here. You usually get some warning (the smell) and can avoid stepping in them.”

“I see ChinaChas has thrown down the HTML gauntlet.”

“Prolly when I falled off a clift and was ded for a minit but I got ok.”

“I smashed my ankle with an axe.”

“Some scouts will do anything to get out of fire duty. I suppose you got assigned to cooking duty after that? No wonder you weren't voted to SPL, like I was.”

“Scout camp. I tripped over a concrete flagpole base in the dark. (the flagpole was removed for replacement at the time) Tore a 4 inch gash out of my shin on a rusty mounting bolt. Just cleaned it out, no stitches. Then went canoeing for a week and the thing stayed wet. Made for a good scar.”