Disaster on the trail

“Sierra 2000. Started off with 6 of us (Cottonwood Lakes, 9,000'+, south of Mt Whitney) on a 9 day trip. SD got HAPE on the 3rd morning so I turned back with him (2 days to get out). Del & Gary went over Crabtree Pass, while Bill and Nancy went the longer easier and safer way and met them at Crabtree Meadow. After another day or so Bill got AMS and bailed out at Shepherd Pass (12,000'). The three of them continued over Forester Pass (13,200'). In the meantime(day 5), SD drove me to Onion Valley (10,000', where our group was coming out), and I bp'd in and met them on the north side of Forester (day 6 & 7).

We had another part of our group that did three-3 day trips, that we met for the 8th/9th days.

On Crabtree Pass (day 3), Del fell on a loose boulder and cut his chin, and now has a goatee to cover it. On day 7 we met with the other part of our group and met the rest of the internet gang. On day 8 Steve had a punctured lung (or something) and was in severe pain. We had a nurse, and between us we had enough meds to take care of him, and get him out the last day. It was a good trip, even with everything that happened.”

“Deer Creek, AZ. (MaryPhyl's trip) On the 3rd day, we knew a storm was coming. 4 of us were setting up tents, I threw all my stuff in my NEW Stephenson's warmlite. When the monsoon hit, my warmlite blew away, held only by one boulder, then came back, like a click-clack. Broke both poles and minor tears in the floor. I held on, it felt like I was on waterskis and the boat was pulling away. I jumped in the tent and wrapped it around me. In the meantime, I could see the other 3 tents flattened by the wind. Bushes and rocks were flying, I was imagining Dorothy and Toto looking at their home fly away. Then it stopped. Some people were still at the top of the ridge when it hit. Del (again) was bleeding. He slipped on the trail, flew into a bush head first, and was hanging near the edge of a cliff. Rhett was with him and pulled him up. After it was over, we all laughed about what happen. No one was hurt, and we were able to continue the trip.”

“Those last two sound Too Familiar, <VBG>. I remember a phrase from last spring like "We had so much fun in the Sierra last year, we can't wait to do it again!"

Then the thread degenerated into a discussion of hospitalization insurance!”

“On a trip in the Eagle Cap with my significant other 22 years ago I had to get up in the middle of the night to do number 2 urgently. I could not find my boots so I used his. I did not lace them up but hobbled out and quickly dug a little hole. When I finished I noticed there was diarrhea all over one of the bootlaces. yeeech I cleaned it the best I could but we were on the first night of a six day trip and it was a waterless camp. He was very nice about it the next morning when I told him. What patience!”

“I fractured my arm last March after I fell off a log crossing a stream. It ruined what would have been a great trip.”

“LadyHiker broke her arm in four places when she was hiking with me in the canyon last fall. She tripped in a flat place and planted herself shoulder first. Her heavy pack swung her off balance. We had to ditch unnecessary stuff and I toted for two of us. She was not real happy about having to sleep out like I was doing--I could not carry her tent. Hank went back the next week and fetched her things we had had to leave. It was something like a 12 hour hike down and out for him, He was beat. What a nice man.”

“Geez, you guys are making me scared. Is this stuff normal?”

“I've never had anything approaching an emergency on any of my trips. I did have to bail out early on one because I wore myself out, but that was more a result of not being in good enough shape, and hiking too far on too little food. But my experience is very small compared to others posting on this board, I've only been on 6 overnight trips since I started backpacking again. (Scout trips in my teens don't count)”

“All of these stories are told by people who survived them.”

“I have always said no matter how good of a backpacker you are to always make shure you have all the things you need to go backpacking you always uase a backpackers checklist.

If you use one it can lession some types of trail problems even before you leave.

8)”

“Broken ankle, while soloing off trail.

A most unpleasant incident.”

“Hey, Mikeypoo, where does a girl get one of them checklists?”

“Yeah, that Hnak is a nut and-a-half, <grin>. I remember how one hiker 'ran out of gas' about a mile before we reached the campsites at Hance Creek (the hardback books she was packin' might've had something to do with it). Hank was already loaded to the gills and he picked up the other pack like it was a sack lunch and strolled on down the trail.”

“I've never broken any bones on the trail (knock on wood); I usually reserve that for playing in the street with the Frisbee.”

“The most shook up I ever got was when our scout troop was canoeing from Hoover Dam on the Colorado River (water temp coming out of the bottom of Lake Mead is 55 F--hypothermia potential). My son and I were in the last canoe and the one in front of us capsized. They started to stay with the canoe, but I yelled at them to swim to the edge. Fortunately there was a place they could climb out. After they shivered for 10 minutes, they climbed on our canoe on top of all our gear and we manuevered the top-heavy canoe down river until we caught up with the others. They had grabbed the loose canoe and already uprighted it. Since all the gear was lashed in in plastic bags, they lost very little. I was pretty shook up because of what could have happened.

Note: We had a chase boat coming to meet us, but it wasn't there yet. That part of the Colorado is very scenic, but knarly.”

“Here is the clubs checklist.

Nwihbc Backpackers Checklist.

8)”

“My close calls have come in a boat on an Alaskan rivers, and one close call XC skiing last winter.

Backpacking is one of the safest things I do.”

“Yes, I remember that story... how's the thumb? Are the doctors letting you hitchhike again?”

“Mike, it says the link is forbidden and I don't have access. Can you try again or cut & paste?”

“It worked for me?????

8o”

“It aches now and then, same with my knee. Not really any worse than the rest of my joints. :D”

“Okay, that time I got it to work. Weird. Thanks. This will help get a little more organized for Montanapalooza.”

“I heard that!

If only I hadn't carried 60 pounds of junk on my back the first ten years of my backpacking career... Oh, to be Twenty again and start out as an Ultralighter!

I keep seeing these commercials for Super Blue Stuff... <G>”

“Last year,(or was it 2 yrs ago?) Garfum & I were bushwhackin through the Upper Buffalo Wilderness with our boys & my oldest(he was 9) fell over frontways, right onto his head. We were winding our way down a steep cut & I guess his pack weight just pushed him over. Anyways, he headed a rock(lots of rocks in Ark). I was in front of him & pulled him up & blood went ta spurtin. I snatched a bandana off of someone & put pressure on it & it sealed up in no time. It was a clean cut. He never complained too much about pain. When we got down to the river we cleaned him up & gave him some asperin & had a great hike after it was all said and done. We found a really cool place to camp near the river.

Wasn't that the trip you got the black screamers on, Garfum?”

“No problems here... Only adventures”

“Anything for you NewGirl!!!!

8)”

“Aaaaaaw, you are too sweet.”

“i agree with WLD

It's the adventure in the trip that makes it worth while, a trip that goes according to plan lacks that sense of adventure.”

“Thank you!!!!


8)”

“I've only been on 6 overnight trips here in my home state. Last October I was on a 5 day, 4 night trip when on day 2 it rained all night and pretty much all of the next day. Being a newbie I found out that my fairly new tent was not as waterproof as I thought. Rain started seaping in at two different places. At 2:00 a.m. in the rain and high wind I threw my Army poncho over my tent and tied it down to keep it from blowing off. It kept me dry until the rain stopped. I've since sealed all the seams my self. They should tell you that crap when you buy a new tent.”

“I was one elk hunting in Challis Idaho. We were planning on packing in on mules and horses when ELVIS a friends mule broke ignorant and threw all the panards off his back. Those panards were carrying all the food for 8 guys for 2 weeks. Broke every egg and stepped on most everthing else. We decided to load him up with things that wouldn't break. We put clothes and sleeping bags on him and started in. About 4 miles later he broke ignorant again at a stream crossing and threw everthing into the water. The bags were so heavy we had use Ellie Mae ,my mule, had to pull them out. It was near freezing and we all slept in wet sleeping bags that night. I've been on several hunting trips but this is the most memorable. Its also the last time we have carried 3 horses and 2 mules from northern Alabama to Idaho.

I also walked up on a man taking a dump in Gunnison Co. and as I approached he quickly pulled up his coveralls, I knew by the look on his face that he had messed on his coveralls and then pulled it up onto his back.

don't Ya hate when that happens.


BAMA”

“hey, my wife breaks ignorant alla time........whatcha do for that?”

“We tied a rope to a front leg and drew it up close to his belly, and pulled the other one out, forcing him to lay down. We then tied all legs together and made him lay there for about an hour. Then let him up and loaded the bags with rocks and made him pack that for awhile, he was fine for the rest of the trip until a bear can into camp again. But that is another story. One word of wisdom don't approach your wife with a rope in one hand an a rock in the other she might get suspicious.

BAMA”

“At Philmont back in '67, when gear was mostly cotton canvas and iron (not kidding, either), our last couple days on the trail were going down a canyon that had been hit hard by flash floods earlier in the summer -- meaning the trail often involved a lot of boulder hopping on the rearranged boulders, back and forth across the stream at its bottom.

Bad enough, except that one of the guys tried to cut a green sapling with a hand ax (a no-no even then, both in technique and appropriateness) and the ax skipped off the bent trunk and into the top of his foot. Went through his boot top much better than the tensioned tree.

To allow him to limp out as easily as possible, we had to divy up his gear into our already bulging packs...and I got the cast iron frying pan. Two days of crisscrossing that canyon with that in my pack (which, btw, had no hip belt) made me a lifelong believer in packing light.”

“Hey Rugerman I am not trying to be a smart @ss but every tent that I have bought that was not seam sealed it would tell you in the tents inst to do so.

8p”

“Crazy Mike, The tent was seam sealed because I had to remove the old sealer to apply the new. The leaks were around where the places in the tent where you would tie the rain fly up if you wanted a little fresh air. Thanks for the suggestion though.”

“Apparently you don't have cult's, er CLUB's password! ;-}”

“Done quite bit, seen a lot of people. One had a gash on his ankle. He took both socks and put them on that one foot to slow the bleeding and got him self off the mountain and back to town. He was moving pretty fast, and we never caught up to him resting or waiting for help.

I think this speaks to the true spirit of backpacking, that you are totally self sufficient, and can and will take care of yourself, either by proper planning, or fortitude. It's rare, but sometimes folks are really badly hurt, and need a rescue. Just be ready willing and able to so when needed.”

“AMEN BROTHER! er klimber :}

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Mt Mckinley, I will fear no trail: for thou art with me; thy Leki and thy moleskin they comfort me.

Thou preparest a ramen before me in the presence of yellowstone bears : thou anointest my head with deet; my filter runneth always.

Surely bagnights and campfires shall follow all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of REI for ever.”

“worst experience was being in a severe thunderstorm with golf ball size hail that beat the #&%!$ out of my tent. The worst part was the fear of a lightening bolt zeroing in on the aluminum "cage" over my head.

No direct strikes, but I could hear it popping trees close.

I cut a three day trip down to two,,it was the only time I was glad to leave the woods.”

“lmao bama!”

“Tili, I use this and it DOES work. Its great!! Takes away the swelling and gets rid of untolerable pain!!”

“King Salomon?”

“I'm thinking about it, Prowler! Maybe if I slap some on my knees it'll take away some of that burn on the down-hills.

Hey, Chili, doncha just love those ridge trails in an electrical storm? My favorite was the East Cowpen trail in Cohutta: big trees all around, lightning striking within 100 ft. time after time for a solid hour... fun-Fun-FUN!”

“yeah Tilt,,,you develop this fear of getting a "permanent" perm when you hair fuzzes from a lightening strike.”

“I steped off a ledge when I was 13 and rolled down the hill into a behemouth coleman tent. I broke a few poles, but those folks were pretty cool about it.”

“satan's hiking companion. bow down and worship and the alter of Mike "the crazy one". Dance naked around the juniper bush as it burns.......sorry, wrong thread...

errrrr....hiking disasters...crossing the raging waterfalls at Taum Sauk State Park and slipped and went over the edge of a giant boulder and cracked my shoulder on the rock (vs my face) and thought I dislocated it. The dog went over with me and he thought it was fun, wanted to do it again he did. anyway...it hurt so bad as I was standing in wasted deep water that was rushing down my jacket that I decided to head back to the trail head and camped in the campground and went to the emergency room the following day...no breaks or dislocates, but badly torn ligaments and muscles...no frisbee this year at the shore, that sucks. But I'm alive and its a great story.”

“well that does remind me of another experience - early one spring I was crossing a river trying to jump between two boulders that were just a little too far apart - was off balance after the jump (mainly due to my pack I think) and had to hop back - right into a nice hole - 33 deg. F water right up to the crotch, broke my hiking stick and lost my glasses - no big deal - I finished the hike anyways only for the next seven river crossings I just picked a reasonable spot and waded across - what the heck I was already wet - the lack of glasses did make it a bit hard to drive back home afterword but ... I survived with no problem and it was still fun.”