What's The Best "Repair" You Ever Did?

[Spokes]

Have you (or seen someone else) do a hasty repair on the trail that you were particularly proud of? You know, like sew a split pack seam with dental floss or duck tape a broken headlamp together?

How creative have your repairs been?

[Rocket Jones]

I once built an oxygen scrubber out of duct tape, plastic groundsheet, cardboard cover of my guidebook... oh wait, that was a movie I saw. Never mind.

[Spokes]

hehehehehheeeeee

[TheChop]

The incident at Split Pants Creek as it's come to be known...

Me and a buddy are doing 200 miles in the Smokies. About 120 miles down grinding out the Lakeshore Trail when we stop to get water. I'd been wearing the same pair of Mountain Hardware pants the entire trip and to economize I only brought the one pair.

You see where this is going?

I made it through the watering up just fine but right before we left I bend over to wash my hands in the creek at which point a quick ripping sound punctuates the woods. I reach back and feel at the damage. Total structural failure. Stitching is completely gone from the crotch to the belt loop. I am ass out and three days from a possible resupply point and six days from the car.

We hiked about seven more miles that day. My hiking buddy wanting to lead most of the way for some reason. The plan began to form that we were being met in Smokemont and could get a ride to an outfitter or Wal-Mart in Cherokee. I was not looking forward to spending money on a pair of pants when these were just bought at retail before this trip and I had two serviceable pair at home though.

So that night while my buddy is on the phone with his wife he hears me start giggling like a mad man. I'd taken a few things into my tent when we set up camp with the idea that somehow these pants could be saved. Honestly I was thinking fishing line from the survival kit but the parachute cord seemed more sturdy. I took my knife and stabbed ten to twelve holes in each side of the ass of these pants. Laced it up with parachute cord. The first time I put them back on I got a super wedgie. I adjusted the cord and they fit just fine. That's when I started giggling like a mad man.

The only problem was the cute little bow I now had on my ass. The situation lasted until the very last day when the bow came undone and the stitching fell out but by the time I didn't care if the picnicers at Big Creek got to see my smartwools.

[Luddite]

My strap tore off my backpack and I sewed it back on with floss. Its still working today. Sewing is really hard for me, so I'm proud of it. I can barely sew a button back on my shirt.

[garlic08]

My friend broke a Leki ski pole on an overnighter. He had extended it too far past the limit for some steep climbing and forgot to collapse it on a descent. When he fell, he snapped the joint so the plastic expander was only about an inch into the tube. Neither of us was a good enough skier to go down the next day without two poles, so we really needed to fix it. The multitool pliers could not get a purchase on the metal stud, and the knife blade could not carve out the plastic. Finally, I thought of heat. We fired up the stove, heated up the tube enough to soften the plastic, shoved it in with the lower section to the correct length for descending, and held it in place with duct tape. He still hasn't replaced the poles.

[Trailbender]

I relaced my hiking shoes with paracord, sewed paracord to hold the front of the shoe together, and recut tread with a pocketknife. I don't see the point in throwing stuff away. I'm still wearing the boots I got in Harper's Ferry. I also sew regularly with dental floss, and completely redid the waist on my pants and my tent, as well as most of the rest of my gear.

[Dogwood]

Had a Mont Bell sleeping bag zipper crap out on me on a unseasonably cold and bitter early season JMT thru-hike. Zipper would not stay zipped resulting in body heat loss that kept me up shivering over two cold nights. I tried keeping the zipper closed with the two safety pins I normally carry. That helped a little but I still got so cold one night I got up at 2 a.m., broke camp, and hiked to Muir Hut under a crisp starlit night where I gratefully got out of some of the cold by sleeping on the stone benches. On the next day, I asked every single hiker I met if they had any safety pins. Got 4 more. It was enough to to keep me reasonably warm until I could get out to Bishop where I had another of my sleeping bags overnighted to me.

Have duct taped several trail runners to get another 100 or so miles out of them or until I could get to an outfitter for new ones.

On the PCT my feet swelled so much in the Mojave Desert my shoes no longer fit. I was dismayed that my brand new Vasque Velocity trail Runners didn't fit, but never the less, I took out my pocket knife and proceeded to carve them up so my feet could fit.

On the same PCT thru-hike I set my custom Spinnaker tarp up for only the second time since I bought it at the 2008 ADZPCT Kick Off. It was so new and shiny. It looked wonderful set up near Lake Morena under a tree and sunny skies. MISTAKE! Went to hear Eric Ryback talk about being the first Triple Crowner. Came back to find a large limb had broken off the tree and landed on my NEW tarp. UGH! It was so sad. 5 holes! Henry Shires gratefully had the repair materials and recommendations on how to repair my tarp that he gave me for nothing. Well, not nothing. I traded him a ripe mango, which he likes, and that I had toted from Campo, for the materials and his assistance! Those repairs are still holding up on that tarp! Thanks Henry!

Still have, and use, a Thermarest ProLite 3 Shortie with at least a dozen patches on it of various kinds and colors. Holds air still!

[Lyle]

- 1980
- A friend's Kelty Expedition Pack
- Cross bar of aluminum frame broke off - the bar the shoulder straps attach to
- Cut approximately 3/4 inch oak branch to length
- Lashed aluminum cross bar to the oak branch
- Lashed the oak branch into position on the pack frame

Repair took all of about 15 minutes.

Repair lasted couple hundred miles until we made an outfitters and Kelty ok'd exchanging the frame with an in-stock replacement.

[Trailbender]

Had a Mont Bell sleeping bag zipper crap out on me on a unseasonably cold and bitter early season JMT thru-hike. Zipper would not stay zipped resulting in body heat loss that kept me up shivering over two cold nights. I tried keeping the zipper closed with the two safety pins I normally carry. That helped a little but I still got so cold one night I got up at 2 a.m., broke camp, and hiked to Muir Hut under a crisp starlit night where I gratefully got out of some of the cold by sleeping on the stone benches. On the next day, I asked every single hiker I met if they had any safety pins. Got 4 more. It was enough to to keep me reasonably warm until I could get out to Bishop where I had another of my sleeping bags overnighted to me.

Have duct taped several trail runners to get another 100 or so miles out of them or until I could get to an outfitter for new ones.

On the PCT my feet swelled so much in the Mojave Desert my shoes no longer fit. I was dismayed that my brand new Vasque Velocity trail Runners didn't fit, but never the less, I took out my pocket knife and proceeded to carve them up so my feet could fit.

On the same PCT thru-hike I set my custom Spinnaker tarp up for only the second time since I bought it at the 2008 ADZPCT Kick Off. It was so new and shiny. It looked wonderful set up near Lake Morena under a tree and sunny skies. MISTAKE! Went to hear Eric Ryback talk about being the first Triple Crowner. Came back to find a large limb had broken off the tree and landed on my NEW tarp. UGH! It was so sad. 5 holes! Henry Shires gratefully had the repair materials and recommendations on how to repair my tarp that he gave me for nothing. Well, not nothing. I traded him a ripe mango, which he likes, and that I had toted from Campo, for the materials and his assistance! Those repairs are still holding up on that tarp! Thanks Henry!

Still have, and use, a Thermarest ProLite 3 Shortie with at least a dozen patches on it of various kinds and colors. Holds air still!

I use my sleeping bag like a quilt, and rarely zip it up. If this happens again, just tuck it underneath you. As far as cutting up gear, I agree. No matter how expensive, I won't hesitate to take a knife and needle/thread to my gear and modify it as needed.

[ATsawyer]

Approaching an ice-sheeted section of AT with no easy bypass, I duct taped a handfull sharp gravel to the bottom of my boots. The edges of the gravel cut partially through the tape and sunk into the ice but didn't come loose from my boots for the fifty or so feet of trail I had to negotiate.

[Torch09]

This doesn't exactly fit the catagory of 'fixes', but I'm still proud of it so I'll share.

My hiking style is a bit different than most-- I go ultralite so I can afford to carry some almost useless things. On my 2009 thru hike, I ordered a tomahawk and had it delivered to a hostel. I forgot to buy a sheath so I decided to make one. I found a pair of blue jeans at an abandoned campsite and used floss to sew a piece of them into the perfect cover for my new toy.

This was partly inspired by my friend using a wool blanket to fashion a sort of tunic as the weather began getting colder.

[Mags]

A figure 8 bandage made of duct tape when my shoe blew out with about 90 miles left to hike the PCT:

[Manwich]

Duct tape over a puncture hole on my Platypus. When I don't use it, I keep it stored in the freezer. Even in these conditions, It's worked perfectly for 2 years.

[garlic08]

Approaching an ice-sheeted section of AT with no easy bypass, I duct taped a handfull sharp gravel to the bottom of my boots. The edges of the gravel cut partially through the tape and sunk into the ice but didn't come loose from my boots for the fifty or so feet of trail I had to negotiate.

This gets my vote for thinking outside the box and creativity. Nicely done!

Along those same lines, Slow Ride, on the AZT last season, wrapped some barbed wire around his shoes for the same reason.

[IceAge]

Three years ago on the Superior Hiking Trail I got to my intended campsite for the night and found a note that 2 black bears had been seen there in the last few days.
I didn't think too much of it until I went to hang my food on the bear cables and realized I had left my rope at the last campsite where I'd used it as a clothesline.

Luckily I had a piece of tyvek I was using as a ground cloth, so I cut 1" strips from it and tied them together to make a 30' line. Worked for two days until I got to a town and bought some new paracord.

[Wise Old Owl]

Back in March I was behind a twenty somthing female with a blown seam in her shorts... I loaned her some duct tape. ....Priceless.

[Slo-go'en]

Back in March I was behind a twenty somthing female with a blown seam in her shorts... I loaned her some duct tape. ....Priceless.

Did you offer to apply the tape to the affected area first?

[The Solemates]

The incident at Split Pants Creek as it's come to be known...

Me and a buddy are doing 200 miles in the Smokies. About 120 miles down grinding out the Lakeshore Trail when we stop to get water. I'd been wearing the same pair of Mountain Hardware pants the entire trip and to economize I only brought the one pair.

You see where this is going?

I made it through the watering up just fine but right before we left I bend over to wash my hands in the creek at which point a quick ripping sound punctuates the woods. I reach back and feel at the damage. Total structural failure. Stitching is completely gone from the crotch to the belt loop. I am ass out and three days from a possible resupply point and six days from the car.

We hiked about seven more miles that day. My hiking buddy wanting to lead most of the way for some reason. The plan began to form that we were being met in Smokemont and could get a ride to an outfitter or Wal-Mart in Cherokee. I was not looking forward to spending money on a pair of pants when these were just bought at retail before this trip and I had two serviceable pair at home though.

So that night while my buddy is on the phone with his wife he hears me start giggling like a mad man. I'd taken a few things into my tent when we set up camp with the idea that somehow these pants could be saved. Honestly I was thinking fishing line from the survival kit but the parachute cord seemed more sturdy. I took my knife and stabbed ten to twelve holes in each side of the ass of these pants. Laced it up with parachute cord. The first time I put them back on I got a super wedgie. I adjusted the cord and they fit just fine. That's when I started giggling like a mad man.

The only problem was the cute little bow I now had on my ass. The situation lasted until the very last day when the bow came undone and the stitching fell out but by the time I didn't care if the picnicers at Big Creek got to see my smartwools.

i've split my pants at least twice while glissading out west. i've also done it while hiking the Mid State Trail in PA when the trail went through a bad blackberry patch that was nearly as long as a football field. at least we enjoyed the spoils of that situation. both times i just wore them that way for the remainder of the trip. eevery time my trail partners promptly decided to lead at all times instead of follow

[Spokes]

Did you offer to apply the tape to the affected area first?

Always, always including some clear shipping tape in your pack...