Getting lost on the Trail

[Pabst]

Have any experienced hikers gotten lost on the AT, Gone the wrong way, etc..? I know this may seem like a stupid question or maybe this has been talked about before, but I got lost on the trial this past fall in NC/TN..... with all the leaves covering th trail, I ended up on what must have been on a old part of the trail that was re-routed. The blazes were not removed or painted over, probably looking down to much and not ahead (my own stupidity) but was wondering how common is this. I eventally found my way but I was a little embarrased about it. I'm sure everyone gotten off track a time or two.

If any has some insite to this or a story of what happened to them, it would be interesting to hear.

-Pabst

[Blue Jay]

I have a good one. I had already done this section twice, once NOBO, once SOBO, before so there is no excuse. Mtn. Mama let me off at the trail crossing above her place. A young lady on horse back was starting up the trail so I followed. I was having a wonderful time talking to her when I saw a group of section hikers I had passed two days before, coming my way. I had gone two miles, uphill, the wrong way.

[PROFILE]

On our thru-hike we stoped short of punch bowl shelter one night. The next morning, just after starting out we saw a guy we had been hiking with coming up the trail. When he saw us he got a confused look on his face. He past us the night before while we where at camp. It took some time for him to understand he was hiking the wrong way. What made it worse was after he agreed to turn back we had hiked less than half a mile when we met up with some one else from the same shelter. It was really funny. With both of them reinforcing the thought they were headed the right direction.

[Bankrobber]

My birthday, August 26, I was in the hundred mile wilderness getting ready to finish my hike this summer. I was in a hurry, seeing that my brother's wedding rehearsal party was the evening of the 29th in New York. I hiked up Nesuntabunt Mountain around 5 pm, and spent a while looking at the the view of Katahdin over Nahmakanta Lake. I was aiming for Rainbow Springs Shelter, which was a few hours away. I took off down the mountain. As the trail began to smooth out, I ran into a fellow NOBO thruhiker, Genesis, and his dog, Cody. I said, "Genesis, why are you hiking South?" Then it hit me. I had hiked a thousand feet down the wrong way. I turned around, and hustled up and over Nesuntabunt Mountain. Considering that there are no other mountains besides Nesuntabunt between Whitecap and Katahdin, it seemed like a big climb. After hiking past a pond, the trail ran into a river. I was in hurry, and crossed the river. I spent twenty minutes trying to figure out where the trail picked up after the river. Finally, I crossed back over and saw that the trail went parallel to the river. It was a stressful few hours, but I did make it to the shelter as it turned dark, and I made it to the Birches the next day. I made it up in Katahdin before heading down for my brother's wedding.

[Kerosene]

I've been doing section hikes since the early 70's. I've never gotten lost while leaving a shelter, but I have been a mite confused numerous times on the Trail itself. Blazing was more inconsistent (and inconsiderate) in the 70's, but it can still be atrocious in some sections today. However, it seems that today most trail clubs are pretty good about taking feedback and looking at the twists and turns from the point of view of a hiker unfamiliar with this section of trail.

That said, last year I was walking south out of Shenendoah National Park, a few miles from Rockfish Gap. The SOBO trail came appeared to split and there was a big blaze on a rock positioned between the trails that did not indicate which trail was the right one. The trail to the right looked new, less used and wider, so I went left. I kept walking, looking for a blaze just around each corner to reassure me that I was going the right way. To me, there aren't many things worse than having to retrace your steps; I view it on par with working on a document for several hours and then inadvertantly deleting it somehow.

I walked on, and on, and on, until I finally convinced myself that this could not possibly be the right direction. The blazes had been so clear up to this point! So I turned around and walked back. When I was almost back to the trail split, I saw what looked like a NOBO blaze on a loose rock that had been kicked off the trail under some brush. Since I was so close, I walked down the "new" trail for 5 minutes just to make sure this wasn't a reloc. As the new trail started to veer in what I thought was the wrong direction, I turned around and took the leftmost trail again. I repositioned the rock to be seen by hikers in both directions and tried to convince myself that I was going the right way. About 100 yards from where I turned around the first time the blazes started up again.

What was interesting was that my partner, ATwalker99, didn't see anything confusing. I guess that I just need a little more reassurance.

[Moon Monster]

I was trying to pull a big mile day to get through the Bear Mtn. zoo (NY) before it closed and I missed a 90º dog-leg in the trail. I followed an apparent older route for a few hundred yards and there were still white blazes there, though some had been painted over. For 15 minutes or more, I kept going back to the last white blaze I'd seen to try to find the real trail, but that last blaze must have missed being erased when they re-routed. Finally, I caught on that my blazes may be old. I got lost again later the same day coming down Bear Mtn. At a very obvious left turn, I continued straight and followed a water bar-turned dry creek bed. The first blaze after the turn was painted over in gray which is why I didn't see it, but it was still very obviously the trail. In my wanderings, I lost enough time, that the zoo was closed and I had to wait the night to be able to go through it the next day. These are cases of being in too much of a hurry, probably, but some other folks near me got lost on the same day around Bear Mtn.--all in different places. One NOBO guy got so lost he wound up climbing Bear from the southbound side. Maybe it was just a bad karma day in that area.

[DebW]

Just wanted to point out that blazing is done by individual maintainers who maintain 2-6 miles of trail each. That's why blazing frequency and style changes so often.

The worst I've been lost was in an apple orchard in Cheshire, Mass., while southbound from Greylock. It was a nice orchard.