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  1. #1
    Registered User Sierra Echo's Avatar
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    Default Hiking Whoopsies!

    What is your best trail blooper to date??

    Mine is while doing a river crossing. The rocks were real slick. A man had his hand out to me in a spot where I had to make a big jump. I grabbed his hand and jumped. I actually made it to the rock, but my feet shot out from under me and I fell backwards pulling the man in to the water with me!

  2. #2
    BYGE "Biggie" TOMP's Avatar
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    After a few hours of bouldering I noticed that the bottom of my pack was now swiss cheese.

  3. #3
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    I was hiking along a ridge on the PCT in 2009 when I came upon a large group of Boy Scouts resting at a trail junction.
    They figured out I was a thru hiker by my "tiny" pack and began to ask questions.
    After a while of hamming it up and telling them about the trail, and particularly how "in tune" with the enviroment
    thru hikers get, I said my good-byes and made a grand exit striding up the trail.
    Hiking poles flashing in the sunlight and kicking my legs at 4 MPH until I rounded the bend out of sight.
    Unfortunately, I went the wrong way up the trail from the junction.
    I had to double back and pass the scouts again.. it was pretty hilarious!
    Headed in to town.. You gotta rock the down! -fellow hikers mantra

  4. #4

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    Back in '89, while hiking in Maine, I made a wrong turn and when I figured it out, bushwhacked a bit to get back on trail.
    Came out on the trail right in front of Noel DeCavalcante "Singing Horseman" who has since become a leader of ALDHA and always at their gatherings.
    We laugh about it almost every time I see him.

    Probably going the wrong way at times is my biggest problem.
    Even yesterday, out on my jungle trail I'm putting together here, I found myself going the wrong way a few times.
    Of course, with no trail, and bushwhacking through thick jungle, it's understandable but, I still feel like an idiot everytime it happens.
    Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams

  5. #5

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    Left a shelter and after hiking about a mile downhill I realized I had left something at the shelter. I stashed my pack and ran back UP to the shelter, but couldn't find the item. (Don't remember what it was now) Finally gave up and hiked back down to my pack. When I finally stopped for the night I found it buried in my pack.
    Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. -Kahlil Gibran

  6. #6

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    Got on the trail at 3 after 2 days of driving... it was late, but I wanted to get a couple miles in anyway. Headed back to the truck to ditch some 'extra' gear (most of my cold wx gear... before the early snow back in Nov)...

    ... finally got back hiking an hour later. The sun set, and I was planning to make the couple (few) hours to the shelter and was not finding any good places to camp. After I ran out of daylight, I dug in my pack looking for a headlamp... which appeared to be missing.

    I hiked for 3 hours in the dark, no moon, no flashlight. Stumbled, fumbled, and groped my way to the shelter, and settled in for the night in the dark.

    Of course I found the headlamp first thing in the morning...
    Want a 'Hike Your Own Hike' sticker?... => send me a message <=


    Favorite quote;
    Quote Originally Posted by sailsET View Post
    My guess is that you are terribly lost, and have no idea how to the use the internet.

  7. #7

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    Gave my daughter the bug repellant at the car. She used it and then put it back in the car. We hiked five miles to our first camp. My wife asked for the bug spray. I walked five miles back to the car and another five back to camp. I laughed the whole time. I wanted to do more miles the first day when we were planning the trip they didn't. We all got our wish.

  8. #8
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by rastraikis View Post
    Gave my daughter the bug repellant at the car. She used it and then put it back in the car. We hiked five miles to our first camp. My wife asked for the bug spray. I walked five miles back to the car and another five back to camp. I laughed the whole time. I wanted to do more miles the first day when we were planning the trip they didn't. We all got our wish.
    You are a better man than I!
    My wife would have had to suck it up.

  9. #9
    Registered User mrcoffeect's Avatar
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    Red face sunset in vermont

    Two years ago while hiking in vt, I was spending the night at goddard shelter on the side of glastenbury mt . I arrived there with just enough time to settle in and make a quick cup of coffee,and then head for the firetower on the summit to get some sunset pics.
    Fast forward an hour and a half, and two rolls of film, now it is well after dark. I had stayed on awhile talking to a couple of thru hikers
    that were going to stealth up top. As we went to climb down from the tower, it was then i realized in my haste back at the shelter, i had forgotten to grab my headlamp. the best part was the ribbing i got from other hikers upon my 10:30pm arrival back at the shelter.
    A few hikers had stayed back at the shelter when i went up to the tower earlier,but by the time i got back there was at least six or seven more. Everyone at the shelter had spent at least an hour wondering what the bright flashes of light were, that were slowly advancing down the mt. toward the shelter. They all had a grand ole time laughing and teasing me in turns, here i was, snap a flash of my camera walk a quick few feet stop wait for flash to recharge , snap and walk ,snap and walk.

  10. #10
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    Default

    Left a gap in my rainfly to my hammock. Several hours later went to climb in and a river poured out. It was the coldest night of the year....oops.

  11. #11
    Registered User Ktaadn's Avatar
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    While doing some trail work outside of Duncannon last October, I was trying to pull a root out before putting in a stone step. I was facing up hill perpendicular to the trail. When the root came loose, I fell backward and did 2 or 3 summersaults down the rocky slope. When I stopped rolling, I still had my hardhat on and I was unhurt. I was a little embarrassed, but my fellow crewmembers said it looked very graceful.

  12. #12

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    Failing to find the trail while descending a hill next to a stream in the Hundred Mile Wilderness, I crossed the stream where there appeared to be a trail into the woods (there was, made by other hikers who had gotten mixed up there). The trail petered out with no blazes, so I recrossed the stream and began looking around. I spotted a white blaze and promptly followed it right back to a pond that I had passed a mile or so back (I had gotten completely turned around - it was a dark, gray, misty day with no shadows to gauge direction for me). I met some others who said "I thought you were headed northbound. Did you flip or something?". Then I realized that I had backtracked and was quite embarrassed-
    especially because I was hiking with a thruhiker who had come all the way from Georgia who had (mistakenly, it turned out) figured that I must know what I'm doing because I'm older and have spent more time in the Northeast woods.
    It turned out that the trail took a sharp right away from the stream and someone had neglected to double blaze the turn. It was alarmingly clear when we came back and looked to the right at the 90 degree turn.
    Two extra miles on a dismal day half way through the hundred miles .
    As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn back from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11

  13. #13
    Hike smarter, not harder.
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Iceaxe View Post
    I was hiking along a ridge on the PCT in 2009 when I came upon a large group of Boy Scouts resting at a trail junction.
    They figured out I was a thru hiker by my "tiny" pack and began to ask questions.
    After a while of hamming it up and telling them about the trail, and particularly how "in tune" with the enviroment
    thru hikers get, I said my good-byes and made a grand exit striding up the trail.
    Hiking poles flashing in the sunlight and kicking my legs at 4 MPH until I rounded the bend out of sight.
    Unfortunately, I went the wrong way up the trail from the junction.
    I had to double back and pass the scouts again.. it was pretty hilarious!
    That is awesome!!
    Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe - Thomas Sowell

  14. #14
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    "Hiking poles flashing in the sunlight and kicking my legs at 4 MPH until I rounded the bend out of sight.
    Unfortunately, I went the wrong way up the trail from the junction.
    "
    EXACT same thing happened to me with some sort of hiking group milling about at a trail junction just past Big Bear City in CA. Right down to the "oh so cool" and then soon self-effacing humble aspect.

    I don't know what it is, but folks really like to hang around at trail junctions, and the bigger the group the more this tends to happen. To include not even being able to see trail signs with people standing in front of them. I think that it's sort of natural to focus on the people not think so much about the navigation aspect. And then, of course (especially if you're male), once it's been established that you're a thru-hiker, you can't show any hesitation!

    What silly creatures we all are, at the end of the day. I can't really think of one single biggest trail blooper, but I'll offer something a bit similar on the AT --- going NOBO right where the Long Trail and the AT are no longer the same thing, I came to the intersection and continued to follow the only white blaze I could see. Got a fair bit of bonus travel on the LT before I began to exercise my swear-word vocabulary on the way back.

    Now, one of my trail partners, his would involve finding a 'water bottle' and later taking quite a big drink of denatured alcohol. Somehow he never saw the same amount of humor in that as I did. He sure laughed his butt off when I (multiple times along the way) whacked my head on shelter timbers.
    Gadget
    PCT: 2008 NOBO, AT: 2010 NOBO, CDT: 2011 SOBO, PNT: 2014+2016

  15. #15
    AT 2012
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    Wallingford, CT
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    Default

    had my hammock hung in the little pavilion at port clinton one january night -- the one nearer to the river with a fireplace in it. climbed into my hammock without paying attention to the too-many layers of keep warm junk, and just fell out backwards, hitting my head pretty well on the fireplace. ouch. oh. oh. and another one! there was the night i slept on my glasses in my hammock and bent them to pretty much useless. oh. oh. and then there was the time i pitched my hammock in the dark in frustration and found out my rain fly was blowing against a bunch of prickers. yep, pretty much all my screw-ups are related to hammocks. i do agree, though, it is a screw-up with boyscout witnesses that is priceless.
    Lazarus

  16. #16

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    On my 2011 cdt thru I did two back to back 250 mile sections. On the first one from old faithful village wy to tendoy id I thought I had enough food for the 10 days, instead by the 5th day I had to ration all the rest of the food. It was miserable only eating a couple bars and a couple ramen a day for the last 5 25mile days. Every time I opened my food bag I said to myself that I could eat everything I had right then. All I did was think about food, it was crazy. I now know the meaning of food porn.

  17. #17
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    On the AT, I was stealth camped on Mt Mariah at the end of the Whites. In the morning I hiked along for maybe 45 minutes and saw two guys coming towards me. You see people a ways off there as there heads poke out of the brush when they step up on a boulder and disappear again when they step back on the trail. Anyway they finally got to me and I said, " Hi, did you guys stay at Rattle River last night? They, "No, (puzzled look) we were at Imp Shelter." Me. "OH OH" I merrily hiked the wrong way ! A hazard of stealth sites. Of course It wasn't my first time going the wrong way just the most embarrassing" blush...
    Everything is in Walking Distance

  18. #18
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    Not AT related but a dohh moment just the same. I pride myself on being great with map and compass skills. I teach the stuff so i should be. Anyway the west section of the Lone Star trail is nothing but a bunch of loops. One of these "loops" crosses the road twice. I had the map in my car but left it there by accident. Anyway so I started on down the trail and had I been on the corrct one I was to hang a right. Well I hung a right turn at what I thought was the correct intersection and ended up on a much longer loop than I intended. Now by myself this would not have been a problem but I had the wife and kids in tow so tripling the distance we were planning to hike was not appreciated. Moral of the story make sure you have your map in hand.
    Take almost nothing I say seriously--if it seems to make no sense what so ever it's probably meant as a joke....but do treat your water!

  19. #19
    Registered User RossSFCA's Avatar
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    While on the John Muir Trail, I asked a passerby to take a photo of me fording a knee-deep stream beneath a rushing cascade, thinking the photo would make me look like a stud.

    Naturally, as soon as he took the photo, I fell in.

    D'oh!
    - - - - -

    DirtyGirl
    2012 NoBo AT Thru-Hiker
    (and an incredibly proud 2011 SoBo JMT Thru-Hiker... I did it!!)

    Ross Hayduk
    San Francisco, CA

    www.hikerosshike.org

  20. #20
    Registered User Sierra Echo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RossSFCA View Post
    While on the John Muir Trail, I asked a passerby to take a photo of me fording a knee-deep stream beneath a rushing cascade, thinking the photo would make me look like a stud.

    Naturally, as soon as he took the photo, I fell in.

    D'oh!
    I hope you plan on sharing the pic!

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