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mweinstone
01-23-2006, 17:59
what was yours?rules for this thread are one. your story must be from a hike of two weeks or more.
once when i was a boy on the AT with a friend ,we hiked all of PA .in some part of our trip we hitched to a town for food and never got a ride. thing was ,we walked while hitchin and now we were far from trail or town.so we slept on the median between the lanes of traffic.we got under a large noisy piece of plastic and went to sleep with no food or any way out till day break.around 4 am chuck said he was going to walk out of this mess. i told him it was to dark and he would be hit by a car if he tried.he paniced.earlier we had climbed up to a farmers field to get what we thaught was eating corn but turned out to be indian corn for holloween.we took some anyway we were so hungry.we boiled that dry ass corn till all our h2o was gone ,then we fried it till our oil was gone,...then we scorched it till all our fuel was gone and then we chewed it till our jaws hurt and spit it out and went to sleep hungry and thirsty.so chuck wakes up in a panic for water. iscrounged thru my pack and found my pipe.i allways make a pipe from a hudge carrot and smoke out of it for weeks.so he ate my carrot pipe and went back to sleep.

Footslogger
01-23-2006, 18:08
I had an episode of hypothermia on my way up to Franconia Ridge in the Whites during my thru in 2003 and almost bought the ranch. 2 other hikers came to my assistance and stayed with me until the danger had passed. Turns out I was hiking with a bad case of kidney stones but that was not confirmed until I returned home in October. Ended up having 2 surgeries to make the stones go away.

'Slogger

the goat
01-23-2006, 18:21
planned on a resupply at newfound gap in the smokies, headed sobo in '01. when i got there the road was closed for blasting, they wouldn't even let me walk down it. let's just say a little summer sausage and a bagel can go a long way if it has to:o

Nokia
01-24-2006, 23:15
Kind of a long one: So Kong, Dutch and I head out of the W.B. into Shenendoa National Park. About mid-day I'm a couple miles ahead and come up to the first road crossing. This Park ranger is driving by, sees me and slams on his breaks, slaps the truck in reverse, and starts waving me over. I'm thinking "Damn these guys are serious about the park pass." Well I get over there and he tells me there is a "little man hunt going on in the park." Okay. A guy killed two people in town and is now possibly hanging out in the park. If I see a middle age guy, dressed in camo, with a high powered rifle (his exact words now) "if you happen to get away from him, try to make it to a phone to call the police." Okay, gotcha. Call the cops, IF I get away. So later we are all at the shelter. This guy Nightcrawler had joined us and I relayed the story. At first they thought I was kidding, but eventually they believe me. So we're all chillin' and what not after dinner when all of the sudden we hear "How you boys doin'?" Damn, damn, damn!!! We all turn and there is a guy, about 50, dressed head to toe in camo, with a M-16 (no joke!) and a 9mm hand gun on his hip. At that moment I truly 100 percent thought I was dead. Really. I didn't move, I didn't speak. All I can think is "so this is how it's going to end. If you all need me I'll be in the corner crying." Kong and Nightcrawler are doing this little dance like they don't know which way to run. Dutch on the other hand looks at the guy, looks at us...and runs like the wind! I mean high steppin' deer throught the woods action. The guy yells "Don't run dip****!" and Dutch runs faster. Then this guy says he's a cop. finally. We call Dutch back as 8 other cops, dressed in full on camo complete with leaves and stuff hanging off of them start coming out of the woods. These guys had completely surrounded us and we had never heard them at all. The cop says "If you guys have a little pot or what ever we don't care. Just don't run." Man we don't have any pot, we thought you were the damn killer!!! 3 of his buddies actually had to turn thier backs to us because they were laughing so hard at us!

Skidsteer
01-24-2006, 23:22
Kind of a long one: So Kong, Dutch and I head out of the W.B. into Shenendoa National Park. About mid-day I'm a couple miles ahead and come up to the first road crossing. This Park ranger is driving by, sees me and slams on his breaks, slaps the truck in reverse, and starts waving me over. I'm thinking "Damn these guys are serious about the park pass." Well I get over there and he tells me there is a "little man hunt going on in the park." Okay. A guy killed two people in town and is now possibly hanging out in the park. If I see a middle age guy, dressed in camo, with a high powered rifle (his exact words now) "if you happen to get away from him, try to make it to a phone to call the police." Okay, gotcha. Call the cops, IF I get away. So later we are all at the shelter. This guy Nightcrawler had joined us and I relayed the story. At first they thought I was kidding, but eventually they believe me. So we're all chillin' and what not after dinner when all of the sudden we hear "How you boys doin'?" Damn, damn, damn!!! We all turn and there is a guy, about 50, dressed head to toe in camo, with a M-16 (no joke!) and a 9mm hand gun on his hip. At that moment I truly 100 percent thought I was dead. Really. I didn't move, I didn't speak. All I can think is "so this is how it's going to end. If you all need me I'll be in the corner crying." Kong and Nightcrawler are doing this little dance like they don't know which way to run. Dutch on the other hand looks at the guy, looks at us...and runs like the wind! I mean high steppin' deer throught the woods action. The guy yells "Don't run dip****!" and Dutch runs faster. Then this guy says he's a cop. finally. We call Dutch back as 8 other cops, dressed in full on camo complete with leaves and stuff hanging off of them start coming out of the woods. These guys had completely surrounded us and we had never heard them at all. The cop says "If you guys have a little pot or what ever we don't care. Just don't run." Man we don't have any pot, we thought you were the damn killer!!! 3 of his buddies actually had to turn thier backs to us because they were laughing so hard at us!

That was seriously funny!:)

mweinstone
01-24-2006, 23:50
if thats tru its on of the all time best .and i know it is. you just cant write this stuff.what did it take to calm down the guy who ran?when he heard you screeming to come back its okay there cops...,he must have thaught you were screeming while being shot. did they catch the guy? is it in the papers?

totempole99
01-25-2006, 00:05
I would have been ecstatic when I found out he was a cop and not the killer, but mad that I would need to change my skivvies.

Wolf - 23000
01-25-2006, 23:57
During my month long winter hike of Maine in 2005, I was on my third day into the hundred mile wildness backpacking. I was snuggled in my sleeping bag a couple hours half asleep when I notice I was getting wet. I woke up releasing that my water bottle had broken inside my sleeping bag. My best guest is it was -35 below.

In what seem like only a couple minutes, the fill inside my sleeping bag had frozen. I throw my backpack inside my sleeping bag & tarp to act as a barricade between me and the ice. That night was a VERY COLD NIGHT.

I was about 40 miles away from Abol Bridge back tracking or 60 miles continue to Monson. I end up pushing it hard for 4 days before making it safely into Monson. I end up taken a crash course in how to build an igloo just to keep “warm”. I was cold and extremely tried!!! When I saw Miss Shaw, I could tell from the look on her face, I looked like an ice cube and I felt it. My sleeping bag was place in the dryer for nearly three hours before it was dry again.

Winter Hiking, you got to love it!!!

Wolf

Ender
01-26-2006, 09:50
I tented on top of Cheoah Bald and got woken in the middle of the night because I was in the middle of a lightning storm. Seriously terrifying. Lightning flashing cloud to cloud 100' away from me, above me, beside me, below me. Me in my Clip Flashlight, I honestly thought I was a goner.

I made it, but I still have a thing about camping on the very top of mountains without trees around.

Nokia
01-27-2006, 02:52
Dutch stopped running because he saw another police/SWAT coming out of the woods. In retrospect, it's probably the funniest story I had on the trail. At the time though, I was scared silly. If you want to read about my first two days out of Waynesboro you can checkout my journal at the link below. Brown recluse spiders, bears and killers. Oh and by the way the guy was near the shelter, but then hiked back down to town. He went to get water and food from a friend. The wife of the friend called the cops. Killer was cornered in the woods in the backyard and he killed himself. I'm sure if you searched Waynesboro news you could find the story.
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=109038

blhmsoc
01-27-2006, 04:10
Great Stories! Here's a long one-
When I thru hiked the A.T. in 2003 I didn't have this much "excitement". A friend was visiting Ben & I on our hike, here is his Hitching story:

The Hitch from Hell
By: Will Schwalbe

I had a bad ankle after 6 1/2 days of walking over the Pennsylvania rocks and so decided to hitch the 30 odd miles to Delaware Water Gap while Billy and Ben walked and met me there the next day. The first couple of hitches were fine- a college kid and a couple of teenagers. The fun began on Hwy. 209N- a guy in an old building van pulled up, a normal enough looking guy called Troy. He was going that direction- he had a couple of stops to make on the way but he would take me up there. He had his 3 kids in the back of the van sitting on a bench seat he had bolted in for them. Katy- 3, Silus- 2 and little Troy Jr.- still a baby. He established he was a bit odd by saying he couldn't trust me because he didn't know me. If I was any trouble "I've got these" holding up his fists "and I've got a gun under the seat." He was also 4 beers in but I am used to that living in the south. He also talked about almost getting in to a fight on the AT with some hikers who are generally not the aggressive type. "Well he's a bit odd but I don't need to get another hitch so it should be fine", I was thinking. The first stop he made was at a building supply place where he was returning something. "Watch the kids will you. I'll be watching you and don't go under the seat." He continued to make various stops for pizza, soda, cigarettes, aluminium foil at one point(?) and some more beer- a separate stop for each. Each time he said "watch the kids" before getting out. Each stop the kids were getting more pissed off- it was a hot day and it was even hotter in the van. So I started to ask "are we going to Delaware Water Gap next?" "Just a couple more stops" was generally the reply. At one point he sees a friend of his at a gas station and talks to him for a bit. I got the impression he might have been on the run with the kids. He said "she's trying to take everything man, all for a little domestic disturbance"- I could be wrong there though. He had talked about his house on a lake in a gated community and his good relationship with his Costa Rican wife previously. You decide. We got to a town and I saw signs to Stroudsburg saying it was 3 miles away (Delaware Water Gap was a further 2) so I was getting close. Our next stop was at one of the 2 town sex shops where Troy could get a blow job for $15. "Watch the kids- I'll be back in a bit." Watching a guys kids while he is in a sex shop getting a blow job is an unusual experience. "Where's Daddy?" "Oh he's just gone inside for a bit" "Where?" "You can ask him when he gets back." Katy was getting annoyed at being strapped in for so long as well so the rest of the conversation was "let me out" "No." "Why?" "because you're dad says so" "Why?" "You'll have to ask him." "Let me out" and so on. Troy comes back after about 15 minutes sweating unpleasantly with a hard core porn mag. There was a money making opportunity for me there apparently- there was a guy who would pay you $50 if you showed him your penis while he masturbated. Troy had done it before but I passed. He drives off reading looking at his porn and we start along some country lanes. "Is this the back way there then?" I ask. "One more stop and we'll be there." The next stop is his drug dealer where he can get a good deal on 8 balls (I think) of crack if I was interested. We get to the house. There are other houses in the area just a distance away. It seemed like there had been some trouble between Troy and Sean the drug dealer because he asked me to "go and knock on the door and ask for Sean- tell him Troy is here." "Why can't you go?" "Because his wife doesn't like me." So I nervously go and knock on the door. "Is Sean in?" "Who's asking?" "I'm Will. Troy's here. He wants to see Sean." "I don't know no Troy." I relay this on to Troy. "Tell him I'm Jimmie's brother" which I do. "Tell him to come in." Troy didn't want to go in- his excuse was he had the kids in the car. Sean said " he's got to come in." Troy did go in and came back with his crack. "Hey, would you drive the van for a bit?" I imagine it is fairly unusual to hitchhike and end up driving the ride you get in but I have done it. Of course it is difficult to drive, smoke crack (with an aluminium foil pipe- Ahh, that was what it was for.) and look at porn while your kids are in the back of the car so I had to drive. We start off with him giving seemingly random directions but I had no idea where we are so I keep driving. He suggests I take a hit . I say it is too addictive- I don't want to try it. "That's what my wife said. She's fine. She only does it when I want her to." After such a convincing argument I still said no. We came to a sign which said Stroudsburg 3 miles to the left and he said go right. I pulled the van over and said left was the way I needed to go. He suggested we should pick up a couple of hookers and get a hotel room. "Who's going to watch the kids?" I asked- "the prostitutes", replied Troy- Of course how stupid of me. I declined his kind offer, took my stuff and walked the 5 miles to Delaware Water Gap slightly scared he was going to drive by and shoot me. He was shaking so much after the crack his aim probably would have been off anyway.

And that was my hitch hike. Slightly scary at the time but amusing looking back on it.


- Will Schwalbe currently resides in London, England. At the time of Ben & Billy's 2003 thru-hike, Will lived in Savannah, GA. Being a lifelong friend of Ben's, Will joined the hike on June 28, 2003 in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania and left the A.T. July 20, 2003 in Salisbury, Connecticut.

khaynie
01-27-2006, 12:13
My wife and I left Osgood tentsite (Just N of Pinkham Notch) at approx 7:30 a.m. last July, and began our long ascent up Madison. When we got to the treeline, clouds started rolling in as did the wind. At first, I was like, "Man this is awesome." Then after about 10 minutes, the winds were punishing and the visibility was < 10 ft. The winds were so loud that I had to yell at the top of my lungs to communicate with wife. OUr straps on our packs were wipping around and slapping our bodies like whips. She was getting blown off of her feet and I was getting tossed around like a rag doll. We had to strap our poles to our packs and literally crawl across the summit. That was the scaredest we had ever been in our lives. Afterwards, I had to change my drawers.

Gray Blazer
01-27-2006, 14:56
My wife and I left Osgood tentsite (Just N of Pinkham Notch) at approx 7:30 a.m. last July, and began our long ascent up Madison. When we got to the treeline, clouds started rolling in as did the wind. At first, I was like, "Man this is awesome." Then after about 10 minutes, the winds were punishing and the visibility was < 10 ft. The winds were so loud that I had to yell at the top of my lungs to communicate with wife. OUr straps on our packs were wipping around and slapping our bodies like whips. She was getting blown off of her feet and I was getting tossed around like a rag doll. We had to strap our poles to our packs and literally crawl across the summit. That was the scaredest we had ever been in our lives. Afterwards, I had to change my drawers.
Is that sign at the treeline there that says"Warning, the area ahead has the worst weather in the world. If the weather is bad, turn back now"? That sign alone was enough to scare me.

khaynie
01-27-2006, 18:21
Is that sign at the treeline there that says"Warning, the area ahead has the worst weather in the world. If the weather is bad, turn back now"? That sign alone was enough to scare me.

We didn't that sign near Mt. Madison's treeline - it wasn't until we got to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut until we saw it...

Ridge
01-27-2006, 18:55
During my month long winter hike of Maine in 2005, I was on my third day into the hundred mile wildness backpacking. I was snuggled in my sleeping bag a couple hours half asleep when I notice I was getting wet. I woke up releasing that my water bottle had broken inside my sleeping bag. My best guest is it was -35 below.

In what seem like only a couple minutes, the fill inside my sleeping bag had frozen. I throw my backpack inside my sleeping bag & tarp to act as a barricade between me and the ice. That night was a VERY COLD NIGHT.

I was about 40 miles away from Abol Bridge back tracking or 60 miles continue to Monson. I end up pushing it hard for 4 days before making it safely into Monson. I end up taken a crash course in how to build an igloo just to keep “warm”. I was cold and extremely tried!!! When I saw Miss Shaw, I could tell from the look on her face, I looked like an ice cube and I felt it. My sleeping bag was place in the dryer for nearly three hours before it was dry again.

Winter Hiking, you got to love it!!!

Wolf

The bag sounds like a down bag, I always recommend using a high quality synthetic bag to hikers getting started. Accidents like yours can happen to the most expert of hikers. I have both a down and synthetic bag, I used a synthetic bag on my 96 thru, had a water bladder (used as a pillow) bite valve leaked a ton of water in my bag on one of the coldest nights. When detected I took my camp-towel soaked all I could up and by morning the bag had almost dried from my body heat. Down, like cotton, takes forever to dry and it loses its ability to warm when wet, actually it can drain body heat. Down still provides the most warmth per oz of weight. You just role the dice when you are miles away from help.

mweinstone
01-27-2006, 21:22
i think the AT thru hike is an animal that can travel in down or sinth equally well. i belive its a unique situation in this sence because any other expedition any where else would have a benifit to using one or the other .but the AT just dosnt care cause of factors like only short miles to an evac point and mostly good whether and solo travel is a plus for using down due to no group equiptment,loads become heavy and down lightens it.

Ridge
01-27-2006, 22:24
Hypothermia isn't like a tooth ache. A scout leader/turned solo hiker died from it on Blood Mtn. a few years back. A College student died from it on one of the mountains in the Presidentials. Two cases where help was just a few miles away, so proximity doesn't matter unless you have someone to help you, and sometimes thats no good. Lots of other cases out there. Hypothermia is still the no.1 killer on the AT. Drowning is no.2 lightning is also in the top 5 killers.

Sly
01-27-2006, 22:55
Hypothermia is still the no.1 killer on the AT. Drowning is no.2 lightning is also in the top 5 killers.

Drowning is the #2 killer on the AT? Where? It seems to me, there's been more murders.

Ridge
01-27-2006, 23:01
Drowning is the #2 killer on the AT? Where? It seems to me, there's been more murders.

I would think that murders are not even in the top 5. I read a report several months ago about Hypotheria being the no.1, always has been and 2 was drownings. Falls, dehydration/heat related and lighting followed, I'm not sure what order.


Also, it was stated that drowning was the no.1 killer when all outdoor sports were combined.

RITBlake
01-30-2006, 23:31
Hypothermia is still the no.1 killer on the AT. Drowning is no.2 lightning is also in the top 5 killers.

I believe it. We made the mistake of leaving a nice warm shelter to hike another 7 or 8 miles in a driving November snowstorm in the Smokies. We had shorts, sneakers w/ holes, and light fleece jackets. We were ill prepared. Mike put socks over his hands to keep warm and I just jammed mine in my pocket, taking them out every 20 minutes or so to rub them.

When we got to our destination I managed to gather a fair amount of firewood. My hands hurt so bad and I was so so cold. I knew if we didnt get a fire going we might be in trouble. I kept at it, eventually Mike showed up and helped gather more wood.

They hypothermia part comes in to the mix when I was trying to build the fire. All I was trying to do was build a small teepee of small sticks in the fireplace,and it was impossible! this is something that I could normally do blindfolded. I could not make my hands do what I wanted them to no matter how hard I tried. I felt very confused and my mind felt very foggy. It took nearly a half hour to get even the smallest twigs to catch. Finally got it going and we warmed up in our bags. We laughed about it a couple days later when we were out of the smokies, but it was definitely the scariest moment of my thru hike. Could have gone badly.

RITBlake
01-30-2006, 23:34
I should also say that if we hadn't stayed w/ Miss Janet I would have been in even more trouble.

She found out I wasn't carrying a jacket of any kind and she made sure I left her house w/ a nice warm one. I wore it all the way to Springer, thanks Miss J!

Heater
01-31-2006, 00:06
They hypothermia part comes in to the mix when I was trying to build the fire. All I was trying to do was build a small teepee of small sticks in the fireplace,and it was impossible! this is something that I could normally do blindfolded. I could not make my hands do what I wanted them to no matter how hard I tried. I felt very confused and my mind felt very foggy.

Did you think at this point to get into you bag or was that completely a non-issue?

Wolf - 23000
01-31-2006, 01:55
The bag sounds like a down bag, I always recommend using a high quality synthetic bag to hikers getting started. Accidents like yours can happen to the most expert of hikers. I have both a down and synthetic bag, I used a synthetic bag on my 96 thru, had a water bladder (used as a pillow) bite valve leaked a ton of water in my bag on one of the coldest nights. When detected I took my camp-towel soaked all I could up and by morning the bag had almost dried from my body heat. Down, like cotton, takes forever to dry and it loses its ability to warm when wet, actually it can drain body heat. Down still provides the most warmth per oz of weight. You just role the dice when you are miles away from help.

My sleeping bag is down - water treated of course, covered in dry loft. I hadn't had a problem with it before. ***** Happens. Out there nothing dry. Even if I had a synthetic bag, the water would soak into the fill and turn into ice. It may appear "dry" but even a synthetic bag can still be wet inside.

There is only one company that I am aware of whose sleeping bags doesn't absorbed.

Wolf

RITBlake
01-31-2006, 02:31
Did you think at this point to get into you bag or was that completely a non-issue?
I considered it. I wasn't so far gone that I totally ignored this option. Mike got cold after 15 minutes or so of gathering wood and had to get in his bag. I think and HOPE that I would have eventually gotten in my bag had I not gotten the fire going. Believe me, I so badly wanted to get in my bag and eat something, but I believed if I didn't get a fire going right then and there, we would be in trouble.

I read this book on survival and it said that victoms of hypothermia are often found in ridiculous circumstances i.e. wearing no clothes, abandonded pack, food etc, way off the trail, etc.