Always learning through my idiocy!

[Puddlefish]

I wanted to hit one of the lesser used local trails today, it's part of a well used system of trails, but few people take the longer route. I get about 2 miles in, right to the start of the pristine new trail. I shrug off my pack, to switch to snowshoes and have a well deserved drink of water...

Turns out that I'd hooked the snowshoes to a convenient strap in the very center/top of my daypack, and had zipped up the main compartment with the standard double zipper to meet at the top of the pack. Well, the weight of the snowshoes, essentially dragged open the zippers, and dragged open the main compartment, spilling my water bottle and half of my gear. So, I turned around and collected my gear strewn along the last one and a half miles. Of course the water bottle was the last thing I found.

So, stupid little things matter, like choosing a better attachment point and/or having the zippers meet along one side and/or just not using the daypack during the winter.

[Gambit McCrae]

Reminds me of a trip I took one winter in big south fork. Almost brand spanking new Tarp Tent SS2 snap strapped horizontally to the back of my pack(towards the bottom ya know). Trail had about 1.5 miles of frequent creek crossings. At the last one I took my pack off and luckily noticed my precious SS2 was missing!! So back across the 7 creek crossings I went and at the very first 1 on the edge of the swift current, on the dry bank, was my SS2. Awaiting my return :)

[Dogwood]

You're a getting wiser idiot. :D


We need more folks taking their hubris down a notch or two...or 3...4....

I lost and later went back 4.2 miles one way looking for a new MLD Superlight Bivy I had "definitely secured" in the pack's side pocket on a winter Grand Canyon NP trip. That was a rough 4.2 m not on corridor trails. It was a less used route. I had it in the field using it one night before I lost it. Dutch was along on that trip. I eventually caught back up with him hrs later. "Where ya been, I thought you might have gotten hurt?" "Lost my damn new bivy." LOL. A touron probably found it thinking it was a downed weather balloon.


Went back 4 miles on a LT SOBO looking for and finding one lost Keen sandal that fell off the back of the pack after having "definitely secured" it. I was going through mixed states, angry off and on mixed with a very heightened sense of deep joy and awareness, a Zen like state, since the early morning start. Something in the Universe outside of me let me know it was missing, told me to stop, told me to go back if I wanted it, and EXACTLY where it had fallen off. Although not in the habit of leaving behind stuff I agonized as I buried the one sandal well off trail I still had refusing to acknowledge that voice struggling to regain a positive state of boundless awareness from a state of anger, irritation, complaining, and low energy. Funny thing is as was being laid to rest I was softly admonished to go back and get the lost sandal and resurrect the buried one. "It" taught me the things we might call a miracle don't have to be rare events. We can walk in a state of greater awareness more than we currently realize.


I went almost 9 miles RT the wrong way on a PCT spur before I realized I was on a spur. That was funny when I arrived alone at a gravel FS road TH parking lot that was not in Canada or Campo at a party of LD hiker trash. If I didn't make it into something funny to learn about I would have went Fight Club on myself. It happened because I tried cutting off one damn switchback less than 20 ft in trail distance and not looking at my maps or compass until voila the parking lot. Don't cut switchbacks! Refer to navigational aids regularly and when navigational issues arise.

I went 11.7 grueling RT miles in 103* heat with no shade the entire way and with less than .5 L mineral laden H20 type substance when I got off route on the Hayduke. I made the initial mistake of not having a larger picture Capitol Reef NP map relying solely on the smaller picture USGS 100K quads for that segment.

Several times I've left behind trekking poles, far behind, that I went back to get. One time I spent the entire day's daily mileage, 26 miles RT, doing an out and back trekking pole retrieving hike. It would have sucked if they weren't there when I got to where I had left them. I fondly refer to it as my mini TPRT thru hike. I've learned to triple check I haven't left anything behind. It's made easier when you have less and have customary places where and how things are kept.

[JG13]

Lost a new pair of Native brand Kodiak sunglasses about 2 miles south of Devils Fork Gap...they dislodged from my chest strap. Moron city. Merry Christmas to whomever finds them.

[peakbagger]

If you happen to ever go up to the Conway area, head up the road to Ragged Mountain equipment and take a walk down in their hardware section. They have every snap and buckle you can imagine and reels of nylon strapping. They also have a device for sewing things by hand. Now take your winter pack and see where you would need to put attachments points and sew a half of a two piece buckle on the pack. Then when you strap on snowshoes you just click the other half of the buckle in with a length of strap and you are good to go. I actually need to do that to my new winter pack (which is actually a recycled summer pack from my AT sectioning days). I have the same setup for my crampon bag. Squeeze two buckles and the crampon bag attaches or detach from the outside of the pack.

Yes it does take some planning but makes it real quick on cold day on a mountain.

[Puddlefish]

I've left gear on the trail through my own forgetfulness before. I've left several bandanas drying on tree branches. (Sorry for littering! They were fairly new, I hope someone got some use out of them) I backtracked a few miles to collect one of my Patriots Championship hats. I left my poles a mile behind at a water source. That one was about my brainless record setter, how do you not notice that you're hiking without poles after a month of hiking with poles?

This time (if I were a suspicious illogical person) felt like one piece of gear was conspiring with another piece of gear to sabotage me. (Even though the physics worked exactly as they should have, had I considered the attachment and zipper orientation more carefully. (I don't really think my snowshoes are haunted and that they hate me.)

Thanks for the tip Peakbagger, I'll swing by there at some point.

[Rain Man]

Some people call those "beginner mistakes." I call them "expert mistakes," because they turn you into an expert quickly. LOL

This summer I thru-hiked the JMT with two guys, One was a local friend of mine and the other was a San Diego friend of his from many, many years earlier when they were Kings Canyon NP ski instructors together. But that friend had never, ever been backpacking. He bought all new backpacking gear at REI. (BTW, he did wonderfully well on the hike. I was super impressed with him as we did our thru.)

Anyway, on about morning three or so, he lost his rainfly,-- as he discovered at camp that night. He surmises the wind blew it off a big log, where he had carefully folded and orderly laid out all the things he needed to put into his pack that morning. Apparently, as he packed everything from the top of the log into his pack, the rainfly was laying just out of sight behind the log,-- or so he later pictured in his mind.

Short story is we had no rain the next couple of nights before our ZERO at Reds Meadow, though he closely eyed both our hammock set-ups to decide which he'd sleep under if rain started! LOL He got enough cell service at a mountain pass to call San Diego REI about a replacement rainfly. No deal, they don't sell parts of tents. So, he bought a brand new tent over the phone (second one in a week or so!), and since a friend was coming up to meet us at Reds anyway for our ZERO, had him bring the new tent from San Diego to Reds. Problem solved, lesson learned. Now an expert on policing the area and seeing that everything gets packed at campsites far into the woods!

[Puddlefish]

Yep Rainman, I'd never really camped before, so I got pretty good at policing the area before I started hiking, but I was only looking down. Had to learn to change my eye level after I lost the second bandana. I also bought brighter bandanas as I'm several kinds of color blind and colors tend to blend into the background. Losing an expensive tent part would have stressed me out.

I'm still learning things from folks on WhiteBlaze, but there's always going to be those lessons that I have to learn through mistakes.

[Dogwood]

I think I've just been called an expert mistake maker.;)

First ever backpacking hike;first thru-hike ever; he thrus the JMT. Does your friend know it's all downhill from there?:cool: Damn good call picking the JMT for him.

[MuddyWaters]

I wanted to hit one of the lesser used local trails today, it's part of a well used system of trails, but few people take the longer route. I get about 2 miles in, right to the start of the pristine new trail. I shrug off my pack, to switch to snowshoes and have a well deserved drink of water...

Turns out that I'd hooked the snowshoes to a convenient strap in the very center/top of my daypack, and had zipped up the main compartment with the standard double zipper to meet at the top of the pack. Well, the weight of the snowshoes, essentially dragged open the zippers, and dragged open the main compartment, spilling my water bottle and half of my gear. So, I turned around and collected my gear strewn along the last one and a half miles. Of course the water bottle was the last thing I found.

So, stupid little things matter, like choosing a better attachment point and/or having the zippers meet along one side and/or just not using the daypack during the winter.


Its called the school of hard knocks

[Feral Bill]

When I was teaching I often told students "you learn from your mistakes, that's why I'm so smart". Still true.

[Five Tango]

I lost my bag full of hammock suspension and related items that I KNEW I had attached with carabiner to my pack.
Backtracked and found it the next day.Lesson learned,its packed with the hammock Inside the pack ever after.

[Astro]

When I was teaching I often told students "you learn from your mistakes, that's why I'm so smart". Still true.

I always tell them experience is learning from your mistakes. Wisdom is learning from someone else's mistakes.
Experience is good, but wisdom is even better. :)

[Maui Rhino]

Last week I started off on a quick overnighter in Haleakala Crater. Since I was leaving my truck a couple hours before sunrise, I "securely attached" my wide brimmed sun hat to the outside of my pack. Four hours later, when I took my pack off, I was bummed to see my hat was gone. Luckily, I had a baseball cap for camp use, and my bald spot didn't burn

I've come to think the hat didn't want to be with me, as it had been left behind a couple of times as I loaded my truck for some misadventure or another. While I won't miss that hat so much, it had a patch from our state trail organization, Na Ala Hele, that I'm really bummed about losing. I earned that patch over 20yrs ago for volunteer trail work, and it can't be replaced.

[Dogwood]

Yeah, I don't see that Na Ala Hele patch very often.

[Odd Man Out]

Smart people learn from their mistakes (I prefer to call them "learning opportunities"). Idiots don't learn from their mistakes. But that's still better than the people who think they don't make mistakes.

[egilbe]

I left a hat on the ground after I left poplar ridge one shelter one chilly morning in July. Stopped to take a layer off, a nylon anorak, packed it away and walked two miles down the trail before I realized I wasn't wearing it. Thought about going back to get it, but was in a time crunch. Talked to several through hikers that found the hat, one of them even wore it for awhile and hung it in a tree. never saw it again.

[Kerosene]

Now an expert on policing the area and seeing that everything gets packed at campsites far into the woods!I learned to police anyplace I stop after I walked away from gear several times over the years, including my trekking poles, camera and stuffsack with asthma meds. I have now trained my girlfriend to do the same around town, as she's always losing her gloves, or glasses, or something. Good habit to get into.

[soumodeler]

After every stop, I turn around and look back after a few steps down the trail.

[Traffic Jam]

One thing I’ve learned through my idiocy is to not let worry and fear make things more difficult than they are.

A BMT section hike had me very worried...getting lost, overgrown trails, going solo, etc. The shuttle driver dropped me off at the picnic area on Tellico River rd. and not finding the trailhead, I bushwhacked up into the woods, thinking that I would eventually cross paths with the trail. No such luck. I walked up and down that hillside, crawling over and under downed trees and brambles, falling multiple times. Turning around and nearly back to the road, I stepped into deep mud and sank up to my knees, sucking my shoe off, getting soaked and muddy.

It turns out the trailhead was right around the bend in the road. It was a good lesson in learning to relax, don’t worry so much, and don’t make things more difficult than they need to be.

[Teacher & Snacktime]

Once we dropped out of the very chill winds atop Bear Mtn, NY, I shed my outer layer...a poly puffy...and trapped it under the brain of my daypack. When we reached the next ridgeline after a scramble or two, the wind picked up again. I stopped and turned to Lu to tell her I'd have to layer up again, discovering she'd been carrying my coat for a while when it fell from my pack. That would have been a quite uncomfortable lesson learned! Next time I put it fully in the pack and closed it up tight.

[Lorelei]

2012 I was camped on the AT Approach Trail, first time to hike/camp/wear a pack....totally green. 5 hours later (and only 3 miles further) I realized I had left all of my food, in a BV450, hanging in a tree.
--Snowflake

[Leo L.]

Growing older usually is accompanied by becoming more clever, usually due to bad things that had happened we can learn from.

When I re-started hiking a few years ago, I bought a nice lightweight backpack (Lightwave) and tent (MST Hubba Hubba NX).
The tent poles are of a bulk that makes it reasonable to carry them strapped to the outside.
Didn't trust the flimsy MSR poles bag and sewed one of my own.

So I was hiking in rainy conditions and right after a short lunch break under a tree got going again.
Just out of pure luck I heard a low "thump" behind me. Looked back, the poles bag was laying on the ground.
It had slipped off the outside straps of the pack, that went loose whan I unpacked for lunch and didn't re-tighten when packing up again.

So now I've added a loop of chord to the poles bag and a tiny biner, to always secure the bag to the pack.

[Night Train]

Thanks for the narrative, it's the little things that trip me up, at times.