View Full Version : What was your best day of hiking
glacier48
05-08-2008, 17:41
Could use some encouragement for my upcoming trip. Anyone feel like sharing the memories of their best hiking day?
Glacier:sun
stormin norman
05-08-2008, 18:31
Any and every day I am out on the trail and not working.
Blissful
05-08-2008, 19:53
Climbing Katahdin. :)
Hiking to and camping at the Audie Murphy Memorial on Memorial Day 2000.
WalkingStick75
05-08-2008, 20:02
My worst day on the trail was better then my best day at work.
Jaybird62
05-08-2008, 20:07
A good friend and I were out doing a dayhike on Mt. Minsi. On our descent it started snowing. It was those big, silver dollar sized flakes setlling down on the pine tree branches. Absolutely beautiful.....That moment will always stand out in my mind, good times:)!!!!
Had an awesome, beautiful afternoon in September 2006 leaving Delaware Water Gap heading southbound. Freshly showered, good eats in the pack. Gorgeous views, purr-fect weather, a climb that was **much** easier than expected, and a quiet, clean, new, empty shelter with a nice view (Kirkridge) at the end of the day. What made it extra-special good was that, at DWG, I'd already hit my nominal goal (endpoint) for that section. It was the first time in years that I'd hit "the end" and wanted to keep on going...
hopefulhiker
05-08-2008, 21:20
It was a night and a day for me... The night I spent at the Lake of the Clouds hut watching the Northern Lights.. the next day I climbed up Mt Washington and was able to see the ocean!
Well, It was a night on the Long Trail, not the actual hike which highlights my best memories. My hiking buddy had just given up the hike and headed for home, leaving me alone to hike the next few miles to the Skylight Pond shelter. Shortly after arriving there, alone, another hiker arrived. He was just back from Iraq (in the '90s) and trying to get some peace. The sun set and the full moon rose right over the pond about 30 feet below the porch of the shelter (cabin, really). Neither of us knew what awaited us. Within an hour, a full lunar eclipse began, and as the moonlight was overcome by the shadow of the earth, an owl which had been hooting across the pond flew over and perched in the top of a tree not 10 feet from the shelter. A short while later a cow moose quietly waded into the pond and began to feed on the aquatic plants. A wonderful, wonderful night.
Jim Adams
05-08-2008, 22:36
Round Bald in 1990 with HippyMan,
Webster cliffs to Madison in 1990 by myself,
All day on top of Lafayette in 2002,
...and EVERY day in Maine.
geek
envirodiver
05-08-2008, 23:23
An evening in the Alaska Basin in the Grand Tetons Nat. Park. Lying on a huge rock that stuck out into one of the many lakes, looking at the stars that seemed to be just above my head.
D'Artagnan
05-09-2008, 09:09
They are all great, but I have special fondness for my very first day on the AT. It was in May of 2005. I struck out from Nantahala Outdoor Center north to Cheoah Bald. I had never hiked before. It was raining. It was uphill. My pack weighed around 48 pounds (for an over-nighter, mind you :eek:). I was too fat. I had new shoes that created huge blisters. I had a new hammock I had never used. I had never used the bathroom outdoors.
At the end of the second day when I arrived back at NOC, I was sore, had blisters, and was pretty well beat up -- but I was on top of the world.
It was one of the best decisions and experiences of my life to that point and one that has forever changed me. It showed me there was nothing I could not accomplish if I put my mind to it. As has already been stated, my worst day in the woods has been better than my best day in the office. :banana
i was on the AT below Tinkers Cliffs in a valley somewhere, near Lamberts Meadow shelter i think, and it rained alllll night long. For one i love sleeping when it is raining outside. When we all woke up and got out the tents, everything was orange. Little bit of fog and real humid so you had that sort of mist in the air but everything was orange. The ground full of fresh fallen orange leaves, all the leaves still on the tree bright orange. It was crazy. I have a picture i think and ill upload it in my photos so anyone who wants to check it out can. Ill never forget that morning.
DesertMTB
05-09-2008, 11:05
Crossing Thunderhead and Silers Bald in 60-plus mph winds and rain. Definetly the best day!!
Walking through mist and cloud layer on a cold day on Blood Mtn.
Crazy, but much like Envirodiver, I woke up in Alaska Basin in Grand Teton NP, and headed north. When I crested the ridge and looked down on the snow covered valley leading down to Classroom Glacier (with the three main Teton Peaks behind), it was the most stunning image I've ever seen. I'm sure the rest of the day offered great sights as well, but I hardly remember them after that perfect moment.
My worst day on the trail was better then my best day at work.This should be your mantra if you ever feel like going back to work.
Furthermore, I never had a bad day in the woods.