View Full Version : Dirtiest you've ever got hiking?
puddingboy
02-10-2009, 20:08
What was the dirtiest hike you ever did and where was it?
Mine was hiking through woods and cowfields and getting stuck in mud on the side of a creek. I tried to step tripped and fell face forward into the mud. I managed to get up but then fell on my back into the mud. The bottom of the mud hole was about 3 feet deep and I got out by monkey crawling out. I dont even want to think of how many cow pies were in it. This was outside of Epworth Iowa.
Blissful
02-10-2009, 21:14
I was pretty dirty after the hundred mile wilderness and the end of my hike. Nearly six days with no shower. After Katahdin we drove home straight to my in laws in NY, ten hours and eve though it was 4 AM when we got there, I had to take a shower.
YoungMoose
02-10-2009, 21:22
one time i fell waist deep into a mud pit
I would say it was the time when I fell into a huge dirty fire pit, got caught in quicksand(black mud) up to my hips, and was bleeding from my kneecaps and forehead all within 1 hr. I hadn't showered and shaved in weeks. The tee shirt I was wearing(term used loosely) was nearly torn in half and my lacerated right nipple was clearly in view. When I stumbled up to the road in Tennessee I looked like a bloody fudge and oreo crumbled covered sundae that had experienced a tornado. A driver stared at me so long not knowing what the hell they were seeing he almost hit a fence when his car veered off the road. Funny sh&t talking about it now. Wasn't so funny at the time.
Dogwood I would have also run into a fence if I would have seen you like that. I would have taken a picture and sold it to the national enquire as "bigfoot found". Thats a funny story.
sticks&stones
02-10-2009, 22:20
once went 68 days without bathing whatsoever while hiking AT thru winter. even stayed in a couple motels during this duration. Why? no idea, but it was the dirtyist hiking I've ever done, with exception to maybe the first 26 days.
Kerosene
02-10-2009, 22:25
I think that I've kept fairly clean while backpacking; bathing or showering somehow every 5-6 days at least.
The first time I ever went mountain biking was pretty funny though. I was following someone and had covered 16 miles on a warm morning, but then decided to go out for another 9-mile loop. I reached a steep, rutted, sandy, downhill section and promptly went head-over-heels. The sand stuck everywhere there was sweat, which was pretty much everywhere. My rear rim was bent and the bike was toast. Fortunately, I was close to a sparsely traveled road, but 4 miles from my car. I stashed my bike in the woods and started to hoof it along the road, but this incredibly kind lady stopped and let me into her clean SUV to drive me back to my car. I was incredibly filthy.
SGT Rock
02-10-2009, 22:28
On patrol at Fort Knox with some students when I was a Scout BNCOC instructor. We were sneaking up on some M1 Tanks when I steped into mud and sunk up to my waist. Took 4 guys to pull me out I was stuck in that red mud so good.
the goat
02-10-2009, 23:44
i hiked from rutland, vt to thornton gap, va without a shower. i was quite dirty, in fact, i smelled like ass.
warraghiyagey
02-11-2009, 00:08
What was the dirtiest hike you ever did and where was it?
About half way up Katahdin. . . other than that I can't really mention particulars but it was memorable. . . or were we talking about actual dirt?
15 day swamp in and out,eating coon, frog,snake,and much more.
Jack Tarlin
02-11-2009, 20:16
Longest without a shower on the A.T. was Delaware Water Gap to Mt. Greylock around 1997. I think it was 18 days, and it was late in July.
The staff at Mt. Greylock weren't too happy with me and I don't remember making any new friends among the paying guests, either.
Mrs Baggins
02-11-2009, 21:23
The 5 days I was in the Smokeys, from Newfound Gap to Standing Bear Hostel. I swear to you I had my own personal flock of flies staying with me every day.
Nearly Normal
02-11-2009, 22:05
My boot came untied once.
buff_jeff
02-11-2009, 23:06
I stepped in my own **** once.
I stepped in my own **** once.
A park service temp here was loafing on the job (trail work), **** on a rock outcropping, then fell asleep and rolled in his own excrement. The park ranger found him laying in his own ****. Asleep. Needless to say, he was terminated shortly thereafter.
Government efficiency at it's finest! :D
buff_jeff
02-11-2009, 23:54
A park service temp here was loafing on the job (trail work), **** on a rock outcropping, then fell asleep and rolled in his own excrement. The park ranger found him laying in his own ****. Asleep. Needless to say, he was terminated shortly thereafter.
Government efficiency at it's finest! :D
Oh man, that is some funny stuff. So many potential trail names for a guy like that (and me, I guess. :o)!
Here's a trip report where I got thoroughly caked in mud even before the start of the hike: http://www.pahikes.com/trails/midstate17.asp
My boot came untied once.
Oh yeah? Well, one time, BOTH of my boots came untied - at the same time!!! (beat that!)
Lone Wolf
02-12-2009, 09:55
What was the dirtiest hike you ever did and where was it?
there was this hiker babe once... i ain't tellin'
Frick Frack
02-12-2009, 10:04
Our dirtiest was definately after the 100 Mile Wilderness & over 100 hours of rain at the beginning of our sobo. My father-in-law met us at Shaw's in Monson and said we smelled like the garbage dump.....actually this rain trend would continue through all of ME and VT & MA....yee hawww, mud baths for free every day.......lovin the mud....
A couple of years ago I hiked into Ten Mile River shelter in CT. There was a guy in a sleeping bag in the middle of the day. He smelt so bad that I could not get near him. I had thru-hiked and knew what a smelly hiker smelled like but he was far worse than anything I had smelled before. It was Sept. or early Oct. He was SOBO and said that he didn't wash or change his cloths forr the 50 days he had been hiking.
sixhusbands
02-12-2009, 15:59
hell week
one time I had hung my foodbag on a tree on the side of a steep hill. Next morning it was raining like crazy. Needless to say, I slid down that muddy hill three times before I could retrieve my foodbag. I was covered head to toe. Fortunately, there was a stream right there so I just jumped in and rinsed off.
In Maine when I slipped on a bog bridge and fell into the bog. I was a disaster till I could get to a pond and wash the mud off.
calculating infinity
02-15-2009, 02:44
florida swamp hikes FTW
i hiked from rutland, vt to thornton gap, va without a shower. i was quite dirty, in fact, i smelled like ass.
nothing like the smell of "dirty socks and ass matter" in the morning.
i was so filthy once, that i took off my dirty underwear, threw it against the wall, and i stuck.:D
Hiking in a peat moor in England, tried to jump across a big mess. Fell into what seemed like "quickpeat" way up above my knees. Hard to get out of. Said more than a few bad words. Was quite cranky until we got to the pub, settled down in front of the coal fire, and knocked back a pint or three. Hiking at its finest!
TJ aka Teej
02-15-2009, 10:21
I hiked south out of Monson after spending all day help Keith Shaw clean the cow shed. Even the bears avoided me...
Nightwalker
02-18-2009, 00:34
What was the dirtiest hike you ever did and where was it?
Bartram trail after a hurricane went through the area in 2004. A bridge washed out, and I started to walk across on what looked like sand. It turned out to be waist-deep quick sand. More like lightning sand. Luckily, my shoes were on tight, but that was the nastiest, grittiest 20 miles I ever walked. (between there and War Woman Dell.)
Alligator
02-18-2009, 00:48
Bottom of the Grand Canyon. We were cooling off in the river and decided to cover ourselves with mud. We also had plans to freak some of the other hikers out by barging out of the underbrush covered in mud but I'm pretty sure we called it off :D.
10 days in Philmont New Mexico. Had the opertunity to shower but decided to go all 10 days without a shower. When we got back to base camp, i was amazed because i thought i had a tan.
It came off in the shower:(
:D
I don't think the amount of time spent without bathing has anything to do with actually being dirty. I've spent several weeks out in the woods without ever being near a shower and stayed quite clean.
On well watered trails in the East it's so easy to wash up frequently, I really don't know why hikers let themselves get so rancid. It's not good for your health, your skin, your feet, etc.
I think the dirtiest/smelliest/nastiest I've ever gotten has either been on long desert trips when water is scarce, or Winter trips where it's consistently too cold to strip down and clean up in any fashion.
Although I hiked the Superior Trail Northbound and continued West through the Boundary Waters last year during a record wet Spring and it got ridiculous. Mud was shin to knee deep at times and the trails through the BWCA are really overgrown and bushy: So I would be slipping, getting wet and muddy, then needles and leaves would stick to the mud when I was shwackin' around in search of a trail. The mosquitos were totally outrageous and I didn't have the heart to strip down and jump in a lake for fear of getting even MORE swarmed... After a solid week of that mess I looked something like a walking pile of mulch. Blech.
Bare Bear
02-18-2009, 20:08
In January of 1989 I was near Amicalola ,I went an hiked the approach Trail. It rained, I did not have gear I should have had for my 'day trip' and if not for some kind folks at the top it would have been a really cold wet trip back down. I was completely muddied from top to bottom. They gave me some warmer clothes, a blanket and a tent space for the night. Another lesson learned the hard way.
foggy-bottom
02-18-2009, 20:43
2004 thru-hike i went 17 days in June just to see how long i could make it. I on the 17 day i wasn't planning on stopping but when i started to smell myself i new it was bad :)
You schould have seen the water in the shower that day.
mister krabs
02-18-2009, 21:23
Although I hiked the Superior Trail Northbound and continued West through the Boundary Waters last year during a record wet Spring and it got ridiculous. Mud was shin to knee deep at times and the trails through the BWCA are really overgrown and bushy: So I would be slipping, getting wet and muddy, then needles and leaves would stick to the mud when I was shwackin' around in search of a trail. The mosquitos were totally outrageous and I didn't have the heart to strip down and jump in a lake for fear of getting even MORE swarmed... After a solid week of that mess I looked something like a walking pile of mulch. Blech.
Well, there's yer problem right there, you're doing it wrong! it's the boundary waters CANOE area! ;);)
I bet the PORTAGE trails weren't overgrown! :banana:banana
sheepdog
02-18-2009, 21:49
Was crossing a beaver dam and slipped and fell into this nasty beaver mud. All the way up to my armpits. When I drug myself out I smelled like a sewer. I got to my car, stipped and put on an old flannel shirt. I drove all the way home with just the shirt on hopeing I would not get pulled over by the cops.
We went 21 days from Delaware Water Gap PA to Bennington VT without a shower or laundry, which wouldn't have been THAT bad if it hadn't have been the middle of the summer. The mosquitoes were so bad through CT and Mass, that it made washing up pretty difficult. I had blood and bug guts in my hair and all over my arms. Then it started to rain. When we got to Bennington we were covered in mud. Someone stopped to give us a ride into town in a pickup truck and he swore it was okay to get in the cab, but I was just too embarrassed. We rode in the back of the pickup in the rain instead.