View Full Version : worst part about hiking?
healthymom
03-16-2010, 09:49
What's the worst part of hiking for you? Achy feet? Trail food? Elevation gains?
For me it's cleaning the gear when I get home. I took a nice 2 day hike in the rain last week. I had the trail to myself. I really didn't mind getting wet. Although I've decided to change up my rain gear. Two deer watched me eat lunch. It was a lovely trip!
The sucky part was getting home, back to the hundreds of things that need to be done and having to unpack my wet gear and cleaning and drying it to put away. As I was spreading wet stuff around the house, I kept wondering why I 'had' to come home. I would have loved to stay out another day or week or 3. Wet tent, damp sleeping bag, filthy boots all had to be dried, cleaned and put away until the next time I can steal 36 hours from my life to run to the woods.
Thoughts? What do you dislike about hiking?
Dee
healthymom
bigmac_in
03-16-2010, 10:06
The worst part of hiking is stopping.
By far, IMO, the worst part about hiking is having to get off the trail, especially before you had planned. This could be due to severe weather, illness, injury, etc. It sucks getting off the trail, but sucks a lot worse getting off before your time is up.
Cookerhiker
03-16-2010, 10:11
In the context of long-distance hiking, the worst part for me is encountering hot, humid, sticky weather where even the nights don't cool off. I experienced such a stretch hiking the AT in NJ in '04 (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=69298)and cut the hike short because it was so miserable. The omnipresent mosquitos didn't help things.
Re your point about cleaning and putting away gear, the annoying aspect is that you do the same effort whether it's a one-night overnight or a multi-month long-distance hike.
bigmac_in
03-16-2010, 10:13
By far, IMO, the worst part about hiking is having to get off the trail, especially before you had planned. This could be due to severe weather, illness, injury, etc. It sucks getting off the trail, but sucks a lot worse getting off before your time is up.
An excellent point, Your Hoochness.
Other than injury [took me off the trail last year] is INSECTS.
By far, IMO, the worst part about hiking is having to get off the trail, especially before you had planned. This could be due to severe weather, illness, injury, etc. It sucks getting off the trail, but sucks a lot worse getting off before your time is up.
Exactly what I was going to say.
NEPilgrim
03-16-2010, 10:39
I agree, it's the bugs. The tiredness, perpetual hunger, soreness, even all that seems worth it when you've reached your goal, or even just a peak w/ a gr8 view! But the bugs, ughh...
~Steve.
Jester2000
03-16-2010, 10:44
Wait. There are people who clean and dry their gear when they get home? Interesting.
fredmugs
03-16-2010, 10:59
Worst part of the experience is the drive home. My next hike comes with a 1,000+ mile drive. Getting there will be exciting. Getting back not so much.
Worst part on the trail is when some idiot AT club routes the trail over a bunch of rocks when they clearly did not have to.
sidebackside
03-16-2010, 11:14
Wait. There are people who clean and dry their gear when they get home? Interesting.
I had the same thought...I'm just kiddin'.
But seriously.
Lone Wolf
03-16-2010, 11:16
the worst part is hikin'. i like campin'
fiddlehead
03-16-2010, 11:23
Not me, I like to walk.
I guess the worst part for me is the too long distance between friends met on the trail.
But, at least they are adventurous friends and come visit me even all the way on the otherside of the world.
Jester2000
03-16-2010, 11:24
the worst part is hikin'. i like campin'
How do you feel about getting sprayed by skunks?
Don't know if it's the "worse" or not but hiking does get somewhat monotonous at times, especially on long hikes when it's just day after day after day of the same thing. I don't like that very much but it tends to come and go so it's no biggie.
Another thing I don't like is getting a song stuck in my head. I got "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" in an endless loop and felt like shooting my face off to get rid of it.
For me--the worst part is the first public restroom I have to use on my way home. It always reminds me how clean the outback is.
Blissful
03-16-2010, 13:14
Worst part is getting off the trail for an injury. I had to do it several times, and it was the worst thing.
neighbor dave
03-16-2010, 13:49
watchin' your trail buddies (of the last thousands of miles) get in to the car/bus/train/plane, after the hike is over knowin you may never see them again
healthymom
03-16-2010, 13:52
Worst part of the experience is the drive home. My next hike comes with a 1,000+ mile drive. Getting there will be exciting. Getting back not so much.
I'm planning to ride the train, specifically a sleeper, home from Maine. I've never ridden a train before, so it'll be another whole new adventure. Maybe one I'll choose to not repeat.
Dee
healthymom
ijanssen
03-16-2010, 14:57
Not being able to hike as much as I want to due to the exigencies of life, and not being able to hike alone anymore due to a worrying wife.
I hate going up. Always have. So, I hate uphills, but I've gotten better with that over time. But I REALLY hate cold and wet. I can do cold. I can do wet. But when the two combine, I'm thoroughly miserable.
Cookerhiker
03-16-2010, 15:05
I hate going up. Always have. So, I hate uphills, but I've gotten better with that over time. But I REALLY hate cold and wet. I can do cold. I can do wet. But when the two combine, I'm thoroughly miserable.
And I hate heat and I hate downhills. We'd make a pair!;)
CrumbSnatcher
03-16-2010, 15:13
skeeters & running out of mountain money(toilet paper)thats about it. butt chafing add that to the list too
Feral Bill
03-16-2010, 15:18
Another vote for mosquitoes.
NorthCountryWoods
03-16-2010, 16:10
Not the occasional sprinkle, but relentless rain. I can't sleep thru it for some reason. I don't really mind bugs, heat, cold, snow, ups or downs....but fold up like a little girl after a few straight days of pouring rain.
Bear Cables
03-16-2010, 16:26
Getting caught in a thunder storm. Rain is fine if it's not cold but thunder storms scare me.
Jonnycat
03-16-2010, 16:56
Groups of humans.
Chaco Taco
03-16-2010, 18:48
actually reading a thread about worst parts of hiking? And the fact that the OP has a friggin list!?! Only worst part of hiking is not hiking
What do you dislike about hiking?
I don't dislike hiking, in fact, I like hiking, alot. But I don't like the humidity
Chaco Taco
03-16-2010, 20:08
I hate going up. Always have. So, I hate uphills, but I've gotten better with that over time. But I REALLY hate cold and wet. I can do cold. I can do wet. But when the two combine, I'm thoroughly miserable.
Funniest post in a loooooooong time
Funniest post in a loooooooong time
Obviously in denial that she really hates hiking. ;):rolleyes:
Another thing I don't like is getting a song stuck in my head. I got "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" in an endless loop...
Ack! Now I do too.
I can put up with a lot. I guess my vote would be crappin' in the woods.
Yeah, I was going to say "coming home", or something of the sort.
I remember reaching Bly Gap in 2006, standing for a loooooong time looking longingly up the hill on the other side, and reluctantly turning around and heading back to Dick's Creek Gap and home - the end of my section. It might have been different if I weren't an aspiring thruhiker (just don't have time for it yet), and the fact that I had been hiking with others who had, or would be, hiking on..........Meeeeeeeemmmm-ries (sing it Barbara!).
Lion King
03-16-2010, 23:58
you can stop?
you can stop?
Yes, but not for long.;)
It's not something I dislike exactly. actually it's something I often find hilarious and entertaining...I love getting to camp at the end of the day and listening to a group of aspiring thruhikers (who have been anticipating trials all winter long, and have finally gotten out on the trail...) talk about the struggles of the last day or week...comparing the awful condition of their feet, how many miles they've done recently, or how bad the recent obstacle of the day was for them...especially when it becomes a game of one-upmanship...like "I hiked that entire mountain with this honking blister..." "Oh yeah, well I did it on my mega-blister and then realized I left my digital camera back at the shelter and had to backtrack the whole 2 miles ad hike up it AGAIN, WITH my entire water bladder full both directions, not realizing there was a spring at the top....and THEN had to walk through the thunderstorm...." "Oh yeah, you were lucky....last night I didn't get any sleep, I'm sure there was a bear outside my tent, and then.......)
It's a very common phenomenon, and you'd think by listening to them that hiking was the most awful thing in their lives, however they can't wait to wake up and start again tomorrow....always makes me chuckle a bit as I listen...
It is the long, long drives we take to get to the long hikes...13 hours one way to the AT. 13 hours to our next long section up north. Drive there is fine. Drive home is tough because it is the end of our hike and time together.-our hike goup.
Second, is the cleaning and putting up the gear.
Chaco Taco
03-17-2010, 05:34
One particular thru this year has been posting alot of complaining in registers about the snow. My thing is, you knew it was a bad winter before you got here. You choose to keep going. If its really that bad, go home.
daddytwosticks
03-17-2010, 07:32
Worse part about hiking: missing my wife and kids. Worse thing about being home with the wife and kids: missing hiking. I'm doomed. :(
CrumbSnatcher
03-17-2010, 08:41
Worse part about hiking: missing my wife and kids. Worse thing about being home with the wife and kids: missing hiking. I'm doomed. :(
i'm with ya on that one!
Jim Adams
03-17-2010, 08:42
Hot weather! Hate it.
LW, I would rather hike into somewhere beautiful and just camp also...to me the hiking isn't the answer, it's just the way to get there.
geek
bigmac_in
03-17-2010, 09:27
I can put up with a lot. I guess my vote would be crappin' in the woods.
What? There's nothing better . . .
Hikes in Rain
03-17-2010, 11:12
Getting used to not having the daily shower. Once past that, I'm fine. I can even handle the relentless rain that always happens when I hike. (Maybe I should change my name to Droughtbuster!)
Cookerhiker
03-17-2010, 11:31
...hot, humid, sticky weather where even the nights don't cool off. I experienced such a stretch hiking the AT in NJ in '04 (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=69298)and cut the hike short because it was so miserable. The omnipresent mosquitos didn't help things...
Hot weather! Hate it.
....geek
Yep! Kindred souls!
sherrill
03-17-2010, 12:13
Worst part about hiking? When I leave my tarp at home cause I'm going uberultralight and I get stuck having to sleep in a shelter with unleashed dogs that have snoring guns.
:D
The drive home in the Jersey traffic. I'd rather hike the rocks of PA then put up with that crap on RT 80 & 287.
Funniest post in a loooooooong time
Yeah, yeah, I know. I laughed when I wrote it. There are definitely times when I wonder why the hell I hike. I always like it after I'm done, though. :)
Maybe I should seek the help of a mental health professional?
Cookerhiker
03-17-2010, 22:17
The drive home in the Jersey traffic. I'd rather hike the rocks of PA then put up with that crap on RT 80 & 287.
It's better than the NJ Turnpike.;)
I used to live in the MD suburbs of DC and did most of my hiking in Shenandoah NP. The drive home on I-66 and the Capital Beltway through the VA suburbs was the absolute pits.
Chaco Taco
03-17-2010, 23:21
Worst thing I hate, living so close to one of the coolest network of trails AT, Bartram, Art Loab, M2S. I mean it really sucks:sun
Plodderman
03-18-2010, 10:05
Besides the end of the trail the worst part are the down hill steps or cut-a-ways that make you break your rhythm. Quite a few toward the end of the Smokies and just ran into some near Woody Gap in GA.
Blue Jay
03-18-2010, 10:18
Worst part on the trail is when some idiot AT club routes the trail over a bunch of rocks when they clearly did not have to.
You'd better stay away from the entire trail PA and north as the "IDIOT AT CLUB" (for some reason it makes me angry for a midwesterner to say that) has only bunches of rocks to work with.:welcome
What is the worst part of hiking? Whatever is making the experience absolutely MISERABLE at that particular moment: Three days of torrential rains, 100 degree temps with high humidity, illness or injury, hiking partners that are driving you crazy, swarms of insects, long and steep uphill climbs, super cold temperature, etc.
You may laugh about those situations later (and even brag about them)--but at the time they are nothing but 100% MISERABLE!
Furlough
03-20-2010, 09:54
What's the worst part of hiking for you?
Not Hiking.
the worst part is hikin'. i like campin'
Ditto! I can make a 5 mile loop into an overnighter!
The worst part about hiking is putting on wet clothes and shoes on a chilly morning...
For me the "worst" are the relatively long drives to get to good/interesting backpacking trails. Maybe that's another way of saying "...not enough trails...":)
flemdawg1
03-31-2010, 17:37
Worst part: breaking in your legs, and chafage.
Panchito
03-31-2010, 18:07
Not enough time to do it. But if I had to nitpick, coming home and cleaning gear
answering these questions
HiKen2011
03-31-2010, 21:02
This trip, missing the final four. I love that tounament, always very exciting. But I'm sure there will be lots of excitement on the trail!:-?
Detour
Graywolf
03-31-2010, 21:14
Chaffing and Rashes between your legs and next shower is 3 days away...OUCH!!
woodstock64
03-31-2010, 22:29
Having a bad back 1/2 way through your hike. Happened to me in PA (all those rocks Fred) but still finished my section hike with the encouragement of great hiking partners.