View Full Version : What's The Best "Repair" You Ever Did?
Have you (or seen someone else) do a hasty repair on the trail that you were particularly proud of? You know, like sew a split pack seam with dental floss or duck tape a broken headlamp together?
How creative have your repairs been?
Rocket Jones
11-04-2010, 18:53
I once built an oxygen scrubber out of duct tape, plastic groundsheet, cardboard cover of my guidebook... oh wait, that was a movie I saw. Never mind.
;)
The incident at Split Pants Creek as it's come to be known...
Me and a buddy are doing 200 miles in the Smokies. About 120 miles down grinding out the Lakeshore Trail when we stop to get water. I'd been wearing the same pair of Mountain Hardware pants the entire trip and to economize I only brought the one pair.
You see where this is going?
I made it through the watering up just fine but right before we left I bend over to wash my hands in the creek at which point a quick ripping sound punctuates the woods. I reach back and feel at the damage. Total structural failure. Stitching is completely gone from the crotch to the belt loop. I am ass out and three days from a possible resupply point and six days from the car.
We hiked about seven more miles that day. My hiking buddy wanting to lead most of the way for some reason. The plan began to form that we were being met in Smokemont and could get a ride to an outfitter or Wal-Mart in Cherokee. I was not looking forward to spending money on a pair of pants when these were just bought at retail before this trip and I had two serviceable pair at home though.
So that night while my buddy is on the phone with his wife he hears me start giggling like a mad man. I'd taken a few things into my tent when we set up camp with the idea that somehow these pants could be saved. Honestly I was thinking fishing line from the survival kit but the parachute cord seemed more sturdy. I took my knife and stabbed ten to twelve holes in each side of the ass of these pants. Laced it up with parachute cord. The first time I put them back on I got a super wedgie. I adjusted the cord and they fit just fine. That's when I started giggling like a mad man.
The only problem was the cute little bow I now had on my ass. The situation lasted until the very last day when the bow came undone and the stitching fell out but by the time I didn't care if the picnicers at Big Creek got to see my smartwools.
My strap tore off my backpack and I sewed it back on with floss. Its still working today. Sewing is really hard for me, so I'm proud of it. I can barely sew a button back on my shirt.
garlic08
11-04-2010, 19:47
My friend broke a Leki ski pole on an overnighter. He had extended it too far past the limit for some steep climbing and forgot to collapse it on a descent. When he fell, he snapped the joint so the plastic expander was only about an inch into the tube. Neither of us was a good enough skier to go down the next day without two poles, so we really needed to fix it. The multitool pliers could not get a purchase on the metal stud, and the knife blade could not carve out the plastic. Finally, I thought of heat. We fired up the stove, heated up the tube enough to soften the plastic, shoved it in with the lower section to the correct length for descending, and held it in place with duct tape. He still hasn't replaced the poles.
Trailbender
11-04-2010, 21:00
I relaced my hiking shoes with paracord, sewed paracord to hold the front of the shoe together, and recut tread with a pocketknife. I don't see the point in throwing stuff away. I'm still wearing the boots I got in Harper's Ferry. I also sew regularly with dental floss, and completely redid the waist on my pants and my tent, as well as most of the rest of my gear.
Had a Mont Bell sleeping bag zipper crap out on me on a unseasonably cold and bitter early season JMT thru-hike. Zipper would not stay zipped resulting in body heat loss that kept me up shivering over two cold nights. I tried keeping the zipper closed with the two safety pins I normally carry. That helped a little but I still got so cold one night I got up at 2 a.m., broke camp, and hiked to Muir Hut under a crisp starlit night where I gratefully got out of some of the cold by sleeping on the stone benches. On the next day, I asked every single hiker I met if they had any safety pins. Got 4 more. It was enough to to keep me reasonably warm until I could get out to Bishop where I had another of my sleeping bags overnighted to me.
Have duct taped several trail runners to get another 100 or so miles out of them or until I could get to an outfitter for new ones.
On the PCT my feet swelled so much in the Mojave Desert my shoes no longer fit. I was dismayed that my brand new Vasque Velocity trail Runners didn't fit, but never the less, I took out my pocket knife and proceeded to carve them up so my feet could fit.
On the same PCT thru-hike I set my custom Spinnaker tarp up for only the second time since I bought it at the 2008 ADZPCT Kick Off. It was so new and shiny. It looked wonderful set up near Lake Morena under a tree and sunny skies. MISTAKE! Went to hear Eric Ryback talk about being the first Triple Crowner. Came back to find a large limb had broken off the tree and landed on my NEW tarp. UGH! It was so sad. 5 holes! Henry Shires gratefully had the repair materials and recommendations on how to repair my tarp that he gave me for nothing. Well, not nothing. I traded him a ripe mango, which he likes, and that I had toted from Campo, for the materials and his assistance! Those repairs are still holding up on that tarp! Thanks Henry!
Still have, and use, a Thermarest ProLite 3 Shortie with at least a dozen patches on it of various kinds and colors. Holds air still!
- 1980
- A friend's Kelty Expedition Pack
- Cross bar of aluminum frame broke off - the bar the shoulder straps attach to
- Cut approximately 3/4 inch oak branch to length
- Lashed aluminum cross bar to the oak branch
- Lashed the oak branch into position on the pack frame
Repair took all of about 15 minutes.
Repair lasted couple hundred miles until we made an outfitters and Kelty ok'd exchanging the frame with an in-stock replacement.
Trailbender
11-05-2010, 08:15
Had a Mont Bell sleeping bag zipper crap out on me on a unseasonably cold and bitter early season JMT thru-hike. Zipper would not stay zipped resulting in body heat loss that kept me up shivering over two cold nights. I tried keeping the zipper closed with the two safety pins I normally carry. That helped a little but I still got so cold one night I got up at 2 a.m., broke camp, and hiked to Muir Hut under a crisp starlit night where I gratefully got out of some of the cold by sleeping on the stone benches. On the next day, I asked every single hiker I met if they had any safety pins. Got 4 more. It was enough to to keep me reasonably warm until I could get out to Bishop where I had another of my sleeping bags overnighted to me.
Have duct taped several trail runners to get another 100 or so miles out of them or until I could get to an outfitter for new ones.
On the PCT my feet swelled so much in the Mojave Desert my shoes no longer fit. I was dismayed that my brand new Vasque Velocity trail Runners didn't fit, but never the less, I took out my pocket knife and proceeded to carve them up so my feet could fit.
On the same PCT thru-hike I set my custom Spinnaker tarp up for only the second time since I bought it at the 2008 ADZPCT Kick Off. It was so new and shiny. It looked wonderful set up near Lake Morena under a tree and sunny skies. MISTAKE! Went to hear Eric Ryback talk about being the first Triple Crowner. Came back to find a large limb had broken off the tree and landed on my NEW tarp. UGH! It was so sad. 5 holes! Henry Shires gratefully had the repair materials and recommendations on how to repair my tarp that he gave me for nothing. Well, not nothing. I traded him a ripe mango, which he likes, and that I had toted from Campo, for the materials and his assistance! Those repairs are still holding up on that tarp! Thanks Henry!
Still have, and use, a Thermarest ProLite 3 Shortie with at least a dozen patches on it of various kinds and colors. Holds air still!
I use my sleeping bag like a quilt, and rarely zip it up. If this happens again, just tuck it underneath you. As far as cutting up gear, I agree. No matter how expensive, I won't hesitate to take a knife and needle/thread to my gear and modify it as needed.
ATsawyer
11-05-2010, 08:25
Approaching an ice-sheeted section of AT with no easy bypass, I duct taped a handfull sharp gravel to the bottom of my boots. The edges of the gravel cut partially through the tape and sunk into the ice but didn't come loose from my boots for the fifty or so feet of trail I had to negotiate.
This doesn't exactly fit the catagory of 'fixes', but I'm still proud of it so I'll share.
My hiking style is a bit different than most-- I go ultralite so I can afford to carry some almost useless things. On my 2009 thru hike, I ordered a tomahawk and had it delivered to a hostel. I forgot to buy a sheath so I decided to make one. I found a pair of blue jeans at an abandoned campsite and used floss to sew a piece of them into the perfect cover for my new toy.
This was partly inspired by my friend using a wool blanket to fashion a sort of tunic as the weather began getting colder.
A figure 8 bandage made of duct tape when my shoe blew out with about 90 miles left to hike the PCT:
http://pmags2.jzapin.com/gallery2/d/4667-2/amja.jpg?g2_GALLERYSID=9ac640d45e3eae14b55b58dce60 3ee23
Duct tape over a puncture hole on my Platypus. When I don't use it, I keep it stored in the freezer. Even in these conditions, It's worked perfectly for 2 years.
garlic08
11-05-2010, 09:59
Approaching an ice-sheeted section of AT with no easy bypass, I duct taped a handfull sharp gravel to the bottom of my boots. The edges of the gravel cut partially through the tape and sunk into the ice but didn't come loose from my boots for the fifty or so feet of trail I had to negotiate.
This gets my vote for thinking outside the box and creativity. Nicely done!
Along those same lines, Slow Ride, on the AZT last season, wrapped some barbed wire around his shoes for the same reason.
Three years ago on the Superior Hiking Trail I got to my intended campsite for the night and found a note that 2 black bears had been seen there in the last few days.
I didn't think too much of it until I went to hang my food on the bear cables and realized I had left my rope at the last campsite where I'd used it as a clothesline.
Luckily I had a piece of tyvek I was using as a ground cloth, so I cut 1" strips from it and tied them together to make a 30' line. Worked for two days until I got to a town and bought some new paracord.
Wise Old Owl
11-05-2010, 10:30
Back in March I was behind a twenty somthing female with a blown seam in her shorts... I loaned her some duct tape. ....Priceless.
Slo-go'en
11-05-2010, 11:40
Back in March I was behind a twenty somthing female with a blown seam in her shorts... I loaned her some duct tape. ....Priceless.
Did you offer to apply the tape to the affected area first? :D
The Solemates
11-05-2010, 12:08
The incident at Split Pants Creek as it's come to be known...
Me and a buddy are doing 200 miles in the Smokies. About 120 miles down grinding out the Lakeshore Trail when we stop to get water. I'd been wearing the same pair of Mountain Hardware pants the entire trip and to economize I only brought the one pair.
You see where this is going?
I made it through the watering up just fine but right before we left I bend over to wash my hands in the creek at which point a quick ripping sound punctuates the woods. I reach back and feel at the damage. Total structural failure. Stitching is completely gone from the crotch to the belt loop. I am ass out and three days from a possible resupply point and six days from the car.
We hiked about seven more miles that day. My hiking buddy wanting to lead most of the way for some reason. The plan began to form that we were being met in Smokemont and could get a ride to an outfitter or Wal-Mart in Cherokee. I was not looking forward to spending money on a pair of pants when these were just bought at retail before this trip and I had two serviceable pair at home though.
So that night while my buddy is on the phone with his wife he hears me start giggling like a mad man. I'd taken a few things into my tent when we set up camp with the idea that somehow these pants could be saved. Honestly I was thinking fishing line from the survival kit but the parachute cord seemed more sturdy. I took my knife and stabbed ten to twelve holes in each side of the ass of these pants. Laced it up with parachute cord. The first time I put them back on I got a super wedgie. I adjusted the cord and they fit just fine. That's when I started giggling like a mad man.
The only problem was the cute little bow I now had on my ass. The situation lasted until the very last day when the bow came undone and the stitching fell out but by the time I didn't care if the picnicers at Big Creek got to see my smartwools.
i've split my pants at least twice while glissading out west. i've also done it while hiking the Mid State Trail in PA when the trail went through a bad blackberry patch that was nearly as long as a football field. at least we enjoyed the spoils of that situation. both times i just wore them that way for the remainder of the trip. eevery time my trail partners promptly decided to lead at all times instead of follow :eek:
Did you offer to apply the tape to the affected area first? :D
Always, always including some clear shipping tape in your pack...
Hikes in Rain
11-06-2010, 08:13
Also taped a boot when I threw a boot sole at Low Gap. All I had was medical adhesive tape, which certainly isn't waterproof. Got me to my pickup point at Unicoi.
Pedaling Fool
11-06-2010, 09:01
I once bent one of my hiking poles as slipped and fell coming down a steep muddy descent to Dick's creek gap (been raining for days and the trail was miserable). I took one look at it and it seemed as though there was no way to fix it, so I threw as hard as I could into the bush and bought a new one.
May not have been my most elaborate on-trail fix, but sure did feel really good throwing the damn thing in the woods.
Wise Old Owl
11-06-2010, 10:31
Did you offer to apply the tape to the affected area first? :D
I am so not touching that post.:eek:
Skidsteer
11-06-2010, 18:42
I once bent one of my hiking poles as slipped and fell coming down a steep muddy descent to Dick's creek gap (been raining for days and the trail was miserable). I took one look at it and it seemed as though there was no way to fix it, so I threw as hard as I could into the bush and bought a new one.
May not have been my most elaborate on-trail fix, but sure did feel really good throwing the damn thing in the woods.
Katz really exists! :D
wcgornto
11-06-2010, 19:20
During the 2009 monsoons in Maine, all of the shelter roofs in Maine with skylights leaked, some just a little bit and some badly. Some of them could be fixed with duct tape, others not.
In one shelter, it was clear that the skylight could not be repaired for the night with duct tape and I knew it would be a full house that night with others on the trail who had not yet arrived. Rather than making a futile attempt to stop the leak, I suspended my tent footprint from the shelter roof with strips of Kelty Triptease cord. Each of the four corners was tied off in some fashion and the footprint was tilted at an angle to form a channel for the rain water to run away from the sleep platform and flow out onto the ground. My hiking companions who slept that night beneath my suspended tent footprint were very happy with the repair.
Just remembered this one. I bought a can of beef stew and carried it all day, only to find that the handle had broken off of my MRE spoon, here is the repair, courtesy of a handy birch twig.http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/files/1/6/8/6/8/014_12a.jpg
Approaching an ice-sheeted section of AT with no easy bypass, I duct taped a handfull sharp gravel to the bottom of my boots. The edges of the gravel cut partially through the tape and sunk into the ice but didn't come loose from my boots for the fifty or so feet of trail I had to negotiate.
Love this one.
Blissful
11-08-2010, 12:18
I must admit I was proud on my hike to sew the button back on my convertible pants. :)
I love the taped on gravel traction aids. That's awesome.
I don't have a story nearly as good. Once I was on a hike where I decided to try Keen sandals. I hated the sandals.The trail was mostly in foxtails and other sticky plant things and they were getting embedded into the sandals and my socks and ruining them and my skin. I didn't wear long pants so my ankles were being torn up by the plants.
I found a stuff sack at a campsite and fashioned gaiters for my ankles and used the draw-string to tie on the two circular ends of the stuff sack onto the front of the sandals in an attempt to try to ward off the evil foxtails. It was an improvement, but not as good as real shoes would have been.
Ox97GaMe
11-08-2010, 19:10
Mine wasnt really 'on trail'. A gasket in my stove blew out coming into Hot Springs. The owner of the old hardware store told me he didnt have any 'heat resistant' gaskets, but did have some rubber gaskets that were about the right size. they were 2 cents each. I bought 3 of them, in hopes it would get me to Damascus where I could see about options for replacing the stove. The first gasket finally blew out last year. Best 2 cents investment I ever made. :)
Wise Old Owl
11-08-2010, 20:06
Mine wasnt really 'on trail'. A gasket in my stove blew out coming into Hot Springs. The owner of the old hardware store told me he didnt have any 'heat resistant' gaskets, but did have some rubber gaskets that were about the right size. they were 2 cents each. I bought 3 of them, in hopes it would get me to Damascus where I could see about options for replacing the stove. The first gasket finally blew out last year. Best 2 cents investment I ever made. :)
You can always rely on some old guy in a private hardware store to come thru... then came Wallmat, Lows, and Home Despot and that was the end of the world.
Chaco Taco
11-09-2010, 09:55
Dental floss on a pack strap in Lincoln, NH
Rethreaded a tent pole, Damascus
melted a platypus hole with a lighter to reseal it.
multiple stitching to seal up some holes in old hiking pants
One of the stupidest things I did was to think drying some pants on a woodstove was a good idea. Melted the pants
mweinstone
11-10-2010, 02:49
made a bubblegum patch on a hole in tuckers waterbowl for mala.
flew kites with a stick replacing the lost or broken cross brace.
made dude shoes by ripping his tee shirt in half and tying them on his feet.
fixed miss janets tentpoles with stick braces and ducktape bandages.
stole a pillow from the next room at the doyal to fix my stiff neck.
used miss janets wisdom to fix mine.
stuck bent stakes thru the holes in stopsigns to straighten them.
used stall shower walls of doyal to wipe penut butter off after an accedental exsplosion.
used minnesota smiths brain as an offsite memory storage when drunk.
used miss janets dogs to cover holes in my cowboy camp in her snowy yard.
put on one crock and one boot while hitchiking to fix a no ride situation.
lied at 14 that i was thruhiking to eliveiate a rejection complex.
used the doyal as a hideout as a teenage runaway.
stole jesters moms cake at the gathering to eleviate hunger.
Johnny Thunder
11-10-2010, 03:10
i repaired my world view by hiking
repaired pack with a belt when hip buckle broke
tent pole cord with floss
fixed thermarest with a candle wax
my pants look like im homeless
draw cord on sleeping bag with safety pin
jumped a car after a long hike with tent poles
friend broke collar bone so attached right should strap to left side near hip so it went across and didn't rest on collar bone
stitched my own leg with fishing line and a fishing hoot and a letherman
fixed hiking pole by putting a stick in it then duck taping outside
several failures lead to boiling water in a sig bottle
ripped the assend of my pants doing some trail maint. with SGT Rock on the BMT - repaired with dental floss (I always carry a needle)
repair that worked out really well and that I still use today - the plastic buckle for my belt broke a number of years ago (7 or 8 I think) and I replaced the belt with a piece of gutted 550 cord that I was using for bear bag rope and a cord lock from my jacket - cord lock holds a loop tight around a knot in the the rope - add another knot for a different placement for the lock - turned out to be lighter and more comfortable than the belt.
jasonklass
11-25-2010, 10:38
Have you (or seen someone else) do a hasty repair on the trail that you were particularly proud of? You know, like sew a split pack seam with dental floss or duck tape a broken headlamp together?
How creative have your repairs been?
One time in Canyonlands we got hit with probably the worst wind storm I've ever seen. The entire sky was red because of all the sand it kicked up. Luckily, we already had out tents set up and took shelter. But then, I heard a loud SNAP and my fried cursing inside his tent. I poked my head out to see that the wind had actually snapped his brand new carbon fiber tent poles like toothpicks. None of us had a repair sleeve so we used a couple of extra tent stakes as splints and some duct tape to fix it. I was pretty proud that it held up through the rest of the storm.
On that same trip, the sternum strap on my Golite Jam broke. Despite having the worst sewing skills in history, I was able to sew it back together and it held for the remaining 2 days.
Lot's of great ideas guys! Who said hikers weren't a creative bunch?
Happy Thanksgiving.......
Boots with duct tape.
Pack strap with a wire tie & duct tape.
Blister's with duct tape.
Wow, that's all? OK, apparently I'm easy on gear & can fix it all with duct tape.
Wise Old Owl
11-25-2010, 18:50
Boots with duct tape.
Pack strap with a wire tie & duct tape.
Blister's with duct tape.
Wow, that's all? OK, apparently I'm easy on gear & can fix it all with duct tape.
Hey Doctari,, Although we have never met, I think I have a picture of those boots.....
Were they not Vibram Fingers?
Here is the Pic.http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg275/MarkSwarbrick/MirkoDTFeet.jpg
stole a pillow from the next room at the doyal to fix my stiff neck.
That's awesome. :D