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  1. #1
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    Default The Dumbest Thing I've Ever Done on the AT

    The dumbest thing I ever did on the AT happened mostly because I was so excited to return to the trail.

    From 2007 to 2018, I backpacked the AT with one or both of my sons, from Springer Mountain to Atkins, Virginia. I didn't do a trip in 2019. By 2020, I was ready to return to the trail, this time solo, as both of my boys were otherwise engaged. The planned trip was from Atkins north, perhaps as far as Pearisburg or to whenever my stamina and morale ran out.

    I was darned excited as the day approached. I went to bed early on the eve of departure, around 8. Too excited to sleep well, I got up and left home at midnight, beginning the six-hour drive up I-75, I-40, and I-81. The trip went fine, as I listened to late night music on scattered southern stations. Sometime around 5, there was a stop at a McDonalds in Virginia for breakfast and a short nap in my rental car in a hotel parking lot. At 6, I parked at the old hotel at Rural Retreat, paid the clerk, and began walking.

    It was a nice summer morning, a bit on the cool side compared to Georgia in mid-July, and humid. I soon passed the Davis Cemetery, climbed through pastures, and reached the 1/4-to-Katahdin mark after only 13 years of sectioning. The first break was at the picnic table where the old Davis Farm Shelter once stood. The second was at Reed Creek to pump water. The climb up and down Walker Mountain went well. Everything seemed great.

    The next stretch was steeply uphill through a pasture exposed to the early afternoon sun. By the time I reached the woods line, I was exhausted, rattled, and suffering a crisis of confidence and morale. I had done about 10-11 miles but couldn't imagine doing much more. I stopped for a break on the little concrete bridge over the Holston, met a southbounder who told wild tales of the Three Ledges far to the north, and looked forward to finishing the day soon. The next mile climbed through more open pasture, moderately but still uphill, so that I arrived at Bear Garden Hostel in rough shape. The plan had been to continue north to Knot Maul Shelter, just another mile or two north but with a stout climb. That didn't seem possible, so a stay at Bear Garden seemed in order.

    The thought of continuing the morrow through more open pastures, and the stout climb up Chestnut Mountain, seemed overwhelming. July wasn't the best time to be on the trail. I wanted to go home. Bear Garden's owner had a pickup truck and offered to give me a ride back to Atkins. By 6 p.m. I was back in my rental car, heading south. Were I to drive straight through, I would get home by midnight. That would be some kind of record: driving six hours to Virginia, backpacking 12 miles, and driving back home to Georgia, all within 24 hours. But after the sun and the miles and a night without sleep, I couldn't make it all the way home. Near midnight, I pulled into a hotel parking lot south of Knoxville to take a nap. I slept for about five hours. When I woke up, the car wouldn't start. I'd forgotten to turn the lights off. My contact lenses were stuck to my eyes, so I couldn't see well. The button to unlock the car electronically didn't work, of course. Putting down the windows didn't work. I couldn't find a way to manually unlock the car door since it was pitch black and my eyes were covered by dried pieces of stuck-on plastic. I felt the door for a lock mechanism but there wasn't anything obvious. I've never had a smart phone or cell phone, so I couldn't place an emergency call. I thought to use my Garmin to send a text message to AAA's 800 number, but there was no reply. Apparently, AAA doesn't accept text messages, at least those not coming from a phone.

    The summer sunrise finally came. I wondered if the morning sun might bake me inside my rental car. I hoped somebody would come out of a hotel room soon and hear my yells for help. Then it got bright enough that I could see the manual latch to unlock the car door. I got out, breathed deeply the fresh air, and went to the hotel lobby to ask the lady clerk to lend me her phone so that I could call AAA. She looked skeptical. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I've been backpacking the AT and locked myself in the car and killed the battery and need to get a jump-off and don't have a phone. Can you help me?" She dialed and, at arm's length, handed me the phone. AAA came, and I was home by late morning.

    My wife was already at work, and there was nobody at home since we are empty nesters. She received a call on her smart phone, which showed the home number. "What the heck?" she thinks. "My husband is in Virgina. Who is calling me from home?"

    "Hello, sweetie. I'm home. It's a long story."

  2. #2
    GoldenBear's Avatar
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    Unhappy So you're looking for dumb things someone's done on The Trail?


  3. #3
    Registered User One Half's Avatar
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    Default

    Thanks for the giggle. Been a stressful 10 days or so here and that just put a smile on my face.


    That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  4. #4
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    So many lessons we learn only after suffering from our mistakes! Why can't we learn from one another's mistakes? Seems like we always have to repeat them ourselves before we believe.
    Glad you made it home safely.

  5. #5
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    Enjoyed reading your story, GoldenBear. I ip my cap to you, partly because your experience was epic and partly because you finished what you set out to do. Also, you were new to the overnighters. I couldn't raise that defense.

    I returned to the trail in August 2020 and did 48 miles in four days. And I've returned the following two Mays, doing 100 miles and 84 miles. So I'm getting a bit better at it.

  6. #6

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    Hmmm, probably pitching my tent above the tree-line a few miles from the top of Mount Washington (I hurt myself and pretty much had no choice).

    Then there were all the times I pitched my tent and realized (after I was already in my sleeping bag) that I never bothered looking overhead to check for widow-makers… but was too tired to worry about it anymore.

    Also, cooking in my vestibule every morning because I wanted to stay in my sleeping bag as long as posssible.

    Then there was nearly pulling a 4” thick rotten branch down on my head at 5am one morning because I chose it as my bear-bag hang.

    And also trying to catch rattlesnakes whenever I saw them.

    Go ahead and judge me. I don’t care😂

  7. #7

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    Dropped my friend's dog while lifting him over a stile near Atkins, VA. Dog took it in stride, but his owner is still razzing me about it decades later.

  8. #8
    Registered User LittleRock's Avatar
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    A few stories come to mind:

    1) Running out of water at Blood Mtn Shelter in GA (bailed out by an evening thunderstorm) - particularly bad because I passed on a 1L bottle full of water sitting next to the trail at the bottom of the mountain.
    2) Drinking too much at the NOC, taking the wrong trail out of town for 2 miles the next morning, backtracking, then hitting the 3,000' climb up to Cheoah Bald during the heat of the day while suffering from mild dehydration.
    3) Taking a brand-new tent out on the trail in TN, then attempting to set it up for the first time in the middle of a pouring rainstorm.
    4) Pushing on through a 35F rainstorm in Shenandoah in only a light rain jacket and shorts, getting to the point of mild hypothermia before finally getting off trail and setting up my tent to get warm.
    It's all good in the woods.

  9. #9
    Registered User JPritch's Avatar
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    Great read Dan Roper! The things us section hikers do to get miles in!
    It is what it is.

  10. #10
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    It was snowing on the way up to Siler Bald shelter and 3 people passed me saying we'll see you at the shelter. I get to the shelter, now a decent storm with a couple inches at least, they have a tarp up in front of the shelter for the wind, everything set up nice. They say "Hey man, all set up, plenty of room" .... and I'm like "you know, I think I'm gonna set up my tent" and there looking at me like I'm crazy "you sure man? All set in here, plenty of room, more body heat the better" ... and I'm just like "no thanks man, I'm good, I like my tent". Anyway later that night I end up holding my tent up from the inside from more then one down draft that would of crushed it to the ground if I wasn't able to hold the frame. I had to be strategic the way it was with the wind to it was crazy, I think it did alter the frame permanently but still worked, just looked a little off set since then. The wind was blowing the snow in between the fly and tent and all coming in the screen, luckily was cold enough to brush the snow off and out of the tent before it melted in there. Everything worked out good but what a night. You heard that wind coming like a freight train and surprising I didn't have 1 out of 8 stakes let go.

    Then when I made it up Katahdin it was snowing, windy and wind chills below 0. I was the first person and didn't see anyone until about a mile from the top. 3 people passed me then right before I got to the top they passed me on their way down. I started heading down following footprints but then I noticed blue blazes. I don't know if it was just terrible judgement on the spot or the very first bad decision on sets of hypothermia but I said to myself "nobody else was up here and these are the foot prints, they must also have blue blazes on the AT near the top". It was at least half a mile down and not feeling right at all until I said "this isn't right I have to go back up". At that point it was getting hard to trace my foot prints back up, was at least in a minor panic mood and the wind was much more intense on this side of the mountain. Half a mile in those conditions is far and something wasn't right for me to not realize and turn back sooner. The excitement of finishing and everything but still... Anyway I get up and there's a few thru hikers, I briefly tried to say what I just went through before I kept moving down the right trail (technically summitted twice) but they were looking at me like I had 2 heads so I probably wasn't making much sense at that point.
    NoDoz
    nobo 2018 March 10th - October 19th
    -
    I'm just one too many mornings and 1,000 miles behind

  11. #11
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    Default

    Looking for firewood I found a small dead and not quite down tree. There was little left of this tree and was more like a pole (no side branches left) with many woodpecker holed sections. I though I may be able to help it become dead and down by pushing it then shaking it when that didn't work. While shaking it I got hit in the head by the top section that broke off at a rotted area near a woodpecker hole and gave me a pretty good clunk. I could easily see that could have been much worse so lesson learned.

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