Our Mistakes?

Lately there has been a lot of talk about people that are "stupid" or ask our advice but do not heed "our" good judgment. So this brings up my point. What about us? What were some of the mistakes that you learned from because we were once those "stupid" people?

I can honestly say I use to hike in cotton T-shirts because I did not know any better. It was October in the Adirondacks and I was on top of Phelps on a sunny but windy day. I about froze when that wind hit my soaked shirt.

I have also learned to carry a first aid kit with me I once fell and did not have anything to help my very deep cut.

I am sure we all have some good stories to share and hopefully a "newbi" hiker can learn from our mistakes. If it was not for the good ole forum world I probably would still be wearing cotton

Happy Trails,
Adam

I was close to being a goner on a winter climbing trip in the Santanoni Range.
Spectacular day up high but with a biting breeze. Had the camera out most of the time and didn't pay attention to hydrating or eating much after breakfast.
Bonked late in the day and came close to not making it back to the tent site after dark. I knew better, but got distracted by the peakbagging and photography. Very valuable lesson reinforced the hard way.

I wore cotton. I ran out of water on a hot day. I hiked in sneakers. I started out too late in the day to be out by dark and the flashlights barely helped. I didn’t have a sleeping bag on a backpack (only a fleece blanket, because it wouldn’t be that cold). I bushwhacked to the same summit twice because I wasn’t paying attention to my compass. I left my snowshoes in the car because the snow was only a dusting at the trailhead. I stepped on a wet log.

Does hiking with Little Rickie count?

Topo Maps and Trail Descriptions

I took my wife on our first 4k in October '97. I bought a map and didn't really know how to read the contour lines. I had no idea what the route was like, never read a trail description. I figured this trail goes across 3 4k's, this will be a good start and something to brag about. We don't have to start early 'cause we're already here, no long drive to get here. We climbed the loose gravel that makes up the slide on South Tripyramid. My wife complained it was too hard. I kept pushing her on. "There's the trees, we're almost off of this." Into the trees. 5 minutes later, back onto the loose gravel. "Look, I can see the top!" Back into the trees, then up, and up, and up. "When we get to the top it's just a walk across the ridge." It started to rain, no rain gear. "It's just a mile then we go back down." Down into the col between South and Middle Tri, then climb again to Middle Tri. "Two down, you can make it!" Down into the col between Middle and North Tri. Up to North Tri. "OK, we made it. It's all downhill from here." She's too numb to respond. Down the North Slide in the rain. It's getting cold and light is gettin' dim. The rain-soaked rocks of the slide are like a stream bed. I keep waitin' for us to start a long, unstoppable slide off the mountain into the void hidden in the fog below. My wife starts going down crab-soccer style, terrified of the steepness and the wet rocks. After what seemed like an eternity we bottomed out. Unbelievable we were alive. The rain had stopped, but now it was getting dark and we had 3 + miles to go. Exhausted, we trudged on, and by nothing but dumb luck we survived. Shortly after this trip I bought the White Mountain Guide and read about how difficult the slides are on the Tripyramids and learned about the alternate Scaur Ridge Trail. I also learned that if I was bagging 4k's I needn't go to South Tri, so I could have avoided that slide all together.

The moral of the story is: Get the WMG and treat it like a bible, always reading up on every hike you intend to do and carrying the maps so you can seek alternative routes if necessary. It is also important to re-read descriptions even if you have done the trip before. I learned this last winter when I fell in a stream I could have easily avoided. I would have known how to avoid this crossing if I had re-read the description.

KDT

I guess these mistakes could be minor for a dayhiker, but well I've read some stories where it might have been smart if...

Cotton tshirts in warmer weather, they just don't create the odor problem my synth shirts do. And I dont like stinking.
Not bringing enough food. I usually pray for a snack bar at the top. Cause my snacks are lame.
Snake bite kit, naaa!
Sleeping bag? That would be a funny sight.
Pen knife - airport security confiscated it
Matches/lighter - with my luck I'd start a forest fire.

3 hail marys and I'll try to do better.

(Hope my sense of humor isn't taken too critically)

I can think of a couple dumb things I did while on the Colorado Trail. Not that I've only done two but I vividly remember these two.
My pack was very heavy as I was carrying a weeks worth of supplies. I had hiked several miles and decided to make camp. The first thing I wanted to do was get off that pack. I sat it down against a tree and started scouting around for the perfect camping spot. I walked a little ways down a slope to what looked like a nice level spot. When I got there I saw a better spot in the distance so walked over there. Then I saw a better spot. While still looking around I realized I had no idea where I had sat my pack down. All the trees and surroundings looked the same. I was probably 25 miles from anywhere and everything I had was in that pack. I felt a little panic come over me but remained calm and tried to retrace all the places I had gone. It took me about 15 minutes to find my pack and I told myself, never again would I walk away from my pack. At least no further than I could always see it. I kept thinking to myself, that was really stupid. Really stupid!
The other thing also happened on that trip. The first couple days traveling I ran into mountain streams it seemed every hour. On the third day, since my pack was so heavy, I decided to not carry so much water. Just a liter bottle. This was a huge mistake. I had that gone before lunch. Every stream I came to was dry. I kept moving hoping I'd come to some water. Several times I was teased into thinking I heard running water but turned out to be only the wind in the trees. I was so dehydrated I could hardly keep going. I kept debating to stop and make camp or keep going until I found water. I wanted so bad to stop but knew I would have to just eat energy bars and have nothing to wash them down. So I kept going. That last long climb I thought would kill me. Going down the other side of the mountain I could hear water running. It really was water running this time but in a deep ravine. I followed this down for a long ways until it leveled out. I dropped my pack and got all the water I could carry. I was never so happy to have a drink. I made camp right there and took the next day off to recoup and rehydrate. I had hiked 17 miles that day. The leason learned? Always carry enough water and don't assume you will be able to find it. You might wonder why I wouldn't have known there was no water. It turned out to be the worst drought Colorado had had in 100 years. Streams that normally always had water had gone dry. My trip was cut short due to this as they started fire bans everywhere and closed many of the forest I had to go through due to forest fires.
This was just two things learned on one trip. Two things I'll never forget.

Wanderer1 said:

I wanted so bad to stop but knew I would have to just eat energy bars and have nothing to wash them down.

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Don't eat if you are out of water. Digesting the food consumes water and will further dehydrate you. And hydration is more important than food.

Rule of threes (things that can kill you):
* 3 minutes without air
* 3 hours without shelter
* 3 days without water
* 3 weeks without food
(Don't get hung up on the exact times: they vary with the details. The primary point is the priorities and their relative severities.)

Doug

Many years ago, I set up camp just below the 1st Castle below Jefferson (yes I should have learned my lesson from a recent post) without being able to check a weather report. Key point was that I carried a very comfortable but soon to be impratical cotton string hammock. Woke up in an October noreaster. Luckily we were on the west side of the ridge, but my tarp didn't cover the full length of my hammock. Cotton is a great for wicking and very quickly my sleeping bag was dripping wet. Walked out in a 35 degree rain, only to be snowed on and we tried to change in to dry clothes at the trailhead. Loved the 70's, but now I really appreciate the advances in weather forecasting.

mistakes

Yeah, some guys do like cotton over other materials. I am sure you all have your preferences. some guys swear by cotton. I myself like nylon and synthetic. I have given dozens of talks at REI and i do point out that cotton drys much slower than the synthetics. After so much experience, we think it is so obvious but I do not forget, and I point out the obvious. for the subborn people out there, I even tell them to do a test; soak a cotton shirt and a synthetic and lay out to dry and see the difference in the time it takes to dry. That can really make it sink in.

Well, anyone I have hiked/climbed with might be able to point out a few mistakes I have made along the way, as I attained now all the experience from climbs over the world.

Anyone that i have not hiked/climbed with would not know, so if they did, they would be a freaking sicko, and they have to live with their sicko way of life, for the rest of their life.

John Christiana

I've never made any backpacking mistakes. I've just expanded my knowledge base with Experiential Learning, being an "Us" and not a "Them".

- I switched to sneakers on a hike out with a heavy pack and could hardly walk by the time we finished.

- In an attempt to "leave no trace" I packed out about 10 lbs of cooked pasta, along with all our climbing and overnight gear and could hardly walk by the time we finished.

- I failed to carry a tent pole repair kit and broke a pole on a winter overnight with my youngest, his first winter overnight.

- I began too late on an unfamiliar trail in the Cats, got turned around at a weird, poorly marked switchback in the dark and wound up back at the trailhead, missing and confusing Jay H completely.

- I decided to try a new hydration bag on a 15 degree Franconia Ridge solo, happy I brought an empty nalgene.

- Same Franconia Ridge hike I wore a new "breathable" Polartec fleece that really didn't.

I'm pretty sure I'll remember more. I've sublimated most of them.

Hiking in June (July, too) without packing a bug net/hat. Nearly eaten alive on Cloud Cap and Moose/MacKenzie in the Adks. Won't make that mistake again!

A few minor errors...

A few errors in judgment come to mind:

In 2003 - the first year we started hiking – our first hike was up Sabattus Mt. (.8 miles about 500 feet of elevation), our second hike was up Arethusa Falls (1.3 miles, 900 feet of elevation). We decided our next adventure would be up the Franconia Ridge loop (3,850 feet of elevation and 8.9 miles). (Just a slight increase of elevation and mileage).

It was the very beginning of May, and we started out around 10:30am. We had on cotton clothes (I had jeans on and $8 hiking boots from Wal-Mart – that gave me blisters about ½ hour into the trail.) We took our time at the waterfalls and took a lot of pictures as we hiked. We started up Falling Waters Trail – and continued on to the top of Little Haystack. We got to the top around 3pm. We felt it was late so completing the whole loop wouldn’t be a good idea, so we decided to head down the way we came. We started heading down at 3:30 – and around 5:30 ran into a very nice couple from NH who were worried because we didn’t have a headlamp – so they loaned us theirs. We were very thankful for this because it was early May and it started to get dark early. I have never been so exhausted in my life – so I stopped a lot for breaks. It was 9:15pm by the time we got back to our car – and in the meantime my in laws (who had hiked up with us, but turned around at about 2pm) said that the rangers were going to send out a rescue team if we didn’t make it out by 9:30. Thankfully we did it make out safe and sound – and before the rescue team had been dispatched. After telling this story to people I work with, I received a headlamp as a gift – they were afraid I would go out again without a headlamp (we mailed the headlamp back to the nice person who lent it to us!)

I have also hiked in cotton on a rainy, never made it above 54 degree day up Mt. East Osceola.

Brought entire bottles of sunscreen and bug dope (not the small pocket size bottles, but the big family size bottles). Hiked in sneakers – jeans – no poles…

I have learned many lessons!

There are so many but here are some good ones.
I repaired a trail map which was torn and frayed on one of the seams.
My friend and I went hiking and on our way out we were checking the map to see if we could find a different route just for the sake of diversion.
We picked one and had a brief discussion about why we have never observed this trail as being an acceptable route in the past.
For no particular reason, we decided to use our old standby route.
When I arrived home, I checked another map of the area and came to the realization that had we followed our "new" trail, we would have walked for many miles, only to end up in a place where we most certainly did not want to be.
I usually do not tape up torn maps anymore and if I do, I am neurotic about where the lines are.
Another one. On both Mt Equinox and Smugglers, I hiked up in new boots and dismissed the pain I was having early on as insignificant and kept on hiking. By the time I summited, I could hardly walk. Coming back down was truly the "descent from hell". Really bad raw blisters!
The lesson: don't take your brand new boots up a mountain the first time you wear them. If you start to have pain, stop and try to pad it. Abandon your climb if the pain is worsening because it's not going to be cured by summiting. It will only get much worse and set you up for a more serious injury. Make sure your first aid kit has moleskin in it.
One more....
I had a bad case of plantar fascitis and was treated with cortisone injections by a podiatrist. He warned me that under no circumstances should I climb Mt Madison for my BD hike. My feet were feeling pretty good so my friend and I forged ahead. I was really suffering the next day when we were coming down Watson Path. A nasty little trail as I recall it. Much to her dismay, she had to take my pack. Excruciating pain all the way back.
The good doctor told me that essentially what I did was the same thing as if I tried to walk on a broken leg. The really bad thing was I new this was happening on the way up but refused to succumb to a "little" discomfort. I was desperate to climb Madison and sleep in the hut. Full moon night! It took months to get that healed.
The moral to the story is: heed the warnings when they say "only those is top physical condition should attempt this trail".
Last but not least....
I climbed up Mt Pierce with a friend for a day hike. It was rainy so the trail was a bit slick. She had very little hiking experience. Came time to come down so we left the hut and moved right along. I was in the lead and we went right past the cutoff and down good old Webster Cliff. Now I noticed early on that something was not quite right. I finally mentioned to my friend that I did not think we were on the right trail. She was adamant that there was no problem because she "recognized" the terrain, even specific trees. Finally, after I took a bad fall down some very slippery rocks and injured my knee, I checked the map and discovered what my gut had been telling me right along.
WRONG TRAIL. Fortunately, a thru hiker came by and this trail angel ,"Chestnut" took my pack so I could crawl back up to Mizpah Hut. The sun was setting so we would have been benighted if the "Chestnut" had not happened by. Bring enough gear to spend the night in the woods. You just never know what's goin' to happen. It's a good idea to pay attention to trail signs and junctions to. We were so busy talking, neither one of us saw it and listen to your gut!
I did learn my lesson. Last fall I was in VT on some dirt roads with a friend and trying to find my way out.
She assured me she was very good with maps. With great enthusiasm, she started pointing me in the "right" direction. I decided to take a closer look and sure enough. She was holding the map upside down

For a hundred mile backpacking trip along the AT in Shenandoah Nat'l Park I decided to bring a new pair of boots--hey, those canvas Vietnam combat boots didn't require a break-in period because they were so flexible, right? I knew that because I had already used a pair for a couple years and had worn them out.

Wrong.

But just a little wrong, since after moleskinning my blisters I was able to finish the 7-day trip with no further problems. At the time we thought a 16 mile day was huge, unless you were a through hiker who did your first 25's on that stretch of the trail. Obviously that was before I met all those VFTT folks like Mats and MEB for whom 16 miles is a good first half of a hike.

I've been there to: Cotton, not enough water on hotter days..no pump.no first aid kit...I've always gone light thinking "nothing is going to happen"...Nothing has to this point, to me: Did have a friend who on our way down from whiteface slipped and broke her ankle then we called the rangers for rescue: Got out late 10pm.. 20 degrees and falling. Now i pack more and more each year for :"Who knows what can happen"....Oh by the way i forgot to add and now editting the fact that we both did have stabilicers in our packs and talked about putting them on for sometime before her accident..

Laurie and I went to breakneck ridge a few years ago. We didn't bring any maps, even though we obviously knew better! When we were standing at a junction, w/o a clue where to head next, we were assisted by a passing hiker, who asked, "do you have a map"? Talk about embarrassing! Fortunately, we made it back to the car...

Probably my most memorable was when I took my (now) husband (then boyfriend) on Flat Mountain Pond Trail for our first hike together. I had grown up hiking it and thought it would be a good, easy hike. To make a long story short, I'll summarize my lessons.

Lesson #1: Do your research ahead of time, even if you know the trail. The main bridge was out and I didn't know it before we got there.

Lesson #2: If you are going to wade across anything sans shoes, make sure they are secured before doing so. Mine wound up floating downstream for a ways before being caught in an eddy.

Lesson #3: If you are going to be using a stove, make sure that you are familiar with it and know that it works. I, obviously, didn't and our tasty beef stew wound up being replaced by my emergency PB&Js.

I know that there are more lessons, but those 3 are the first to pop in my head.

About 15 years ago, I was hiking on the Long Trail, and over the course of two very wet days, my boots and all my socks got soaked. I began to get hot spots on the back of my heels, and put moleskin on. By the time we hit the next road, I couldn't go on, and had to wait there for my hiking companion to finish the hike, and come pick me up. I ended up with blisters the exact size of the moleskin patches i had adhered to the hot spots( about the size of a silver dollar!) . I had to wear sandals for a month while they healed!
I guess you aren't supposed to actually stick the moleskin to your hot spot.

I don't use moleskin any more, and I try REALLY hard to keep my feet dry!

Lots of other mistakes, too. Same ones most of us make.

Jason Berard said:

I guess you aren't supposed to actually stick the moleskin to your hot spot.

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It only works if you apply it at the very FIRST sign of trouble before the hot spot develops.
As soon as you start to feel a pressure spot, then it's
time to put it on.
Also "molefoam" is good because you can cut out a "donut hole" and apply it to the area. You can even use several layers of "donut" so nothing touches the wound.
Blisters are brutal!