"Uh-oh" Moments

[--M.]

Having mis-read the guide, I thought I'd have enough time to bag both peaks. Due to all the dampness, I brought along on the hike an umbrella, but didn't think a flashlight would be needed, and I don't own a headlamp.

Back at last!

I think it goes without saying how happy I was to see my car at that moment, and to be able to sit in its dry interior.

Isn't it interesting how teachable these moments are and how much more impressive they are to the actual participants than to the reader? What a great story! I'll bet you learned a ton that evening!

I was on the Wild River Road that weekend and was worried each night about the campground getting washed away. On my drive out on Sunday, I had to puzzle through a 25-30"-diameter fallen birch across the (only) exit road from the camp. Luckily, there was soon a quorum of us to move it. What a weekend! By the afternoon, it had cleared a little, so I hiked to Black Mountain Cabin from Jackson, where I met a party that included Stan, my first VFTT alligator egg.

 

[weatherman]

Guyot Campsite, tired after summitting three Bonds, finally making dinner with my brother and his MSR Whisperlite stove. I volunteer to set up and start the stove, without ever having used one before. I set up the fuel bottle and valve, upside down, find it a bit hard to pump given the funny angle, but do so anyway. Light it, and get a nice flame, which gets bigger and bigger, then flows nicely over about 3-4 square feet of the platform. I run ( ) and my brother somehow grabs it and puts the fire out.

Almost had my trail name involuntarily changed to "fireball" that night.
Weatherman

 

[Davehiker]

Today I decided to do my first bike spot. I had a nice ridgewalk planned, but didn't want to do it out and back, so I brought an old bike from the back of the garage (I blew up the tires last night!) and threw it in the car.

First lesson learned: Maybe a little bit of preparation would make this bike thing easier.

When I took it out at the trailhead for my ride I noticed that the back brake was disconnected. Oops! Well, at least the front one worked, and the road was really pretty flat. I decided not to bring the poles. Off I go, with backpack and hiking boots on!

Second lesson learned: Don't keep slippery things like plastic map, water bottle or cell phone in a front pocket while biking.

While stopping to get the above along the roadside, the front brake cable went "TWANG."

Third lesson learned: When putting feet down to stop bike Flintstone style, watch out for pedels. The sharp edges can really do a number on bare ankles.

Fourth and fifth lessons: Those "gentle" ups & downs are a lot of work and a lot of terror, respectively, (without any brakes!)

Maybe I'll do it again someday...

 

[rhihn]

We had an "uh-oh" moment just recently. Actually it was an "oh xxxx" moment. After hiking about a mile into a 10-mile hike, my wife noticed that our GPS was no longer attached to my pack! We canceled the hike in our minds, did a 180, and walked a slow (1/2 mph) walk back, checking left, right, and center, in mud, stream crossings, etc. After about a 1/4 mi. or so of that, we found it resting on a dry clump of leaves right in the middle of the trail. We did another 180 and continued on with the rest of the hike, with lesson learned.

 

[foxfire949]

Here's mine:

My first trip to the ADK High Peaks.
Group of 8, 3 day trip.
Planning to go up and over Algonquin with a siede trip to Wright. Group split into two parties of 4, a "slow" group, whcih wasn't going to do Wright, and a fast group. I was with the fast group. I ended up lagging 2-3 minutes behind the other 3. Reached the junction to Wright just as the other three members of the fast group were picking up their daypacks after dropping their main bags. They said they'd head up wright and meet me on top. I bent down and got my water, etc. out. When I looked up, the group had already strted up the trail. No problem, I started up too. A good chunk into the climn, I started thinking."hmm...didn't realiaze the climb to Wright was this long" Got to the summit...couldn't find the rest of the group. Got a reaaaaallly sinking feeling in my stomach..and went over to check for a summit bolt. Yep...I had gone up Algonqun. #@%!#^! Zipped back down the trail and reached the junction just as our slow group arrived, and the rest of the fast group came back out from Wright. The worst part is....I had to go back up Algonquni with full pack this time.

Not something I'm very proud of....

 

[TheChez]

Hiking off the ridge and into Kinsman Lean-to, tentless on a warm, early June evening, in the days when I was foolish enough to only bring shorts. The air went dead still making perfect flying conditions for the clouds black flies.

"You got the bug stuff?"
"No, you were supposed to bring it..."

Need I say more?

 

[Seeker]

Hey--this is fun! (Reliving them always is.)

1) Hiking into the Uncompagre wilderness in CO and after setting up camp, beginning to cook. Dave pulls out his stove and realizes that he brought the wrong fuel bottle. The bottle with the attachment to the stove was back home in MA.

Still trying to scrape the pine needles from the fire off the bottom of my pot--and that was almost 10 years ago.

2) On a solo trip to ME, deciding to summit Abraham at 5:00 p.m. after coming from Caribou Valley Rd and having gone over Sugarload and Spalding, even though I knew that the half way point was the summit of Abraham and I still had to go back over Spalding and back to the road to get to my car.

When darkness fell near the spur trail to Sugarloaf and then rain started to fall, I though that perhaps it wasn't so smart of me as I headed down the slippery slide trail in the dark back to CV road.