Serious but necessary discussion-Mistakes.

[midnight flyer]

Wow, am I enjoying this thread. A lot of good stuff here!

I won't comment on how many of these incidents I have experienced myself....

But I have sure seen some familiar scenarios!

Many years ago I learned a great lesson about overconfidence in one's abilities. Namely, mine.

Coming off a few days out of overnight camping, my hiking buddy and I were struggling to stay on schedule. I had scheduled a pickup for us at the end of the hike and was looking to go to another park for a couple of nights.

You know how it is when you are younger; you don't schedule in enough time to schedule "gawking" time if you are at a particularly pretty area with scenic views. It is all about "hitting it hard" and "making good time", etc.

But we gawked. And we were behind. We were on unfamiliar trails, but with my compass, maps and good moonlight, we decided to hike well after sunset. STOOPID.
We got completely turned around because we missed too many landmarks on the topo map (couldn't see them because it was dark... duh...) and we couldn't get reoriented. Then the moonlight went away. So we stayed on the trail going by flashlight with intermittent moonlight and flashlight beams to guide us. We hiked for about 4 hours thinking we were going the right way. But since we weren't in the place we thought we were when we started, we were going completely wrong.

We finally hiked out to a park road, and realized at about 10 pm that we were about 10 - 12 miles from the pickup point. We decided that if we stayed on the road we would be OK. Now my BIL isn't as (over)confident in his skills as I am and he is starting to think we will be lost and no one will find us. So we stay on the road and decide to guesstimate how far we will go before turning back to the forest.

We hike for about 5 hours or so with all our gear, and we had enough. I thought we should be less than a mile of where we the parking lot pickup was (just a patch of asphalt at a trail intersection), but there was not a sound anywhere and there wasn't any clue as to where we were. My brother in law was starting to get panicky.

We made a dark camp, ate a power bars and drank some water and hit the hay. My BIL was really, really worried about our welfare. I was annoyed at my stupidity, very tired, but not worried. He got really upset, and the wear and tear of being out for a few days was really starting to show in his temperament. We decided that the next morning we would do a full assessment of our situation, and take any measures we needed to get out. He seemed better with that.

We were awakened by voices the next morning. It was so dark, and the area so remote, that we had camped right next to the pickup point, about 75 feet away and never saw it. Folks started showing up to get their respective campers and to chat while they waited for them to show. That was our embarrassing morning wake up. I was relieved, but felt like an idiot.

If we had made camp at sunset the day before, we could have had a nice morning and easily hiked to our pickup point and been there just a little late. My greed to go to the next park pushed me to go hard so I could see both parks on the same trip.

We stupidly hiked many hours out of our way, wound up exhausted and pissed off, and it could have been worse. What kind of moron elects to hike at night on unfamiliar trails? Talk about getting lucky that night... it took a while for it to sink it just how stoopid I was. We could have easily missed the road altogether - then what?! Worse, I was the one that talked my BIL into believing I could do it, and that he was safe with me! That's been 20 years ago, and he has never hiked with me since.

Lessons learned: Allow time to enjoy the trail. That's why you are there, right? Enjoy the hike and the day(s) out. Don't hike at night, it's just dumb. With a full pack I am lucky I didn't break an ankle or leg, or lose some gear stomping along those trails trying to make up time.

And most important: Don't believe your own baloney. I have never, ever been that lost before and never have been since. It was simple arrogance that made me think I could hike in the middle of the night for a few hours, and I am lucky I didn't screw myself really badly. I wonder how many accidents and deaths have been caused by simple overconfidence....

Robert

 

[dipbait]

Id say the biggest mistake I made was trying to get a small dog out of a leg trap. It didnt work very well. Spent five days in the hospital saving my index finger.

I went to the owner of the dog and he showed me how he does it. He threw a jacket over the dogs head then grabbed the snout with fingers in the mouth and squeezed. Then with the other hand , disengaged the trap. A few years later I got my large dog out using this method.

 

[KEmSAT-Survival]

Here's a few more:

When you see a patch of sassafrass...ignore digging for the root and just find a sapling and strip the bark off of it. It works the same way. Yellowjackets are no fun, especially running downhill away from them and having to hurdle windfall, etc...


Try not to leave your stuff (knife, walking stick, daypack) lying in the cloud of pissed off yellowjackets you just ran from so that you have to fish it out with a stick and take a chance on getting stung eleventy-nine more times.


Coons aren't playing when they growl. Trust me.


Don't plop your butt down on a log to have a sammich without checking for bees. Again, trust me.


Bring DEET. Especially in August. After a week's worth of rain.


Being in an a-frame/lean-to/tent, in a storm is an adventure. But it's not even in the same zipcode as fun.


Always remember where you put "that goddam assrag".


Always remember which end is "ass" and which end is "face" on said "goddam assrag".

Here's one I haven't experienced, but I've read a lot about:


You + open field with nothing taller than you + lightning= baaaaaaaad. Hunker down or crawl to shelter.






I think I've embarassed myself enough.