Trip Canceled: Let us Rant and Commiserate Together

I was the leader of a trip this past winter. Everyone dropped out at the last minute, as the weather looked a little more wintry than average. I thought it would be a solo trip, but I found out that one other warm-blooded person was still going. I was already feeling sick, but the night before the trip, it was clear that I wasn't going to make it very far if I went. I texted the other backpacker and told him, and fortunately, he was prepared enough to do the trip alone.

I have 3 kids. If I plan anything one or more gets sick. Yeesh. I have learned now to spring trips on them – then the germs don't have time to conspire ;-)

20 years ago my girlfriend (now wife) and I were living on Utila Island, off the coast of Honduras, teaching scuba diving. My big Christmas present to both of us was a week on The Wave Dancer, an awesome liveaboard dive boat diving the atolls off Belize. Two days before we were due to go I woke up yellow. The next day I went to the mainland to get checked out… oh yeah.

Too late to cancel the trip.

She went diving for a week with her best friend. I lay in bed sweating. One good thing about hepatitis is that it gives you a wicked sweet tooth, and all the island women brought me more cake and fruit juice than I could possibly shove down my gullet!

Don't feel too bad… my whole summer was cancelled due my dad being in the hospital and then nursing home for months :(

Had 5 backpack trips planned…

What's worse is, at my age you never know which summer will be the last for backpacking :(

Billy

Planned on a 3 day holiday hike. Instead I have been sitting in my living room with my right foot in a boot since Thursday. Bad sprain. Ugh.

Last winter I went on a trip to Big Sur with my friend. I had been sick for a week prior to the trip and almost wasn't able to make it. Right before the trip I felt better and went. Well, I got sick on the trip. The first night it wasn't very cold but I felt cold and had to sleep next a fire to keep warm. I kept waking up with chills and dripping in sweat (which made me colder). The rest of the trip would have involved scrambling and bushwacking uphill and climbing. I had to bail. Luckily my friend got cell service and was able to secure a ride back home and finished the trip without me.

Ouch, Justin. That happened to Hoosierdaddy a few years back on a trip with me. I rarely make fires. I made one for him and tended it to keep him warm. We had hiked 18 miles in below freezing temps all day. Next day we found a way out and bailed early – which was good as he got even sicker. Ugh!

Had JMT permit reservation for August 8 start, had non-refundable plane ticket from Birmingham to Reno for August 5, two nights motel reservations in Mammoth Lakes. Bear canister purchased, food purchased, MTR resupply bucket packed and labeled but not mailed. Had to cancel trip one week before time to leave due to family health issue.

@Dale….man, that SUCK$!!!

I have had a weeklong AT section hike planned for 9/26-10/4 with my wife for months, but I also have a senior who is scheduling college recruiting visits for his sport, and we knew that our trip might get bumped. So far, we have been very fortunate in that regard, so it looks like we're good to go as long as nobody gets sick (knock on wood).

Was supposed to go on my first SUL hike but the day before my son got the worst case of hand, foot, and mouth I've ever seen. Then while being at home with him, I pulled a muscle in my back. So now I'm laying around not able to do anything.

My fist solo trip of the season was in May and just a couple days leading up to it I had symptoms of salmonella (got a new turtle). Thank god for Imodium. I was just a little weak starting out the first day.

Thanks everyone for sharing, and sorry to hear about some of these pretty harsh trip cancellations!

I think I may have sweat out the fever yesterday and this morning, and I am feeling much better. If I feel better tomorrow, I might just pull this trip back out of the jaws of bad fate. Drinking lots of tea, taking vitamins, sleeping lots, and holding on to hope!

Not a trip canceled story really, but related, kinda. I went out on a camping trip when I was 20 years old, a few weeks before my 21st birthday. One of those random, last minute, stupid-and-young type trips. I got really drunk and woke up at dawn next to the campfire–which had gone out long ago–covered in dew and shivering. I had no sleeping bag or tent or really anything other than the clothing on my back, a few cans of beans, a spoon, a knife, and a bottle of cheap bourbon. My jeans and t-shirt were soaked, but because I was wearing a leather motorcycle jacket (and of course really drunk), is how I managed to get any sleep at all. I remember specifically having dew on my hair. My friends were asleep in the car we all drove down in (there were 3 or 4 of us). I think we had all planned on sleeping next to the fire and keeping it going all night, but I passed out first, and my friends took the easy way out. In fairness to them, I wouldn't have fit in the car anyhow.

After I woke up I felt horrible, it should go without saying. I had a bad hangover all day, and the next day I felt pretty crappy too but figured it was still the hangover. But then I started to get a cough, and of course ignored it. My 21st birthday was coming up, and there was no way I would be sick. So I continued to live my rambling 20 year old life–it was summer after all–with parties, late nights down at the truck stop diner, and generally not taking good care of myself at all.

And this is how I ended up spending 3 days in the hospital for a bad case of pneumonia, the 2nd day being my 21st birthday.

Cesar, that's a good (or bad!) story. Ray Mears would've built a lean-to while drunk before passing out in front of the fire. :) I think they cut that scene for some reason.

Just had to cancel a trip for tomorrow due an awful pain on my side, waiting for the Doctor to confirm but feels like a pulled muscle.

As many know from my post here I cancelled a trip in the Sierra Nevada because a woman with a "rattlesnake personality" was also going.

Turns out she had to go alone as others also cancelled. Hmmmm… fate? Concidence?

Had to cancel nearly the entire summer of weekend bp's. Sudden increase in workload has caused 60+ hour workweeks. Did get my August 5-days in the Wallowas but really paid for it when I got back to work. Which partly explains this 3:30 a.m. posting — work-worry. Backpacking is my stress relief. And I had scheduled this week off — but just can't afford the time away from work.
Kelly

I cancelled a much anticipated trip because I thought I had a tibial stress fracture. When I finally got to an orthopedist, he said the first doc's diagnosis was over cautious and my leg is fine. Can't do the trip now because it goes through lands not open to the public after a certain date. Grrr!

A few years ago, myself and 4 buddies drove down to Kewaskum, Wi (we live in Appleton) for a 3 day camping trip in Kettle Moraine. We were between the ages of 15 and 17 at the time. We arrived really late at the little 3 walled cabin after hiking .25 miles from the parking lot. We got into our sleeping bags as fast as we could (it was in the 40s) and got to sleep (I was in the middle of a bad cold but went anyways, and I took a lot of cough medicine and slept like a baby). The next morning was pretty average, we sat around the cabin and ate ramen because it was still pretty cold. Later in the day (around 3 or 4 pm), the weather was better and we were having a good time, but we wanted to get more sun. I can't remember whose idea it was to climb onto the roof of the cabin, but next thing I knew, the 5 of us had brought our sleeping bags up and were hanging around, finally warm. We were probably up there for an hour when one of my friends decided he wanted music, so he went back to the parking lot. I figured he was grabbing a boombox, but nope. He had the bright idea to drive his white 2001 Ford Taurus SEL station wagon (we called it The Orca) down the tiny snowmobile trail to the cabin. He set the key to Accessory and opened all the doors, blasting Neutral Milk Hotel. He got back on the roof and we laid and listened for the next 30 minutes. Then, we heard and saw a college couple with massive backpacks approaching the camp. The guy looked pissed, but for some reason, none of us thought to get off the roof. Instead, we looked down at him over the edge as he told us he had reservations for the cabin that weekend (we had no idea that reservations were necessary). We obliged to leave, and promptly packed all of our things into the Taurus. But of course, it wouldn't start (because of the stereo). Our first idea was to drive the other guy's car down and jump it, but he drove an Astro van and it wouldn't have fit down the snow mobile trail. So instead, we decided to push the car back up the trail to the parking lot. The first task was turn the car around. We put it in neutral and we all got ready to push, and gave it our all. Now, we were all a little bit stoned, and no one had thought to get on the brake. The cabin was next to a hill, and what do you know: we had pushed harder than necessary, and now The Orca was heading down the hill backwards. One of us was pushing by the drivers door and had dove headfirst through the window and hit the brake with his had, but the car had slid down the hill a few feet in the mud. We tried our hardest to push it back up, but it wouldn't budge. It was getting dark, so we got on the phone with AAA quickly, and they were soon sending a car to the cabin to jump our car (it was off a rural road, and I had to give coordinates to the AAA operator over the phone). We figured they would send a sedan (we told them we just needed a jump (at least I think we remembered to tell them)). 30 minutes later the biggest tow truck I've ever seen had arrived at the parking lot. We knew that there was no room to turn the truck around at the cabin, so the driver decided he would just back in. We ended up guiding a huge, north woods tow truck down a tiny trail in reverse for .25 miles. It somehow worked out, and we got the car started and out of the ditch and up to the parking lot. It was probably 9pm at this point, and we didn't want to set up at a new cabin (we were heading home the next day), so instead, we got Dairy Queen and slept in the Taurus in a walmart parking lot before driving home the next morning. Not really a cancelled trip (more cut short), but I thought it might make you feel better.

Well, ya got my sympathies. I'm the guy that cancelled a nice Sierras trip due to "Snake Lady" being a member of the party.

Luck ain't guaranteed.