Heading out with some non-UL folks…..gulp…..

[Ken Thompson]

RVing.

[Jerry Adams]

that would explain it

no self respecting BPLer would dare to post again after RVing : )

[Sean Staplin]

RVing. I had a girlfriend who invited me RVing some 30+ years ago. I went, but brought my own tent to sleep in some distance away in the trees. There was no way I was going to stay in one of those. Everyone thought I was mental. lol

[Jerry Adams]

The wife doesn’t sleep on the ground.  We have an RV.  I enjoy it as well as backpacking.  I sleep in the RV, not in a tent on the ground : )

[CARLOS C.]

Is this how the Saga ends? Hungry for more and sleeping in an RV?

 

 

[Dena Kelley]

Maybe we built up our expectations to the point that Jennifer is afraid she’d disappoint us, but frankly I’m game for any backpacking stories right now because I won’t be backpacking for another 2-3 months here in Alaska. :)

[Kattt]

She should at least  throw us a bone.

A femur would work..

[Anonymous]

“but frankly I’m game for any backpacking stories right now because I won’t be backpacking for another 2-3 months here in Alaska. :)”

 

Might I suggest a cursory reading of some of the offerings of Robert Service?

“Strange deeds are done….” (The Cremation of Sam McGee) might be a suitable place to start.  Jen will have to up her story telling game considerably to best Robert Service when it comes to raw backcountry experience.  ;0))

 

[Dena Kelley]

Okay, I have an idea. I think we should expand this thread to experiences we’ve all had with noobs, strangers, etc. I don’t have anything earth shattering, but here goes. I don’t have any friends that are really into hiking, so I joined a Meetup group. It’s largely gone well, but there have been some unique experiences.

1. The girl who decided to climb a mountain with us (this was clearly stated in the Meetup announcement) who showed up in crappy shoes (suitable for walking on sidewalks and not much else), capris, with no food and no water who was also afraid of heights and cried before we got to the top because she was so freaked out. I offered to walk back with her to the parking lot because it was bear country and didn’t think she should be alone but she didn’t want to quit (props for that) but at the top we traversed the ridgeline and at one point we were on a path that had a pretty scary looking drop off and literally we had to hold her hands and walk in front and behind her to get her through that. She did make it, but I’ve never seen someone less prepared and more terrified for a day hike.
2. The lady I camped with who brought nothing but gorp and whiskey (okay, she did have some water, but literally only gorp to eat) and told us if she fell and hit her head and one of her pupils was blown out to just let her die because she didn’t want to live life as a vegetable.
3. The lady from Arizona who showed up for one of our backpacking trips with the heaviest pack I have ever seen. She had a tent but no sleeping bag- she figured she’d just wear all her clothes. Speaking of, she’d packed a lot of clothes. All cotton. Her food was canned. And she had 3 gallons of water. 1 gallon in the pack, and one gallon in each hand. For a trip that would have us walking next to a stream most of the way, and camping by a lake. We tried to convince her to lighten her load to no avail. She quit in the first mile.
4. Me- on my first backpacking trip. A July trip at 4000ft in the mountains in Alaska. I wore cotton, packed poorly, and our 70 degree sunny day turned into fog, rain and snow right about the time we hit the summit. We lost all visibility, stopped to make camp, and I was wet, my sleeping bag was wet, and I had mild hypothermia. One of the most miserable nights I’ve ever experienced. Learned so much on that trip- about not wearing cotton, about packing using something to waterproof your gear, about never trusting the weather in Alaska…

Any takers?

[Kattt]

I took a friend to the Trinity  alps four years ago. She was a great hiker but had never been backpacking before and packed a bit heavy (  including a large pillow) in a pack of mine that had too short a torso for her. Her boots hurt, we started too late in the day, too hot a day, not enough water…It all ended well but was a bit rough that first day. I never blamed her though and we had a great time.

I would rather carry someone’s pack on my head than hike with couples that don’t treat one another well and make you a prop in that dynamic..

[jscott]

Are we sure that Jen is alright?

[Sean Staplin]

I have neighbour who has done quite a bit of backpacking, but is pretty hard headed. A couple of years ago I went on a 3 dayer with him and his family. He has 4 kids 11-18. First his route would have been a death march. Second, he was insisting they all wear heavy leather hiking boots wether they fit or not. Luckily for two of the kids, the oldest boy (18) and the youngest daughter (11), he had nothing that was even close to fitting.

I was able to convince him to do a much shorter hike with camping at the same place, with a summit on the middle day along with lots of glissading and a 1/2 ice covered lake to swim in. I also lent alot of my lightweight extra gear, backpacks, bags, and a couple of gatewood capes and net tents.

So back to the boots. The two kids and myself wore runners. Everyone else had very sore feet and the two with runners were happy and scampering about like young fawns.

Fast forward to last summers backpack (july 1). I picked a little longer route, lots of snow travel and 5 passes. The kids wisely would only wear runners. Well the parents had sore feet, but would not admit too it. LOL

For this summer we are all going to do the west coast trail. Having the dad wanting all in heavy hiking boots, heavy goretex ski clothing for rain gear, and really heavy tents and packs. He figures the trail is so rough as to need this. He has done the trail about 6 times all with back breaking loads and figures what the goose did the goslings can as well. Not going till mid August so have time to work on him. Luckily his wife has seen and digested lightweight and I think the kids will mount a revolution. :)

The really great thing for my ego is that the kids beg me to go and don’t want to go without me. :)

[Roger Caffin]

The dad sounds like a pig-headed idiot.
Cheers

[Sean Staplin]

Lol he is pretty pig headed, but he is a great partner for mtn biking, skiing etc. and I can usually get him to come around in the end.

[natasha korotkova]

Some of my first outings were with my then husband, who would constantly whine about how the pack was heavy (after ridiculing me for weighing my nowhere near lightweight, but decent gear); how I did not tell him he needed something waterproof because snow could be wet (who knew); how unfair of me it was to not want to split when skiing in the backcountry one hour before dark with him having no navigation skills; etc. Reading about young males as the most typical accident victims in national parks, I know whom they are talking about. Fortunately for me, since then I’ve quit the husband, not hiking.

I also had some not-so-nice experience with group hiking, but mostly because of how it was organized.

1.  An overnight snowshoe tip to the San Jacinto Mountains in February. One member of the group had zero backpacking experience and cold weather gear, e.g. she brought three pairs of regular elastic tights as layers. There was a gear list distributed prior to the trip, but no gear check right before starting. We camped at 9,000 and it went down to about 15F. In the morning, she refused to eat breakfast and eventually we had to carry her gear. Also, coming from sea-level (LA), they never mentioned altitude sickness.
2. A day hike to Mt Baldy, which involved walking at the ridge (windy!) and a steep and long descent. On said descent, I was left behind and alone for two hours. They thought I went ahead, and that despite all the sweep-sees-the-point talk. Also, they checked the weather at the bottom (6,200) rather than the top (10,000) and advised us accordingly. I had brought no insulating layer, gloves or hat, and here only had myself to blame, especially because the week before I had all of that, and a down jacket, on a training hike in the Santa Monica Mountains with temps in the 70s. Another group on the same hike had not seen the trail before, got lost, and had no lights (except for my avid hiker friends, who also had to share their insulating layers with someone who started shivering). And again, no mentioning of altitude sickness.

I hope to have learned what not to do as a leader on those trips.

And just some of my own favorite mistakes. Go to Denali in June (!) with no deet, counting on all those health-store herbal essences. At some point, I had hallucinations of mosquitoes biting through my boots and carrying my lifeless body through the boreal forest as a sacrifice to their god. Go on the first winter trip (luckily, camping) in Yosemite without any knowledge of R-values, suitable tents, condensation… The tent almost collapsed under the heavy Sierra snow and I fled to a heated tent in the valley (I loved it, though, and I came back for more three months later).

Oh, and hike the High Sierra Camp loop with two bear cans. Somehow it did not occur to me that a “High Sierra Camp” is a thing and that they had bear lockers.

[Dena Kelley]

“I would rather carry someone’s pack on my head than hike with couples that don’t treat one another well and make you a prop in that dynamic.” — So true!

I am a little wondering about Jen myself. She did pop in to say she’d been busy and would get around to a follow up, but I haven’t seen a thing from her since. I do hope all is well.

Good stories! Keep ’em coming!

[Jeff Patrick]

Finally this thread is going somewhere.

Did Rae Lakes counter-clockwise last year with 3 friends. 2 brand new to backpacking and 1 who was experienced, not ultralight or heavy, but midweight and also in the best shape.

We split gear so the new guys were each around 35 even though it was all borrowed.

One guy had a horrible time on day two, from Junction to Rae. I think the altitude really got to him. I stayed with him and we were about an hour or more behind the other guys. Stopping every 50 ft or so. Children and retirees passing us by.

Finally we get to Glenn Pass and all the hope drains from his face. We slowly get about 1/2 way up and I see my experienced friend walking down to meet us. He carried the other guy’s pack the rest of the way up the pass.

After that everything went smoothly.

One guy is now buying his own stuff. I prepared a lighterpack for him with multiple options of things I thought he would like with links and prices and comparisons. Since he had nothing of his own it would be such a good time to buy into ultralight from the start.

First thing he buys? a 6 lb Marmot Limelite 2p for $75 at an REI garage sale. Oh well.

He did just spend $10 more to buy a Pocket Rocket 2 over a pocket rocket to save .5 ounces so maybe he’s finally coming around.

[Kattt]

Could someone with Jen’s contacts make sure she really is ok? My sense is that she is fine and just busy but it does seem odd to have this thread here and abandon it and the rest of the site after we all got so involved.

Jen, if you read this can you just drop us a line saying you are ok?

[Diane Pinkers]

Sent an email to Jen.

[MJ H]

That won’t be enough. If somebody did kill and eat her, they’d probably have gotten her email password also.

[Adam Klags]

I’m still waiting patiently for the report too…

I tend to like to lead and plan trips with groups, and have tried to take control on a few occasions. I learned better with time that trying to push the UL mentality on others often doesn’t work until you hike with them in their heavy pack and you with your light pack.

In the past I’ve done whatever is necessary to make it clear when I do hike with groups that I’m and independent hiker and that I don’t share gear.

Some people will never understand it, but as someone who spent many years with a heavy pack and way too much gear I refuse to share other people’s heavy gear now. I made myself suffer enough in the past.

I don’t think it’s wrong to tell someone to back off and that you plan to do it your way  if they get their feelings hurt that’s not your fault  they should have managed expectations realistically, IMHO. I would have absolutely told her to join us and not tried to back out myself but been firm about not sharing gear :)

 

[Sean Staplin]

lol. When it comes to groups who are trying to share gear/food/etc, I just calmly tell them not to worry about me. I will carry all my gear, food everything. They are usually concerned by not sharing I will be carrying too much. I just say I got it covered, all is good. I show up with about 9 lbs base weight and the “experienced” are alarmed that I don’t have enough gear if the weather etc gets bad. Then when something goes awry usually I am the only one with the right gear that actually works. :) Dry, comfortable, and with a full stomach.

[Katherine .]

I’ve seen signs of life from Jen on social media.

[Ken Thompson]

BPL is sharing this thread currently on Facebook. A near miss.

[Ken Thompson]

I only do groups with others from here. Everyone shows up as an independent operating unit. It has been incredibly easy and pleasant. Kat started a shared gear thread. That was a wild ride.

[Author]

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