Hikes you regret

[AK Granola]

I was thinking about the worst backpacking trip I’ve ever had, and it still beats sitting in my office. It was very much type 3 for about 18 hours or so, in thick fog, rain, wind, cold, with three teenagers. Where you’re really working at keeping everyone’s spirits up until you almost can’t do it any more.

Have you ever had a trip you actually wish you hadn’t done at all? Regretted it so much that it would have been better not to go? I haven’t, yet.

[David Thomas]

I know people who regret a trip they took – e.g. two friends from high school went ice climbing but only one came back.

But short of a death or permanent disability, no regretted trips come to my mind.  Often, trips just shy of such bad outcomes make the best stories.  That wedding I catered on Half Dome during which the wedding party (which climbed Snake Dike to get there) encountered both a rattlesnake and the bride melted her approach shoes because the ground was still that hot from a recent forest fire.

[SIMULACRA]

There have been several trips I regretted while on them due to weather conditions, illness, etc. After roughing it through and once over, was glad that I was there and wouldn’t exchange the experience. It all adds up to the memory of things done and creates awesome stories to tell at the awe of others. Always good times.

[jscott]

Johm Krakauer’s Into the Wild lists some regrettable trips. David Roberts’ Moments of Doubt give a climber’s perspective to this.

Me? I’ve bailed on one or two trips after a single day because of weather or mood or feeling sick. I’ve also bailed midway or 3/4 of the the way through a trip when the weather became nasty. I don’t go backpacking in order to huddle in my tent and hope I survive the elements. But of course, I’ve done that a fair bit! A few times, when it looks like those conditions will continue for days, I’ve gracefully bowed out of  the wilderness. So long answer short, no! I have no regrets. After all,  I’m still here, typing my thoughts.

[Terran Terran]

Mostly the ones I didn’t make.

[Mark Verber]

The only trips I have regretted were those that I was terribly sick.  Either running a high fever or for different reasons had diarrhea.  Both really suck in the field.

I would regret trips were someone was seriously injured or killed… thankfully that hasn’t happened on any trips I have been on.

[Paul Wagner]

I can’t think of any that I regret.  Yes, I’ve bailed on a few when conditions weren’t to my liking, but I’m still glad I’d made the effort.  My wife injured her foot in the Grand Canyon, and that curbed our hiking for a bit, but we’re still glad we did the hike.  And there are certainly hikes in my memory that start with, “it could have been better,” but those are just reason to go back and do it the right way.

[Kevin Babione]

My trips are all repeatable in the sense that I’ll be able to go back and do the trip at another time if for any reason I have to bail.  I clearly remember the first time I did the Black Forest Trail in PA.  It was early in April and raining and after the third time that my feet slid out from under me in mud or leaves on steep downhills I decided to bail before I got hurt.  My two friends (this was the first time I met them or hiked with them) bailed later that day as well.  I guess this means that I’ve never hit the “regret” point on a trip.

I feel that it might be different if on “the trip of a lifetime” – something like the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand or hiking to Everest Base Camp.  In that case I believe all the external factors (money already spent, time commitment, training, etc.) would make it difficult to make a decision to bail when it should be made, which could lead to an epic trip failure and regret.  I think the other factor that may push people to the point of regret is not wanting to disappoint a hiking partner or partners, whether the peer pressure is real or simply perceived.

Interesting question.  I the corresponding question with this would be:  What would make you regret a trip?  As mentioned above, serious injury or death are certainly answers…What else?

[David D]

Biggest regret for me would be doing something stupid that caused a serious injury stopping me from hiking or playing sports.  Always trying to manage that one.

Second biggest would be giardia or norovirus.    I’m trying to plan some trips in the Whites without having to use the huts

[Kevin Babione]

I’ve stayed in the huts on three trips through the Whites – but only in the summer when they are active.  They were very clean and I didn’t see any evidence of mice…What’s your concern?

[David D]

Thanks Kevin, my concern is noro from multi-tenancy.  It hits the AT every year from what I hear

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I’ve had trips I did not enjoy but I can’t say I regret going.

For instance, I stopped enjoying he CDT in Wyoming and was really happy when I got home. I did not regret quitting one single bit. I think I had a lot of low-level anxiety from unfriendly people in Wyoming. I don’t regret doing the trip. I thought I would be happy never to attempt the CDT again but I’m going back to continue into Colorado.

I do have a trip where I regret choices I made. I went with a woman and we got separated and I kept going back and forth in my mind that she was in front of me or behind me. So I kept going ahead to try to find her, then feeling like she must be behind me and so I would wait. We were separated for 4 days out of a 11 day trip. She was behind me the whole time. I should have just stayed at the next campsite and not gone forward. So in a way I regret the trip because I felt embarrassed. She told me she had never backpacked alone and she learned how much she liked it so she was not mad at me. I never wanted to hike with another person again though. A couple years later she died on a trek in the Andes.

[Dan]

Yes, I’ve done some trips that I would rather have avoided. One that comes to mind involved a wildfire that started the morning I started hiking. At sunset, I had a feeling that there was a fire fairly nearby. The next morning, there was ash on my tent. I continued most of that day to get to a good vantage point, and then decided that I needed to turn around. So it ended up being a two-night out-and-back with poor visibility. Nothing epic, just not very nice. I can think of other examples with poor conditions that I would rather have avoided.

[Nick Gatel]

“Mostly the ones I didn’t make.”

+1

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