What is a Backpacking Trip Failure?

[Ben Kilbourne]

Companion forum thread to: What is a Backpacking Trip Failure?

Some things actually suck. We can still learn from them.

[John S.]

1. Injury/Illness Cuts Trip Short

Illness should be added. I got sick (initially near passing out; turned out GI virus) 5 miles into (when became symptomatic) a desert trip with a group. If I had been alone things could go different.

[Ben Kilbourne]

Ah so true. Being sick while backpacking can be absolutely terrible.

[Monte Masterson]

A few years ago I highlighted my experience of getting lost in the Mazatzal Wilderness. I suppose it could be considered a “failure”, but I did learn a lot from it. https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/have-you-ever-been-lost-in-the-wilderness/

 

[Ben Kilbourne]

I will read this. Thanks for sharing. That place is pretty wild in my opinion!

[John Vance]

I never think of things as a failure – more from the standpoint that some trips are better than others and there are three types of “fun”.

[Monte Masterson]

Another trip I went on, which I’m not sure you could call a failure, but sure ended up being miserable.

One time I was in Tucson staying with a buddy and decided to stop by and visit a massage therapist to take care of my rhomboid muscles that were locking up and causing me pain. I was on the table when an attractive woman came in and began to get right to the spot that was hurting me. I told her I was in town preparing to hike the Sant Rita Mountains the next day. She said “oh my, I just love the outdoors and hiking, I’d love to go with you sometime”. I told her I’d be back the next week and she could come along.

So early one morning we headed out to do a challenging 12 mile day hike. At first everything seemed fine, but then it soon became apparent that she wanted to turn the hike into a big competition with me by constantly trying to stay ahead and taunt me to keep up. Well, I was packing about 12 lbs with emergency overnight gear, water and food and she was carrying very little. Also I weighed 195 lb and she about 120 lb. And I had no desire to make it a competition anyway, I just wanted to enjoy the scenery. Then it started to become evident that she was a control freak as well. Anyway, at around midday we stopped for some lunch and tea, but as we were sitting there she went into a kind of dreamlike fantasy state and said ” I can just picture us on an overnight trip making love on a blanket in the moonlight”. I was a bit taken aback and thought it odd considering her earlier behavior, so I didn’t reply. Yet the real clincher came later as we were hiking along and she said “about what I said earlier regarding making love in the moonlight, I don’t want you to get your hopes up”. That’s when I realized I was dealing with a real nutjob. I kept quiet and we finished the hike and as we were leaving the trailhead (she drove) we came upon some wildlife biologists monitoring endangered squirrels with radio receivers. She said “I can’t believe they waste money on that s*@&!” I thought to myself please dear God get me back to my truck. When we arrived in the driveway of her house and I saw my truck it was the most beautiful sight in the world. I tried to put a good face on things, so as to extricate myself from the situation without bringing any drama and said “yes, nice hike, I’ll be in touch”. Yea right, needless to say I ghosted her. She later texted me and in her message she wrote that if I didn’t contact her soon she was going to delete my number from her phone. I thought please please do you promise?

Don’t get me wrong, there are as many nutso men out there as there are women, but for a first hiking date I suggest something short until you get to know the person better. That way if you begin to see your date is mental you can bail out and make a quick escape and not be stuck out there all day. Or God forbid if you embark on an OVERNIGHT trip with someone who’s not playing with a full deck..

[HkNewman]

All my “failures” have been on account of massive lightning at or before the trailhead (= planning type failure I guess).

When it started going “boom” around me, I noped it outta there. Now I build “slack” into my backpacking schedules and actually pay attention to the weather channels.

Was on another friends trip into the San Pedro wilderness where it rained consistently.. it was a soaker and later found out that’s the rain shadow part of New Mexico.  Didn’t meet expectations either .

 

Hiking with someone not playing with a full deck

That’s been some group trips I’ve been on.  Heard the best idea is keep first timers on warmer hikes so they don’t want to snuggle in your sleeping bag when theirs turns out to be not enough.

[Dan]

Hiked up to a ridge only to see big plumes of smoke coming from the area I was heading into.

[John S.]

I hereby recommend Monte’s story as story of the year! (joking around, but that is hilarious)

[JCH]

The only “failed” trip is one that gets cancelled. Of course there are those that are miserable, but they’re called “experience”.

[jscott]

“Of course there are those that are miserable, but they’re called “experience”.”

By that logic pneumonia isn’t miserable, it’s experience. I disagree. Miserable is miserable. If I could cancel having pneumonia, I would. (I don’t have pneumonia.) When things get miserable on a hike and it looks to continue like that, I bail.

that’s almost never happened. I’ve had the luxury of planning trips around good weather.

an old friend once said: no pain…no pain. True, dat.

Once I did break and sprain my ankle, and then try to hike out. After several hours, a ranger came along on horseback, leading another horse (!!! never seen that before). She asked if I was requesting evacuation. I showed her my ankle and said “yes”. She mounted me on the second horse and brought me to Vogelsang, where another ranger had brought a horse to meet me. And so I was evacuated. A group of rangers and others at Tuolumne wanted to see my ankle too. They thought I was a snowflake. They looked and changed their mind. I don’t blame them. it was a lot of work to get me out. Anyway, what I remember now is the remarkable accommodation of the rangers. They didn’t want to be doing this. I’m still grateful.

so, maybe there’s something to what JCH says after all!

[Andrew P]

One time I was in Tucson … I realized I was dealing with a real nutjob.

Yep. Story checks out :)

 

I don’t know what it is about this town but it seems to bring out the crazy in some people.

 

 

 

[Rex Sanders]

I backpacked for more than 20 years before completing a trip as planned. Yet I don’t regret any of those trips, including three attempted PCT thru-hikes.

Here are a few of my more memorable learning opportunities.

Thanks for the story.

— Rex

[AK Granola]

I wish I didn’t think of changes in plans as failures, but I do. I have had to bail twice now earlier than planned, on the JMT, due to altitude sickness. It is my demon. The first time I made about 30 miles. This last trip I made 130 miles, 11 days, and lost 10 pounds from not being able to eat. I left at Kearsearge so as to avoid Forester and Whitney. I regret it, but it was the right decision. Every day I got weaker. Diamox kept the vomiting at bay, but I still couldn’t eat. The body doesn’t do well on less than 1000 calories. I want to try again but…I need a solution I haven’t yet found.

But I hiked 130 miles! And it was gorgeous, and I loved it. Just felt like I had to puke the whole time.

[Paul Wagner]

I don’t think we’ve had any trips that I would describe as failures.  We’ve cut trips short because of unpleasant conditions, but somehow that didn’t feel like a failure, it felt like common sense.

A lot of the issues above could be addressed pretty easily by knowing when to say when…

[Alex Wallace]

Same as me getting married! “And it was gorgeous, and I loved it. Just felt like I had to puke the whole time.”

[JCH]

“…When things get miserable on a hike and it looks to continue like that, I bail.”

And THAT my friend, is experience :)

A humans most valuable knowledge is often gained via pain and suffering, i.e. “I ain’t NEVER gonna do THAT again!”.

[Brad H]

Very helpful article. The following rang especially true: “I attempted to embark on a trip I didn’t want to do …  I didn’t want to problem-solve or route-find. I didn’t want to have any goals.”

Sometimes a trip is just not going to work. Somes bailing is the better part of valor.

[karl hafner]

I don’t know anyone who gets out who has not had failures.  We all learn from them.  Goals can and do change as the trip progresses.  It is important that we realize that there is another day to try again.  My biggest concern was on a winter trip at minus 30 degrees F when my fuel bottle developed a leak and left me with no fuel.  I terminated that trip.  Last week went into a new to me area of the adirondacks.  Tough trail, we walked miles in stream beds on granite slopes.  After getting to destination realized my soles had delaminated.  Tied them on and went out the next day.  While both trips ended early they were still successes.  The goals were changed to getting out safely and doing it another day.  Excellent article.

[Daniel Heuschele]

Led a March outing of Buckskin Gulch/Paria canyon (cold but not extreme cold, water in morning probably near freezing).  Told all participants no cotton, sleeping bags to be dry bagged, down was discouraged and if used high priority to keep dry and ideally down was treated.

night before we were to start a storm hit, but weather reports were clear for next few days.  We would encounter more water than I had anticipated, but with the right gear all should be fine.

very quickly we determined one participant’s jacket had significant cotton.  We swapped it with extra gear my son had carried.  We had spots where we were crossing chest deep water.  At about 2/3 day in, another participant was shaking from cold.  I checked him out and his base layer was cotton.  Just before the 5th chest high crossing we decided that participant that was shaking could not continue to freeze.  We backtracked a short ways (and 2 chest high water crossings) to a safe high point.

a couple participants had failed to keep their sleeping bags dry including one down bag.  We had a large enough group that we did ok handling 2 near useless sleeping bags but it was not an easy, enjoyable night.

next day, with gear in its current condition, we decided to backtrack out. We did not know how many more chest high crossings we would encounter if we had continued going forward and we had initially planned 2 nights (a second night of misery, no thanks).

the gear issues combined with the recent rain doomed the plans.  There were other issues that I did not discuss that played a role (car stuck in creak crossing in the middle of the road that we were nice enough to pull out made for late start, calf buried to neck that I wanted to put out of misery but everyone else wanted to free put us further behind when we dug it out).  The chest high water not only guaranteed that we would all be wet, but it slowed our progress meaning we would not clear buckskin until very late if we had proceeded through buckskin on the initial day.  That would have resulted in hiking longer in cold, wet conditions.

I enjoyed the trip and have fond memories.  Of course it helps that I did not have equipment issues.  I suspect everyone looks back on the trip fondly even though a few were suffering badly on the trip.

Was it a trip failure?  A lot went wrong.  Any trip you look back on fondly is tough to think was a failure.

[Daniel Heuschele]

Different category of potential trip failure is personality issues.  I have experienced minor issues (including on my last outing Thanksgiving week) but nothing that would cross the line of a failure.

however a few years ago I was doing a one week backpack trip that for some of the trip was on the JMT/PCT and we encountered a good looking young woman who asked if we had seen a guy.  Her description, except for being slightly taller than average and a hat description, described nearly every male PCT hiker.  Scruffy beard.  Shorts, Altras (light weight footwear), etc.

we hiked with her a short ways.  She indicated they had broken up the night before near VVR on a PCT through hike.  We asked if she was trying to find him or avoid him.  She was trying to avoid him. Good luck with that with just under 2,000 miles to go.

we asked how her food situation was (we could have spared a little) and fortunately they were planning resupply at VVR and she was only a few hours from VVR.

she started hike with a boyfriend partner and was now hiking it solo.  She was attractive enough that I figured most single guys would be happy to team up with her on the chance they are compatible.

I hope things got better for her, but at the time we encountered her I am pretty sure she was categorizing the trip as a failure.

[Monte Masterson]

“I’m pretty sure she categorized the trip as a failure”

Daniel, if she looks good there are an endless supply of thirsty guys she could replace her ex boyfriend with at the drop of a hat. Now if her ex had been an Alpha Chad who’s tall, broad shouldered, handsome chiseled features and had status it might take her a few days. But women like her don’t weep for long, their options are limitless.

[Pierre Provost]

A couple of my closest calls have been wet and cold, just like the conditions that you described here. Even though this may seem like a belt and suspenders approach, my wife and I now carry a cuban fiber poncho and breathable raincoat/windshirt underneath. hiking all day with a pack in the rain: our experience is that with virtually all the “breathable/waterproof” jackets, you end up very wet (and cold).

Thanks Ben for your fabulous articles!

 

Pierre

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I bailed on one backpack due to being completely physically unfit to hike the higher sections of the Colorado Trail. Instead of training I built a pergola on my back patio pad. It was a 2 month project and at 67 I should have known better than to attempt that trip without a LOT of training. After the day one climb to 10,00 ft. I was beat. A night’s sleep did not help much and after an hour I told my much younger hiking friend I was (aaarrgh!) quitting. At that point a 60-something guy walked up and asked if I was “OK”. I had just enough energy to laugh and say I was done with the CT.

 

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