Which Outing Was Better Than You?

[Rick]

Mbarnatl posted a thread and asked what your weakness was on your last outing. I'm going to turn that around a bit and ask if you've had an outing or a portion of an outing that kicked butt?

Mine was the approach trail from Amicalola Falls State Park to the AT trail head. Short night, no food to start. Just about died making that short trek. Stopped and ate. Gave myself a few minutes and was okay after that. I will never forget that approach, though.

[trax]

No rolling script or star wars themes. I was out paddling and turned into this channel on what was a very calm lake, and suddenly found myself in "chop" from hell. It was weird, the water just all of a sudden is blowing up into huge waves that I'm paddling against, no strange new wind or drop offs in the water basin and I'm paddling for my life for about a quarter of a mile past these islands, came out the other side and it was all calm again. Took me about 5 minutes to realize "that was *******awesome!"

[Beo]

Last one I did with my son (wipes the tear away) he made me proud and he became aware of nature and now loves trekking, teaching him how to read track and read sign was great and we spent some quality time out there. Its in my blog.

[Rick]

Beo - Nice story but doesn't count. We're looking for NOT GOOD. Some trip that was more than you expected or didn't quite turn out the way you planned.

[Baxter]

went out for what was supposed to be a two night weekend with my brother and friend. started to build a shelter right away once we found where we were gonna camp. my brother and friend had this grand idea of building a 'log cabin'. they began work on it, i couldn't change their mind otherwise, so i began to help as well although i kept stressing the fact that we needed a solid roof over our heads or else we would be soaked all night. because it had been raining and snowing, and was only one degree during the day and also all night. none the less we actually built three sturdy air tight log walls. and one horrible roof of boughs because we had run out of daylight and the two had given up, because of being tired from stacking logs. so we were completely soaked the entire night, huddled up by a fire that was threatening to go out and was constantly being stoaked. 6.am rolled in, we were still alive, packed up, hiked out, drove home. moral of the story, i'm going out by myself from now on. so, not fun. sorry for the long rant.

[Rick]

Not a long rant. It was a good story. I had hoped to have more comments on here. The point I was trying to make is even those of us that go into the wild prepared sometimes run into a situation we had not planned for. Sometimes those are just uncomfortable and sometimes those are life threatening.

Baxter, you point out something I hadn't intended but can be very real when with others and that is we will sometimes ignore our own knowledge and instincts and do something that we know isn't in our best interests. Glad it all worked out.

[Baxter]

yep, i told them from the get go, and kept ranting the entire time. that all i wanted was a good roof over head and a fire. heck, i would have even settled for a lean-to even though it's not the best winter shelter. but at least we wouldn't had been soaked and freezing. last time i ever let someone else who isn't as experienced get ahead of themselves, when they come out with me.

[Smok]

:mad: I have walked away from more friends and family because of just what happened to you Baxter . You could very easily have died there . I no longer go out with this people and most are not in my life that all..