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Your Most Challenging Hike

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    • TrafficJam wrote:

      What was it? Why was it difficult? How did you get through it?
      Although hiking for almost 7 weeks this summer on the AT with a torn rotator cuff had its challenges, I would have to go with my AT hike in Summer of 2013. First 3 of 4 weeks it rained some everyday. Then when it finally stopped raining the 4th week I had I what I thought was a stress fracture in my left foot (ended up just being bruised tissue after I got home and the Doctor XRayed it).

      Of course on the other hand in 2014 I had to go home after just 8 days (intended closer to 3 weeks) because my knee hurt so bad.

      I would say determination and wanting to make the most out of something I have planned for all year is what gets me through. Like this past summer I planned to make it MA, but after a trip to the emergency room and wearing a sling I was happy to make it to NY (only 6 miles from CT border) and considered it a success. :)
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Astro ().

    • A few years ago I was on the Gahuti trail for a day hike. I wasn't feeling too well but didn't want to cancel. I was about 4 miles from my truck when the violent nasty flu hit me. It took the rest of the day to make it to the trail head and the drive home wasn't any better. Pure misery.
      RIAP

    • '88-90ish'....."I don't need all this crap, I'm going UL"

      Steve and I head to The Lye Brook area and into Bourne Pond, Stratton pond VT.

      It is the 4th of July week, it has been raining, it is raining, and in the evening of the third day, my wool blanket, poncho and freezing body are pretty miserable (i didn't have all this insulation then).

      I prolly had Cotton climbing shorts, and a flanel shirt even......but I am here to tell the tale.

      As any of my hiking partners can attest, I have abandoned the UL lifestyle :D
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup:

      The post was edited 1 time, last by CoachLou ().

    • While my first answer was serious, on the AT there were many hard days. My condition was a huge factor in making them harder. For example there is one early in the south Mt Albert or something similar that was hard but the Virginia legs wouldn't have thought twice about it. For sections that I found hard South Kinsman and Mahoosuc Arm stand out but probably my body condition and mindset on the day had a lot to do with that.
      On the Bib I had a lot of 40km+ days but none were as hard as a 35km day early on when the last 1km plus a bit just got increasingly steeper. Not real steep but relentless. Company helps on a hard day.
      If you can do it in a physical sense then you can do it. True hardness is when the mind isn't along for the ride.
      Resident Australian, proving being a grumpy old man is not just an American trait.

    • OzJacko wrote:

      The first one.
      :)

      My first one with a backpack. Yeah. I had forgotten to bring a plywood box for things I was going to leave behind at summer camp. Some of us hiked 3 miles one way to get overnight hiking and camping trip requirements done.

      So I probably had about 20 pounds of extra equipment in my packs. Beading supplies, swim suit, lots of things I simply had no use for until we got back to the main camp area. Pain and agony.

      But, I accomplished it. Until the Scoutmaster made us stop, we were going up to the guys who hadn't hiked and said, "I'm alive Dr. Frankestein ! I'm alive !'.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.

    • first time i tried climbing katahdin. i think it was 84, i had flown up with my cousins richie and roger for the weekend, had reservations for ksc for s nights, but the weather was a bit iffy. we were allowed up when we left, but the weather turned bad with high wind and blowing sleet(in june)when we were going up the boulders, and we just decided to back off and wait for a better day. it was a bit scary, and we felt kinda wimpy.we went back and climbed it the next year in sunshine.
      its all good

    • The scales in Grayson highlands to Partnership shelter. My left meniscus was killing me and my right IT band was also killing me. What should be a easy section was very painful.

      Second would be the lakeshore trail where I first injured my meniscus the year prior. It took me five very painful miles to get a cellphone signal to call for a boat shuttle back to Fontana marina. The walk from Fontana marina to Fontana dam, which is about a ten minute walk took almost an hour.
      Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
      Dr. Seuss Cof123

    • Rasty wrote:

      The scales in Grayson highlands to Partnership shelter. My left meniscus was killing me and my right IT band was also killing me. What should be a easy section was very painful.

      Second would be the lakeshore trail where I first injured my meniscus the year prior. It took me five very painful miles to get a cellphone signal to call for a boat shuttle back to Fontana marina. The walk from Fontana marina to Fontana dam, which is about a ten minute walk took almost an hour.
      sounds like a lame excuse
      its all good

    • My hardest hiking trip? Probably my freshman trip with Dartmojth Outing Club. I'd put in for 'moderate' hiking, but I was a New York City kid, and so clueless back then that I thought that Harriman's trails were pretty tough. 'Moderate' for DOC was a two-night trip from just south of the Dartmouth Skiway up to (memory fuzzy - I know it was north of Mt Cube, so the hike took in Holts Ledge, Smarts, and Cube. It might have been all the way up to Glencliff). There was a square dance at the Ravine Lodge following the last day of hiking, and the following day a climb of Moosilauke - up Gorge Brook, and down the carriage road to the Snapper trail.

      I was glad I didn't put in for "hard core" - that was a Presidential traverse at a breakneck pace. As it was I thought I was going to die - or rather, wished I could! My ankles and knees were hurting for weeks afterward.

      I've done more challenging trails (and bushwhacks!) since, but never had a more challenging hike.
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.

    • During a training day with the USFS.

      I was a forestry major at Clemson and the Forestry Dept. had a deal with the USFS that it's students would all be trained as fire fighters and available to the USFS if needed. Some of us loved it and worked the summers. One summer weekend we ran a break from Stumphouse mountain that encompassed Issaqueena falls then disappeared off into hell and came back. It was brutal, lol. I don't remember the total mileage, but was 10+. If you've never done it it's hard to comprehend it being as hard as it is. If you want to get an idea then next time you go out to hike in the mountains make sure to stay off established trails, walk sideways the entire tire and carry a giant rake. With every sidestep you make take a swipe at the ground with your rake :D

      I never did find out who we had pissed off, lol.
      If your Doctor is a tree, you're on acid.

    • OzJacko wrote:

      While my first answer was serious, on the AT there were many hard days. My condition was a huge factor in making them harder. For example there is one early in the south Mt Albert or something similar that was hard but the Virginia legs wouldn't have thought twice about it. For sections that I found hard South Kinsman and Mahoosuc Arm stand out but probably my body condition and mindset on the day had a lot to do with that.
      On the Bib I had a lot of 40km+ days but none were as hard as a 35km day early on when the last 1km plus a bit just got increasingly steeper. Not real steep but relentless. Company helps on a hard day.
      If you can do it in a physical sense then you can do it. True hardness is when the mind isn't along for the ride.
      Jack, I can tell you that South Kinsman is not fun coming down the south side either!!
      Cheesecake> Ramen :thumbsup:

    • May have been last winter. With all the snow we had last winter I had been snow shoeing on day hikes quite frequently. I would hike along a section of the AT between 17A and Lakes road. Not very technical or difficult section of the trail, and one I've hiked in snow, rain and sun over 2 dozen times. I had snow shoed maybe two weeks prior and the trail had been packed down well and I breezed through with no issues. So this time it had snowed maybe a few days prior and we had gotten dumped in I decide , let me grab my shoes and do a quick in and out. It's about a 5 mile hike I usually do. I basically go out in hiking pants and base layer with a fleece and gloves I start out and for the first maybe 1/4 mile the trail was cut and then it stopped. I had to continue in breaking the trail then it started to rain. And temps dropped. By time I got to the wildcat shelter I was exhausted. Cold. And sweaty. I just wanted to be home. Knowing I had to hike back to my car 2.5 miles in the snow and rain.
      RIAP

    • Been thinking about this question and how to respond. Are we talking worst day hiking? Or worst hike? Physically hardest, or emotionally? What makes a hike "challenging?" Is it the terrain, the weather, or what's in your head?

      I guess my most challenging hike ever was my not-really thru hike in 1990. So it's not a success story. It followed a typical trajectory -- wide eyed enthusiasm at the start, giving way to disenchantment, boredom, frustration, depression. The hardest part was letting it go... that final decision to just walk away. I'd been wrestling with it for weeks and one day it just happened.

      I did finally finish the trail, at the very same, remote road crossing where I'd quit in Virginia years earlier. I had to grow up for that to happen. Merry had a lot to do with that, and it's not entirely a coincidence that we met in the fall of 1990 (and married a year later.)

      I can't figure out --
      Is this the end or beginning?
      But the train's got its brakes on
      And the whistle is screaming.
      (Terrapin Station)

    • rafe wrote:

      Been thinking about this question and how to respond. Are we talking worst day hiking? Or worst hike? Physically hardest, or emotionally? What makes a hike "challenging?" Is it the terrain, the weather, or what's in your head?
      it's whatever you think it is. :D

      For me, physical challenges mean I'm also going to be emotionally challenged.
      Lost in the right direction.

    • My hardest was a couple of years ago. I set off from Sams gap going south to hot springs. It was December with snow on the ground. A couple of miles before Jerry cabin I fell going down an ice shoot and hurt my hip. It took three days to go about six miles to a bail out point. But I did enjoy the alone time in the woods and the slow going. I just couldn't stand the pain with each step.