DiscGo
Member
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2012
- Messages
- 30
I have spent most of my life in the outdoors, and I'm very comfortable in how to survive in an emergency situation. This weekend I was given a reminder of how un-nurturing "Mother Nature" can be, and given a good dosage of humility.
So let me save you the trouble of calling me names, because I admit that I behaved stupidly and am lucky to be alive.
Here is my confessional / trip report:
My wife and kids were out of town and my usual Outdoors friends were all busy (or recently split up), so I decided to go hike Zebra Canyon by myself (I know going into the outdoors by yourself isn't recommended but I figured Zebra Canyon is fairly popular and I sent my weekend plans to my wife with instructions to send someone to look for me if she hasn't heard from me by Monday morning.
Being by myself I was able to hike Zebra Canyon in less time than I expected. It was my first time hiking Zebra Canyon and I thought it was beautiful!
I finished by 8pm on Saturday, so I drove over to Little Death Hollow which was an alternate activity on my route if I finished up Zebra in time. I slept at the trail head of Little Death Hollow and started hiking around 7:30am in the morning.
Here is a quick list of all the things I did wrong on my hike:
When I showed up, I wasn't sure where the trail was, so I used my drone to scout around to ensure I was going the right direction. I left with about a gallon and a half of water, a sandwich, and a bag of "Trolli Sour Watermelon Sharks" with the expectation that I would return within about 3 hours.
I hiked in and it was a beautiful hike. It took a couple of miles before the hike became great, but it did become awesome! Having confessed how irresponsible I was go there unprepared and alone, I will also confess that I loved being the only person in the world doing that hike that day. In my enjoyment, I didn't realize that every step I took that day was a step against myself. After about 3 hours of hiking, I was getting nervous but I hoped that my GPS (Garmin 64st) was just not getting a signal because of the canyon (and I was having so much fun that I just wasn't checking my location like I should have) so I continued but after 6 hours, I was over 8 miles away from my van as the crow flies and I realized that something had to be really wrong.
So I reviewed my map further and realized that I was in the wrong canyon. I was following the wash instead of the trail and hiked through a lot of Horse Canyon. After 10 minutes I decided that I needed to go back and follow my GPS tracks to get back to the van but at this point I only had 1 liter of water remaining and when I returned to hiking my body was more noticeably sore.
So I hiked back the way I came. I knew there was a small stagnant pond within 3 miles of the trailhead, so as I hiked back I was careful to save at least 300ml of water until I reached the stagnant pond. As I became further dehydrated I literally saw a mirage that I thought was water and my body became very achy.
When I reached the small pond I drank the rest of my water and filled up my life straw container with the water from the pond (which had cow feces floating in it), I recalled there being a deeper pond not far ahead (which I hoped to be cleaner) so I continued on. I didn't find the deeper pond, and I remember having read that you could filter urine through a LiifeStraw, it may have made it sanitary to drink it did NOTHING to help the flavor.
So I plugged my nose and drank and then used the "Sour Watermelon Sharks" to mask the flavor.
Having flown the drone over the area previously, I knew that I was now within a mile and a half of the van, but my body was exhausted. I had considered resting and continuing later but I was concerned that if I stopped, I would not be able to continue later. So I pushed on until I got back to my van and hot water (which all of my water was by this point) had never tasted better.
Reviewing my GPS tracks I discovered when I got home that hiked 37 miles. I limped for a couple of days and still have not felt like I can consume enough water since then, but I walked away healthy and with a renewed respect for nature.
The first 2/3rds of my footage from that hike was happy and fun and the last 3rd was more of a "Man vs Wild" type video. I selectively edited the video to reflect the good times and trimmed out my panic and concern.
[video=youtube;23crTK-KSfg]
[/video]
P.S. I just got my drone, so I didn't know at the time how to adjust the camera angle and that is why the propellers are so visible in the video.
So let me save you the trouble of calling me names, because I admit that I behaved stupidly and am lucky to be alive.
Here is my confessional / trip report:
My wife and kids were out of town and my usual Outdoors friends were all busy (or recently split up), so I decided to go hike Zebra Canyon by myself (I know going into the outdoors by yourself isn't recommended but I figured Zebra Canyon is fairly popular and I sent my weekend plans to my wife with instructions to send someone to look for me if she hasn't heard from me by Monday morning.
Being by myself I was able to hike Zebra Canyon in less time than I expected. It was my first time hiking Zebra Canyon and I thought it was beautiful!
I finished by 8pm on Saturday, so I drove over to Little Death Hollow which was an alternate activity on my route if I finished up Zebra in time. I slept at the trail head of Little Death Hollow and started hiking around 7:30am in the morning.
Here is a quick list of all the things I did wrong on my hike:
- Did a hike I had never done before by myself
- Went to a remote area where nobody was around to help or report trouble
- Did not thoroughly research the hike: I thought Little Death Hollow & Wolverine Canyon was a 7 mile loop and obviously connected)
- Had the wrong GPS coordinates format and continued with the hike with the assumption "I'd figure it out"
- Did not review my location and tracks sufficently
- Due to believing it was only a 7 mile hike, I did not ration my water
- More than anything I was over confident and under prepared.
When I showed up, I wasn't sure where the trail was, so I used my drone to scout around to ensure I was going the right direction. I left with about a gallon and a half of water, a sandwich, and a bag of "Trolli Sour Watermelon Sharks" with the expectation that I would return within about 3 hours.
I hiked in and it was a beautiful hike. It took a couple of miles before the hike became great, but it did become awesome! Having confessed how irresponsible I was go there unprepared and alone, I will also confess that I loved being the only person in the world doing that hike that day. In my enjoyment, I didn't realize that every step I took that day was a step against myself. After about 3 hours of hiking, I was getting nervous but I hoped that my GPS (Garmin 64st) was just not getting a signal because of the canyon (and I was having so much fun that I just wasn't checking my location like I should have) so I continued but after 6 hours, I was over 8 miles away from my van as the crow flies and I realized that something had to be really wrong.
So I reviewed my map further and realized that I was in the wrong canyon. I was following the wash instead of the trail and hiked through a lot of Horse Canyon. After 10 minutes I decided that I needed to go back and follow my GPS tracks to get back to the van but at this point I only had 1 liter of water remaining and when I returned to hiking my body was more noticeably sore.
So I hiked back the way I came. I knew there was a small stagnant pond within 3 miles of the trailhead, so as I hiked back I was careful to save at least 300ml of water until I reached the stagnant pond. As I became further dehydrated I literally saw a mirage that I thought was water and my body became very achy.
When I reached the small pond I drank the rest of my water and filled up my life straw container with the water from the pond (which had cow feces floating in it), I recalled there being a deeper pond not far ahead (which I hoped to be cleaner) so I continued on. I didn't find the deeper pond, and I remember having read that you could filter urine through a LiifeStraw, it may have made it sanitary to drink it did NOTHING to help the flavor.
So I plugged my nose and drank and then used the "Sour Watermelon Sharks" to mask the flavor.
Having flown the drone over the area previously, I knew that I was now within a mile and a half of the van, but my body was exhausted. I had considered resting and continuing later but I was concerned that if I stopped, I would not be able to continue later. So I pushed on until I got back to my van and hot water (which all of my water was by this point) had never tasted better.
Reviewing my GPS tracks I discovered when I got home that hiked 37 miles. I limped for a couple of days and still have not felt like I can consume enough water since then, but I walked away healthy and with a renewed respect for nature.
The first 2/3rds of my footage from that hike was happy and fun and the last 3rd was more of a "Man vs Wild" type video. I selectively edited the video to reflect the good times and trimmed out my panic and concern.
[video=youtube;23crTK-KSfg]
P.S. I just got my drone, so I didn't know at the time how to adjust the camera angle and that is why the propellers are so visible in the video.
