Funniest Moments

imported
#1

On a less serious note there must be many instances where hikers experienced something really funny during their hike. I’m sure I have more than this but the two that come to mind are:

  1. Something happened to me last year at a privy near Mt Rogers that got me thinking what’s the worst thing that can happen to a hiker? I came up with two things: (1) To discover you have left an important piece of equipment back at the last shelter ten miles away, and (2) to drop your roll of toilet paper into the privy. Unfortunately that’s what I did and it almost brought me to tears, as my next visit to the store was 3 or 4 days away. So not wanting to use leaves as some do, I “borrowed” a few pages from the shelter register. I figured that’s the intended secondary purpose of them anyway. I worried about the situation all afternoon until I ran into a group of day hikers who struck up a conversation with me. Well, I told them my tale of woe and fortunately they gave me a handful of T.P. I then mooched TP from other hikers until I reached the next store.

  2. In '02 I left Hanover NH hiking north. It was about 7:00am and it was going to be a stinking hot day. I had been hiking for about 2.5 hours and met a section hiker coming the other way.

I couldn’t believe it when he said are you heading for Hanover??? It took quite a bit of talking to convince me that I was hiking south and only about 15 minutes from Hanover.

It wasn’t funny then but I can see the funny side now. I still can’t believe I missed all of the pointers that would indicate I had somehow done a 180. Has any of you wasted more than 2 hours hiking in a circle?

Please share your funniest moments with me.

Downunda

#2

A guy named Cakes left his wallet back at the last shelter-hiked 5 miles south for it, then re-hiked the 5 miles north making it something ridiculous like a 30 mile day.
A guy i hiked with named Moxie was in Maryland and had to poop. He pulled off the trail, did his deed and got back on thinking he was heading north when he hiked 2-3 miles south before realizing he was off. It was a long day. Long story short, pay attention when pooping!
A-Train

A-Train

#3

haha nice one dave, since we are melbuornians (aka mexicans to the rest of australia), you can think of turning south as your homing signal! you must have REALLY wanted to ‘go home’ that day! :slight_smile:

-Stu

Bloody Cactus

#4

I was way out by Cooper Brook Lean-to, about a 1/4 mile from it and I found a nice quiet area to sleep in (sans tent). So I and my dog eat, then sack out after a long day on the trail.

The moment night fell, the woods came alive with the howls of coyotes. That didn’t bother me, but soon I could hear something walking very near me and my dog. I thought to myself, what in the world would hang around with all these coyotes? If it had been a rabbit or similar critter, my dog - a beagle - would have gone beserk. But instead he had a fairly frightened look about him and I knew that if it was a coyote, I was in trouble. I mean, I wasn’t bothered, but if it was going to come so close to the dog and myself . . .

Anyhow I packed everything and started down the trail. The only thing is that my flashlight had been turned on in my pack for god knows how long. I had a very feeble orange ‘light’ to combat the torrential darkness all around. So . . . using my stick very much like a blind-man’s cane, and using the flashlight sparingly, I waddled my way to the lean to.

Kinda not too very much fun :frowning:

Kineo Kid

#5

I had just come out of Franklin NC and was having a really bad day. All weekend it was sunny while I waited for my mail drop. Monday morning I picked up my bounce box which looked like it got run over by a truck. A bag of Gatorade had broken open and was covering everything in the box. I had to clean everything, take what I needed, buy a new box and send the rest forward. Right as I was left off at the trailhead it started to rain. The longer I hiked the harder it rained. After a whole weekend of greasy food my digestive system was in revolt as I climbed out of the gap. As I had arrived at the first lean-to too early to stop in the cold rain I decided to hike on to a campsite a few miles farther on. The sky looked like it was clearing until I got to the campsite. At that point it started to rain harder than a cow pissing on a flat rock. I dropped my pack to study the map and when I went to put it on the force of the exertion plus the intestinal distress I was in combined for a most unpleasant surprise. I immediately dropped the pack and ran into the woods with my little orange shovel to finish the code brown. Because I was wearing pants with the mesh lining I had too take my pants off which now resembled a Play Doh Fun Factory. I then had to walk a safe distance down a stream to get away from the trail to clean up. As I was bent over the stream cleaning my trousers I heard a gasp and some hysterical laughter. Unfortunatly the trail looped back around and crossed the stream about 10 feet from where I was standing. Standing in the trail were 3 horrified female dayhikers. I went running through the woods to escape the giggleing and pointing but in my haste I tripped over a root and landed face first in the mud. At this point I was blind with rage and embarrasment and stood up to shout at the sky “IS THAT ALL YOU GOT”. As if on que a bolt of lighting hit close enough that the thunder was instantaneous and the rain turned into a monsoon. Finnally the absurdity of the situation struck me and I sat in the mud with my pants in my hand laughing like an idiot. After that nothing seemed that bad anymore.

Big B

#6

Classic! Big B absolutely hilarious:lol

Kyle & Lisa

#7

There was this hiker who was somewhat challenged in knowing what was north and what was south on the AT. In fact, he would camp beside the trail, pack up the next morning and head out, you guessed it in the wrong direction. A friend told him that he should take a piece of ribbon or a streamer and tie it just a little ways down the trail and to do this immediately once he set up camp, and that way the next morning he would definately be able to know which direction to hike in. Wrong Way thought this was a great idea and began to use the method and it worked great for awhile. It seems that he and his friend hiked somewhat alone and were somewhat competitive and were always passing and repassing each other on the trail. Wrong Way was a fast hiker and could outdistance most hikers providing of course he could stay going in the right direction. Well his friend, who was having a heck of a time keeping up with Wrong Way now that Wrong Way was using his new method of direction finding. So his friend had a marvelous idea, he would wait until Wrong Way camped and went soundly to sleep. He would then hike quietly by his camp and quietly move the neatly tied streamer back past his camp in the other direction. That way every few days or so Wrong Way would hike 20 miles or so in the wrong direction and his friend could stay up with him on the trail with no problem. Did he ever figure out what happened? Gosh, I hope he’s not reading this.:cheers

Maintain

#8

A few years ago I was hiking by myself in north-central PA in late fall, during bear hunting season. After about half a mile from my car, just as I was settling into my groove, I hit a stream crossing too deep for my boots. I decided to change from long johns into shorts for good measure. What with taking my boots and long undies off, getting into shorts, and putting my sandals on, I tripped and fell on my face at one point.

Just as I hitched up my pack and started across the stream, I heard a gentle cough from behind me, looked around, and there was a (male) hunter about 20 feet upslope looking at me. The only thing I could think of to say was, “Bet you wondered how long it would take before I noticed you!” Boy was I embarassed!

Bunchberry

#9

Somewhere down south last year while thru-hiking I was hiking up a ridge and at the top there was a sign for a shelter. I had been having an urge to dig a little hole for a little while that morning and seeing the sign I figured there was probably a privy at the shelter. I was just behind a couple I had been hiking with off and on spending the previous night camping with them. I wanted to keep up with them. So I debated for a spit second and then sprint down the blue blaze. The sign had indicated .2 miles so I thought why not. Well the trail ran across a ridge perpendicular to the one I had been on through some low brush. I started wondering how far .2 was about the time I met an older couple coming out from the shelter. I quickly asked if there was a privy after which the lady looked at me strangely. I was obviously in a hurry so the man just said that they had never made it to the shelter. I just kept on going. The trail turned down the ridge sharply and I thought about turning around but that thing about having too much invested took over. As I bottom out on a flat I saw a shelter with a picnic table out front. I hurried over the picnic table, through my pack off, looked around quickly and saw a little trail going off in one direction. I didn’t stop and just ran off down the little trail with legs that felt like air. I was probably a funny sight with the dance I was doing as I ran. I went down it a ways and nothing. Disappointed and intestinally in a little pain I went back to the shelter and what did I find on the shelter floor, a little orange shovel. So I ended up digging that little hole. When I hiked back out I looked at the sign again. It read 1.2 not .2. In my haste I didn’t stop long enough to read it. When I caught up with the couple their first question was where I had been.

Another time earlier I was hiking up Albert Mountain in snow with very cold weather. I and an English guy had woke up that morning at Betty Creek to snow. I got to the top and headed for Big Spring shelter. I got there and I had that urge. On the shelter wall was the spray painted word Privy with an arrow pointing out into what appeared to be just trees but with the snow coming down hard I could hardly see them much less a privy. I did go out there and look around a little. But I ended up digging a hole in the snow. Yes I did dig into the dirt all the way. But my pants got full of snow and all of that good stuff. Later while I was boiling water due to my filter being frozen the snow stopped. I now saw something shiny out in those trees. I went out and found a nice three sided open privy. It was full of snow however. I spent a very alone and very cold night there that night, just me and the birds. They were so hungry I could have petted them. The next day I hiked into Franklin, NC. The English guy had hiked to the next shelter just short of the road the previous day. I never saw him again. I had stopped short that night because Franklin was just too far and I was cold. A lady at the outfitter in town offered me a zipper pull thermometer but I told her I would rather not know. It was the end of February.

Two Scoops

#10

Staying at the Curratunk B&B I skimmed over Bryson’s book " A Walk in the Woods". I turned to the page where he talked about having to ford all these swamps and how hard a time him and his friend had.

A couple of days later I followed the trail as it took me to the edge of a rather large swamp. I saw the white blaze and as I looked across the murky water I saw a white blaze on the other side. I figured this was one of the spots that Bryson was talking about. I went ahead and started to hike through the nasty water. It continued to get deeper and deeper and I started to have a real concern that my boots were going to sucked off my feet. The water stunk and it got up past my belly button.

I finally made it across and took stock of just how nasty I now smelled and how grimy my body had suddenly become. As I was doing this a really chipper older couple came bounding down the trail. The two of them just looked at me and asked how I was doing. I told them I was now fine but they had a really difficult and nasty walk facing them. They both just said OK, turned left, walked about 20 yards and then walked over a nice bridge that totally skirted the swamp causing them to not have to place even one foot in the stinky water.

So, I felt like a fool for the next hour or so.

Crockett & Pasta

#11

I think I know where that was too. Nice bridge. You couldn’t make me cross that pig wallow.

Bushwhack