What Not To Do; On A Hiking Trip.

Everyone has a tale to tell of something that went wrong on a hiking or camping trip. Sometimes these little mistakes just cost time or money, or slight injuries to the body or personal pride, but sometimes such mistakes could be deadly.

I just got done watching a video about a couple of guys that went survival camping overnight in a very rocky slippery area, along a mountain stream with fast moving water. They picked a spot among the rocks to set up their camp and build a shelter out of old tree limbs and spruce branches. They brought along very little gear other than a change of clothes and a water filter, a piece of fishing line and hook, and headlights and a sleeping pad.

They gathered a bit of firewood and stored some within their shelter. The story was good up until this part, and then they went for a hike downstream to a swimming hole and spent the entire day jumping off rocks into deep water holes. Around supper time they started back up stream to their camp site because it had started raining. The rocks that had been dry when they went down stream were now slippery like oil. Both of them had falls that could have caused serious injuries.

As they headed up stream they stopped to fish and caught one tiny minnow, and stopped fishing. When they arrived back in camp they killed the minnow and gutted it, fried it and split it between them. They each had one stick of beef jerky and a cup of hot tea for supper. By then it had started to pour and the little bit of dry firewood disappeared fast. They spent the night in their makeshift shelter, and had hot tea for breakfast before starting to hike out in the morning.

The trail out was filled with slippery big rocks and wet muddy conditions, and they fell a few times on the way out, before arriving back at their truck just before dark.
As you read about their trip certain things are bound to stand out as very dumb moves on their part and how this simple little survival trip could have ended differently. At the end of the video they had learned nothing from the trip they took and actually joked about it as if they were experienced well-trained hikers.

What is your opinion of this story? What misshapes have you experienced while on a camping or hiking trip? Did you learn anything from those times or did you repeated them again on your next trip out?

I remember when camping with family that our best tent got totally ruined after it had rained the night before we were to head for home and the tent was folded up wet and my brother forgot to lay it spread out to dry like dad told him to do. The tent got very moldy and was not able to be used because of the odor of mold that could not be washed out of the canvas tent. That is one of the times of foolish mistakes that I remember experiencing. Now it's your turn.

 

I watched another video last night about a trip three men took down a swift river. They encountered rapids and one guy hit a big rock which flipped his small boat. The wreck caused the boat to have a major crack in it's side and it was taking on water. He flipped it back and gathered his gear, taping the worse holes and took off again down river. He went through a few more minor rapids and found a spot to camp for the night to repair the boat.
His friends, coming behind him, as they headed for the shore where he had stopped for the night drifted into a heavy limb of a tree that stuck out over the water. This caused their boat to flip over and dump the two of them in the river. They gathered their gear and went on shore to sit up the tents and gather fire wood and fish for their supper. These men seemed to have enough sense to do the normal camp readiness things before dark. I enjoyed watching this video on you-tube. It would seem though that their skill on a quiet lake may be better then hitting rapids lacking skill to prevent accidents.
Have you watched any survival video's that helped you learn important new skills or ways to handle camp setup that you did not know about before? Please share here..