A Wonderful Trip Gone Awry

Good Morning Berserkers!

I had a few great chats with friends over the last couple of days and it has really gotten me thinking. In life, we all have stories that we share with friends, family, and new acquaintances. We share stories as a way to get to know people better and to share something about ourselves. Now, this might not sound like much, but I find it really interesting that most of the stories we tell about camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, or any other adventure are the stories from the trips that went wrong. Maybe not a full-blown catastrophe but usually something that at the time and in the moment we were uncomfortable, maybe cold, maybe wet or even baking in the unrelenting sun.

I have several of those stories myself. One such story is the time I went backpacking in the Angeles Crest Forest in California with my Dad for my Birthday. My Birthday is in late July and for any of you who are familiar with the area, you know it can get pretty hot in Southern California in July. So as an excited teenager we set out on the trail in the cool morning. We had ample water and tons of time. The heat started building right away though and as we were hiking we started going through our water faster than normal. It was not a big deal though we knew where we were and we knew we were coming up to a watering point. We got to the first watering point and there was no water, dry as a bone. It is all good though we know where we are and we know that there will be water at the next location. So we keep hiking and get to the next watering spot and again no water. At this point, we are really low on water and we have to make a decision do we keep moving forward, or do we make a strategic retreat. Well, we did decide to turn back. After all, the Californian heat is nothing to mess around with in July. We trekked as fast as we could back to my Dad’s truck and we flew home. There were a couple of times on that trek back that I know my Dad was worried that I might be getting heat exhaustion. It was a hard day but now we were back safe and driving home.

It was a really hot day and we did run out of water by the time we got back to the car. We did not even end up backpacking that weekend. We were only out for the day but the memory of that trip still lives on. I remember the best part of that short trip was when we got home. We were still both burning up. Hot and exhausted but relieved to be home, we ran up to our pool, shed clothes as we were running. We jumped into the cool water and the heat of the trail became nothing more than a memory and a story to tell.

So what are your Stories? Which trips stand out in your mind?