Most Interesting Trailjournal Entries 2014

[Chair-man]

The new 2014 thru hiker season is upon us and many hikers have started posting their journals over at trailjounals and I've been looking at some of them. One entry stood out. After reading this entry I'm like wow, that was a close one. I've never come close to getting hypothermia. Just wondering if some of you more experienced folks have any comments about this situation.
Here's the entry> Trillium's Trailjournal 3/3

[Sierra2015]

It was stupid to not ask for help. She could have died.

(Ignore my inexperienced comment.)

[VTATHiker]

I hope she keeps posting regularly. She's a good writer and clearly has what it takes to finish the trail.

[Foresight]

I just don't understand the concept of not making room for someone.

[Chair-man]

I was thinking that beer must have tasted pretty good after that ordeal beer.gifBut seriously, when I hike I always try to get into camp 2 hours before sunset so I have have enough time to set up and make dinner. What did she expect arriving after dark?

[slbirdnerd]

I've been following and enjoying her journal. Really sad they couldn't make room, and knowing what I was up against I would have considering (maybe not chosen) continuing on an option rather than staying put alone somewhere and getting worse. But really, if she was becoming hypothermic, she may not have had the mindset to ask for help.

[Foresight]

She asked if there was room and only two guys made an effort. She was in trouble.....ya gotta look out for her and make room.

[Sierra2015]

She asked if there was room and only two guys made an effort. She was in trouble.....ya gotta look out for her and make room.

She should have told them her sleeping bag was wet. I don't think anyone knew she was in trouble.

If she had died it would have been her own fault. Tragic as that is....

[Foresight]

Maybe so, but I couldn't have laid there without making room even it meant I had to leave.

[bfayer]

First I want to make it clear that I am not knocking or judging this hiker. Each and everyone of us could find ourselves in this situation. What I did find interesting however is this entry in her journal:

Friday, February 21, 2014
..."I am hiking to be humbled- to know what it feels like to be scared, uncertain, frustrated, homesick, cold, wet, tired beyond belief, and in physical and mental pain." ...

That may give some insight into her decision making process.

As for people not making room in the shelter, happens all the time. One thing I hear on here very often is the saying "when it's cold and wet, there is always room for one more in the shelter". I have said it before that in my experience that is not true, so you need to be prepared if the shelter is full. This is an unfortunate example of that happening.

I am glad she made in safely, and I hope the weather clears up so she and all the other hikers out there can stay safe and enjoy their hikes.

[hikernutcasey]

Sorry to thread jack but does anyone have any good journals they would recommend following this year? I know its early but I haven't had time to sift through them yet and I always enjoy following 2 or 3 folks each year. Preferably those who are good writers and tell the story of their experience and not just a quick update on what they saw and how many mile they hiked that day.

[Foresight]

So if she doesn't get up and move one I guess you just step over her dead body in the morning, say "sucks for you" and hike on.

[HikerMom58]

So if she doesn't get up and move one I guess you just step over her dead body in the morning, say "sucks for you" and hike on.

Foresight, you are reacting to this situation like I've always heard hikers react. They look out for each other like family.

Personal example:

My girl was in the Grayson Highlands hiking on a cool wet day, in the summer. Her group arrived at Thomas Knob Shelter, they were all wet and hungry. She decided to fix her food before she changed into dry clothes. She started shaking really bad. Everyone in the shelter was watching her like a a hawk and encouraging her to go ahead and change into dry clothes. She got her trail name "Shivers" that day.

Of course, my girl didn't tell me what happened... a couple that was hiking, with her ,told me about it at the Kroger in Daleville, when they found out I was her mama! They told me that if she didn't stop shaking or started acting wierd, they were going to insist or assist her in getting the wet clothes off & into a sleeping bag with someone to warm her up.

It all ended well for her without having to do that but I took great comfort in knowing that they care about each other... that goes right along with what I've always heard about the trail family.

This girl's journal doesn't sound like these hikers had the same mind set at all.

I agree with Sierra too. This girl needed to ask for help & really tell them what she was up against. That's hard to do sometimes.

[Slo-go'en]

So if she doesn't get up and move on I guess you just step over her dead body in the morning, say "sucks for you" and hike on.

That's what they do on Everest...

[FarmerChef]

Knowing how or when to ask for help in hypothermia gets progressively hard the farther they progress. And, of course, it's much easier to play Monday morning quarterback when not in the thick of it.

Here's how I see it:

Problem #1: Early in the morning, her tarp stakes come out of the ground and her warm/dry clothes and bag get wet. This is now an emergency situation. Down does not dry easily on it's own, especially in a DWR shell. With no backup sleeping clothes or gear, she needed to get off the mountain by the end of the day provided she could hike warm enough.
Problem #2: She decides to push on to a shelter with a wet bag in hopes of finding space while passing relative safety in Franklin. She should have headed straight for Franklin as her primary game plan. There she could dry out her gear while remaining warm.
Problem #3: She arrives at the shelter with no dry gear to sleep in. Forget making room, with no dry gear she would only have made others' gear wet and remained critically cold all night. This was never really a solution unless she expected to receive assistance. The emergency blanket is a last resort.
Problem #4: With no way to make room, she decides to make camp on the ground without asking for help. In this situation she should have (difficult, I know) explained her situation to the folks in the shelter and asked for help. If she had been further down the hypothermic progression, she would have lapsed into delirium or worse, fallen asleep, and the shelter would have woken up to a tragic situation.

Good decision #1: With no way to stop shivering, she packed up and kept moving until she reached warmth and safety. If I was 100 miles from anywhere with soaking wet gear and only the dryish clothes and rain gear on my body I would keep moving until I could find shelter and warmth, even if it meant walking through the night. Generating body heat in that scenario is priority number one assuming you have shelter from wind and rain (Frogg Toggs in her case were that).

She is very, very lucky and judging from her final sentence, "(And next time, I'll be sure to get to town!)" she learned her lesson.

And just like Foresight, if she'd come into a shelter we were in I would have insisted she hop into my dry bag and change into whatever dry clothes I had to spare, if needed. I've always got enough spare gear to be uncomfortable but ok. Then I would have made sure she was ok enough to safely reach NOC, making sure she did or hiking to a signal and calling SAR.

My two cents.

[Slo-go'en]

I don't understand why she didn't set up the hammock and instead tried to sleep on the ground. Granted the under quilt was wet, but she had a pad and space blanket and the top quilt apparently was still dry. No mension if she had a dry set of clothes to change into either. I suppose it was dark and she was tired and that was a big factor in not setting up the hammock.

She should have really gone to Franklin or stopped at an earlier shelter where there was space. She's lucky she had the strength to go the rest of the way to the NOC (and that is not the easiest streach of trail with the jump up to go down). But she had little choice but to get up and moving again at that point.

As for no one making space, there are full shelters and then there are really full shelters. With out having a head count, we don't know exactly how full it was. It sounds like it might have been really full. Even so, these were likely newbie thru-hikers who haven't yet learned proper behavior.

[4eyedbuzzard]

That's what they do on Everest...

I think it's different in the sense that if you try to save someone else you increase your own chance of death to roughly 100%. The AT isn't in the death zone.

[4eyedbuzzard]

I just don't understand the concept of not making room for someone.

She asked if there was room and only two guys made an effort. She was in trouble.....ya gotta look out for her and make room.

Maybe so, but I couldn't have laid there without making room even it meant I had to leave.

That^, that^, and this^ - unfortunately something seems to have been lost over the years.

[HikerMom58]

That^, that^, and this^ - unfortunately something seems to have been lost over the years.

I was thinking the same thing... say it isn't soo!

[4eyedbuzzard]

I was thinking the same thing... say it isn't soo!

Apparently, it is soo. I get that the trail has become overrun with the traveling carnival and that there could literally not be more space. But there also seems to be a lot more people hiking who aren't hikers in the sense that it used to mean to be one.