Unprepared Hikers
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 4 months ago
Readers are well aware of the typical things I recommend when going hiking, even for a day hike with no plans to spend the night. You make plans to spend the night anyway.
A large bore handgun, redundant fire starter, poncho, parka, paracord, knife, light, compass, energy food, and plenty of water (or a water filtration device), and minimalistic IFAK. This simple kit, while fairly light, gives you water, food energy, means to find your way out if you can navigate, cover for the night by use of the poncho and paracord, warmth for the night with the parka, and means to have fire.
Unprepared hikers rarely thing about these things, and often have to be rescued. Take for example these native Texans who went hiking in Colorado.
Hikers left the Texas heat to a camp on a cold, rainy Colorado trail, officials said. The duo hiked up Lake Como Road and into Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo range on Monday, June 27, the Alamosa Volunteer Search And Rescue team said. They never made it to Lake Como and set up camp about a quarter-mile from the lake.
Lake Como is an 8.3-mile out-and-back trail near Blanca, about 210 miles south of Denver. It’s considered a challenging route, according to AllTrails. After some time, they started experiencing hypothermia. They called for help and said they were cold. One of the hikers started throwing up and was severely dehydrated with a headache.
Rescuers brought the hikers hot water bottles and sugary drinks to help them warm up and rehydrate. They were brought down the road and checked by medical professionals. Nearly six hours after the call for help, the rescue was complete. Officials said it was a difficult operation because of the rain making the road rocky. “Lake Como Rd was exceptionally dangerous this trip due to heavy rain, high chance for rockfall and extremely slippery rock,” officials said in a news release. “On the descent down, there was a river running down the entire road.”
The hikers weren’t prepared for their trek. They didn’t pack extra clothing to stay dry, and their tent had no rain fly, officials said. The hikers also didn’t have extra food or water, and they didn’t have layers to survive the night temperatures. “These hikers said they did not understand why it was so cold and rainy in Colorado, because it has been ‘so hot in Texas’ where they hike all the time,” rescuers said. “They never checked any weather forecasts.”
I’ve hiked in Colorado in the middle of summer near snow covered peaks. Their actions were very dumb, and could have cost them their lives.
Perhaps worse still was this hiker who tried to brave a swamp in the Adirondacks.
NORTH HUDSON — It’s known by forest rangers as the Dix Pond Swamp, and may be one of the more miserable and foreboding places to find oneself in the Adirondack High Peaks backcountry.
Created by a “blowdown” — a mass knockdown of trees — 50 years ago and characterized by knee-deep muck, jungle-thick new-growth trees and voracious black flies, a solo hiker from Singapore earlier this month was rescued after wandering desperately and aimlessly in the swamp for three days after leaving a marked trail and becoming disoriented.“He told his wife that he was never going to hike that mountain range again,” Forest Ranger Jamison Martin said during an interview with fellow Ranger Andrew Lewis about the Wednesday, June 22, search-and-rescue effort.
For the lone hiker, whose name has been withheld to protect his privacy, the misadventure started on the evening of Sunday, June 19, after he was coming down from the Dix Range, a series of five peaks, including the towering South Dix and Grace Peaks.
That was the point at which his wife, who had been following her husband’s progress from Singapore via his uploads to the fitness tracker app Strava, lost his signal.
Used by runners and cyclists use to plot their routes, Strava worked well above timberline with clear shots to distant cell towers or satellite connections. But in the depths of Dix Pond Swamp, with heavy tree cover, there was no signal.
After not hearing from him on Monday and Tuesday, his wife called authorities who contacted the rangers.
In short order, they found his rental car, from New York City’s John F. Kennedy airport, parked at the Elk Lake parking lot, which is one of the entry points to the Dix Range.
“He signed in at the register but he didn’t sign out,” said Martin, referring to the rosters at many trailheads where hikers write down their names, phone numbers and planned destinations.
Rangers telephoned others who had signed in and out who told them that they remembered seeing a lone hiker on the trail who, as Martin described it, appeared “whupped” as he was ascending Macomb Mountain.
Knowing where he had been, where his car was and where his last Strava signal came from, the search party — which had grown to 11 people — concluded he was heading back toward Elk Lake and may have ended up in the swamp as darkness and exhaustion set in.
Rangers were keenly aware of how easily one can be turned around in the mucky thicket of trees. “Moving through that swamp is beyond slow,” Lewis said.
A State Police helicopter had been summoned, but thick clouds over the Dix Range prevented it from getting into the area.
By Wednesday afternoon, another ranger, Jason Scott, was at the swamp’s perimeter on an ATV and another ranger had entered the area on foot.
Scott made voice contact with the hiker and they made their way toward one another.
“He was drenched from head to toe,” recalled Lewis.
The man’s rain pants and hiking pants had been shredded, and the soles were coming off his hiking boots.
The Adirondack’s infamous black flies had feasted on the only exposed parts of his skin: His hands looked like white prunes from the bug bites and moisture, and “it looked like he had gotten shot in the face with a shotgun” due to bites, Martin said.
He hadn’t eaten but managed to survive by drinking swamp water.
What may be notable is that the man, who is originally from Ireland but lives in Singapore, wasn’t the stereotypical out-of-shape person that one would think is most likely to find trouble in the woods.
He’s 58 but in decent shape from cycling, officials said. And he had items like rain gear as well as a GPS device — though one he wasn’t familiar with — as well a compass.
He ended up losing those, however, possibly as he was thrashing through the swamp. “His navigation capabilities were out the window,’’ Lewis said.
Some of the details were unclear since he was hypothermic (nighttime temperatures were in the 40s) and he said he had been hallucinating, seeing houses and nonexistent trail markers.
Martin and Lewis offered a couple of takeaways: For one, being in shape from cycling or some other aerobic training doesn’t translate directly into readiness for a long backcountry hike to a place like the Dix Range. “There’s no substitute for actually doing this, for actually pounding the ground and walking the muddy trails,’’ Martin said.
And one shouldn’t enter the woods without enough supplies and gear to spend the night if required by circumstance. It also helps to bring more than, say, water and beef jerky: Hiking requires fats and protein for energy such as that found in the traditional trail mix known as GORP (good old raisins and peanuts), energy bars and possibly some Gatorade or orange juice with water for electrolytes.
Rangers have rescued ultramarathon runners who have “bonked” due to a sudden energy depletion, said Lewis.
Finally: Don’t, as too many people do, rely on a cellphone app or GPS alone for navigation. There’s no substitute for a paper map and compass when out of cell range or when the batteries die.
“People routinely write off the map and compass in favor of something that has batteries,’’ Lewis said.
Great lessons learned. Know your season. Know your terrain. Have maps. Be able to navigate. Have various foods. Have clean drinking water or filtration. If you can’t rest, you begin to hallucinate and make awful decisions.
And if you’re in a swamp, retrace your steps and get out.
On July 3, 2022 at 10:34 pm, snuffy said:
Martin and Lewis? Really? Sometimes the jokes write themselves.
On July 4, 2022 at 7:40 am, I R A Darth Aggie said:
“voracious black flies”
Hard pass. Note to self: bug spray. Or flame thrower, possibly both.
On July 4, 2022 at 8:08 am, Fred said:
Swamps are nasty places. Almost anywhere on earth is preferable.
On July 4, 2022 at 8:47 am, Frank Clarke said:
Thank God I’m in no shape for that kind of exercise!
On July 4, 2022 at 8:48 am, NOG said:
Swamps are not nasty. They are resource rich beautiful places to enjoy. Deserts are much more lacking in resources (but still plenty if you know how to see them) and much less tolerant of the unprepared. People are dumbed down and think their technology can make up for lack of experience or knowledge. Put the toy down and learn how to live in nature. Texas is lucky. We have beautiful swamps in the southeast and beautiful deserts in the west. Even mountain areas like Guadalupe Peak. I wonder if the “Texans” were young or recent immigrants from Cali or up north. Texas was a different place when the population was only 3 million. Rule of thumb– people that create problems re produce at much higher rates than people that don’t. We seem to be getting over whelmed of late.
On July 4, 2022 at 9:11 am, Fred said:
You traverse these swamps on foot?
On July 4, 2022 at 9:19 am, Herschel Smith said:
Swamps carry nasty diseases, fungi, bacteria, parasites, etc., etc.
They can be beautiful. But you cannot stay long, and you’d better be prepared.
On July 4, 2022 at 11:35 am, blake said:
Day hike, Superstitions, July, one bottle of water. (I do not recall if the hiker in question was wearing any sort of hat)
I had just moved to AZ from MN, but, even I knew a day hike, in July, in AZ with one bottle of water was stupid.
Yeah, the hiker had to be rescued.
On July 4, 2022 at 3:08 pm, scott s. said:
On Oahu, you’re never more than about 6-8 miles from civilization “as the crow flies” but the crow won’t get you off the mountains. Most rescues here are due to injury, but you have the same thing with water sports. The thing with mountain hiking here is you can generally expect rain and/or white-out conditions along the Ko’olau ridge. If you are not on a state trail it is easy to start following a pig hunter or pig trail to nowhere. In the deep valley there’s no cell, and in many places a lot of 100 ft drops. Then you also have the flash flood possibility.
And who knows? Maybe at some point it will be legal to hike with a handgun, though they seem to be interested in NY-style carry with every possible restriction you can think of.
On July 4, 2022 at 4:44 pm, Bradley A Graham said:
There is a spectacular spot in the middle of Phoenix, AZ called Camel Back Mountain.
It is only accessible by hiking up a choice of 2 trails and it has become a breeding ground for cleansing the gene pool.
Every year the mountain claims a few souls and several weeks ago a group of 10 hikers had to be rescued in a call out that entailed over 100 Phoenix fire fighters.
There are no victims only volunteers.
On July 5, 2022 at 12:36 pm, NOG said:
Fred, some you can. Others require a flat bottom boat or other shallow draft boat, the Pirogue being traditional. Herschel, the worst infection I ever had I got in the desert from a thorn. Everywhere has bacteria and parasites. As far as not staying long, there are a lot of Cajuns that have NEVER been out of the swamp. When I was eight my friends father turned us loose with a pirogue. He just said mind the gator at the canal he’s a big’un. Leave at sun up and get home ready for bed at sundown. Times have changed from 1960. We hunted, fished and sometimes we “might” have “snuck about” on the surplus ships in storage.
On July 5, 2022 at 10:04 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@NOG,
The quantity of water borne pathogens is many, many, many orders of magnitude the quantity in the air or soil in the desert.
I’m not talking about anecdotal experiences.
No, there aren’t Cajuns who have never been out of the swamp. They don’t sleep in the water.
On July 6, 2022 at 1:00 pm, NOG said:
Herschel, not all desert is just sterile barren sand. There are even “swampy” places in the desert. Plants harbor a lot and most things in the desert have spikes or spines, making infections more frequent. Collecting tunas you can get 30 or 40 tiny spines with just one mistake. Those will fester and are devilish hard to remove. Swamp plants not so much. People think water in swamps is all stagnant. That is true in some places but mostly the water does flow. Cajuns don’t sleep IN water. But many sleep ON the water. Ever watch Swamp People? The shows stars don’t live on the water, but they show a number that live on houseboats moored to trees. I have met a number in the SE Texas and SW Louisiana. Twenty years of living there is not so “anecdotal”, it is personal local knowledge. When my parents were young and lived outside Port Arthur, our house was six inches above water table and the bayou behind the house frequently flooded our yard. Me I loved growing up there. My Dad hated that place but that’s where his job was. They moved back to the semi desert South Texas after he quit Lets just agree to disagree. If you ever get the chance to go to South Louisiana and camp in the swamp, perhaps you will change your mind. People been living high life down here for centuries just fine.
On July 6, 2022 at 2:36 pm, Herschel Smith said:
You are entirely and utterly and completely missing the point for the sake of arguing (because you like to argue).
This guy almost perished because he wandered into a swamp and was unprepared for it.
His solution was to get out of the swamp.
On July 7, 2022 at 4:21 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Re: “Swamps carry nasty diseases, fungi, bacteria, parasites, etc., etc.
They can be beautiful. But you cannot stay long, and you’d better be prepared.”
Sage words of advice. There’s a reason the military has specialists in tropical medicine – the kinds of disorders and afflictions one can catch in a tropical swamp begin with malaria and end with things you probably haven’t heard of and can’t pronounce. Diseases with which few physicians in North America have working experience. Indeed, your trained-up Special Forces medical sergeant who’s been to jungle warfare training is probably a better bet… but I digress…
Up until the turn of the 20th century, disease killed more military men operationally than did the enemy, and even today, the kinds of hazards one finds in the typical tropical or sub-tropical swamp are no cakewalk.
Civilians planning on spending any significant time in or near these places are advised to get their shot record up to date, and school themselves thoroughly on the local flora and fauna. Learn how to care for yourself and your equipment when it is wet, because it is going to get wet. Care of water-logged body parts is essential, especially what the old-timers called “trench rot” or “trench foot,” a.k.a. immersion foot syndrome.
Any water around or in a swamp must be treated to kill bugs and parasites – by boiling or other accepted means – or you risk getting Giardiasis, Cryptosporidiosis, or the like. Water-borne parasites and diseases are big killers in the Third World. Don’t be that guy who doesn’t take precautions. The inhabitants of equatorial Africa, for example – adapted for life in these areas have it bad-enough; people not acclimated to it fare even worse.
Learn about oral rehydration therapy and how to self-treat intestinal diseases common to these sorts of areas. Zinc is your friend, BTW…
Oh, and places like the Everglades are swimming with lots of alligators… crocs as well…. so ‘happy bathing’!