A Life Story and Lesson’s Learned

This is a story I wrote about a Backpacking trip in which I screwed up big time and almost made a very bad situation.  It is a long story, but the lessons learned are invaluable.  Success comes with learning from mistakes made in life.  It is an interesting story to tell and probably pretty interesting to read, so take the time to read it and tell me what you think. 

Summer 2006 Backpacking Trip Disaster

Near the beginning of the summer, I decided to take my Little Brother Luke from Big Brothers Big Sisters on his first backpacking trip to Star lake which is somewhere between Lake Tahoe and Carson Valley in the Sierra Mountains. It was around the middle of July, when I set the date to go on our trip to the weekend of August 12^th.

Now on the week before the hike I stayed very busy between work and other various events, one of which was attending an orienteering class. In this orienteering class, the instructor emphasized how important it was to have a good map of the area in which one was hiking. At the time, I kind of baulked at the idea of needing a map for I was just planning on taking the Tahoe Rim trail to Star Lake. How hard could it possibly be? So on the day of the hike, Luke, my brother Ben and I quickly gathered our supplies and headed off to the trail head. The day was beautiful with the temperature around the mid-90’s and not a cloud in sight. We drove through Gardnerville and down Highway 88 before turning to Highway 89 to get to the well known dirt road which would eventually lead us to the trailhead. From years past I remember having to pass 2 bridges before getting to the trail head, so I looked out for the bridges and felt comfortable as things looked familiar from the last time I had been on the road. We made our way past the two bridges and followed the path which looked most traveled and later ended up at a nice circle dead end with a trail head. I was proud of myself for finding the trail head so easily. We lathered ourselves with plenty of sunscreen and even practiced some of the skills Luke and I had learned from our orienteering class. Soon after, we headed down a nice trail with the intention of ending up at Star Lake. Within 5 minutes, something didn’t seem quite right because we were climbing straight up a mountain and Luke was already complaining about his shoulders hurting. It was only about 10 minutes into the hike when I decided Luke wasn’t going to be able to carry a backpack, so we distributed Luke’s equipment between Ben and me. I knew in my mind that about 1 mile up the path was when the trail would join the Tahoe Rim trial, so we continued to hike. Not before too long we were still climbing up a massive mountain and there was no Tahoe Rim trail in sight. For some reason I didn’t even hesitate and continued climbing up the hill hoping that eventually we would run into a familiar spot which would lead us to Star Lake. At the top, I got rather excited, because the terrain looked very familiar and I saw what I thought was Freal peak. We quickly moved down hill looking for Star Lake, but it wasn’t there. I hiked around ridge after ridge searching with no luck. I officially realized we were on the wrong trail and that we were going to have to stay the night in a different place. We made the best of the situation by finding a nice place next to a river and setup camp for the night knowing that we would just backtrack to get to the car on the next day. That night was good and we all slept well. The following day seemed rather simple knowing that we would just climb uphill until we saw the peak again and then head back down the trail we came up on. The beginning of the hike back started out very steep, but I kept Luke motivated by reminding him that once we got to the top of the mountain we would head straight down the trail and be back at the car. As we neared the top of the mountain I was feeling pretty stressed since Luke could not hike for five minutes without needing a break and water. I couldn’t understand it for the life of me why he needed so many breaks, since I didn’t need a break anymore than once in an hour. At one point he started crying and said that he could not go on, so I stopped for about a half hour and we talked and ate some food until he felt better. Remind you that this was before we hit the top of the mountain. So we continued to hike until we reached what I thought was the location of the trail we had hiked up the previous day. To my surprise, there was no trail in sight. We hiked up and down the ridge line of the mountain to find the once obvious trail, but could not find it. I was pretty sure that the trail was around that area, so I decided to just hike down the mountain until we run into the trail. The terrain going down the hill was more than challenging as it was a combination of sand and boulders on a 45 degree slope. We were careful to keep a safe distance between us as each person was very capable of causing a mini rock slide. It was about 15 minutes into going straight down that I decided to evaluate the situation and make a strategy for the rest of the day. As I stood on a tall rock looking down the massive mountain all I could see was rock, sand, and thick bushes, a sudden realization came across my mind that we were going to have to deal with the rocky terrain until we drop about 3000 ft. At the same time we had just lost cell phone signal. Inside my heart I knew I was lost and in trouble, but I also knew that I was the leader and had to lead no matter how crappy I felt inside. So I consulted with my brother and told him that we have to work at this together. I put on a fake smile, turned to Luke, and said “You see that small dirt patch way down at the bottom of the mountain, the car is somewhere down there and it looks like we have cell phone service.” It made me feel sick knowing that I was lying to Luke and that the chance of the car being down at the bottom of the mountain was no more than 1% chance. There were a few basic survival skills running through my mind: Keep a positive attitude, Stay near water, and be aware of the conditions around you especially the weather. I looked down the mountain, cupped my ears to listen for water and heard a small stream a ways down. I told everyone that I was getting thirsty and that we need to head in the direction of water. We slowly slid down the mountain while taking breaks no more than 5 minutes apart so that Luke could sit down and catch his breath. Ben and I were laughing and/or crying because we could not understand why Luke needed so many breaks. I just wanted to get somewhere safe in the least amount of time. If it was up to me I wouldn’t have taken any breaks. Finally we made it to water and pumped it from a mosquito infested area. Once again we were on our way down the mountain sliding down sand and steep rock slabs that were rather dangerous. Eventually, I got so frustrated that I decided to have Ben watch over Luke while I booked it down the hill to find a trail. About 10 minutes and several deep scrapes and cuts later, I was about 40 minutes ahead of Ben and Luke. Eureka! I had found a trail. At this point, I realized that we were no where near the car, but at least a trail would take us somewhere that maybe was close to a road. I figured that it is much better to be rescued on a marked trail than trying to explain the terrain features to give a location if we needed help. I finally got cell phone signal and called my mom to tell her that I was okay and that if I didn’t call before 5 P.M. to call Luke’s mom and tell her that we are safe and almost down the mountain. I didn’t want to portray in anyway that I was lost to either my mom or Luke’s mom, because mother’s become very irrational when they think their kids are in trouble. Within 30 minutes Ben and Luke had caught up and we made our way down the trail. At this time it was just a matter of hiking along this trail until we hit an end point and I could call for help. All of the sudden the sky cracked with thunder and I quickly prayed to God that he would take care of us, because I knew that we could not deal with rain showers on top of an already horrible situation. As we hiked, a little rain sprinkled, but luckily it never got worse before the sun came out again. For the next hour we hiked while still taking the regular breaks which were becoming so frequent that I almost went crazy. I swear I was hardly breathing more than a resting rate and Luke said he needed a break. I could see Carson Valley and knew that we were probably headed to the valley so that someone could pick us up. When we were near the valley, after Luke sucked it up all day and hiked like a champ for an 11 year old, Luke finally broke down and wanted his mom right there and then. I had to comfort him while he cried and yelled at me. It was rather intense and his mood was going down hill quick, so we called his mom and they had a talk which gave Luke more strength to continue. Within a mile of where we would eventually be done, I called my uncle Mike to help me out and he pulled out the maps and told me where to go so that he could pick us up. That last mile went pretty quick because we knew that we were going to be safe without involving the search and rescue. At the trail head, Uncle Mike and Aunt Barb were there to pick us up and take us back to my car. I had called my mom and Luke’s mom and told them that we were safe. For the next 3 hours we were up in the mountains getting my car and getting something to eat. Luke then remembered that he should call his mom to tell her that we were just leaving to head back to Reno. When Luke got off the phone, he said that his mom had called Search and Rescue. I was thinking “What the F*^K” and then checked my messages on my phone to see that indeed the Sheriff called my phone. This goes back to what I wrote before, how moms are terribly irrational when they sense trouble. How in the world was Search and Rescue going to help when Luke’s mom knew we had safely made it off the mountain and were with my uncle. It didn’t matter, because when moms are scared they are irrational and call Search and Rescue as some kind of comfort or something. Anyways I called the sheriff and told him that we were on the highway on our way to Reno. It was understandable that she would be worried since we didn’t call for 3 hours, but we didn’t have cell phone service, so what were we to do. I dropped off Luke and my horrible weekend came to an end. I took the next day off of work to emotionally recover.

The moral of the story is to always have a GPS and detailed map and compass of the area you are hiking, because you always know exactly were you are until you are lost. We were very lucky that the weather was on our side and that no one got hurt. This same kind of thing happens all the time and in many cases does not have an ending nearly this good.

Hope you enjoyed my story and learned something.

Adam

Backpacking, lessons in life, story, success