[forest gnome]

Well just thought this might bring up a couple of interesting story's ......can you tell us about your dayhikes or overnighters with NEWBIES......who was it/ were they hiking virgins/ what went wrong/ who puked....where did ya take'em???? ....were they stupid enough to go with u again ?... I'll post my one virgin hiker story later.....um my hikers story.......that other thingy was at snow lake

[forest gnome]

WHAT nobody takes newbies hiking to get them into it??

[Wazzu_camper]

My mother - She has always appreciated the outdoors and had done some little hikes hear and there, but a few years back she came to visit from AZ and I organized an overnighter to Tuck Lake hearing that it was a great hike. As it tured out it was an amazing, not too tough hike for a 26 year old man who hikes a lot. Unfortunately, for a 62 year old woman, who doesn't hike a lot, it took just about everything she had in her. Being a good son though I did take her pack in addition to mine for the final 1000 feet of vertical. I don't think she would have made it otherwise. She does claim it was an amazing trip, so I that's good. Since then, everytime I travel to AZ we do a couple of flatter backpacking trips. Usually around Sedona, but we are going to hit up Joshua Tree this Spring.

[touron]

Good question. I took someone to Snow Lake, but then I decided it would be a shame not to continue on to Gem, at which point it seemed a shame not to go up Wright Mountain and take in the whole view. His tennis shoed feet were quite sore on return, and in retrospect it may not have been the right journey for a newbie. But a day later, he said he felt very good. The pain is soon forgotten...

[ajax]

I am a newbie, and I'm taking myself and some family along with me. Every time someone out of state visit, I take them into the mountains. I feel that everyone would like hiking, to some extent, and I feel very strongly that most of Washington wastes the mountains--they are so close! So what's it like taking a newbie--myself--into the mountains? It's awesome, but the hardest part is finding people to go with me and funding the equipment. No one's ever puked. I guess my worst newbie story is going up Mt. Pugh. Much of the group had never backpacked before--myself included, and we camped below Stujack Pass. We ended up not being able to get up the trail the day we got there because of a SAR mission and Mt. Pugh ended up being a horrible choice--it was steep, not everyone could go high enough to appreciate the views, and there was no fresh water source at camp, and it was pretty hot. Oh-- and our only source of water was filthy lake metan, and we only had iodine tablets, and we warily gulped down water, watching copepods float around in our nalgenes, hoping they were safe to drink. So--they were stupid enough to do it with me again. I planned the destination again, and to make up for it, the next year almost the same group went to Spider Gap. However--it thundershowered, and we got completely drenched. But most of us still had fun. I thought my cousin hated it and would never go with us again--but lo and behold, I guess she just bought herself a nice backpacking backpack. Looks like the mountains are doing their part

[Chief Joseph]

I gave up hiking in the 80's and 90's in favor of MC trail riding. I was like, why would you want to walk when you can ride? Then a young guy at work decided to hike up to spend the night at the Pilchuck lookout . They had limited gear, no experience and wore tennis shoes, (of course). A storm moved in and they became lost trying to descend. He called and they were able to help them find their way. After that he was hooked, joined the ET Mountaineers, bought a bunch of gear and well you know how the rest usually goes. Then he talked me into going on a hike, and recommended NWHikers to me. Now I am hooked, and going broke,damn him! We have different days off so I am seeking alternate partners, Gnomie has offered to TOFT. We shall see, can't blame him if he is skeered to associate with a bad apple like me!

[Andy Schmidt]

I introduced my wife to backpacking. She had day hiked and car camped before we met, but never overnighted in the backcountry. We’ve had our share of entertaining experiences over the years but I’ll relate one from our (her) first overnighter. First, it’s necessary to point out that High Volume (my wife) LOVES murder mysteries. Her biggest fear of backpacking was that we’d come across an ax murderer and we would end up the unfortunate victims. She went on the trip despite the possibility of being hacked to bits or worse. The hike in was uneventful. We set up camp, ate, hung out, and went to bed. All was going smoothly and we hadn’t seen another soul. Sometime in the wee morning hours a fog began to roll in. There were a few half-asleep mumblings about how spooky and murder mystery like it was, but we both went back to sleep. Next thing I know, High Volume is waking me up and urgently asking, “Did you hear that?” It’s pre-sunrise but starting to get light. “Hear what?” “Digging.” “Digging?” “There’s somebody out there, that way (pointing into whiteout fog), I’m sure they’re digging a grave to bury a body.” Then I heard it: the distinct sound of a shovel being thrust into the earth. Somehow in my half asleep state it made perfect sense that someone was digging a grave. We quietly had a conversation about what to do in a number of scenarios and if we thought they knew we were there. Our plan was to remain hidden in the fog until we were sure they were gone, then go investigate. The digging continued. We lay in our sleeping bags staring toward the sound sure that a large human silhouette carrying some sort of ax or club would be coming toward us at any moment. The whole time High Volume is relating how similar this is to some book she read that the campers got murdered or tortured or whatever. It normally never occurs to me that ax murderer attack might be a threat on a backpacking trip, but I was legitimately scared. After a while it seemed that enough shovel-fulls had been dug that the hole would be bigger than necessary to dispose of a body. Reason started to set in. Maybe it was possible that the digging/digger had some non-murderous intention. The fog was burning off and our cover would surely soon be blown. It seemed foolish to remain hunkered down in the tent. We got up and briskly went about having breakfast and taking down camp. The digging continued and sounded relatively close but we couldn’t see anything. Now it’s maybe 3 hours after High Volume had woken me up. The digging continued. We were ready to go check out a waterfall we wanted to see before we headed back to the car. The waterfall trail went in the exact direction of the digging. We were mostly at ease but neither one of us were really gung-ho to lead the way. I went first. We were maybe 500ft from our camp and we come around a corner and there’s a gray-haired leathery-wrinkled-skin old guy re-building a piece of trail. He looks up and greets us and tells us that he tried to be quiet ‘cause we were sleeping when he walked through our camp. We chatted for a while and told him about our morning. We all had a good laugh about it. High Volume and I have been on many backpacking trips since (more recently with our 2 kids) and have yet to encounter an ax murderer.

[forest gnome]

crakin up!...tooo funny.

[lankymo]

Im a new hiker and how i was brought into hiking is why i fell in love with it. I am out of shape. 10 years of no real activities and too much smoking, stressful job, failed marriage i was in a bad place. Last summer my brother called and asked if i wanted to go to a lake maybe some hiking. I live in Olympia and thought oh, some 30 minute hike and camp at a lake and party, i need to get out so i said yes. I didnt know what real hiking was but i had a backpack, sleeping bag, tent and was game for camping. My brothers room mate was supposed to be this avid hiker who "went out in the mountains alone" and new his sh##. Mike was our savior and i own him all the credit in the world but again not an expert yet! There was an adventure of actually getting to the trailhead but after many hours we were at the trailhead for Mildred Lakes. I remember thinking well its getting dark and after driving up here we are in the @#$#$ middle of the woods what have i gotten myself into. We were a misfit of a group. There was myself, my brother chris, his roomate mike and mikes friend John who has done hiking in these mountains. While we waited for john to repack his gear and well repack his gear for about an hour we got wasted and checked out the area, there was a bridge over a river and a picknick table and a small crapper. when we first started the trail it went straight up right away, a little taste of what was to come. I remember thinking when we got to the trailhead sign, by god im tired. 20 mintues into the hike i was broke about 30 mintues i was on my ass smoking and ready to quit. but this is where something special happen, i loved it out here and i wanted to stay out here so i got up and kept going. much of the hike was this way. walk 20-30 minutes and stop. i learned within the first couple of hours that, mike is not an expert hiker, John was not an expert and we were lost off trail. Mike new the direction to go but we were fairly messed up and it was dark with only two of us that had light. god know how long we trugged through brush, rocks and fallen logs, roots before we finally found a place to camp. it was cold, wet and the ground was not flat. Real hikers woke us up. The came up the actual trail which was about 20 yards from where we were camped. Mike and I went up to talk to them and they were shocked at what we told them. They couldnt believe we were hiking out here in the dark. I could... Anyhow, we made a push for the lakes and learned there was actual flags on the trees marking the trail. Well there is a lot of crazyness that happen but i close this by saying Mike and I made it to the creek where you had to cross a large log and there was snow up at this point so this was it. We had no business out there in the woods and no doubt are the type of folks that are not loved by other hikers. I later learned that this was not a real hikers trail but a difficult hunter trail that hikers make not maintain. I also learned a lot of what it takes to be out in the mountains. A few weeks later we did a revenge hike and made it to the mildreds lakes. that hike was filled with horror and pain and adventure but we did it. I have since done, MT washington, Mt ellinor, lower lena>upperleana>scouts lake>lost>upper leana=), lake of the angles, northforks. I dont have pics uploaded from this hike but got some from the revenge hike.

chris

half way point

mildred lakes

chris at mildred lake camp

So john was always messed up and stopped even more than i did. This was the common site. his bag with all his crap out.

was a very nice spot, so glad we didnt go this far in the snow the first time.

I dont think we were supposed to have a fire at the lake. But this was already built and we were stuck up at the lake in the freezing cold with camp gear left at second bluff.

this camp is right by the stream and this pic was taken on the way back from mildreds. At this point john was lost.

Mike and I at summit for MT washington. I have come a long ways as a hiker from doing mildreds lakes.

This year i am excited to be hiking and happy to say i am a hiker.

[forest gnome]

[Tigerotor77W]

Mt. Rainier. I had an internship in Seattle in 2007, and though I was excited about it, I didn't really expect to go hiking much (I don't like the stereotypical weather I thought I was going to see, and I had never gone hiking before). Then I was driving around town one day and happened to see Rainier, before actually knowing what it was. I screamed loudly -- fortunately I was alone in my car -- but it was literally... well it was intense. I got really excited and immediately proceeded to look up hiking on Rainier, only to realize that the snowline was below even Paradise at the time (this was mid-May). So I waited and did a few hikes before venturing up to Sunrise on the 4th of July... by then I had fallen in love. I've been to Seattle in both 2008 and 2009 to honor that memory.

[Backpacker Joe]

I just try to offer general advice to people I see doing dangerous or irresponsible things. "Hey, you don't look like you have a light source and your getting to far away from your car at this time of the day!" That kind of thing. I have fed people before.

[forest gnome]

wowzer's no sleeping bag and just a yellow plastic bag for warmth....that is hardcore!......or is that the "omg we made it.... I think I'll just curl up here and die"...?....classic! oh and the one with all the crap spread out on the trail, steel canteen and the pack that had to kill the shoulders....I'd be like what the hell, get your sh## packed, ....we..... gotta .....keep...... going.....

[lankymo]

yup chris was in hell that night. He and John wanted to go back down but i was to weak and terrified. Mike also felt it was not safe for us. So after a bit of a debate, john just took off and the rest of us stayed at the lake. Chris didnt talk to us and was in misirable shape all night. But he did dose off a few times. Mike and I kept the fire going strong and didnt sleep at all. the stars were great that night but i was soooo cold. But at scouts lake area i did do that, just drop and pass out. Same with Mt washington. just curled up to die. John, the guy with all his gear out. He, well he was in a car accident that did some serious damage to his head. Since he has been on stronge pain meds. It was not till the third hike did i find out that he was actually younger than me. Thought he was and olderguy because he talks slow and very deep. The gear you see in the pic is nothing compared to what he has brought on other hikes. Does it make sense? NO! nothing ever seem to make sense when we went out on our hikes. Another example, on this revenge hike john lost his keys in the hamma hama while taking a pic over it on the bridge by the trailhead. He actually went for it later and almost got sucked in to his death. always an adventure when hiking with john. by the way, as i mentioned earlier john took off on his own in the dark from mildreds lake to the second bluff where our gear was located. The next morning we left for the camp at the second bluff and john had never made it back. After not sleeping all night and barely making it back to the second bluff none of us were in any shape for a search. we decided to rest a bit before we went to look, all of us passed out. When i woke john was back and till this day i do not know what really happen to him but he was on his back, with his legs somewhat up and hands up like a dog laying on his back and breathing very hard with his mouth open. I remember thinking this guy is dead and there is not a damn thing i can do about it. all this for just a mildreds lake hike.....i am happy to say we have done research and though we are still a bunch of misfits, we do bring proper gear now and all of us have learned to respect the mountains and take it seriously.

[forest gnome]

So I have to read that twice!.... chris had no bag?.....tooo funny....great that the crew is still gettin after it... really looks like chris is in pain...