A friend and I hiked the Morrison trail around Kinzua in PA, we had never hiked the trail before, we got to the trail head at 10:15 am and started hiking at 10:30. We knew it was a long trail 11.4 miles to be exact, what we didn't know was the direction we started in was the easy way and coming out would be all up hill and along steep drop offs and up and down through large rocks. Everything went fine for most of the day, then it started rail lightly and get a little foggy, to top that off it got dark.........lol. Well the Forest service must think that its funny to place the trail markers far apart, during the daylight hours thats ok because you can see the trail, but at night its rather annoying, good thing I had my Streamlight and Larry had is Inova both 3 watt LEDs, we managed to stay on the trail most of the time but there were sections that we had to have one stand and wait while the other walked in the direction we thought the trail went, all the time keeping the other light in sight, only to find out that was the wrong direction and had to come back and try a different one. We did make it out just fine, oh yea we were smart enough to have our GPS's and had marked the location of the trail head before starting the hike. Had we needed to spend the night we had our packs with everything we would need to be warm,dry and comfortable and well fed.
I'm new to the forums and have been reading all the posts,as you can tell by me answering a post form last year.....lol hope someone reads this and can get some use out of it.

lack of sound judgement... I ditto Sue's remark

I have to disagree with you Halcon, my judgement is sound, I was prepared to walk out or spend the night....which is what I thought this sight was all about, being prepared. Maybe I'm wrong and need to rethink things. Someone help me out here, what did I do wrong?

Izzy

Thats a good idea, sorry to say the State Forests here in Pa are open 24/7/365, its the people that don't prepare that worry me, not myself, I have been hiking since I was 8 and I'm now 51 sad to say and I have never had to spend the night or gotten lost.

Shadow, you assumed Halcon was talking to/about you, rather than agreeing with Sue. You were prepared becuase your judgement was sound. Just an oops in reading the list.

Around here, if someone tells you they think you screwed up, they usually include your name to make sure it gets to the right place.

Shadow_oo00, I don't know about you young kids ...

Seriously ... don't think your judgment being questioned, and besides, there's no crime in having to spend the night provided you come well-prepared for that contingency (which, in the experience you shared, you did). It becomes "bad judgment" when one is not prepared, and the overnighter puts one at undue risk and/or necessitates a SAR response. Otherwise, it becomes another "adventure."

My only suggestion, with the benefit of hindsight: given this was an unfamiliar trail, studying a decent topo map pre-hike would've given you some insight about the return trail's steep terrain, and might've influenced your plans.

Dan

Speaking of dear hunting, a guy I used to work with and his girlfriend got snowed in waayyy back in the boonies one winter. Somehow (this was years before cell phones) the authorities got wind of their problem, and had a chopper go in to pull both of them out, after several days of them shivering in the car. This was a big news item, so when the chopper landed at the hospital the cameras were rolling. And his wife happened to be watching. For some reason, she divorced him shortly thereafter...

Hey Shadow, like others said, it doesn't seem anybody was sniping at you. It's just the way this board works; if a new poster doesn't watch closely, they can create a link ("Re:") that's unintentional.

So be cool and stick around. Seems like you belong here.

When dayhiking, often solo, especially on a long trail, I too assume that I may have to bivvy if something goes wrong, so I pack a few extras accordingly. My emergency contacts know that I prep for this; they won't panic unduly if I'm running late, and nobody needs to go into harm's way on my behalf unless there are unusual circumstances..

BTW, most of my long hikes are in the Rocky Mountains. At night, bear and moose use the trails, so at a certain point it's better to hole up and wait for first light.

shadow, my response wasn't in response to your situation... at all! it was a response to the original question at the top of the page.

Sometimes "things" just happen too. Some of you may remember my post from last summer where I was walking around a flooded farm field behind my property somewhat late one evening - in clear view of my house. I was using a GPS to map the boundaries of the flood water so I was walking as close to the edge of the water as I could. I was wearing rubber boots and accidentally stepped into a hole when crossing a shallow (6") portion of the flooded field. One leg sank into the mud which filled one boot with mud & water, and filled the other boot with just water. I did my best to rinse the mud out of the boot, but the act of rinsing in the flood water forced me to put my stockinged foot back into the mud. I was kind of a mess and I knew I didn't have a lot of daylight left.

Anyway, if you've ever walked in wet rubber boots you'll know how tiring and nasty that can be. That apparently minor event - certainly comical in hind-sight - could have turned into an overnight stay and a possibly ugly situation had I been in a more remote area.

Plan ahead, be equipped (not just gear), and use your head. That is what this form and ETS is all about.