Careful dude, you're sounding mighty presumptuous there.

When a dayhiker spends more time on a tough trail than he expects and gets stuck after dark, it can be mighty wise to build a fire and bivy. In fact the fire can be more important for the dayhiker than the overnighter, because the dayhiker won't have the sleeping bag & dedicated shelter than the overnighter most likely has brought.

I regularly hike in this East coast area and I assure you it is no casual stroll like you seem to know from Virginia:

"Hikers should remember that this is a federally designated Wilderness Area. As we learned on our end-to-end trek of the Gorge, trails are not well maintained and are marked only at the trailheads at the top. Even veteran hikers will find that it is very easy to lose the trail. It's no surprise that 45 to 50 hikers per year get lost or injured and have to be rescued by local emergency crews."

Don't globalize your experience to everyone else.

I'm not a dude. And I asked whether he makes fires on day hikes, not day hikes that turn into overnighters.

Well-marked, maintained and well travelled does not equate to casual stroll.

Of course there are poorly marked trails all over the country. You'd equate the trails you refer to as popular?

Usually not, for one or more of the following reasons:

• It takes time away from the other "day hike" stuff, such as actually, you know, hiking. I would not lit a fire on the kind of trip that guy was doing, I would be walking all day.
• We need to get back in time for dinner/bedtime/whatever.
• There are enough fire scars already in the rather heavily used areas we usually visit, and I hesitate to make a new one. (I'll reuse a good camp fire site if I find one, though).
• Too lazy that particular day.

But I have a passionate love for making lunch over a camp fire...

So often when we're hiking its a muggy inferno out. On a cold winter day I'd have a hard time moving away from a warm fire.

Campfire meals are the best. The only campstove I use now is a JetBoil, and that's for quick coffee during car camp trips. Would much rather cook over a fire, or take the little Weber. But campfire cooking is special.

Hikermor's comments were in the context of dealing with the unexpected, not in the context of making fires for the hell of it.



Yep. Its one of the most popular hiking destinations east of the Mississippi. You should try it.

There are several fairly close in loops that I take especially in the winter with my dogs. I often stop half way and fire up my Snow Peak Giga power stove for a nice hot cup of coffee. Love that new starbucks VIA!!!The stove is very light and for day hikes I take a 4oz fuel canister so not much additional weight for a nice coffee break. However, I use the MSR 4 oz fuel canister as it's wider at the base than the 4 oz. snow peak canister, and thus more stability and only a fraction more weight. Go figure that the snow peak giga stove has more stability than the MSR pocket rocket, but just the opposite in the 4oz. canisters both companies offer.

For me carrying the small amount of additional weight from the stove and canister is well worth the savings in time to actually build a fire, wait for it to get ready to heat water over, and then get it safely extinguished before leaving, when day hiking for a few hours especially in the short winter days---time does become an issue as I'd prefer not to be on dark slick trials after dark.

While I always carry fire making supplies for an unexpected emergency over-nighter, for both time restraints and convenience the small stove always wins. Plus, the PNW, in the summer and fall most areas only allow camp fires in the actual designated fire-pits in the camp areas for safety. They really don't want you building a camp fire for heating food or water in many areas that I hike and actually enforce that rule for good reason. Caution is even urged with stoves.

This guy made one mistake. He deliberately went off trail. Everything bad that happened to him stemmed from that one bad decision.

Hopefully others will learn from his bad decision making process.

My guess is he probably was an experienced hiker. He may well have thought that his experience and skills were a good substitute for sound judgment.

No gear in the world can protect you from stupid, although sometimes it can rescue you from it.

I broke my left kneecap when I was 12. I was able to, briefly, limp backwards towards home. Depending on the break, he is in for a long and painful rehab.

You don't have to be far away to be isolated and on your own when things go bad.
This hiker was only a short distance from a trail.

Think for a moment about some of our senior citizens. There are a few I know that would be unable to get up if they fell, and unless they had a telephone in reach they could be stranded helplessly inside their own apartments.
In some cases it might be months before anybody bothered to check on them.

"There are a few I know that would be unable to get up if they fell, and unless they had a telephone in reach..."

That's why, if your family senior only has one phone in the house, it shouldn't be on the wall.

Sue