i'm with Teacher on this one..at least for the part of the
country i live in..water--gator aid-- a couple cliff bars
bic lighter and pocket knife are all i have ever taken on
a day hike..if i hiked in mountain parks where weather changes
could come on fast or the southwest desert where water and
snakebite were real problems i would carry more gear..
but if you have a medical problem ..your diabetic or have
an allergy ..thats something you will be ready for anywhere
and will have the meds handy to treat it...wild dogs and
so on?? a big pepper spray might be a good idea and better
than a gun..but then again the only people around here who
have dogs attack them have been in town..there is nothing
you can do about a busted leg if you are alone..just crawling
to shelter could cause a bone splinter to cut an artery and
you would bleed to death..if my worry level was so high that
i felt i needed to take a pile of gear for a walk in the woods
i would invest in a locater beacon or some such device so the
search and rescue people could find and take me home asap..
the TEN ESSENTIALS are fine if you going cross country
or are mountaineering otherwise i would relax and enjoy
the view..i think there are a lot of people who are just
itching to unravel their paracord necktie and do something--anything with it...
and one last thought..if you do carry a lot of gear keep
it all inside a bag..there is no reason to expose your
"mission" to the idle curious who may cross you path.

Did your friend pass a kidney stone? I was on the top of Halfdome a few years ago when someone got airlifted off. It was really cool to see the chopper come up the valley, circle and land.

The hike up Halfdome is not a typical "day hike" it takes most folks pretty much all day (sun up to sun down in July and August) to make the trip. It is along a well worn trail and is very crowded much of the way but it also goes up to over 8K. I think it gains 4,000 feet of elevation along the trail.
Many folks get sick from altitude (flatlander tourists types), heat illness and dehydration. This hike would require you carry some water purification (you will run out of what you have been carrying), a headlamp or flashlight (not just a photon or aaa LED; I have hiked extensively with a BD Ion and it is a lot of work to "peer" into the darkness beyond your tiny beam for hours. Go with a brighter light.) and clothes for the cool night temps. If you don't prepare one might find themselves out of water in the dark and wet (Mist Trail / Vernal falls) for the last few miles of trail. Although there is a water fountain at the bottom of Vernal falls.

This said; every hike has to be considered on its own merits. I have done the 1/2dome hike several times including approaches and descents from climbs on the dome(this involves cross country travel). It can be a serious hike even for the strong and I have seen both tourist and climbers alike getting schooled. So this hike warrants a decent amount of gear.
On the other hand a hike in the local park in the Berkeley / Oakland hills for a couple of hours for example barely rates anything but a modest EDC a jacket and a bottle of water.

Some folks go through a process while learning to hike and backpack where at first they are woefully unprepared then they pack too much gear and ultimately they get it to a manageable and realistic load that is appropriate for the outing.

RE Weather Changes:

A story to tell on myself - and a lesson learned...

About 20 years ago, I was going for a nice day hike up Slide Mountain in the Catskills of NY - by western standards - hardly a mountain at all - 4100 ft give ot take a couple of dozen, but the tallest in the range. At that time, I had probably climbed Slide around 8-10 times.

Anyway, it was the week before Memorial Day, left NYC and drove up with 2 friends. Dumb me just brought a canteen, a bit of snack food, a nice sandwich for lunch, some TP and a light jacket and my share of the group gear - the first aid kit(NOTE: I ALWAYS have a knife, lighter etc on me, so I won't list me edc as it turned out not to be important)

We got to the parking area, and it was kinda misty, and a BIT cool, but I figured - it's early in the day - it'll warm up

About 1/2 way up the hike (it takes a bit less than 2 hours up - taking you time) the temp had dropped - and that nice mist? It was a snow flurry (yeah - I know - turn around now) Another 20 minutes, and I start shaking - yep, hypothermia. Now my buddy Joe figured out what was going on - and HE had a nice Seva stove with him, and we made all 3 of us some instant soup and he put HIS jacket on me (heavier than what I had, but not by that much) and took mine (BTW we knew he had the stove - his part of the group gear)

We finished the soup - he looked at me and said "You OK?" I could honestly answer "Yes - wow, so that's what hypothermia is like"

The REAL interesting part? While we were eating the soup, the snow stopped, the sun came out, and the temps went up 15-20 degrees! We decided to continue the hike, went to the top (we were above the 3500ft mark already), had a nice lunch (including some Hot Cocoa), hicked a bit down the back side to the spring - refilled out canteens, back to the top, and down - all safe) - stopped in Phonecia for an early dinner, and home to NYC

Learned some interesting things that day - how a simple 3-4 hour day hike can go wrong - fast. I've never seen it that cold up there that time of year before or since, and did NOT have the right clothes - that said - the group having a small stove, some instant soup/cocoa, knowing the trails, and looking out for one another saved the day

I'll honestly didn't even realize how cold I was until I warmed up - thank goodness Joe and Dave realized what was going on (Dave was a first timer - Joe and I have spent MANY hours hiking with one another - including winter, go figure)

So, there is a simple thing that can go wrong on a 4-5 hour day hike (time dependant on how much time you spend on the top)

BTW - OT - if anyone plans to hike that part of the Catskills - the view is MUCH better from The Wittenburg and/or Cornell Mtn, but the climb up Wittenburg is MUCH harder, even if the Moutain is 200 or so feet lower - you start lower, and climb faster (I can tell the story of doing it with nearly 70lbs of pack... NOT a climb I'd want to repeat)

It's almost guaranteed that if I'm carrying it that day, I won't need it. It's only when I forget it at home that I really need it. That's why I carry so much stuff, it's just to ward off the bad luck. It's worked so far with that lottery ticket in my wallet, ever since I've carried one, I've never needed it.

I tend to carry the same stuff no matter where I hike. During a longer hike, I carry it because there's a good chance I'll need it. On short day hikes, I'm not too concerned about the weight anyway, and I just carry it for excercise. I figure instead of carrying extra weight to work out, I might as well carry something useful, at least that's what I tell myself. The truth is I'm just lazy, I leave my backpack fully packed so I can just grab it whenever I feel like hiking, so it's too much trouble to unpack and repack.

Funny you guys mention Half Dome. Last time I was there I also watched the rescue helicopters going up to retrieve a hiker who had fallen off the cables. Luckily our group was already done and watching from the comfort of camp. But you do see a lot of people that are just unprepared for the hike, even during good weather. Too many of them start out the hike in just t-shirts and shorts and a water bottle. The last time we went my friend had to give the rest of her water to an older couple who had run out of water as it was getting dark, and were not even half way back down. And the first time my gf went there, their group had to guide down another group of about 8-10 people who never even thought to bring one flashlight between all of them. I can only imagine if something unexpected like a summer storm were to happen, you'd probably have one the largest mass rescues of all time.

heeee

In the message above, I mention the 70lb hike up Wittenburg - that summer was a drought - a bad one, so we were carrying a LOT of water - to the point we got a late start to get more water carrying gear - we went from 2 qts each to 7 qts EACH - and we were glad to to have it - typical summer Catskills - 90 degs, 90% humidity

So we start of late - KNOWING we won't make the spring between Cornel and Slide the first day - and not know if it's actually running - but we know the spring on Slide IS - aka it MIGHT be 1 1/2 days to water (hence carrying 7 qts each)

Anyway, we make it oh, 2/3rds of the way up Wittenburg the first day - when, by gosh, the weather looks threating. We make camp, and eat etc - and we take out one of the spare tarps in put it in a depression in the ground. Sure enough, that night they get the first rain in like a month - we have MORE than enough water in the tarp to refill all our water, drink our fill for breakfast, etc.

Down the mountain comes a VERY bedraggled couple - cold, we and VERY thirsty - it seems they went up the mountain "light" - no gear - and the ONLY thing to drink was two bottles of----- SCOTCH!!

They have now been out 24 hours - and have realized their mistake - They look at us and say "would you be willing to trade a couple of bottles of water for a bottle of scotch?" Our reply (remember - we have filled all our gear and drank our fill was" - NO - water is worth more than scotch, but we'll GIVE you two bottles of water - they expected us to GIVE them water bottles - nope - we dummped the scotch on the ground and filled their scotch bottles with water - told them to drink up - as much as they could, refilled the bottles, and broke down the tarp to keep climbing. They were actually amazed that we would dump the scotch - I told them - hey - your willing to trade it for water - you know now how important water is - we don't KNOW when we get water next - I'd rather have water than scotch too

I assume they got down OK - once they had their fill of water (they were NOT drunk) and hiking light, it was maybe 1 hour down, and another "there goes stupid hikers" story was born. Got to the top of the mountain - there were plenty of depressions in the rocks where they could have gotten some watter from the rain if they used their brains - picked about 1qt of wild blueberries, and continued on to the spot where we wanted to camp - yep, the spring was running - next AM - we had fresh blueberry pancakes (yep - we brought the makings)

Ah - to be young, crazy, and a LOT lighter again - 2 weeks out backpacking - eating like pigs and still lost 20 lbs over the 2 weeks - Mom and Dad came and met us the middle weekend - The 3 of us ate like 12 LBS of lazangina (sp) for lunch - and were looking for a snack after... Learned why MREs have so many calories that trip - hike hills with 50-70lbs on your back, all day, every day - you BURN calories

The only question you didn't ask Teacher (I think) is the most important.

If something happens to me, how long can I reasonably expect to be on my own till rescued?

Bryan,

If possible, please consider resizing your pictures to 640x480 before posting them on the forum.

While I appreciate the detail in the larger size - and they are GREAT pics - the large picture size makes the entire thread very wide so that it runs way off to the right of the screen - matching the width of your posted pics. While reading this thread I'm constantly having to scroll right & left to read the comments.

Great topic!!

Thanks,

Ken K.

Nope, back injury.

I called it a day hike because we spent the night in the Little Yosemite Valley, then did the eight mile round trip to the top from there. It is 16 miles round trip to the top from Happy Isles on the valley floor. And uphill ever step of the way, going and coming.

Lots of people do it, or try, very ill prepared. One of the reasons the NPS has a couple of rangers living in tents near the Little Valley all summer long, to help those folks back to civilization...

Hmmm ... I'm not seing this with the new forum software that was recently installed. It used to be that way IIRC. But now, I just see side-side scrollbars on the images, not the entire thread. Thread width is normal (I'm using Firefox as my browser, but I don't think that matters).

Actually, it does. If I view this thread in Firefox, the images have scrollbars and the text area is the normal width. If I fire up IE7 (while holding my nose, of course ) the images make the thread unusually wide (not wide enough to run off the edge of my screen, but it would if I was running a lower resolution). So, Bryan needs to resize his pics before uploading and KenK needs to get Firefox.