If you spend time in the outdoors, eventually something will go wrong. It’s a law of nature. But if you survive, those epic failures become the best stories! We’ve all read about amazing accomplishments in the wild, but now it’s time to tell us about the not-so-great times and what you learned from them. Share your best #EpicTrailFail stories on your own page, include this paragraph as a header, and then provide a link in the comments [here] or [here]. We’ll curate and circulate the best stories in future posts. We can’t wait to read about what you’ve survived!
Arionis of Just A Small Cog and Rebecca of Wild Sensibility.

I have a new #trailfail story! You know what the best part of this story is? It wasn’t MY fail! There are exactly three fails in this story and while I was around for all of them, they weren’t caused by me. There were two fails by humans and one fail by my furry buddy canine companion, Sawyer.

This happened on the Appalachian Trail when the LeeLander landed at Amacolola Falls State Park in Georgia where the southern terminus of the trail starts on Springer Mountain. Sawyer and I decided to do a one night hike starting from the terminus and then back the next day. It would be kind of a bittersweet trip as this would be Sawyer’s last overnighter. He is seven years old now and Golden Retrievers are particularly susceptible to hip dysplasia, which he is experiencing. He loves to be out on the trail but it’s getting very difficult for him to climb up steep grades and over logs and such.

FIRST FAIL

Anyway, back to the fails. We pulled up in the jeep to the trail head parking lot on Springer Mountain and started to get ready for the hike. The parking lot is not actually located at the southern terminus. It is a mile away. So in order to start from the terminus you have to hike a mile south then come back north the same way you came before, continuing on north from the parking lot. Since we had to hike back to the parking lot anyway before we could continue, I decided to leave my pack in the jeep. No reason for me to lug it up the mountain and then just bring it back. We would just take some water with us and then fully gear up when we got back to the jeep.

As we were getting ready to head south to the terminus, a shuttle service pulled up and dropped off a guy and girl couple. I could hear the driver explaining to them that the terminus was a mile south. I walked over and introduced myself and found out this couple had been backpacking around the country and they had decided to do a three month trip on the AT. They wanted to start from the terminus but were not aware that they had to go south before they could go north. Once they understood this I offered to let them keep their big packs in my jeep so we could all go up to the terminus then back down where I could hand them back their packs. This is often referred to as “slack packing.” They accepted the offer and put their packs in my jeep. I locked it up and we all headed up the mountain.

After about a quarter of a mile I felt the urge of nature and told the couple to continue on and we would meet them at the top. I did my business and got back on the trail. When Sawyer and I reached the top where the trail starts, the couple was nowhere to be seen! We took some pics and vids (you’ll see) and waited for a few minutes but they never showed up. I was a little perplexed and tried to think of what could have happened. About 3/4 of the way up the mountain there is a side trail that leads to the first shelter. I was thinking maybe they turned off to check out the shelter before coming to the top. So we headed back down and went to the shelter. They were not there. There was a guy breaking camp near the shelter and I asked him if he had seen the couple. He said that I was the first person he’d seen all morning. The plot thickens.

My next thought was that maybe since the guy wasn’t camping right at the shelter maybe the couple had made it to the top and came back down to check out the shelter and the guy didn’t see them. We must have passed by on the main trail and they headed back down to the parking lot. With this thought in mind, Sawyer and I basically ran back down the trail. I didn’t want them waiting at the jeep, unable to get their packs. As we made it back to the parking lot, huffing and puffing, we saw….. NOBODY. WTF?

At this point I was baffled. There is another trail that comes up from the Amacolola Visitor Center called the AT approach trail. It is not officially part of the AT but a lot of hikers like to stay at the inn at Amacolola and hike the 8 mile approach trail as it winds its way through a beautiful waterfall. Surely they didn’t go down that trail though. I explained to them that it was only a mile up from the parking lot. Also, the AT is marked with white blazes (paint stripes) every so often on trees and rocks. The approach trail is marked in blue blazes. So even if they did go down the approach trail by mistake they should have notice the change of color of the blazes and come back. In the end we waited for an hour and a half for them to come back and they never did. We couldn’t wait any longer if we wanted to make some significant miles on the rest of the AT for our trip. I ended up writing a note to the couple that said I didn’t know how we missed them but I would leave my jeep unlocked so they could get their packs and asked them to lock it up before they left. I wasn’t all that thrilled about leaving the jeep unlocked but I couldn’t leave fellow hikers without their packs. Just as we were about to head north we saw a couple and their daughter drive up. They were going up to the terminus and then going north for a day hike on the AT. I explained to them what happened and they said they would look out for the couple and let them know I left the jeep unlocked. Hikers are so helpful to each other.

Sawyer and I hiked north to a shelter and decided to stay there for the night. Later on, that same family showed up and had news for us. They met the couple on their way down from Springer Mountain. They indeed had gone right past the summit and down the approach trail for several miles before they realized their error. They came back to the parking lot and got their bags and continued their trip. I never saw them again so I am guessing they probably hiked further on into the day to make up for loss time and never turned down the side trail to the shelter where we were staying. Good thing I left the Jeep unlocked or it would have been a much BIGGER FAIL for them!

SECOND FAIL

The second fail was Sawyer’s. After a fine day of hiking and hanging at the shelter we were turning in for the night. The shelter we were at is a three sided open air structure (see the vid) that you can put a sleeping bag down in. My backpack was hung on a peg in the shelter and to that I hooked a long leash from Sawyer so he would have freedom to roam the shelter but not any further. I settled in to my sleeping bag and was listening to an audio book for a bit. Sawyer initially circled around a bit in the shelter then came to lie down next to me. Eventually I feel asleep and all was peaceful.

I came awake to the sound of barking and scuffling. I opened my eyes just in time to see Sawyer taking off like a bat out of hell toward the shelter opening. I was comforted by the fact that he wouldn’t be able to go far. WRONG! As the leash played out it ripped my big pack right off the wall peg and he drug it out of the shelter behind him. I struggled to get my headlamp on so I could see what was happening outside. When I got there I saw that my pack had gotten caught up under the picnic table in front. However, when I got to the end of the leash all I saw was an empty harness. Somehow Sawyer had managed to pull out of his harness. He was nowhere to be seen! I called his name repeatedly but I got no response. Just as I was getting ready to head out in to the bush to look for him I heard a YELP! Then I could hear some scuffling sounds and Sawyer appeared from the bush with his head held low. I went to him and saw that something had scratched him on the snout. It wasn’t a deep wound but I’m sure it had smarted. Sawyer sat quietly as I put the harness back on him and then on his own, even before I attached the leash, slinked back over to the shelter and laid down, not to move again until morning. I’m not sure what he had chased out there, a bear, a racoon, bigfoot, but I’m betting he wished he hadn’t now. In the morning I checked him out again and he was no worse for the wear. I made sure to clean up the scratch with some antiseptic pads and we had no further forays by the trail wonder dog.

THIRD FAIL

In the morning we had some breakfast and broke camp. We headed back south to the parking lot. Several hours later when we got there I started packing our stuff in the jeep when we saw two girls coming down Springer Mountain from the southern terminus. When they got to the parking lot they started loading their packs into a car. Surely they didn’t drive up here just to hike two miles to the terminus and back. I was thinking they must have staged two cars. One here and one down at the visitor center and then hiked the whole approach trail. I sauntered over and asked them if that is what they had done. They both gave me a frustrated look and I thought maybe I had stirred up a hornets nest.

It turns out they had intended to do a 20 mile hike on the AT starting from the terminus and also didn’t realize you had to hike south for a mile and then back if you were going to do that from the parking lot. They ended up hiking right past the terminus and down the approach trail all the way down to the visitor center before they realized their error. They hiked all the way back up and was just now getting back to the parking lot after 18 miles, two of which were the only ones on the actual Appalachian Trail. They were not happy campers and they were going home. So two sets of hikers had done nearly the same fail two days in a row.

I’m amazed at how these people didn’t do their research before getting on the trail. But who am I to cast aspirations? I’ve had plenty of fails of my own. Just not this time!

THE MOVIE

Below I’ve posted the video from our The RVidiots YouTube channel. A lot (and a lot more) of what I wrote about are featured in it, except for Sawyer’s fail. I didn’t get any vid of that, so you readers get that exclusive content here on Just A Small Cog. I called it a movie because it’s about as long as one. So plan a movie night, nuke some popcorn, and have one of your favorite adult beverages before watching it. Also, a like and a subscribe on YouTube would be greatly appreciated!

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