what is the sickest thing you ever saw on the trail??

[giggy]

bit of a fun one here

name your sickest sight on trail -

Mine ain't that good but it will get the thread going

would have to be going up valley way last year hungover as all hell and puking about every ten steps between tent site and hut - went thru most of my liquid for the day before the hut - trying to stay hydrated - thankfully - the hut had more water!! - not recommened!!

also hiking with a buddy who had to do the ole number 2 and then fell in it!!!

 

[Puck]

name your sickest sight on trail -

My car and the road home to my job and 'real' life.

 

[sapblatt]

The last three are me - the first one is a classic:

1. In the interest of holiday kindness I am not going to name anyone, but I was introducing a member of my hiking party who had not been feeling well for the last part of the hike down from the Kinsmans to a young woman at Lonesome Lake. Right as I said, you should meet "xxxx" he turned towards a bush and puked. I do not think she was scarred by this, but it was sick and funny all at the same time

2. Hiking up Carter Dome totally hung over- and probably still drunk from a very long night at the hut - "yeah - they all made me drink the Scotch"...I did not puke, but i had to rest every two or three steps. By the time I summited my head had cleared...

3. Taking 20 minutes to break trail in three feet of snow to the privy at the Log Cabin only to realize I forgot the "paper" - I had read somewhere that snow works - it does... and it will sure wake you up too!

4. And sickly funny - how do you know you may have had enough to drink?
When two consecutive times while attempting to relieve yourself at Gray Knob you fall into the same snowbank because you have no balance - I can still hear SherpaK laughing...

 

[bruno]

i know a guy (a legend really) who found a human skull while he was out 'whackin'!! no joke!!

 

[mookie]

thats an easy one,
was hiking in a state park in rhode island (diamond hill) and heard some noises off to the side of the trail. took a look over, thinking it was an animal, and wouldnt ya know, there was two men, one with his pants down and.... you get the picture. i was a bit nervous and hurried past them up the hill never looking back. still get a bit nervous when i go there. after telling a few people about my "sighting" i was informed that the area is well known for well, man on man gatherings.
pretty much the sickest sight i ever hope to witness

 

[Double Bow]

Well, I know numerous other people saw it too but...

Gator and I were hiking on the Kilkenny Ridge this past Spring and on the south slope of The Bulge we came across the rotting remains of a moose carcase. We smelt it long before and after seeing it.

Another sick thing was a blood stained small mammal spine Eric Savage and I came across on one of the peaks in Pawtuckaway...

 

[NukedRocket]

Kinda sick, but kinda funny...

Came upon a pile of bear cr*p right in the middle of the trail, about a mile in from the Upper Works TH, with a Baby Ruth wrapper embedded in it. Least the bear had good taste in confectionaries

 

[KayakDan]

Not exactly on the trail(does the Maine Island Trail count?)
we found a baby seal washed up into the rocks in front of our campsite. The seagulls had been snacking on it

 

[sleeping bear]

I was leading a five day trip for camp last summer and one girl didn't bring a toothbrush.
"You haven't brushed you teeth in five days?!?"

That's sick

 

[Neil]

An entire and perfectly intact, very fresh ursine digestive system.

My reflection in the water.

A really obese guy jogging downhill on the trail wearing nothing but a thong and pink tape across his chest.

OK, only the first one is true.

Hiking down from Grey Knob I smelt something pretty disgusting. The trail crew. I must have been upwind because I could smell 'em before I could see 'em.

 

[SAR-EMT40]

Just above the Avalanche shelters in the Dack's I was solo camping one winter night. It was very cold and really no one around except by chance there was a young lady with her dog who had set up in the other shelter. She had told me that there was a deer just up the trail that her dog found dead and half eaten. I went and looked and it was frozen so it didn't have an odor but had the entire chest and abdominal cavity exposed. Because it was frozen it was very difficult to determine how old it was. Don't know how often it was visited but I was glad that the dog was in the shelter next to me. I was hoping he would give us a warning if whatever it was came back. Not that I would be able to hear him with the way I sleep anyway. The other part of this was the fact that there was no visibility out of the shelter because the snow was several feet high. The only way into the shelters was by walking in at the corners where the snow didn't accumulate as much. Not being able to see anything out of the shelter, knowing that a large predator was out there was very un-nerving.

Keith

 

[Chip]

we used to camp/hike/party/swim in Sages Ravine on the CT/MA border alot in college and after. it's a beautiful area, deep pools, waterfalls. we had been there a couple nights, drinking water straight from the stream, no filters, no boiling, no treating...at dusk on the 3rd evening I took a stroll up stream about 1/8 mile and located a HUGE partially decomposed porcupine - right in the middle of the stream

I've been a big fan of filtering and boiling ever since...

 

[blacknblue]

The first thing that came to mind was a time when I was 'whacking in Utah and came across a mostly-deteriorated elk. It kinda looked like a gnarled tree trunk from a little distance, but nope, definitely a rotting elk.

The next thing that came to mind was a time on the AT in Shenandoah Nat'l Park--a rainy, cool spring day. To my surprise/chagrin/bemusedment, there were two amorous folks, um... enjoying their procreative natures. Right on the friggin Appalachian Trail. There aren't too many appropriate things to say in that situation.

The third thing was a time I was camping somewhere (CO?) and decided to take a dip in the nearby river. After a few minutes of splashing and filling my water bottles, I walked upstream and came across a half-eaten/half-rotted deer carcass in the water, held up by some driftwood. It was kinda like the scene in Dances With Wolves. Not good times.

 

[proszach]

I agree with Sleeping Bear, nothing is more sick than campers. Try a 6 hour drive back to camp in a van after a five-day trip to Baxter State Park. STIIIIINKY!! Oh yeah, and it's always a bonus when one of them gets car-sick easily.

 

[cp2000]

Yuppies on Falling waters a mile in @ 3pm asking if they were near the summit.

 

[Artex]

While hiking on the Florida Trail in the Ocala National Forest I came across a huge pile of bear scat that had maggots crawling all over it. That was pretty gnarly.

 

[Carmel]

i was hiking out of Colca Canyon in Peru, allegedly one of the deepest (some say deepest) canyon in the world (~3400 meters deep) and came across a tiny little human skull...i have to say it was one of the most disturbing things i've seen on a trail...more because of how small the head was, how remote the area was (911 and law inforcement i don't think exist there)..

i have to say i was also afraid that someone was going to try to kill me to sell my organs on the black market or something and that maybe my head could be sitting right next to it soon...what the imagination can do to a person!!!

Needless to say I was a little more than freaked out that night when a HUGE rat (i thought it was the size of a dog, maybe a large cat, some would say otherwise) ran across my face as i was sleeping....

 

[rhihn]

A filled baby diaper left on the side of the trail, and a large steaming pile of human feces on a rock, in two different places on the SAME hike. (Lafayette).

My wife experienced this one: turning a corner on a trail near our house and coming upon the bloody remains of a deer carcass in the process of being devoured by several coyotes. One looked up at her, with its bloody mouth, and continued to eat. Not sick, in fact quite natural, but rather unnerving.

Dick

 

[sleeping bear]

At the summit of Gothics there was some nice turds and TP, right there on the top! How nice to squat with that view, but COME ON!

 

[Jaytrek57]

Met a guy thru-hiking (NH) who had what looked like a small bear cannister strapped to his pack.

He then explained to me it was a home brew that he made before he hit the trail at Springer and was going to have the first sip in ME (Katadhin).

That was pretty wild.

Oh yeah....and the various UFOs I've seen.

Peace.