More Of My Dumbest Backpacking Mistakes 

Here's a little tip: Along with bear spray, I carry a small craft safety/signal horn. They are super small, weigh almost nothing, and boy are they loud. Three times I've encountered mountain lions and bears where they started to approach me on trail. I've never got to use the bear spray because the boat horn had them running as fast as their paws could carry them. I keep it attached to my shoulder strap within easy reach. Of course, the bear spray rides on the other strap just in case the bear is deaf.

I learn from my mistakes so that I can move on to bigger and better mistakes in the future.

Thanks for the tip! Immodium AD will be placed in my first aid kit immediately. Here's one of my dumbest backpacking mistakes: It was a late, cold, and windy day and the sun had just gone down. I was in high elevation, but not much of a place to pitch my tarp without being demolished by the high winds. (PCT, section D, north fork station). So, thinking it was a brilliant idea, I decided to cowboy camp by the restroom under the mostly enclosed entrance outside the restroom. I was pretty comfy away from the elements and getting ready to call it a night and I turned on my headlamp for the last time to gather all my belongings closer to my corner when I noticed black widow spiders... LOTS OF THEM. Make sure to inspect the area your are going to call home for the night, thoroughly. I didn't get bit or anything... but I had a bad case of the hee-bee gee-bee's and didn't sleep well that night.

Night hiking up north in Ontario, Canada. I decided to turn off my flashlight and just look up at the Northern lights and stars as the path was fairly wide. 30 seconds later I kicked .. i don't know! Something big and furry sleeping on the path. It let out a "Whoomph!" and took down half the forest as it ran away. I think I got very lucky that night.

Thank you from Sweden. Not everyone like to admit they did something wrong or even stupid. But sharing this kind of videos may save someones life one day. So this kind of videos will always get a big thumb from me.👍

Very excellent and practical advice! I will add pre treating clothes and gear with Permethrin against ticks and spiders especially if you're hiking on the AT.

My biggest mistake so far was definitely ill-fitting boots. I had worn them on many, many day hikes and even an overnight, but really no further than maybe 8 miles at a time. Well, I wore them on my first multi-day trip and quickly found out that they didn’t fit as well as I thought, especially since the trail was pretty rough with inclines and declines. This was a couple months ago and I had four toenails go black, with one falling off a few weeks ago and another coming off last night. Thankfully, I watched some of your videos after that trip to get a better handle on footwear options and ended up buying a pair of Altra midboots half a size up and I’m LOVING them so far. I’ve done a couple of 10+ mile days with and without weight and haven’t had any additional issues (plus no more blisters!).

Looking at mud, hearing about diarrhea. Cinematography level, genius.

It is a mistake to fail to collect water when you have a good chance. You can’t count on that next source being all that easy to access. I have made this mistake as recently as last weekend.

Really good advice as usual, Dixie . . . and it's so important to realize that veiled hazards are just as real as obvious ones. That's the trouble with weather/exposure. We once hiked the Happy Isles trail to Half Dome in light October sleet and wind. But most of the trail isn't too exposed, so there was little added danger. That changed completely when we got closer to the cabled part of the dome -- it wasn't really that hard to turn back, for us, anyway. When we got back to the valley floor, other hikers informed us of a lightning fatality earlier that day on Half Dome . . .

My Own Bad Decision: Winter hiking in the Appalachians. Pushed hard to get to where I need to camp, and arrived pretty late - only 15 minutes of light left. Snow was a foot deep and I didn't have time to clear a spot for the tent. In my head I thought, "I've heard snow is fairly insulating, I'll just pitch the tent and sleep on top." Bad idea. The snow quickly packed down into a sheet of ice, and even with my down coat tucked under my body, it was like trying to sleep on a cold radiator...my body heat couldn't compete with an entire slab of ice. After a few hours of penetrating ground cold, and 17 degrees of night air, I got up, quickly made a fire to get warm, and stayed awake the rest of the night till the sun came up to rescue me! :)

During my thru-hike of the AT in 2019, I was regularly reminding people to protect their filters in the evening, especially in the beginning, since it was still March. In the end though, my dumbass had to switch out filters not once ... but twice because I ended up forgetting to follow my own advice. Another dumb mistake happened on my thru-hike of the West Highland Way in Scotland: It was my first longer distance hike, I was using B&Bs, hostels and hiker huts along the way and so I kinda forgot to pack my headlamp. When I arrived in Scotland, I figured "Hey... you'll be hiking during the day only and you'll be spending nighttime in a structure... so no need to buy an extra headlamp". But since it was the second week of October in Scotland, sun set between 6 and 7 pm. And this one miserable rainy day, I decided to help out a couple I met during lunch which was way out of their depths. I lost a lot of time that day and I had to navigate a muddy, extremely slippery trail for the last hour .. in the dark. Hiking through the woods in pouring rain did not help either. So: Always pack your headlamps. You never know...

Awesome video Dixie! So often, the social media world is all about "how perfect" someone is so I really appreciate you being REAL with your audience and providing some key Lessons Learned that very well could help someone in the future.

If you're going to night hike in Grizzly country--------be sure to take your Immodium, just in case!!!! 😋

My dumbest backpacking moment was back in March, I was doing an 80-mile desert trail (Black Canyon Trail) near where I live in order to train for the AZT, which I'm planning on attempting next year in the spring. It went perfectly for the first two days, I was staying on top of my nutrition and hydration, my feet were in stellar shape and my spirits were high as the miles fell away behind me. On the morning of the 3rd day, about 40 or so miles into the trail, it entered a canyon which the Agua Fria river flows through. The river's usually pretty low or even dry most years as being very close to Phoenix, there was not much rainfall in that area, but northern Arizona got a TON of snowfall this last winter which meant the river was high and running quite fast. I had camped near it the night before, above the canyon, and descended down to the water early in the morning, getting ready to cross it and then do the last few miles before town and my resupply. I was planning on taking it easy and dropping my mileage that day, maybe spending some time in town, but I never even made it that far. I had no experience with fording rivers at all, at most I had crossed shin-deep creeks before, but from the shore, the Agua Fria looked no different. Only half of the actual riverbed had water in it and the water didn't look that deep or fast. It seemed like a trivial crossing, after which I'd enjoy a pleasant morning hike into town. This is where I made several serious blunders that very nearly got me killed. First off, I picked the literal worst crossing, simply because it was where the trail picked back up on the other side, and because it was the most narrow spot, and so seemed the easiest and quickest. Because it was the most narrow spot, it was also the deepest and fastest moving part. The river was nice and wide and gentle not far upstream but I waded right in the deep end. Serious blunder number two, by far the worst one, was that I wanted to keep my shoes, socks, and shorts dry, so I took all three of those things off. That's right, I went into the deepest, fastest part of the river barefoot and naked from the waist down. I didn't even put my shoes or shorts into my backpack, I was that confident it would be an easy crossing, so I just held them in my hands. The rocks on the bottom were really slippery and impossible to see, so I kept losing my footing, slipping, banging my foot on a rock, and almost losing my balance and toppling over into the water. The current also started sweeping my leg away every time I lifted it to take a step. I started to completely lose my balance almost immediately and moving was very slow with the rocks hurting my feet every step or making me trip or slip. To try and help, I went for a big tree branch hanging out over the water, hoping to use it as a guardrail in order to maintain my balance better. This was fateful error number three. The branch was hanging over the actual deepest and fastest part and I plunged in up to my chest almost. I wasn't expecting it at all. I couldn't get my feet on the bottom anymore, the current was sweeping so hard that every time I tried, I just kicked rocks and then immediately my leg would go flying back out in front of me. My backpack submerged and started dragging me backwards, down under the current, and the only thing keeping me from being carried downstream was me holding onto that tree branch with both arms for dear life. Because of this, my hiking shoes, the only pair of shoes I had at all, went floating away downstream, lost forever. I almost lost my shorts too but thankfully I threw them over onto the bank. Trying to regain my footing was like trying to push the positive ends of two magnets together, it just was not happening, so I made the call to let go of the branch and let the current take me to a slower-moving stretch of water. I was close enough to the bank that I could have reached out and touched it if my hands were free, but it may as well have been in Thailand. So, I took a breath, went under, and cleared the branch I had been hanging on to (I was afraid my backpack would catch onto it and I'd drown, so I had to go underneath the water and sail under the branch), then scrambled for the shore. I was so physically exhausted that I just plopped onto my back, not even putting my shorts on yet, and cried. My legs were completely numb from the icy water but it felt like I had really messed them up on the rocks. My feet were bleeding from a dozen different places. I was soaking wet and freezing; even though it was the desert, it was early morning in early spring, so the temperature had to be as low as the 50s, and the canyon was deeply shaded at that hour as well. I knew I was going to have to make it out of there without any shoes and with feet that were already bleeding and possibly broken (one of my toes STILL hurts, I'm sure it suffered some kind of minor fracture but I haven't seen a doc yet). I got up and retrieved my shorts. As I did so, I noticed that a flap of skin fell off my right big toe and stuck behind on a rock. I left blood behind with each step. I had a spare pair of socks in my backpack, so I put them on, just as some minor protection from the ground. See, this was the Arizona desert, so the trail was made up of rough, coarse sand, sharp rocks, sharp plants, and cactus EVERYWHERE. Cactus spines sometimes fall off and lay on the ground, which isn't a problem if you have shoes on, but when you're barefoot, a lot of stuff tends to start sticking into your feet. I limped my way along, shivering, in shock and pain, praying someone would show up, but nobody ever did. Within mere seconds my peaceful morning had devolved into a survival situation. I could see the buildings and houses of Black Canyon City nearby, but the trail kept winding away from them before ever getting close, and in typical trail fashion, rather than following a straight line, it zigzagged and had a billion switchbacks instead. I broke down and called 911, but my phone battery was low to begin with and was now soaking wet so it died mid-call. I barely had told the dispatcher that I was on the Black Canyon Trail near the Agua Fria River and that I was injured, she couldn't get any further info out of me, so I lost all hope that anyone would come to help. I thought I was going to have to painfully limp my way over rocks and through cactus all the way to town. This walk ended up being really traumatic for me and I didn't go hiking again for almost a month after I made my recovery, and even now I get serious anxiety near rivers and creeks (I went hiking today in a river canyon and bailed early because I started feeling really anxious and afraid something bad would happen, and it's been like two and a half months). I ended up being saved by some Sheriff's Deputies who had a feeling I was gonna come out on a certain dirt road, and lo and behold, I did. They took me back to my car at the finish line of the trail and I made it home safe thanks to them. Sorry for the length, I had no idea this would come out as long as it did. TLDR, I done goofed big time and almost drowned and had to hike several miles barefoot over super rough terrain while injured. To anyone who read this far, here's how to safely ford a river: -leave your shoes on, they protect your feet and provide traction. Getting them wet ain't as bad as losing them like I did or slipping and getting all your other gear wet too. If you still gotta take em off, tie them to your backpack or put them inside it. -cross at the WIDEST point, not the shortest. Think about it, the same amount of water is flowing through the narrow spot as is the wide spot, it just has less room to do so, so of course it'll be deeper and faster. -don't face towards the bank like I did, turn your body so that it is squared up facing towards the current and shuffle sideways across to the other side, letting the current pass between your legs. -unbuckle your hip and chest buckles on your backpack, so you can escape from it if you need to. If mine had gotten caught on something like that tree branch, I might not be sitting here typing this right now.

Always hike with slower people. You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your trail buddies. This strategy may work with lightning, too. It will not work with food poisoning.

I remember watching your completion of the AT and was impressed by your skill and courage finishing your hike Mid October in snow and ice on Mt Katahdin with out spikes. But it wasn’t until this past month watching day hikers on RU-vid following the AT trail to the summit of Katahdin in warm weather with much more Video of the trail and getting a better understanding of the difficulty of the climb did I realize what you accomplished. YOUR GOOD!

Hey Dixie, on this topic I was wondering if you'd discuss some of the "mistakes" I witnessed as a newbie backpacker on trail. I was somewhat guilty of it myself. Expectation and goal setting. I set out for a 5 day journey on the Connecticut AT during cool and wet fall weather. As a result, my base weight was over 3 pounds heavier so I could be prepared. On top of that, I was carrying a full five days of food. My pack was almost 8 pounds heavier than it had been on previous trips. Still, I set out on difficult terrain with a ten mile per day goal. I got my ass kicked on my first two days, but was able to adjust my expectations for the next three and was able to reach my destination successfully, in part, because I had scheduled some wiggle room. During my journey, I encountered two groups of section hikers who were trying to accomplish 18 miles per day. They were stressed, sore and exhausted, but pushing on, needing to continue past dark over some precarious terrain. I also met a solo hiker, out for his first overnight trip, who thought he was going to make it 14 miles with a 45 pound pack. He had hiked 7 miles, and had done so much damage to his knees that he could not bend them. He woke up the next day, and had to call off his trip and have someone pick him up, after he had invested about $1500 on top of the line gear and taken a week off from work. The problem with us newbies is that we're watching all you thru hiker youtubers and thinking that doing 20 to 30 miles is a reasonable goal. As "weekenders" or newbies, we should be focused on having fun and enjoying the trail. Since you have so many first timers and the backpacking-curious watching you, I'm hoping that this is a subject you or others think is worth talking about. As always, love what you do and how much it helps this community. ✌🏕🚶‍♀️

You cannot hear these words of wisdom enough. I for one, love these videos, and as more of an amateur hiker, this advice is priceless! Thanks Dixie!

So happy you’re so candid with your experiences. You do a great service to the backpacking community.

All are really great advice. All backpackers regardless of experience are prone to making mistakes, the important thing is that we all learn from them and help others learn. We recently went up into the crazy mountains when the wind and snow were pretty rough. We should have changed plans but we thought we were prepared and pushed on, one of our tents was blown out of the ground with all the persons gear in it. We packed up and headed down and had to set up camp in the dark. Should have turned around way earlier.

Thanks for posting these videos. I was tempted to hike the Dobson Trail (65km linear) but I realized that I needed water filteration. Coming from a bicycle touring direction where water can be obtained nearly everywhere, I was about to hit that issue dead on! I had to wait over a month for a Pladapus gravity filter to arrive, I was temped to go with MSR pump filter but waiting 2 months was a turn off. I will be obtaining a tree-hammock to avoid the rooty ground. I already have a 1991 Eureka Cirrus2 tent, LLBEAN 72 liter internal frame pack, ample lighting, -10c synthetic mummy, ridgerest pad, Coleman peak1 naptha/gasoline stove, 2 meter and HF HAM radio gear. I prefer hiking boots (Keen) mainly because I hate having to clear pebbles from my shoes.

Good points! A few things that I hadn't thought of. Comment about chlorine bleach. Household bleach does not disinfect as well as we think. Chlorine Dioxide is the bleach used in municipal water treatment. Chlorine Dioxide tablets are easy enough to find and easy to carry. And, they don't freeze. Water treatment is a lesson I learned the hard way. Stay safe on the trail. Thanks for another good video!

I've had the same thing happen to me with the Sawyer. Luckily I wasn't hiking, I was just camping with some friends, by a stream in the woods a 45 minute walk from my home. I did check the weather forecast, and it was only meant to drop to 5°C. That made me decide to not bother with putting the filter in my quilt. I woke to find a bunch of ice crystals in the filter. I checked the weather app again, and the temperature that they recorded was exactly what was forcasted. Goes to show that the temps next to a stream and in a depression/mini-valley can really be quite a bit lower than elsewhere!

I’ve learned so much from your videos, especially about the water filter. I hadn’t thought of Immodium though! I’ve had some scares with bears and wolves, but the worst was on the CDT in the Pintlers with a forest fire. I could hardly breathe from the smoke, and it’s steep there. I didn’t know whether to go back or keep going. I thought about staying by a stream but it had thick trees on both sides. I ended up keeping on going and met a hiker who said the fire was not actually that close. Keep posting videos. Good stuff!

Not me but a friend I was hiking with this spring: we came to the top of a mountain with a small lake and island. My friend marched straight out into the ice to go to the island. As I approached the edge of the lake I gave it a thump with my trekking pole - it was hollow. My dumb ass friend had walked on hanging ice. If you’re not familiar, it’s ice where the water below has receded so if you fall through it, you might be lucky and just hit rocks, or you might fall into freezing cold water. We were at a high altitude, 5deg C, and sleet was moving in. We were at least three hours of hard trekking from our vehicle and another hour to town on a sketchy mountain road. My friend had to cross it again to make it safely back. Moral of the story: don’t just go barging into ice because you can see the footprints of previous hikers.

Happen to me too, not having Imodium and drinking in France! water from some fountain looks like it wasn't potable...wao that was a very long night at campsite on the toilet with cramps and diarrhea, next day crawl to a pharmacy, got Imodium and stay put for the day. In the same tour after putting my tent started to rain, I got in and then a thunderstorm hit the area, me sitting inside my tent and it was terrifying, but running to the building was as dangerous as staying...never again! My cellphone, extra batteries, sawyer filter, all them sleep with me in my sleeping bag =o)) Thanks for another great video...the mud looking and diarrhea talking was a masterpiece!

Thanks for leading by example! We all know what it’s like to fail forward. 😎 My night hiking experience was on the AT (just past Standing Bear Farm area) and I started 2 bear and a rattlesnake that evening. HR was thumpin’!! 😂

Thanks for sharing this safety info!

Great practical video. Blessings from the UK.🙂

Never pass up water unless you're at the end of your hike.

My biggest mistake was my brilliant plan for my partner and I to finance our weeks long wilderness ZERO IMPACT camping adventures by building a light-weight sluice, getting some pans and prospecting for gold along the many creeks and rivers our treks took us to. Right, go into the most beautiful, pristine and sensitive areas on Earth, and tear it all to $*%$ for shiny rocks; I still cringe thinking about it... And to add insult to nature's injury, on the two ventures prospecting we worked our butts off and found fewer than a dozen specks ( >$1 ).

I would add to the Imodium some rehydration packets

Love all the fun stories and gear reviews, but this is the content that's really helpful. Advice from the Pros (and you are absolutely a Pro) is one of the most valuable things. Thanks!

I ALWAYS have a printed map w me. Not to find my way along the blazed trail, but in order to find exit points from where I am in case of an emergency and I have to hike somewhere I didn’t plan on going. (It’s like dressing for a motorcycle...you should dress for a fall...not the ride itself.) And some of the best advice I ever heard was remembering that when you’re out in the wild, the trail you’re on IS the shortcut...

Thanks again for the wonderful video. The “dumbest mistake “ I have made recently was.... not getting out backpacking. It’s a really terrible thing.

I love your videos and became obsessed with hiking videos (Yours specifically but had to move on after I watched all of yours.BTW yours are the best.) after suffering a freakish accident where I was off work for four months. I do mean obsessed. Came here to just say thanks for such interesting and entertaining videos. Every once in awhile I ask my self. "Self, could you do one of these hikes?" Self says Nope. But I so enjoy watching you and hiking vicariously through you! Thank you Dixie. :) PS At the beginning of each of your videos I always say Hey Yall! Dixie here! (I'm in Oklahoma so we say yall too.) ;)

Micro spikes, small crampons, etc. are also helpful on really muddy slick trails. We took them on our second hike on Kaui's Na Pali coast and it made a huge difference.

I love that you share your REAL experiences. I have learned so much from watching your videos even the mistakes and look forward to planning my own long distance hike. Stay safe and keep trekking.

1:29 I heard this out of context and thought you were quitting hiking or something, but then “without an Imodium in my pack” came and I was so relieved.

As a native Texan I definitely made the same mistake in not getting micro spikes for a Colorado trip. Luckily it was during summer and we only ran into snow once during the three days. I saw someone mention them in a RU-vid video and we all bought them for our two week trip to Washington. They were a lifesaver, and I couldn’t believe the amount of people hiking in half a foot of snow with running shoes! Without proper footwear many of those people couldn’t even finish the trail. Another note on proper footwear, do NOT buy Colombia’s hiking shoes. My feet were killing me after 4 miles in them. I bought Merrill’s and easily went on 8 miles hikes with minimal soreness.

Crampons are a must. I camped on top of icy mountain and landed on my head after falling on ice. I use crampons all the time now. I still get headaches almost two years later.

I went and bought some crampons after this video...I had no idea. I am also from a warm climate. Winter is heading our way. Thanks so much for sharing your adventures, highs, and lows with us. It’s been giving me a ton of inspiration. Can’t wait for your next video!

Got forest road hypnosis on the Allegheny Trail and missed the blazes indicating a turn off. Added over 2 non trail miles to my day.

Video of tromping through mud while talking about Imodium was grossly brilliant. The 14 year-old boy in my soul laughed out loud.

Great tip about protecting the water filter, wouldn't have thought about it. A piece of advise on the micro spikes, if you are going to be walking on pavement, concrete or rock faces, the ice claws with springs don't work, they slip on smooth non ice surfaces. My I got a pair my first year in Sweden for an urban commute, broke my ankle the first time I used them. The little spikes embedded in rubber are much more versatile. Anti-diahrreal meds; my thought is that if one's body is trying to get rid of something, one should let it. Unless one has Irritable bowel syndrome imodium should be used with caution. May be the diahrrea was caused by Giardia? Even just a bit of unpurefied water can cause it.

Todayand yesterday I was hiking up on the North York moors. All I can say is my advice for whenever u hike even just for a few hours. Always bring a least a layer more than you think u will need. I have experience with not and its rlly not worth it

Another great video and having been born in East Tennessee I completely understand the word bursted at 3:29. Love your videos.

Early spring in the Sandia Mountains on the east side of Albuquerque. Weather forecast was for fair and warmer. Least the shelter at home. Woke up with six inches of white fair and warmer on my sleeping bag. Take some kind of shelter, even a piece of tyvek. Thanks for sharing!

My most common mistake is not checking my bag before I go out. I backpack so often, I get too confident about my packing. Then I'll find myself in the wilderness without some gear. Once camped Kearsarge basin in the snow without tent poles (back when my tent had poles).

I placed my cookpot, which I had just used to cook ramen, in my tent vestibule. A bear tried busting open my bear can (which was placed way far away from my tent, wind blowing away from my tent), then apparently detected the faint bit of ramen scent in my pot - so she/he came over and stuck their paw inside the vestibule. Luckily, the sound of my head turning on my pillow scared the bear off, but it was not a pleasant night for me after that.

My biggest mistake was going on my first long-distance hike. Now my life is ruined

Over the years, river trails in particular can be re-routed after washouts and changes in the river's path. Should one be following an old GPS track that seems to indicate one should cross a deep and fast moving glacial river at an unsafe point, consider that something like this may be going on. I admit nothing.

You got way, way more right! Thanks🙂

Tie a Christmas jingle bell to your shoes in bear Country. Bells are a constant noise that can cut through brush like a whistle. If you ever found yourself yelling across a river or through woods and wondering why friends won't reply. Voice don't carry far. Bells and whistles do.

Absolutely brilliant video...thank you.

Along with an antidiarrheal, pack some Benadryl antihistamine, can be a sleep aid, allergy med. Not a particularly allergic person but of all things had an insect bite don't know what kind of bug on my eyelid, no pain or sting, but eye lid was nearly swollen shut. Try hiking with one eye, sucked, plus had to listen to one-eyed pirate jokes. Luckily one of others in party had Benadryl, and eye lid swell subsided in a few hours.

Great points made.

I went to Norway a few years ago. Within 20 minutes of me arriving and walking around the town I went straight into a store that sold ice spikes and NEVER went out with them after that

Forgot your Microspikes? - An old Runners Trick. Quick - Easy way to add spikes to your trail runners / hiking boots. Use these as a substitute for carrying Micro-Spikes or if you need something in an emergency. One bag of screws contain 14 (enough for two shoes) and costs $1.30 . #6 by 3/8 inch Metal Hex screws. #8 by 3/8 inch also work. These metal screws are available at almost all grocery stores, Home Depot, Walmart and Ace hardware. Take a paper clip and heat one end and melt a small “starter” hole in your shoe. Recommend 2 screws for the heel, two in the midstep area and 2 screws in the toe. Use your mult-tool to screw the hex screw into the starter hole. Presto. Grip increased by a large factor. If you have these on - realize you will scratch anything you walk on, like someone’s flooring. These are widely use here in Interior Alaska for running on ice and trails.

Some good tips thanks

The water bottle & filter in the sleeping bag in freezing weather is crucial! Thanks for great advice!

If you are hiking in bear country at night, which is not smart, at the very least you should have your bear spray in your hands and possibly with the trigger block off. Bears, especially grizzly can be on you with lightning speed, and frequently from behind.

I have been binge watching your videos for 3 weeks and am slowly purchasing gear for a thru hike while going on day hikes to build up my stamina. The AT is now on my bucket list. After watching the video where u told your mummy story I had a dream that I was running across the country from a raging bear that had it out for me. It was much faster than a mummy😰. I love your videos!

Good advice on the antidiarrhea medicine. I'm going to put that on my checklist right now. Also, I had to laugh. I couldn't understand why you said not hiking in bear country until I realized you were saying night hiking. I guess I need to come down south more often. 😁

Loved the pix of James Peak. We see it from our house. We learned early in our 14-er career how quickly thunderstorms move in and how dangerous it can be. Scary memories from climbing Mount Sherman.

Very interesting! Love ya!

My dumbest mistake was wearing a new pair of army surplus boots on a 50+ mile hike in the Trinity Alps in the late '60's. Blisters 1st day. Could not take my boots off for the entire hike and had to bear the pain for the first few miles each day until my feet got numb. Second biggest mistake was not on hike but 150 mile kayak trip down the Sacramento River. Forgot my mosquito net after the first night, and the second night was at a place called Mosquito Island. You can fill in the rest. Ooooh so many stupid mistakes to choose from. I have more....

Hi Dixie! Hope the Pinhoti is Great! Aaron, nice b-roll choice on the immodium clip lol...knee deep in it!

Great video! I think its a good idea to carry meds for constipation and fever too. Very good suggestion about electrolytes! Thanks! But the dumbest thing you ever did was night hike the Florida trail thru those swamps where the very same day you couldn't see the water moccasin in the black water ripples right in front of you in broad daylight! The dumby-o-meter hit one hundred that night! Man! I was glad you two finished that one!

Dixie....I went on a solo winter night hike and only had one light source...This was years ago with the old style strap mounted light on my forehead and the battery pack at the back of my head. The light failed due to an intermittent wire connection in the pitch dark with no moon. I kept fiddling with the light in the dark for a few minutes and got it to work but now it was crooked on my head and I didn't dare adjust it. So I hiked out the last mile or so with my head turned slightly sideways to be able to see the trail where I was snowshoeing. Now I always have 2 light sources...3 sources of light if you count the "wicked smart" phone. And now always carry an extra set of Lithium Batteries, as well since the Alkaline batteries can freeze and fail early in frosty conditions.

Regarding lightning, here is a 'sometimes works' experience/test for electrical potential. Once upon reaching a well defined peak, with hands at chest level, I felt nothing, but as I slowly raised my hands above me, a tingling at the tips of my fingers quickly increased. By the time my arm and hand was fully extended upwards, with fingers pointed up (like it was a lightning rod), the tingling was quite intense. A friend confirmed the same experience in the moment. We were wearing helmets, and did not consider adding the 'standing hair' test to our repertoire. The only clouds of substance were several miles away. We quickly began descending and within ~15 minutes, thunder and lightning zapped the peak a couple times. The air was clearly ionized, and so some level of 'grounding' occurred despite wearing rubber soled boots. I have no idea how much more (or possibly less) intense it would have felt had I been barefoot. A second item related to lightning are infrequent, sporadically placed, small (typically, fist size or smaller) patches of glazed, very hard, off-white colored rock in the midst of brown/grey rocky crags. At least in the Sierra, these are NOT localized, hardened bird droppings, but are lightning strikes which fuze the rock and change (bleach) its color.

Great video!

I think the biggest mistakes I've made are the A word. You guessed it "Assumptions" or "Assume". You are out in the middle of nowhere and what do you do? You think "I don't need to get water here. The stream a few miles up looks big on the map, I'll wait until then." or, as happened to me, "I'm high up on a mountain. Theres no way a flash flood will happen here." or "That hot spot on my foot is only beginning, I can make it until ..." or "It's only a day hike. I don't need rain gear (or insert your questionable item here)" and on and on. Don't assume, plan.

Mine was not using a foam pad or under quilt on my hammock while camping even here in the warm part of Australia. I could use the same sleeping bag on the ground without a tent just fine though. Poeple kept telling me the ground saps away your heat more that the air around you, so i thought that being suspended up off the ground in a hammock would be warmer.

My beginner boo-boo was keeping my food in my tent. I was at Pine Mountain GA. thinking there’s no bears here. So I kept my food bag in the vestibule. At about 1AM an animal was easing it out of my tent. I shook my tent yelled and then went outside. Never saw it though. Probably a raccoon.

Don’t take Imodium if you think you have food poisoning or some other kind of infection. Diarrhea is the body’s way of flushing those microorganisms from your body. Imodium makes you retain them which allows them to further proliferate. Hydration is your best self-treatment in those situations.

We always have to use instep-crampons when backpacking the A.T. in the winter in the Smokies. The trail is so worn it's like hiking in a ditch. The ditch collects water and it freezes at night creating a icy path.

Hiking Mount Washington (New Hampshire) in late October without proper layers/winter gear. Got in a pretty bad snowstorm near the summit, luckily the weather station at the top had workers in it and we waited out until it was better.

I did Colorado outward bound 51 years ago and ended up on top of mountain with storm coming through. Hair straight up we started descent and ended up in big trouble. I was okay but others were not. Helicopter rescue after 3 days of caring for 3 compound fractures.on 2 companions. One was the instructor. Yikes.

Weeellllp... a big mistake in my opinion it's not to carry some back-ups for low temperature like an emergency blanket and a big dog food bag that also has aluminum and so it can keep things dry into the back pack apart from keeping our feet and legs warm. Also a rain back up like a poncho, not only to keep us and all our gear dry but also to prevent lighting bolts by picking a safe place (far from trees and NOT in a high elevation) and sitting in a log or in the ground in open field until the risks passes. And last but not least (¿guess what?) carrying a KNIFE and learning basic things that we all can do with it.

Great you're sharing these things! I never even knew hair could be standing up like that outside, that must've been reaaaally close indeed.

I HOPE YOU KEEP THESE VIDEOS COMMING. YOU ARE A GREAT PERSON AND I JUST LOVE ALL YOU DO BE SAFE. AND THANKS AGAIN.

One mistake I remember was lazily pulling on the fly sheet of my tent to pull the last stake, rather than reaching for the peg itself (it was a tight spot and not super easy to access). I'd forgotten that the (rented) tent had an elastic loop for the peg, so when it let go it flew into the sky, grazing past my face on the way, never to be seen again. It missed my eye by centimetres. I was hiking solo and while I had a PLB, I doubt I could've found and activated it with a tent peg through my eye. (Mistake #2 - emergency equipment is just extra weight if you don't have it to hand when you need it).

ORS is also available in granulate. Thanks for your video.

I am amazed at your ingenuity for coming up with new themes around hiking. Sensible advice, no doubt. Hope to see you on a trail again soon! but I understand (I'm sure all your viewers do) that in this crazy year you don't have it all in your own hands.

B-roll of goopy, boggy mud while talking about diarrhea. Classic.

Hey Dixie! Whats the brand of the hat you are wearing in the lightening video. Like a rain hat.

Good profile of some readily shareable mistakes. Imodium and a laxative. Abrupt diet changes and even moderate dehydration can cause gut changes. I have been at the wrong end of both mistakes. You can mitigate "bursted" water filters by having a flat of water treatment tabs in the first aid kit. I had a big handed friend roughneck and break a my water filter. Another hiker gave us his emergency supply and the tip. I triggered a mountain lion, probably female, on forced hike on a moonlit night, just as the moon disappeared. I roared back. Why? That came from some where in my wiring. And kept trucking.

I am addicted to your videos. I just finished my first weekend trek and LOST MY SPORK on the first day. Thank you, thank you thank you..because somehow I remembered your suggestion that a tent stake works...not elegant, but I ate! Fellow hikers did find my spork, so I only suffered one night...now that spork is zipped!

As a rookie hiker this all is such great advice! It sounds like common sense when you hear it but I wouldn’t have thought of any of the things you mentioned on my own.

What are some resources you use to research your hikes and the area/terrain?

Instead of a bandana, I recommend carrying cheesecloth for filtering out particulates. I got stuck without water in Zion when the creek I was camped by went silty and I only had a bandana and UV filter. Thanks for your openness in admitting your mistakes - that’s the best way to learn.

So cute with the new braces!! I had them at age 48, never too late, and so happy I finally did it!! 😁 Best wishes to you, Dix!! Thank you for your wonderfully insightful channel. 💕

Recently a friend and I were hiking in the Adirondacks and hiking one of the higher 46. It was a warm day following a cold snap and there was a huge steep stretch of pure ice. Neither of us had micro spikes or even trekking poles because it was a dayhike, so needless to say it was a long, arduous experience going up and down, especially with the days shortening and the threat of descending in the dark! Not an experience I’d care to repeat.

The lightning risk segment with the hair standing up was informative. Glad you are safe. Thanks

Love you n this opportunity! Would love this backpack.

I consider it a mistake to rely solely on electronics for navigation. They can all work very well and never present a problem but one fall which damages them or a bad battery or any number of electronic bugs can wipe out your navigation references. On the other hand an analog map and compass is very light and has a great deal of redundancy and reliability. This may not be as much of a problem along a well defined trail, you just keep truckin' and not need a map or GPS but if the terrain gets confusing or there are multiple routes navigation becomes very important. My suggestion is that if you are comfortable with electronics, use them but have a small compass and a map as a back up and know how to use them. You might have to carry a couple more ounces but if you need them they are like a first aid kit or micro spikes, you REALLY need them. Topographic maps can be a problem for through hikers because you traverse across a particular map sheet or quadrangle pretty quickly but, like food, you can use them up and dispose of them as you go and you can schedule resupply of maps along with other supplies. You can also trim them of the areas you do not need. For more casual hikers one or two sheets should be enough. Some trails even have strip maps available. For a compass know the magnetic declination for your area and know what that means and how to compensate. True north and magnetic north are NOT the same things.

thank you

Love you channel, just started mine as inspired by yours! Always bring Imodium as learned by marathon running.