Author Topic: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?  (Read 9330 times)

tonyk

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2857
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #30 on: 22:28:47, 25/02/17 »
Uriwell? IIn the tent I use either an empty water bottle or titanium pot if I'm carrying cooking gear. Emptied and rinsed out in the morning, good to go again. Your own urine isn't going to hurt you, and rinsing out, you won't know whats been there.

  Glad to see that someone else uses the cooking pots to pee in.Many years ago when I attended a survival course run by the late Eddie McGee we had to drink our own urine as part of the training. Under some circumstances,such as extreme survival where water isn't available,your own urine may well be your only source of fluids.

toadoftoadhall

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 57
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #31 on: 13:44:25, 26/02/17 »
Some thing that didnt quite stop me finishing, but did stop me starting.
Planned and packed bags for some scrambling in the  lakes, main idea being Jakes Rake. Pulled my back out changing into my trousers for setting off driving. Drove in pain until I got to Stoke, before turning around and driving home. Next two days in bed with Tramadol.

harland

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1717
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #32 on: 13:54:49, 26/02/17 »
Next two days in bed with Tramadol.

Not sure I know her but 2 days is pretty impressive! ;D

Jac

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3553
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #33 on: 17:12:21, 26/02/17 »
Not sure I know her but 2 days is pretty impressive! ;D
Pulled my back out changing into my trousers .................................... Next two days in bed with Tramadol.

especially with a bad back
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

fit old bird

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1849
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #34 on: 20:05:02, 26/02/17 »
What did stop me from finishing a walk.


I walked into Barnsley bus station to use the toilet, there was a bus in for Doncaster. I thought, if that bus is still there when I come out, I will get on it. It was, and I did. I thought, stuff it, I can't be bothered. Couldn't stop chuckling to myself.   ;D
Ilona

Snowman

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 435
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #35 on: 22:21:06, 12/04/17 »
Appalling weather with no sign of it ending.    I do LDP's to enjoy, not as a personal challenge, so if I can't see anything then I'll pack up and go home and come back another day.    I came to that conclusion after forcing myself through some dreadful weather (this was abroad and I didn't have a choice anyway), but my feeling was that it had become a chore and if I'd wanted a chore I could have stayed at home and done some decorating after which I would at least have something to be proud of.    Having a full time job my spare time is precious so doing something I'm not enjoying doesn't make sense to me.

toadoftoadhall

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 57
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #36 on: 22:31:58, 12/04/17 »
Totally agree. I'm walking Portuguese CAMINO in September,  but if the weather is bad I will be in a bar or bus.

Lazar

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 253
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #37 on: 01:27:39, 13/04/17 »
Blisters both heels went after the first day managed 2 more days but had to stop.

Snowman

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 435
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #38 on: 17:25:19, 18/04/17 »
Well I am pleased to see the responses, particularly from 'toadoftoadhall' and 'fit old bird'.    I've been around on this forum for many years now, and it almost seems that the first deadly sin of any LDP undertaking is to pack up and go home when your legs haven't fallen off or the world hasn't ended.


How often do you see, when people ask for advice on doing an LDP, something along the lines of 'do NOT work out escape routes since it gives you and easy get out'. I've never replied but feel like saying, NO, do work out escape routes so that if you get fed up you can get the hell out and find a nice pub and sit by a fire with a nice pint.


I always work out escape routes since I think they actually help you do a LDP.    They help because when you're wondering why on earth you're out there, you know you don't necessarily have to be.   For me, knowing I can get out usually means I keep going.


So I take my hat off to you guys who admit that there's no point slogging it out for the sake of slogging it out, and advise anyone who's contemplating an LDP to take the view that they won't sink to the depths of walking depravity by failing to complete it simply because there's no point.    Go out and enjoy the walk, and if you stop enjoying it, stop doing it.


S.

forgotmyoldpassword

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1017
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #39 on: 19:57:36, 18/04/17 »
Knee injury on a steep descent when I 'reversed' the intended angle of the knee and was lucky not to blow the whole thing out.  Spent the rest of the day hiking with a little pain, but the next day was in agony.  I hiked all next day and by the evening was in greater pain, and decided to abandon due to it being a mechanical problem with the knee I knew needed rest.  Turns out I strained a ligament and made a mistake by continuing for the second day with the assumption it'd just get better.


Blister care is something which goes only one way on a LDW, you need to be proactive as much as possible, to the extent of airing your feet, taping problem areas and really realising just how much your feet dictate the quality of your hike.  I've had horrific blisters, but persevered to the point they stopped hurting (not always a good sign), and simply kept going.  They took weeks to heal, and that experience majorly changed how I deal with them.


Most LDWs I've met have agreed you get to a place of waking up and not wanting to keep walking sometimes, but by that afternoon you may feel the entire opposite.   I'd say the most common reason for abandoning a LDW (other than injury), is actually caused by poor nutrition.  People who don't bring enough with them, end up hiking on empty from day 3, and aren't proactive enough to really up the amount they put in to help repair/fuel them better.

Snowman

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 435
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #40 on: 09:52:01, 19/04/17 »
Quote
Most LDWs I've met have agreed you get to a place of waking up and not wanting to keep walking sometimes, but by that afternoon you may feel the entire opposite.   I'd say the most common reason for abandoning a LDW (other than injury), is actually caused by poor nutrition.  People who don't bring enough with them, end up hiking on empty from day 3, and aren't proactive enough to really up the amount they put in to help repair/fuel them better.  


I have to say that doesn't really match my experience.    I've usually found that on waking up I'm raring to go, and it's only once I've slogged my way through 3 feet of snow or a morning of heavy rain that I'm beginning to wonder what I'm doing.


As to malnutrition, again I have reservations.   There are very few LDPs that don't have supply centres of some sort, and the ones that don't usually mean that you don't have anywhere to go but onwards anyway.    I did do one LDP where we ended up having to camp for a night at an unexpected location and very little to eat (a pack of nuts and raisins and a  Yorkie bar between us I seem to remember).   The next day we continued and about lunchtime headed for a pub marked on the map where I downed a steak and chips and my companion a huge plate of pasta.    Batteries recharged.


The fact is that I've backed out of two LDPs in my life.   The first was, as suggested in my first post on this subject, poor weather.   We'd walked the previous day in appalling weather conditions, and woke up to more, and the prospect of over 20 mountain miles with cloud cover at about 500m.   We talked about it and felt that there was little point in trekking that distance surrounded by thick cloud which would mean we couldn't see anything.    In other words a day of my precious 'leisure time' spent walking for virtually no enjoyment.    Ok we could have gone to walkers' bars boasting about how we'd done this, that and the other, but that doesn't appeal to me at all, whereas making good use of my leisure time does.


My second 'retirement' was on a relatively short LDP called the 'Six Shropshire Summits'.    My then partner wanted to visit some friends in Shrewsbury, so we agreed that she would do so while I did the SSS.   We agreed I'd spend a night and we'd meet up half way at Long Stretton and that we'd all have a few beers and a meal in Shrewsbury on the second night.   The walk went off to a very bad start.    It was at the time of one of the 'Mad Cows' Disease' panics, and the area around the first summit was quarantined so I did what I could that day and met up with my partner as arranged.    I set off the following morning but had an awful time negotiating the route because thanks to the Mad Cows Disease restrictions, the local farmers had simply allowed the footpaths to get swallowed up by the summer vegetation. I battled on via whatever routes I could achieve until I finally reached a footpath that went through a gap in a very high hedge which was totally impassable without a machete.    Consulting the map showed, on this occasion, a very long detour with mostly uninspiring road work.    I then calculated that if this level of alternative route finding kept up there was no way I'd be able to meet up later as promised.   I'm not the henpecked type but I'd never have heard the last of it if I hadn't turned up for the evening rendezvous (and she was driving me home anyway) so I found a pub near a railway station, had a couple of pints and threw in the towel.    There was no way I could have completed the walk anyway since I'd missed the first summit due to restrictions.    What this came down to was that I'd been forced to spend far too much walking time on roads and wasn't really enjoying it that much, so once again, it was proving to be poor use of my leisure time.


So from my point of view, I find I'm fresh and ready to go first thing in the morning, and malnutrition has definitely never been a factor.    One thing I would say that I believe helps a lot with LDPs, is to have a very light day on the third day.   The first day is when you find out if you were fit enough in the first place, the second day could be difficult but if you know the 3rd day is a 'day off', then you have that to console yourself with.    After the 'day off' I find that my body has got used to the work effort, and has recharged with the easy day so I'm then ready for anything.    I would therefore suggest that rather than malnutrition, if people do simply 'give up' it's more likely to be because they've pushed their bodies too far with insufficient recovery time.


S

Islandplodder

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1117
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #41 on: 11:56:19, 19/04/17 »

Not sure if it's so much malnutrition as being hungry and consequently cross and fed up.  On a recent walk we got lost and instead of settling down with a map and having our usual rational discussion about what to do next we got ratty and argued like toddlers, mainly about whose fault it was.  When we got to the next café we realised that it was just shortage of calories over the previous 24 hours or so which had probably caused the inattention which made us get lost in the first place, and all the subsequent bad temper.  If the café hadn't been there things might have deteriorated a bit.
I don't do carrying tents, so always have accommodation booked, which makes it harder to give up.  Up until a few years ago I had a patch of getting blisters under my toes, and if the b&bs hadn't been booked and paid for I would almost certainly have given up.  As it was I just plodded on.....

Raferjefferson

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 41
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #42 on: 13:47:02, 19/04/17 »
I used to get blisters hiking as an older teenager and young man but my feet have enormous patches of hard skin pretty much everywhere.  I am sure it's why the ladies love me :D


The ones at the back of the foot are the worst.  Haven't had this trouble with hiking shoes.  I still don't get boots.  Blister machines. 


I haven't done a full LDW but I had to end part of one LDW because my non-hiking friend (who was totally tag-along, didn't train etc) mistakenly brought his sons tiny sleeping bag, in Yorkshire, in March.  He also brought what resembled a lilo for a mattress (which I assumed was the cheapest possible airbed, fact later verified by said friend), and ended up in a pool of condensation and decided to go home.  Hopefully among the most bizzare reasons for ending a walk, and a short walking career cut tragically short by his own lack of attention to detail.

forgotmyoldpassword

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1017
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #43 on: 14:01:15, 19/04/17 »
I used to get blisters hiking as an older teenager and young man but my feet have enormous patches of hard skin pretty much everywhere.  I am sure it's why the ladies love me :D


The ones at the back of the foot are the worst.  Haven't had this trouble with hiking shoes.  I still don't get boots.  Blister machines. 


I haven't done a full LDW but I had to end part of one LDW because my non-hiking friend (who was totally tag-along, didn't train etc) mistakenly brought his sons tiny sleeping bag, in Yorkshire, in March.  He also brought what resembled a lilo for a mattress (which I assumed was the cheapest possible airbed, fact later verified by said friend), and ended up in a pool of condensation and decided to go home.  Hopefully among the most bizzare reasons for ending a walk, and a short walking career cut tragically short by his own lack of attention to detail.


The ones at the back tend to be caused by slightly loose boots, or having a 'heel strike' when you walk rather than putting your weight on the midfoot.  May be worth looking in to some lacing techniques to stop boots slipping, as that particular problem addled me for a while.


Just to explain what I mean by nutrition, most of the more popular LDWs can be done entirely in b&b's, and you'd have to try rather hard to have poor nutrition when eating a hearty pub dinner and a proper breakfast every day.  I'm talking about LDWs as 'Long Distance Walks' which are more remote, and perhaps have a pub every three to five days if you are lucky - and sometimes a week or more if you are going out of your way to stay in the wilderness.  You look at the food bag of some people and it's pathetic, wrong sorts of foods, too much fresh stuff, too much weight, not enough calories.  I'm not saying this is that common, as most people who choose to get in to the middle of nowhere have some understanding of food, but few seem to put half as much effort or thought to the fuel they will  be using to keep them going, as they do with the rest of the kit on their back.

Snowman

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 435
Re: What nearly stopped you finishing a LDW?
« Reply #44 on: 14:33:56, 19/04/17 »
Quote
Just to explain what I mean by nutrition, most of the more popular LDWs can be done entirely in b&b's, and you'd have to try rather hard to have poor nutrition when eating a hearty pub dinner and a proper breakfast every day.  I'm talking about LDWs as 'Long Distance Walks' which are more remote, and perhaps have a pub every three to five days if you are lucky - and sometimes a week or more if you are going out of your way to stay in the wilderness.  You look at the food bag of some people and it's pathetic, wrong sorts of foods, too much fresh stuff, too much weight, not enough calories.  I'm not saying this is that common, as most people who choose to get in to the middle of nowhere have some understanding of food, but few seem to put half as much effort or thought to the fuel they will  be using to keep them going, as they do with the rest of the kit on their back.  


I do take your point, however what I was suggesting is that when doing the more remote walks, it is often unfeasible to 'get out', because just as there's nowhere to get more or better food, there's nowhere to 'get out' to so that is less of a reason for people to fail to complete LDPs. 


I would also imagine that those who are undertaking remote paths also have the common sense to ensure that they do understand the nature of what they are doing.    When I set out on walking the Pyrennees many years ago, I virtually knew Eric Langmuir's 'Mountaincraft and Leadership' by heart, and that excellent tome includes a chapter devoted to 'Food and Nutrition'.


Of course, those walking easier routes probably don't bother to study such background and eating the right sort of food escapes them, with the result that their bodies don't recover properly so they don't have the necessary 'fuel' to avoid negative impact on their willpower. I doubt, for example, that many people who embark on the Thames Path have read a book about Mountaincraft.


I think we're probably agreeing on the result anyway.   What it amounts to is that if you don't look after your body, you will end up with a less than positive outlook which will impair your ability to complete what you set out to do.




With regard to blisters, years ago I'd get the occasional blister, but then turned to using Bridgedale liner socks along with their Light Hiker socks rather than standard walking socks.    I can honestly say that since then I've never suffered a blister (touch wood).


S

 

Terms of Use     Privacy Policy