Author Topic: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?  (Read 2717 times)

gunwharfman

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I was once so embarressed when walking the Pennine Way a few years ago. I stopped to sit on a rock (going south) to eat my sandwiches when a young woman (going north) in her 20s appeared and started to chat to me. She then decided to stay and eat her food as well. At one point she said that she was hot, so stood up and just stripped off to her bra and knickers in front of me. She then rummaged through her rucksack, threw stuff out on the grass and then found some clothes and got dressed again. She never batted an eyelid, was not self conscious of me being there at all and didn't express a word about it, so neither did I. Those few minutes scared me silly, I was glad to move on! As I strolled on I did have to smile, I just couldn't help it, for me a really wacky few minutes.  :-[

veracocha

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #1 on: 21:22:26, 12/10/20 »
This Saturday just gone I went up Place Fell with my wife and I developed stomach cramps trying to keep a fart in waiting for a private moment of release. It never came until we reached the trig point where a small crowd were hanging around the stone. Whilst taking a photo of the wife touching the stone I was far enough away that the noise wouldn't register. As I let go the breeze did the rest and the entire pack were browned as they say. There were several sideways looks as they tried to fathom which one of them was to blame. Childish indeed but I found it funny.

Bigfoot_Mike

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #2 on: 21:26:07, 12/10/20 »
Skye 1983. My friend and I were camping near the water before catching the ferry to Mallaig. We put the tent down in record time due to a vicious attack by midges. We then started walking and saw a German camper cooking breakfast outside his tent. There was a sudden scream from within his tent followed by a topless wife / girlfriend sprinting out of the tent having just discovered midges for herself. Being British we managed to contain our laughter and walk on.

Birdman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #3 on: 10:14:49, 13/10/20 »
Meeting weird/ interesting people while hiking is a categorie on its own Grin . While hiking the PCT in Southern California and taking a break at one of the few spots with shade and a river in the desert, I met a morbidly obese transsexual woman (former man) who claimed to be hiking the PCT too. She was carrying a massive backpack but hardly any food (though I guess she could survive for months on her body fat) but se WAS carrying lots of unnecessary stuff like a heavy wind-up radio and a massive 20 Watt solar panel. We had a good chat for 30 minutes which was really interesting and fun, but then I really needed to move on. Never saw her again, but I wasn't too worried because it was at a water source (river) and not too far from road access so she could easily bail out (which I presume she would do very soon), although another PCT-hiker died just a mile from there a year earlier, presumably from heat exposure.
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Birdman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #4 on: 10:31:19, 13/10/20 »
Talking about the PCT, you get some funny characters there anyway. For example, one guy was carrying an inflatable dinosaur all the way from Mexico to Canada. And he kept it inflated permanently. On scenic spots along the trail he would then take pictures with the dinosaur.


Another guy, I think his trailname was "15 feet" or something, was carrying a 15 feet hose the entire way, for no purpose whatsoever.
Me: "Hey dude, what's with the hose?"
Guy: "I'm carrying it to Canada"
Me: "Why?"
Guy: "Because it has got to be done"
Me: "OK"


Grin
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pleb

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #5 on: 10:37:11, 13/10/20 »
I was once so embarressed when walking the Pennine Way a few years ago. I stopped to sit on a rock (going south) to eat my sandwiches when a young woman (going north) in her 20s appeared and started to chat to me. She then decided to stay and eat her food as well. At one point she said that she was hot, so stood up and just stripped off to her bra and knickers in front of me. She then rummaged through her rucksack, threw stuff out on the grass and then found some clothes and got dressed again. She never batted an eyelid, was not self conscious of me being there at all and didn't express a word about it, so neither did I. Those few minutes scared me silly, I was glad to move on! As I strolled on I did have to smile, I just couldn't help it, for me a really wacky few minutes.  :-[
All the walks I have done, still hoping for something like that 😂
Whinging Moaning Old Fart

Birdman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #6 on: 11:15:10, 13/10/20 »



On the Arizona Trail, the one place where you cannot truly wild-camp is inside Grand Canyon. You have to use designated campsites there, and there are lots of people (unfortunately). While looking for some seclusion (and trying to find birds), a man appeared and started talking to me. I found his behaviour strange and I had an uneasy feeling about him, but he was friendly and I really didn't have any way to escape his company because I was camping among twenty or so other small tents. So we ended up on a beautiful beach along the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. He had cans of sardines which he generously shared with me (delicious - though a terrible idea, because you have to carry out the smelly empty cans in the boiling heat).


Then he started telling me about his life. He told me he was a former inmate. He claimed to be innocent, but was framed by people. He claimed to have been tortured into confession by the police. As he was now a registered criminal, he couldn't get a house anywhere so he now lived in his (passenger) car. As he was telling me all this, I could see he suffered a lot psychologically, but my gut also told me wasn't completely sane, potentially schizophrenic and delusional. I wasn't sure what to believe. I kept feeling uneasy about him. Not because of his criminal past but the way he interacted with people and some (imagined?) things that he told me, which could perhaps lead to unpredictable behaviour. He talked for a few hours and all I did was listen and try to understand what he was telling me. When it was time to go to my tent, he thanked me for having listened and not judged him.


The next morning I packed my tent and left early and was relieved that I haven't run into him since. But in hindsight it was an interesting experience.
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gunwharfman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #7 on: 11:17:08, 13/10/20 »
Again, a few years ago, I was walking Hadrians Wall from Greenhead to Housesteads and there were a fair number of people about. One late middle-aged man came walking towards me and was handing out A5 leaflets to every one that passed by. He handed one to me and it claimed that he was designing a walking route just for the English. I couldn't resist so made the effort to have a chat with him, he was a bit of an odd character, especially when he tried to convince me that the Romans were the real English. I moved on very quickly. I've kept my eyes open for his route but to date have never seen it.

gunwharfman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #8 on: 11:25:45, 13/10/20 »
On a lighter note, I once walked the West Highland Way with a couple of forum members. One days it was raining vertical rain, no wind at all and I was walking along by myself at one point and came across a 'log cabin' type tea/coffee/cake snacks place in the woods. I bought my coffee and cake and sat outside on a bench, with others, under the eves of the building. Four middle-aged male hikers came towards us, and when they arrived one of them in his best tenor voice game us a rendition of some tunes from La Traviata. He was really good too!

They were all from Amsterdam and singing opera was this mans thing! We all had a great time. 

Birdman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #9 on: 11:32:27, 13/10/20 »
The PCT (again) in Southern California. There is no water for many miles, so hikers tend to take a long break near water sources. So even when you hike alone, you usually meet other hikers there. One girl was taking a long break and she was lying in her sleepingbag chatting to some other hikers. Suddenly one guy says: "Don't move!". As it turns out, there was a rattle snake crawling across her chest, right below her face! It was the stuff you see in movies! Not sure if she actually [censored] her sleeping bag, but fortunately the snake slowly moved on without causing any harm!
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gunwharfman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #10 on: 14:44:58, 13/10/20 »
Reminds me of the time in France when on a site, loads of schoolkids camping when everyone was woken by girls screaming. A mouse had crawled into a three-person tent, from then on absolute pandemonium!

I've made this mistake twice and the experience taught me to never go camping again without a torch. The first time was when I was on a very busy site with loads of tents all around me. I needed to visit the toilet block, so stood up, saw the one lightbulb ahead of me and like a moth I just homed towards it. I did what I needed to and then planned to walk back to my tent, only I didn't, all I could see ahead of me was darkness and the outlines of a sea of tents. I had no idea where mine was at all! In the end I just didn't have the nerve to try, all of those 'hidden' guy ropes as well! Luckily it was a warm night and only about an hour before dawn so I just sat on a bench until I could see where I was going.

Two nights later I tried it again but this time I planned my route back in advance. It nearly worked, at one point a voice inside a tent reminded me that I was trying to get into the wrong one! I made it a couple of minutes later.


Rivingtonboots

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #11 on: 09:35:29, 18/10/20 »
Mrs Rivington and I stayed at a vegetarian guest house in Grasmere at xmas 1993 and were given a packed lunch including xmas cake.
We'd been out walking and sat on a rock eating the pack lunch when a sheep ambled over and ate my cake of the silver foil, then ambled off again.
I don't think I moved as the sheep enjoyed my cake.

Bigfoot_Mike

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #12 on: 10:36:57, 18/10/20 »
I once had a sheep trying to grab my sandwich on Hellvellyn

Birdman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #13 on: 10:51:00, 18/10/20 »
I had a Black Kite snatching a boiled egg out of my hand just before I wanted to put it into my mouth Grin
This was not really on a walk but when visiting a national park in Kenya. Black Kites there are like the Herring Gulls in British coastal towns.
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Birdman

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Re: Any weird, wacky and/or amusing moments when hiking?
« Reply #14 on: 10:59:20, 18/10/20 »
On my Arizona Trail hike, some rodent has eaten the straps of my hiking poles! (probably for the salts). I had left them outside my tent overnight. It really sucked, because hiking poles are pretty useless without straps. Then I improvised new "straps" using pieces of rope cut from my washing line. It wasn't great, but enabled me to keep using my poles for the next ~400 miles till the end of the trail. Grin
My travel and walking reports: https://www.hikingbirdman.com/

 

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