Your worst walk

[Mechanic-AL]

3 days on Mt Wellington as a wee boy scout. Good 'ol mum packed the kitchen sink and my pack was half the weight of a suburban house. It pissed down for the entire trip and I can't recall any vistas that extended beyond the 2-3 metre range for the whole weekend.....Awesome
I got in a punch up with an older boy scout on the second day who threw my only dry jumper into a puddle. But the most annoying thing was that a warm home and a dry bed were less than 30 minutes drive away and I couldn't get there !!!!
Felt like my oldies had deserted me on that god-forsaken mountain

Can't believe I was stupid enough to go back into the bush after that initiation.

Sure glad I did though.

[mikethepike]

I've never had a 'worst walk' or anything approaching it, but here is possibly my worst hour of a walk. Or at least the only walk I can recall that resulted in me slumped down to have a self-pitying little blub!

August 1970, four of us set out early on homemade snowshoes from Waterfall Valley Hut for Waldheim while I carried mine, not through choice but because I was the only one to leave them outside overnight and the leather bindings were frozen. At first it was knee deep snow but as we gained height near Mt Benson, it turned into frozen crust. Well frozen enough to support snowshoes clad walkers but not me.

You can accept soft snow for what it is (i.e. a struggle) and just man up, but falling repeatedly to the knees through frozen crust is something else. At each step, your whole concentration is on the ball of your foot as the weight arches over with the other leg swinging past. Each time, just on the point of you thinking that the crust will finally hold and with your breath held the whole time, it collapses without warning. Five time, ten times with no variation. A hundred times and double that. And more. Hence the tears of frustration but there was a happy ending and one much sooner than expected.

Maybe there’s a neurological link between the tear ducts and the bladder because almost immediately, that latter blessed organ came to the rescue and the bindings were instantly thawed. I strapped the snowshoes on, let at a great gleeful shout and took off after my companions, by now out of sight for over an hour.

[quill]

Mate, that story is a p*sser

[That_Asian_Bloke]

My worst walk was to Mt Isobel in Hanmer Springs NZ 2011. My wife and I were ill-equipped for the snowy conditions and didn't have crampons to hit the summit. It was our first walk in the snow and while fun, I slipped on my bum more than I would have liked too.

[Walking_addict]

Larapinta, June / July 2010, took a BUNNINGS vinyl poncho, 'just in case' of a light sprinkle at any time.
Well, coming into Hugh Gorge it had been raining moderately through the day, had to wade much of it, poncho was ripped to pieces, duct taped up as best possible.
The next 4 days it was windy, coooold as, and no kidding, I was getting close to hypo, much more than I had even been in off season Tassie or Vic alps trips.
Was memorable all right.
Fined up good for the walk into ASP though, so quickly fell into a bit of a back of mind thing
(I just went through a couple of hundred pics, great memories.)

[Stew63]

We've all had the odd leech or so while out walking in the bush but...
Local trail run training - Donna Buang summit from just below Martyrs Rd. on the Yarra. (steep - more like a walk though!) Warm summer morning, departed the car at ~4:30am to arrive on summit of DonnaBuang at sunrise. When I arrived at the top and as the daylight slowly increased I could see I'd been completely eaten alive by leeches - I looked like the victim of an axe-murder - blood literally dripping everywhere!

[Walking_addict]

We've all had the odd leech or so while out walking in the bush

Oh yeah, had that sort of scenario at Lamington NP SE QLD a few Sundays ago !
Literally hundreds of them brushed off in a 10km section.

Only ever had leeches as bad or worse on various Tassie walks, and around Walhalla / Baw Baw.

They weren't into crawling a bit and hiding away either, once landed they were latched on a going for it !!

Still getting over it and will likely have scars for a while from some of the bites.

[Sammy38]

Christmas Creek from the Stinson Wreck site down Binstead's Gully to Westray's falls and Back down the creek to the Grave site and on to the track to the Carpark.
It started bucketing down when my son and I were at the wreck. By the time I had helped my son into his rain jacket I was soaked. It was a waste of time but I put mine on anyway.
There is not much left of the wreck the water and mud washing down the hillside is burying what is left.
As the climb up seemed too dangerous with all the water coming down I opted to go downhill to the creek and follow it along. It was tough going and took 1 hour of hard slog through thick lawyer vine scrub to Reach Binstead's pool.
Usually doesn't take that long but when you have an 11 year old in tow your pushing 50 and your glasses are fogging up and you can't see 2 metres in front of you its not easy going. Bypassing the falls and going down the cliffs wasn't easy either my boots loaded up with red greasy mud and I skidded over the edge while trying to climb down and badly Bruised my ribs on a rock at the bottom (spent the night in hospital) Trying to rock-hop along the creek was impossible as everything was wet and super slippery.
There are now a couple of massive fallen trees completely blocking the creek so we had to climb back up the left bank and detour around them as well as doing the same for the 4 smaller falls as the water was running too fast to climb down them. We had to bypass the pools as well as they were too deep to walk through with all the rain.
Some time ago I tied a pink ribbon to the branch of a tree on the Bank of the creek near the gravesite to mark the start of the track so if people where traveling down the creek they could see it.
Seeing that ribbon brought a smile to my face!!! I was just about done in. We were both soaking wet, covered in leaches and scratched to pieces by the scrub and nursing a few sprains.
The back along the track was a piece of cake compared to coming down that creek. I have no idea how Bernard Orielly managed to do it in 3 hours in the same conditions. The man was a super hero to go back the same night. Anyway we stripped off the car-park and took turns to remove the dozens of leaches having a feed on us. We walked out just as it turned dark so the timing was the only thing I got right that day and managing to navigate along the ridge beside the creek. I thought climbing Mount Warning in the rain was bad but this trip topped that one.

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[ribuck]

I did Claustral Canyon a dozen times in the early 1980s and loved it. And I loved showing it to adventurous friends, sharing this fantastic place. Back then, you would only know about Claustral Canyon if someone had taken you there, or if you happened to have read about it in a trip report or in one of the few bushwalking books that mentioned it.

Then around 1992 I went again with a mate, and was devastated to find a NPWS sign. This magical, mysterious, hidden, wild and wondrous canyon had been measured, evaluated, designated, timed, authorised, signposted, planned and managed. Wild it was no more.

Worst. Trip. Ever.