Flashback Friday: Hiking the Great Outdoors

Mt. San Jacinto, near Palm Springs. NOT photo-shopped, seriously!

In honor of the brilliant Janetha's Flashback Fridays, I wanted to share a story or two about some hikes that I've taken. Hopefully, they can help you think about preparedness while hiking. Don't worry, it's not a boring lecture about safety. For that you can visit this site. Seems I regularly fail at the #1 recommendation: Don't hike alone. Oops. At the end I threw in some random hiking photos, just for yuks.

As I set out on a hike today, an idea for a post hit me. The topic: how to bring what you need on a hike, but not what you do not. You follow? While not an expert in this field, I do have experiences with both sides of this coin.

On the one hand you want to bring enough of the basic necessities (food, water, first aid, ID, etc etc) to keep you comfortable and safe, plus spares for emergencies. But you do not want to bring items that you don't need, for example, your tiara or your bowling ball. I have brought neither of these on a hike, for those who are wondering. Plus, I loaned my tiara to Lara. :-)

What about your KEYS- house? Car? Both? There are arguments both for and against bringing keys, depending on a whole host of variables.

Argument FOR bringing your car keys:

You will need them if you actually want to drive home. Sounds simple, right? Years ago, we did a hike with a bunch of friends where we shuttled two cars. We parked one car in Lot 2, piled into the other car and drove to Lot 1. We hiked from lot 1 to lot 2 (hours and hours) only to discover that the keys to car 2 were in the car in lot 1. But we were standing in lot 2. Ugh. Stumbling upon a hippie encampment and hitching a ride back to lot 1, we had some fun memories of the day. But we were lucky. Shoulda brought the key.

Argument AGAINST bringing your keys:

I went hiking a couple of years ago on the same local trail I was hiking today. I felt so clever back on that day because I clipped my ENTIRE keychain to a little external hook on my fanny pack (OK Brits, I hear you giggling). I mean, why else would someone make a bag with an external hook if it's not meant to be used! When I returned, my car key was gone. Shouldn'ta brought the key.

But it's a big rectangular silver "keyless" key, so it should be easy to find if I just retrace my steps, right?

Wrong.

I retraced every.single.step and no key was found. But I did see about 64 million rocks that were impersonating my key. So every 2 seconds I'd stop and shriek "Oh LOOK!! THERE it is!!" Have a look at this shifty bunch of impostors that I picked up today:

Will the real car key please step forward?

I got to my picnic spot & ate my lunch. Mmmm a PB&J on lavash:

See, I AM a food blogger, sorta

By the way my mouth isn't enormous. What looks like a HUGE bite on the right is actually two bites taken side-by-side, honest!


Then on my way back down the mountain, I spotted THIS lying in the middle of the trail:



Hmmm, boy that looks familiar! Where have I seen THAT before??


Cue cell phone flashback:







GAHHH! The cover to my cell phone has been breaking apart piece by piece for a month. I guess it came off completely as I put my cell phone back in my Bum Bag (OK Brits, is that better?). So while I did not lose my car key today, I nearly lost my cell phone cover.

What is the moral of the story? That you can be as prepared as you think humanly possible, and then sh*t happens anyway. The end. Don't say I didn't warn you. Have a nice day.

A few random photos:

With Derek 2009, hiking near Palm Springs (same trail where I lost my car key AND lost-then-found my cell phone cover)

Why do hikers feel compelled to stack rocks upon one another? Just curious. Anyone know?

Hiking with Dad in the English Countryside 2006

2007, Me and our dear if shifty English friend, Jan, in the northern part of England- couldn't have been a more perfect day for a spot of hiking and rock climbing..

Jan & his wife, Jane are good friends and major hiking/mountain biking buddies & we heart their kids Nick & Lara (yep, another Lara!)

Me with Jan's son/my good buddy, Nick


This is what Jan does to Nick when he misbehaves. Bad Nick, Bad.


Totally off topic, but this is what happens when Nick (and sister Lara) misbehave while we are babysitting.

Seems Nick misbehaves a lot.

'Yes dear, your butt DOES look big in your rock climbing gear!'

Jan & Derek on a rainy hike


Derek didn't love "scrambling" (rock climbing without ropes) as much as I did. This was incredibly steep although it's hard to see it in the photo. He's putting on his brave "No-I'm-not-so-scared-I'm soiling-myself face"

At the top. Glad to be safe, if cold. Location: somewhere in the UK. Can't remember exactly where!

Jan, Deb, Derek. Triple trouble.

Q: Do you like to hike? Any good stories hiking tales? Do you stick rather large children on the rafters?

By the way, Lara just posted a guest post that I wrote for her about the accolades of STRENGTH TRAINING! If you are interested, why don't you go and have a peek. She has an awesome blog as you all know. And while you're there, tell her I want my tiara back.