# Learned alot on Thanksgiving



## cm4ever (Oct 26, 2012)

Ok..so I work nights. Just to start out,and so does my fiancee. This Thanksgiving morning after working a 9 hour shift, I have a brilliant Idea. Since we are not cooking anything (Hello Golden Corral), why don't we go for a small hike with our new Alice packs and get used to them. Bring the dogs and their packs and make a morning of it. An hour or so of hiking and then drop off the dogs and go eat.

Whoohoo..brilliant idea, yes? Ha.

After putting about two gallons of water total in our packs, some beef jerky for my grouchy fiancee from not eating from the night before and my handy-dandy sunglasses, we are ready to go.

Before we get too far, let me preface this by saying that I'm a 300lb + woman who is slowly working her way down to better shape, hence the hike to help offset the meal we are about to just eat.

Yea...so we get to the state park, and we park by the lake (the part is Camp Croft State Park http://www.sctrails.net/trails/MAPS/CroftSNA map.html if you wanna follow along. We started at the lower part of Lake Craig where the road ends at the coast. Yes is a trail that goes to the right...however, it's not on this map). I really have no idea of how all the trails work (mistake #1) and I'm trusting the state to mark and identify the trails well (Mistake #2). I don't set a gps coordinate on my phone for where our car is because we are just doing a 1 hour tour (Mistake #3). SIGH.......Go ahead and start singing the song from gilligian's island now...i'll go well with the story.

We are on the path leading from the base of this lake and we come to a sandbag dam that was not active (meaning no water on it at the time) and my fiance and I can see a path from across the way. However, I was not confident in taking the five steps down the embankment without breaking or twisting something. (I have had a broken leg and I know from past experience with my job also that if you are on crutches and it is not a work related injury...you are just not working until you are off them. A shipping dock is no place for crutches).

This was where it went wrong.....I said, Well, this path over here seems to go around this creek, and back to the other side, so I'll go this way and catch up with you. My fiancee didn't like that, so he came with me and all the dogs too (all three of them). That was a mistake on my part and a good thing on his part.

Lets fast forward to about 5 hours later.......we got REALLY lost. If you look up the map here is the path we ended up taking I think....we went from the end of the road at the bottom of Lake Craig to the #2 hiking trail (Foster's Mill) up to #3 (Lake Johnson) then to #4 (Lake Johnson/Fairforest Connector) until at about 3:00 we came across a couple on horses (at this point my knees are hurting, my right hip is seizing up if I stop for too long and my feet definitely have blisters), they had a map they gave to us and told us, we were about "a short way" from the road....remember they are on horses, but it's hope so we are happy!!

We make it to the road (on the map it's where #4 first hits the road) and we call my friend to come pick us up. The guy from the couple comes back with his horse to make sure we are ok (what a hero...I would of kissed him and his horse if I could have) and informs us the road our friend is trying to find us on is blocked off...so we have to walk to the junction where the gate is. FINALLY at 4 pm..we are rescued...back to our car and on our way to Golden Corral.

Now..why did I embarrass myself by telling this story? Oh..yea..to give you a laugh, to show how thankful I am that we made it. To tell you how much I'm stiff and sore today and regretting that I volunteered for more hours on Saturday..when sleeping and or gentle walking would be better and to tell you the mistakes I made so you don't make them yourselves.

Things I learned:

1. My fiancee and I work much better under stress than I thought. When we went from "dang..wow...this place to huge, i'm sure we'll find the car in no time" to "Crap...this really could end badly", our relationship changed. We went from bickering and picking on each other, to working together and having a common mind set.

2. My dogs are amazing. My Labrador, who insists on being in the front, kept the pace well, stopped when I ran too far behind and constantly checked to make sure the pack was where it was supposed to be. I still owe that dog some chicken I promised him. ALSO, he was very helpful on the hills, and actually toward the end knew I wasn't going to make it up the hill on my own and would come back for me, and pull me up the hill using the leash....I love my dog.

3. Always, no matter how small of a trip you think you going on, bring water and food. We actually brought most of the water for the dogs "just in case" and to put some weight in our packs to get accustom to them. This made the time much more tolerable and I am going out next week to buy a water filter so if it happens again, I KNOW we will have enough water.

4. Don't trust the state parks to have great signage of where you are. Most of the maps and "you are here" spots were gone. Either the maps were too messed up to read, or you could read them, but the you were here markings had disappeared. So I could read the map, but really had no idea where we were.

5. Always, always, fully charge your phones and gps's if possible before going and mark where the car is on the gps. That would have saved us alot of issues.

6. Never go anyway without tissue. If you are female and have to pee in the woods..this is a heaven send.

7. Always carry a knife. Remember we had empty packs except for water, beef jerky and dog biscuits. At one point we found a bench, sat down and saw some rope tied between two trees. We tried to take the rope but couldn't because we couldn't undo the knots. If we had a knife or a sharp rock it would have been ours (remember at this point we were starting to plan on staying the night or the possiblity of it.)

8. BOB bags need to be stocked ASAP!!

9. I need in MUCH better shape. In 6 months I plan to come back to this place and do the same route and win!!

Ok..time to go back to bed with Tylenol (my hip has yet to forgive me) and see if I can't sleep some of this off.

Hope ya'll enjoyed the story and learned something in the meantime.

Please let my pain be your teacher.

CM4ever


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## mdprepper (Jan 22, 2010)

Thank you for sharing your lesson. I am very glad you all made it out safe and sound.


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

just proves that survival is in the preps. and... where there is a will there are relatives. and new friends


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## cm4ever (Oct 26, 2012)

I just figured that someone new on here might find my story and it might help. We made it out ok, and it could have been worse, but we stayed on trails and would have eventually found out way out...

In a side note, on our way out of the park, a ranger stopped us mentioning he saw us with our backpacks and wanted to make sure we weren't primitive camping in the woods when we are not allowed it. LOL

So, he would have hunt us down eventually.



CM4ever


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## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

Glad it turned out well I'd point out that a EDC kit is highly reccomended amonst alot of us here. A EDC kit doenst have to be a little pack or can. It is just stuff you carry all the time every day. Some are like me and a pack rat I usually have th efollowing stuff on me when I go ANYWHERE if I was going to the woods for a hike I'd add a few more lil items but a few EDC things like I carry would have provided a little level of comfort. I"m sure others will chime in with even more advanced EDC's But hres mine. Glad you made it out without major difficulty and just a few lessons learned the hard way.

Large one hand opening Swiss Army Knife. Has a very small but efficient little wood saw on it)
One regular sized SAK (with different tools)
Stream light twin task light (somtimes others this just lately)
Key's with a little vial of fuel for my Zippo (I smoke)
CCW pistol (I know that not everyone has ccw)
spare 15 rnd mag for pistol
Zippo
back up Bic Butane lighter
"necklace" with itty bitty cold steel knife and
a aluminum vial with 3 days worth of my pain and BP medsand
a aluminum vial with petroleum jelly soaked cotton balls
and a small ferrocerrium fire starter like the BSA one but not that brand
neclace is para cord btw
Ink pen, note pad
spare pack of smokes (lost and or delayed etc esp a emergency is no time to be going cold turkey)
About 15 coil of para cord.
All this stuff is spread around through pockets on belt or around my neck is unobtrusive and not enough to get in the way

If heading to woods for a hike around I usually actually grab my tiny lil get home bag in a butt pack
but if I don't I"ll put a couple heavy trash bags in a pocket (large contractor kind)
spare batts for my light
And a 2qt canteen on a shoulder strap and with a bottle of purification tabs int eh little pounch on the millitary canteen covers for that purpose.
And another 30 or 40 feet of paracord in the canteen carrier.

That is all I likely would have grabbed for a proposed hike on a "marked trail" except for a park map of those trails.

and of course if there was a threat of rain (i'd probably cancel) a poncho.

While you ended not needing anything additional having some or all that stuff would have been comforting and the first list is easily carried every day. OH and add my wallet and a handkercheif and a wrist watch. Watch has a compass but I haven't been able to get it to run right is fine I only got it for the barometer to see if there was a correlation to atmoshperic pressure and my pain levels.

Thanks for posting it reminds me of similar situations I have been in. As I"m sure it does a few others as well. And will surely point out how easy it is to anyone new to these ideas and may likely help.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

cm4ever, thanks for sharing your story! It is great that you all are actually out there practicing your preps. You will be way ahead of the game when the SHTF.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

Way to get out there and practice! Sounds like you learned some valuable lessons. A good goal would be to turn that hike into an overnighter by next year. Have fun with it


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## RiverRunner (Feb 7, 2012)

GPS is fine for now, but it might be prudent to spend some time learning map and compass skills.


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## Paltik (Nov 20, 2012)

The fact that you went out and tried something puts you ahead of maybe 99% of other preppers who just theorycraft. The things you learn by doing are not soon forgotten. Thanks for sharing!


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## mma800 (May 7, 2012)

Wow, what a way to spend Thanksgiving! Glad you made it back and I am impressed with your dogs! I think my schnauzer would abandon me for sure!


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

My dogs always knew knew the way. I miss em. Cant wait to graduate get a patch o land and and a pup I can train up . For now I just have to foster when schedule allows for a week of attention.


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## pawpaw (Dec 21, 2011)

*Wow, CM!...*

You shoulda submitted this as an article with a couple of pics for your upgraded membership!


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## cm4ever (Oct 26, 2012)

I did take one picture of the lake just as we were entering the woods.....

LOL

CM4ever


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## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

RiverRunner said:


> GPS is fine for now, but it might be prudent to spend some time learning map and compass skills.


A good topo map is the only way to go! you can get apps for an I phone and an Android also.


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