You ever had that "Holy crap" moment?

[Mogollon Monster]

We finally got some snow here in Northern AZ. My amazing wife gave me the green light to go camping (on 5 minutes notice) so I packed up and headed north.

Lesson #1. You won't find any dead/standing wood in an area the forest service just clear cut (for fire prevention). I had to get creative, and by pure luck I found two long trees under the snow that I was able to process into firewood.

Lesson #2. Bring more than you need when camping in the snow. At the last second, I threw an extra 20 degree sleeping bag into my pack. This morning around 1:30 am I got up to pee and looked at my themometer. -2 degrees. I literally shouted "holy crap". -2 degrees is by far the coldest this AZ boy has camped in. I thought to myself, "okay - this is real, you have to take care of yourself." Luckily I had the extra bag and with the help of a waterbottle and some down booties and gloves, I was actually quite comfortable.

Any of you have a moment where you felt you may have gotten in over your head?

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[AsaHanger]

Cant say I've been "lucky" enough to get down that cold yet.

And that second picture is absolutely beautiful.

[bkrgi]

And that is why backyard testing is vitally important and always always build in a buffer..glad you grabbed the extra bag
Cold and no bail out is no place to experiment or find weakness in your gear selection.
Glad it worked out and you certainly learned plenty which will carry you into the next adventure.

[Floridahanger]

Oh yeah, plenty of times. Maybe one day, I will learn.

Last weekend at HangCon 2018. The previous few days I was expecting mid 40's which would be upper 30's to lower 40's in the woods. Too late to make a few extra quilts for my kids, I decided to give them mine and I would use sleeping bags and pads. While at Doe Lake, we got an updated forecast for the upper 20's Sat night. It hit 28* in Ocala, FL. Not bad for a 40ish night.

Luckily, Timberrr loaned me several quilts and mummy bags. This helped us and was very appreciated.

Lesson: Always expect the worst and then expect to go a little farther when car camping. For the future, the car can hold extra gear and my backpack can hold warmer quilts. Time to get started on the 20*TQ/UQ combo for all.

[ObdewlaX]

Sort of I guess... back in '04 I did a solo backpacking trip in the Gila Wilderness Area in NM. On my first day out & after about 2 hours on the trail, I was coming to an area that would afford a great view of the surrounding mountains thinking it would make for some great photos. As I continued up the trail, I thought I could hear leaves rustling just down the mountain on one side of the trail. I stopped hiking to listen & not only did I confirm I heard something down there, it sounded like something big! As I stood there, I could see a clearing about 20 yards or so up the trail at the top of the ridge & thought to myself, "I'll just stand here & see if whatever it is, comes out on the trail & maybe I can get a few pictures."

Not long after, I could see something brown & very big, advancing through the trees making its way to the clearing on the trail. It was at that moment, I thought, "holy sh*%, what if it's a freakin' bear"? I remember standing there motionless with camera in hand & my heart pounding not knowing for sure what I was gonna do if it was a bear. Just then, a huge bull elk lumbered onto the trail & stood right in the clearing on the trail. He stood there sniffing around looking very majestic & paid me no mind. If I was a hunter, he'd be up on my wall right now, but I digress. After getting a handful of pictures of him posing like he was going to be in some kind of National Geographic spread, he let out a strong snort & grunt in my direction and in a flash, bolted down the other side of the mountain crashing through the brush & trees. What an amazing sight seeing an animal that large move that fast & with such authority, but for a few moments, I definitely thought I had made a very poor decision.

[Crazytown3]

My first time out in the woods in a hammock. It was forecasted to be upper 20'sF at night, and I had all the right gear with me. In fact, I had *way* too much gear.

The oh crap moment came about 1:00 am when the suspension failed on my homemade UQ, and then I became really, really sick with some GI stuff. I couldn't sleep, I was sick, and my pack was *way* too heavy. I decided to at least stay in place until daybreak, when I could better see my way to get out of there. I tried to stay hydrated and just deal with the other issues.

I was only 4-ish miles from the trailhead, but it took me about 6 hours to make the hike. I had to keep stopping to 'deal with things', and my pack weight was sucking away what little energy I had. Once I made it to the trailhead, I packed up my motorcycle, and tried to hydrate more before I left. I made it to the nearest town, spent a couple hours at the grocery store 'recovering'.

If you can't guess the ending, I made it home, and am still hammock camping. LOTS of things were changed for future trips because of that. Good times.

[OneClick]

Hiked in sweating and complaining about flies in mid-February when it should have been 30° for a high. I got my wish the next morning...

Almost a 50° drop!

[Crazytown3]

Sort of I guess... back in '04 I did a solo backpacking trip in the Gila Wilderness Area in NM. On my first day out & after about 2 hours on the trail, I was coming to an area that would afford a great view of the surrounding mountains thinking it would make for some great photos. As I continued up the trail, I thought I could hear leaves rustling just down the mountain on one side of the trail. I stopped hiking to listen & not only did I confirm I heard something down there, it sounded like something big! As I stood there, I could see a clearing about 20 yards or so up the trail at the top of the ridge & thought to myself, "I'll just stand here & see if whatever it is, comes out on the trail & maybe I can get a few pictures."

Wow! What an incredible animal.

[JmBoh]

yeah I did. When I first started hammock camping I decided to go to a fall MAHHA. Temps were in the 60's the first day, but a cold front came through at night and the temps dropped significantly. Low was in the low 30's I think. I didn't have quilts then so I used my pad I used from my tent camping days. It's always kept me warm on the ground so I figured it should work in the hammock for a night or two. NOPE!!! I froze my butt off!! The pad was warm, but if I moved at all in my sleep and slipped any part of my body off the pad, it got really cold and woke me up. If I curled up and my back touched the side of the hammock, I got cold and woke up. I laid there and shivered most of the night and ttried like crazy not to move....at all. Needless to say, I went home the next day and ordered quilts. I'm certainly glad I didn't learn that lesson in colder temps. I probably would have bailed.

[rweb82]

My very first night in the woods hammock camping was kind of a "Holy Crap" moment. My buddy and I were going to hike the North Sylamore trail in AR, and were camping at the trailhead the first night, and there wasn't really any good spot to hang. We had to go into the woods a ways to find suitable trees from which to hang. Unfortunately, there was so many sticker bushes around, I wasn't confident with how I had my tarp staked out. That night, we had a rather large thunderstorm sweep through the area- with some pretty heavy winds too. My tarp was a generic cheap poly 9x9- hung on a diagonal. I wasn't sure if it was going to hold up; so my sleep that night was pretty limited. But my tarp held up just fine, and I stayed perfectly dry.