Yikes, that sounds awful. My worst backpacking trip was easily my first one. I grew up in the Chicago area and convinced 3 friends of mine from high school to hike a segment of the River-to-River trail, which connects the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in the southernmost part of the state. There had been a really rough drought, and all the water sources on the map were completely dry. The really bad thing, however, was that, apparently, droughts in otherwise wet areas can produce huge numbers of ticks. I kid you not, every quarter mile we would stop and pull off about a dozen ticks. I was finding ticks in my hiking gear weeks later. We ended up bailing out and driving the 6 hours home.
Geez, dude! That sounds unbelievably awful. Those suckers are a pain to remove... and to think ticks remained in your gear weeks after. That would've been seriously annoying to have dealt with. Gosh what a nightmare!
@@racerx4152 it’s something I was worried about. This is 12 years ago now, so I’m probably in the clear, but I’ve also heard it can take years to take effect, so you never know 🤷🏻♂️
I went there summer of 2015, Myself, my kids, my dad, brother and nephew. 3 generations. We brought plenty of water, but we did it in July! Stupid. But we left early nice and cool and everything was perfect until my dads knees started failing him. He had never had issue with them before. We make it to the basin and Phantom Ranch and there was no way we were making it back up that day. Was 70 degrees at top and probably 105 in that basin. It was miserable. Luckily they had 2 cabins open for rent with window AC units in them and bunk beds. We stayed the night and started out early the next morning. We made sure to fill all of our canteens. And it was still a hike back up with all the switchbacks. We thought we were prepared too!
Wow! Sorry to hear about your dad. That was smart to stay the night at the basin. We should've done that, no doubt. Yeah, those switchbacks are no joke and they seem endless. Thanks for sharing!
If it cleared up on its own, it wasn't giardia, classic dehydration symptoms. You forgot to mention that there are signs on both trails strongly discouraging attempting to hike to the river and back in a day. Leaving from Phantom Ranch after lunch and arriving on the rim around eight or so is slow, my first hike out probably took as long. Leaving the river after lunch means you were hiking in the midday heat, another thing the signs you walked past warned you about. Once on the rim you should have tried to drink several glasses of water, slowly , instead you ate a gas station sub quickly and got sick. Felt better after a couple days, I would guess. Also. signs warned about drinking the water, too, (these opinions are based on personal experience, 14-year resident of The Grand Canyon).
This is true! For some reason I overlooked those signs and also the person I was hiking with didn't warn me or properly prepare me for this journey- despite her experience in the area. It would've been great to know about the dangers of the canyon before hand. I prep better now than I did back then, that's for sure! Thanks for sharing 👍
I go over that in the beginning of the story. Looking back on it now, I would place the blame on the person I was with who unprepared and misguided me. I had no idea I was in over my head. If I were to do it now with the many years of hiking experience under my belt and still approached it the same way, I would agree with you. The Grand Canyon still sucks 😉
"Giardia" yeah you'll get that drinking any untreated water. If you're in spot where there is plenty of water sources I recommend a good water purifier saves on weight and you will never go thirsty as long as you have a water source. And maybe watch some survival videos they be will give you an idea on what to do and not to do. Or "LIFE IS THE BEST TEACHER IF YOU SURVIVE TO LEARN THE LESSON"
Always filter your water you learned a hard lesson for sure and always top off your water bottles at the water stations. Not HIKE for the unprepared. I done a lot of R2R over the years.
I don't think anyone would come up with such a boring story unless it were true. If I was going to make up a story, it certainly would be more action packed and exciting.
Haha, thanks for the feedback! I wish it was BS. It would've been great to have done a video bragging about how awesome the experience was, but it wasn't
No bears in the canyon duh. I feel like this is just click bait, just a story from 7 years ago. And the thumb nail screams click bait, why do you think I started watching this. I had to see who the idiot is who says the Grand Canyon sucks. And please tell me why it’s the grand canyons fault you’re an idiot. 100% of your bad experience is self inflicted and now you say the park sucks??? Hahaha good day sir
"My computer sucks because I installed a virus on it."
Haha, for sure. Good virus protection could help out with that one 😂
Yikes, that sounds awful. My worst backpacking trip was easily my first one. I grew up in the Chicago area and convinced 3 friends of mine from high school to hike a segment of the River-to-River trail, which connects the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in the southernmost part of the state. There had been a really rough drought, and all the water sources on the map were completely dry. The really bad thing, however, was that, apparently, droughts in otherwise wet areas can produce huge numbers of ticks. I kid you not, every quarter mile we would stop and pull off about a dozen ticks. I was finding ticks in my hiking gear weeks later. We ended up bailing out and driving the 6 hours home.
Geez, dude! That sounds unbelievably awful. Those suckers are a pain to remove... and to think ticks remained in your gear weeks after. That would've been seriously annoying to have dealt with. Gosh what a nightmare!
deer ticks? reminds me of lyme disease. I've heard that some people never recover from it.
@@racerx4152 it’s something I was worried about. This is 12 years ago now, so I’m probably in the clear, but I’ve also heard it can take years to take effect, so you never know 🤷🏻♂️
I went there summer of 2015, Myself, my kids, my dad, brother and nephew. 3 generations. We brought plenty of water, but we did it in July! Stupid. But we left early nice and cool and everything was perfect until my dads knees started failing him. He had never had issue with them before. We make it to the basin and Phantom Ranch and there was no way we were making it back up that day. Was 70 degrees at top and probably 105 in that basin. It was miserable. Luckily they had 2 cabins open for rent with window AC units in them and bunk beds. We stayed the night and started out early the next morning. We made sure to fill all of our canteens. And it was still a hike back up with all the switchbacks. We thought we were prepared too!
Wow! Sorry to hear about your dad. That was smart to stay the night at the basin. We should've done that, no doubt. Yeah, those switchbacks are no joke and they seem endless. Thanks for sharing!
So lucky they had an available cabin. People book those months in advance
Grand Canyon is beautiful. But hiking is over rated and its just lots of walking.
This is incorrect. It's a lot of walking... in cool places 😎
If it cleared up on its own, it wasn't giardia, classic dehydration symptoms. You forgot to mention that there are signs on both trails strongly discouraging attempting to hike to the river and back in a day. Leaving from Phantom Ranch after lunch and arriving on the rim around eight or so is slow, my first hike out probably took as long. Leaving the river after lunch means you were hiking in the midday heat, another thing the signs you walked past warned you about. Once on the rim you should have tried to drink several glasses of water, slowly , instead you ate a gas station sub quickly and got sick. Felt better after a couple days, I would guess. Also. signs warned about drinking the water, too, (these opinions are based on personal experience, 14-year resident of The Grand Canyon).
This is true! For some reason I overlooked those signs and also the person I was hiking with didn't warn me or properly prepare me for this journey- despite her experience in the area. It would've been great to know about the dangers of the canyon before hand. I prep better now than I did back then, that's for sure! Thanks for sharing 👍
Thumbs down for the background music? noise? Why do people spoil their content?
That's a hard one especially with me being a musician and all, haha. Silence is underrated sometimes 🤙
I am not a doctor although I play one on TV. It does sound like heat stroke. I think it would take longer for "bad water" to start causing symptoms.
Definitely! Based on other people's bad experiences in the area, I've come to that conclusion as well
Bad water will cripple you backpacking. I always pack as much as i can safely hike with.
So true, man! Always good to be prepared
I agree with previous two comments. It was your fault.
I go over that in the beginning of the story. Looking back on it now, I would place the blame on the person I was with who unprepared and misguided me. I had no idea I was in over my head. If I were to do it now with the many years of hiking experience under my belt and still approached it the same way, I would agree with you. The Grand Canyon still sucks 😉
Watching this is my worst experience!!
Oh no! Hopefully you recover soon 😁
"Giardia" yeah you'll get that drinking any untreated water. If you're in spot where there is plenty of water sources I recommend a good water purifier saves on weight and you will never go thirsty as long as you have a water source. And maybe watch some survival videos they be will give you an idea on what to do and not to do. Or "LIFE IS THE BEST TEACHER IF YOU SURVIVE TO LEARN THE LESSON"
Great tips, for sure! Thanks for sharing!
Always filter your water you learned a hard lesson for sure and always top off your water bottles at the water stations. Not HIKE for the unprepared. I done a lot of R2R over the years.
Great advice, totally agree! Thanks for sharing 🤙
Do it again with the knowledge you have now and you will love it! Bring salt tablets and twice as much water as you think you need!
Yes, I like this idea! it would also be great to check out Havasu Falls out there sometime.
Absolutely!! Where are you hiking next?
I would love to do Angel's Landing sometime. Definitely on my bucket list!@@DaveHoffmancowboyhiker
Same! I need to put that on my list too! Check out my Grand Canyon video! I was just there a couple weeks ago! I'm just learning to make videos
Nice! I'll check it out, man. Welcome to the world of Video Editing, haha. it's fun 🤙@@DaveHoffmancowboyhiker
Sounds like a case of E. coli , consider yourself lucky you didn't get hepatitis to. You learned your lesson the hard way, so did I when I was young.
Oh, I was definitely lucky! And to think that there were mules passing on those streams too. God only knows where those hooves had been
the Grand Canyon Doesn't suck...you do!
It sucks, bro 😎
😜@@EpicModeEngaged
🤣@@mikekennedy2965
I would have to say this video sucks, and I’m just going to call complete BS.
For real.
I don't think anyone would come up with such a boring story unless it were true. If I was going to make up a story, it certainly would be more action packed and exciting.
Haha, thanks for the feedback! I wish it was BS. It would've been great to have done a video bragging about how awesome the experience was, but it wasn't
Yes!! I like this idea. I need to include flying bears and dancing mules in my story to spice things up 😁
No bears in the canyon duh. I feel like this is just click bait, just a story from 7 years ago. And the thumb nail screams click bait, why do you think I started watching this. I had to see who the idiot is who says the Grand Canyon sucks.
And please tell me why it’s the grand canyons fault you’re an idiot. 100% of your bad experience is self inflicted and now you say the park sucks??? Hahaha good day sir
To many damned people.
🤷♂
too much opinion in your content
Well, it is my story, from my perspective. Naturally it would be my opinion 😎