I had planned to hike to the top of a local mountain but got a later start than I would have liked. There were also the one hour time change ("fall back") earlier that morning. Those two matters plus not carrying a light almost got me into big trouble.

I made it to the top of the peak with plenty of time to spare to get down well before sunset. Unfortunately I decided to hike along the ridge and take my time with lunch. Finally noting the position of the Sun I began to descend very quickly -- double timing it in some places.

Then I fell, breaking a trekking pole in the process. I was simply moving too fast and I was more focused on the time and not on the steep trail. I picked myself up (contusion the size of a thick wallet on my hip, cut shin and an elbow raspberry) and continued down as fast as I could.

I passed some people ascending and they gave me sort of a weird look -- which I ignored. Only later did I notice all the blood on my leg and arm. I made it to the trailhead OK but the fall and all the anxiety certainly had a negative impact on the hike. From this experience I shall:

- Begin a hike on time or before or I won't go. Setting a turnaround time would only make me hurry up and possibly down the mountain so that I could summit.

- Actually carry my cellphone rather than leave it in my truck.

- Add a headlamp to my permanent kit.

- Seek out some extra heavy duty trekking poles. Do they exist?

- Begin a hike on time or I won't go.

I approach this a bit differently, by setting a hard and fast turnaround time, whether I've made it to my goal or not. I set the turnaround time so I expect to arrive back at my vehicle early enough that I have a "safety cushion" of an hour or so. Then if the return hike takes longer than I expected I am not panicked by running out of time.

If I am doing a loop hike, I calculate the point where it becomes shorter & easier to proceed forward than to turn back. If I haven't reached "the point of no return" by my turnaround time, I turn back rather than try to complete the loop.

This works well for me, but the trick is to be strict about turning around, even if I seem tantalizingly close to my goal. No bargaining. No fudging. I just turn around.

Of course, your rule about not going if you can't start 'on time' should also work just fine.

Good advice, Aimless. As my rock climbing instructor used to say, summits only exist in the mind. You can turn around at any time!

It helps that I have finally learned to define "success" as getting out and hiking. That way my day hikes are always a success the moment I leave the trailhead.

A good headlamp or flashlight is one of the "Ten" Essentials that should be carried at all times. Of course, the time I've forgotten one of the essentials is invariably the time I've needed it!

Regardless of the time of year, it's a good idea to allow plenty of time to return by sunset without rushing. That's even more important with the short days this time of year--as you found out! If you leave late, just plan to turn around that much sooner.

Out here on the popular trails in the Columbia River Gorge, most of which are down in deep forested canyons on a north-facing slope, it's best to allow an even earlier turnaround time, since by the "official" sunset time it's already pretty dark, particularly with our gloomy days of the rainy season. I try to get back at least an hour or two before sunset, which, as a bonus, helps me avoid rush hour traffic near my home.

What kind of trekking poles did you have that broke? I can't remember if you are one of the ones who bought the Walmart variety? IMHO, while the cheap ones are good for trying if you want the poles, for the long run it pays to buy a good brand, such as Leki (my favorite) or Black Diamond. It also seems that carbon fiber poles have more of a tendency to break, especially in cold weather. So far, even with several falls, I haven't broken a pole, although I did bend one slightly.

In many places out here in the West there is no cell phone reception, making a phone rather useless. After I started hiking mostly solo, I bought a Personal Locator Beacon. I've just started on my third one (the battery expires after 5 years). That means I have a button to push in case of severe injury if I can't self-evacuate.

If you take a tumble, it's a good idea to take a few minutes to check yourself for injuries--you've already found this out! Since first-aid kit contents have to be renewed every few years anyway, you might as well get some use out of them! Prompt cleanup of wounds helps prevent infection, as well as being stared at.

It's good that you weren't seriously hurt and that you made it back before dark!

My "dayhike" kit is identical to my overnight backpack kit. I always hike with my full backpack kit, even when I don't intend to stay overnight. It helps keep me in condition for backpacking (a Colin Fletcher habit that I never tried to break), and it takes all the "gotta get back before dark" pressure away: if it gets dark, I've got my headlamp and, if worse comes to worst, I just make camp. (Of course, I might feel differently if I was carrying more weight.)

One of the things I like most about hiking is "bagging a peak." If for some reason I cannot begin a hike that will allow me time to summit, I would most times find something else to do.

If my departure time meant I couldn't summit, I wouldn't have went. My first mistake was hiking along the ridge. It's so beautiful up there I figured it was a few hundreds yards. When I got home and mapped it, I found it to be an almost 3 mile loop...

They are sold under the "Outdoor Products" brand.

I was moving very fast (my first mistake) and I inadvertently jammed the pole into a crack (my second mistake) on some rock. When I went to pull the pole (while moving forward fast) it stuck. In turn all my body weight (#242)shifted onto the pole at a weird angle and it collapsed -- and it did not break on a joint.

This would most definitely have snapped a carbon pole.

It would have required a far heavier pole to survive. Does anyone make a titanium pole? I really don't mind a heavier pole -- I just want something very stout.

Leki used to market a "Superstrong Series" of poles but their website if flaky and won't display them...

There's no doubt that just a bit of panic, rushing to make up time, and being tired is a surefire combo to getting injured while hiking. It sucks you took the tumble, but it's good you got out without worse too.

For me, of all the new backpacking tech that's come along in the past 30 years the LED light is by far most useful. I bushwhacked all over before I got a GPS, but I didn't go far at night until lightweight and cheap LED lighting came along. Since then I've bushwhacked at night and never worried for a moment that my lights would fail, and they never have.

I've given away quite a few of those cheap LED headlamps over the years to people who had to cut out early or someone who was leaving on a hike without one. I just couldn't let them go without one because I knew what it felt like to go through what you did.

That's a tough situation to find yourself in. You did good though, and you learned a lesson I think we've all learned, and probably kicked yourself as much as we all have over it learning it the hard way.

I have a really nice Petzl headlamp I put some new batteries in today. While at an auto parts store earlier, I noticed they had a whole rack of personal headlamps -- Energizer...

I really did learn a few things on that hike. The biggest is that I shouldn't have went on it given the realities of my starting time. I suppose I could have set a hard turnaround time, but that would have added stress on the way up and I would have been pushing hard to summit before I had to turn around. Better to plan the hike all out from the beginning.

Thanks for your comments.

On the other hand, my new boots -- Scarpa SL ACTIVs performed extremely well. GREAT pair of boots for $125!!

Who bought the Walmart hiking poles? *raises hand*

I always bring a light of some sort. one of my favourites was a headlamp that had 3 light settings, red or white LED, and a white bulb. Since I also hunt, the one thing I learned about LEDs is that they don't show up blood very good, unless you have an LED bloodlight unit. I find that there are some cases where the LEDs just don't light up what I need to see, which is why I liked the bulb option. I mostly use LEDs, except for when they won't work for the use I need them for. They just need to shine in the right spectrum.

The idea of turn around points & time limits is a very good one. When planning a full day, for myself, I have to remember to take into consideration a couple of things. It's easy to think of, say an 8hr light window that 4 hours in would be the turnaround point, being half way. For me, I move slower as the day goes by, being more fatigued, so if I'm doing a loop, I might want the halfway distance point to be hit maybe around 3h30m in, to give me the extra hour for the second half. The other thing though, is that if I turn around at the 4hr mark and go back the way I came, I'll go out faster than I came in because I stop taking in my surroundings as much and I travel faster. Sometimes it just seems this way as things are familiar, but for me, it indeed is faster. So halfway, for myself, at a 4hr mark would be pushing it to continue the loop, but be good to turn back.

Hope that all made sense.

I am an old climber -- gradually eased into backpacking as I aged. I am a big proponent of a turnaround time. Detailed planning also helps. Know exactly how many miles and elevation gain both up and down a mountain. And as others have said, going down is not a piece of cake at the end when you are tired. Tired legs easily give out on steep downhill travel. A good way to give yourself more climbing time is to get going pre-dawn by headlamp. I much rather use the headlamp at the beginning, which usually is easy, than running out of daylight coming down. We call this an "Alpine start"- on a big mountain this is about 2AM.

I also think that if you are going to get into mountaineering (or even peak bagging) you need to test your day-hike gear to be sure it is sufficient for an unexpected night out. You do not need to equip for comfort- just survival and you need to know the difference.

Taking your regular backpack kit on a climb or day-hike is overkill. You will likely not be able to climb a lot of peaks if this is your mode of operation. And if you get into more difficult climbing (class 5 technical climbing) you cannot haul a regular pack- just does not work. Besides, half the joy of day-hiking is NOT to carry all that gear.

Very interesting comment given the article in my local paper today. No hiking or climbing of city and county owned properties from sunup to sundown. I'm really not sure why that is? It's about control I suppose. The fine is $562.00 for being on a trail before sunup or after sundown...

It's a law dating from the late 1990's but now they have new tax revenues to buy more trucks and hire more rangers. Either people are going to be prepared (mentally, physically and gear) of they're not, day or night...

There was plenty of daylight available the day I fell. I just didn't get on the trail in time. I should have hiked another peak or did something else with my time on that day.

The Wal*Mart poles are excellent and the fact they cost $11.00/set on sale is a big plus.

As I noted above I jammed the pole into a crack in a big rock and then got all out of shape because I was moving so fast.

It would have snapped/bent any pole. Had I been descending at my normal speed, I would have had more than ample time to yank the pole out of the crack before taking another step.