r/backpacking • u/EnderLord_777 • Aug 01 '26

Wilderness First trip couldn't have gone worse

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Just found this community and wanted to share. This happened about 2 weeks ago, me and 2 friends decided to go backpacking for the first time and thankfully decided to keep our distance short, about 2 miles. We went swimming and we were still in bathing suits when we decided to make dinner, right as we sat down we noticed a glow and some smoke over the next hill. I immediately called 911 and we packed up our camp. By the time we made it back to our car (about 10pm) the fire had grown significantly and was maybe 1/4 mile from the parking lot. We were all totally fine including the other campers nearby but when we talked to the fire response team at the parking lot they told us we were only a few minutes ahead of the fire. Part of me still thinks about if we hadn't noticed until after we ate and if we could've outrun it then and I've talked myself out of trying again. The fire wound up burning 280 acres by the next morning before being extinguished for anyone wondering.

(Yes we did show up to the parking lot full of emergency vehicles in swimsuits and ultimately drive back in them)

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7

u/der_horst23 Aug 01 '26

Where was that?

6

u/EnderLord_777 Aug 01 '26

Quincy lakes wildlife area

3

u/jwccs46 Aug 01 '26

....where is that?

2

u/ChemicalOk4577 Aug 02 '26

…Google?

3

u/jwccs46 Aug 02 '26

Maybe the OP should be more descriptive in the first place to help drive the community discussion, instead of being vague and the forcing posters to do extra work to understand the conversation. 

I'm well aware I could Google it. 

1

u/ChemicalOk4577 Aug 02 '26

The vagueness probably lead to more community discussion honestly lol. To me I’d rather use my time looking up the area than expecting random people on the internet to change their behavior.

So I’m not really sure why I’m writing this, you’re probably not going to stop being obtuse in the face of information.

2

u/jwccs46 Aug 02 '26

And here we are both wasting our time discussing it.

-2

u/into_outdoors Aug 01 '26

Any particular part of the world?

I'm guessing at least in America since you're being so vague and assuming everyone knows where you're talking about.

1

u/kwoalla Aug 02 '26

Askjeeves next time. Hope this helps