Keeping the Bugout Going

You and your people are in one place. You need to get somewhere else. No cars, no trains, no busses…the only way to get there is shoe leather. But it’s a very long walk; right at the edge of what you think is possible. If you get into trouble, you’ll have to get yourselves out. No help will be coming. How do you handle these challenges and keep going?

This situation sounds a lot like a possible bugout, doesn’t it? It also has a lot of similarities with a trip I just finished. We were dropped off at the north rim of the Grand Canyon at first light. Our beds were 24.5 miles away, atop the south rim. 5000 ft of descent and 4000 ft of climbing also lay before us.

Ok, let’s not get over-dramatic. If someone had broken a leg, we could have called in a helicopter medevac. Short of that, though, were were on our own. I saw and heard and felt some things on that hike that may help you, should you need to do such a bugout. There’ll be a couple of posts. This one focuses on the biggest problem: How to just keep going.

Our destination was behind and to the left of the tallest rocks on the horizon. The trick was to keep going. Photo by Spice.

Psychology is the biggest part of success

There’s a saying among those ultra-marathoners and Iron (Wo)Man athletes: 90% of success is mental. The other 10% is mental.

Your brain is literally wired to lie to you about how strong you are and how much energy you have left. It will tell you with absolute conviction that you are Done. If you can push through that, you’ll find you can keep going.

Knowing that is a big key to being able to use that last store of energy and keep going when you thought you couldn’t.

Let them focus on Just One Thing

There are some other tricks that help. Lisa had gotten a late start and needed to move faster than she ever had before. Some young, fit guys passed her. She didn’t think she could hold them long, but resolved to attach to their train for as long as she could. All she had to do was focus on the heels of the hiker in front. She let all other thoughts go and just hung on to that pair of heels. The next ten miles were the fastest she’d ever done.

Don’t make your struggling members have to think about anything but the walk. Give them the single concrete goal of ‘keep up with the person in front’ and they can do that far longer than they, or you, would have guessed.

A little shove can be a kindness

When Carl could no longer hold the pace, Reva dropped back behind him and just rested her fingers on the small of his back. It wasn’t enough to make a real energy difference, but something about feeling physical pressure from behind let Carl access his hidden reserves. He was able to pick up his pace and hold it for another hour.

Keep Going; Just Another 20 feet

At 22 miles in, I was marveling at how good I felt. Then I hit the wall. Very suddenly I felt I had nothing left in the tank. I had to push down on each knee just to get my body up each step. Doc showed me we were so close, maybe another 350 vertical feet from the rim. But all those switchbacks left to go… She asked how far I thought it was. “20 feet” I replied. And dropped my eyes, focused on the next 20 feet, and got my body that far. Then shifted my eyes forward 20 feet; until eventually we reached the rim.

When you just can’t handle how hopelessly far you still have to go (and half a mile can feel hopeless at some points), let that go. Pick something you can win. To the next corner. Up to the tall tree there. 20 feet. Win that goal and pick another. Don’t think on how many ‘20 feets’ you’ve come already, or how many remain. Right now you just have to do this ‘20 feet’.

Accept feelings but not assessments

 Becca didn’t think she could make it. Her knees hurt – a lot. Of course we didn’t tell her her knees weren’t that bad….how condescending would that be? She was the one wearing them. So we agreed, and agreed that it stank. But we also told her we knew she Could keep going and Would get there. And she did.

If someone says they don’t think they can do it — they’re telling the truth. They don’t think they can do it. The thing is, they may well be wrong. Brains lie about these things, remember? Accepting the feelings but contesting the conclusions gets more out of people than trying to convince them they don’t know what they’re feeling. Besides, doing it this way lets you Not be a jerk. It helps people to let them know that you see it’s a hard thing, but see them as someone who can do the hard thing.

This one deserves care. There’s nothing good or helpful to pushing people beyond what they can actually do (more on that on a later post). 

When people are still going, but they’re cracked…

“Cracked” is the expression for someone working at the edge of their physical limit who becomes what the psych people call “cognitively impaired”. When you crack, you have trouble noticing or processing new information or ideas. In other words, you get stupid, forgetful, single-minded, and stubborn.

One day I was on a long bike ride and saw a tunnel-shaped building. I stared at it awhile in surprise; I hadn’t known my county still had a covered bridge. And why on earth was the covered bridge on top of the hill? “Spice,” I told myself, “Eat. We don’t put bridges on hilltops. You are Cracked.” 

From the front, a covered bridge does resemble a tractor shed opened front and back. But only one of these things is built on hilltops.

Conflicts and arguments escalate when people are pushing hard. Each person gets fixed on their own ideas and strongly resists changing those ideas. Also, some of those ideas are really dumb. It’s something you have to watch out for in yourself, and expect to have to deal with in your companions.

There are some tips gleaned from previous hiking trips here.