>>1313042Florida trail, 1996.
First of all, you can hike through a lot of shit (I have) and survive okay. People think that "mountain hiking" (e.g. "hurr durr I gained 500 feet in elevation over 3 hours so I'm basically an Everest-level dude") is hard. Try hiking in sand, through a stand of pines that from 10 am to 2 pm are pretty much like hiking on the beach, in 90F hear and 90% humidity while you can feel the surface temperature of the trail (which is too hot to lay your hand on and count to ten) baking through your boots.
Now add the fact that you're going to use up 2-3 times as much water as you would on any other trail, and other than passing by an occasional pond with piss-warm protozoa-laden water, the plotted water sources are about a day's hike apart, so you have to carry all the treated water you can between campsites, adding significantly to your weight. Then imagine what fun when you hike to a spot while you're on H2O empty and exhausted for the last 3 miles, only to find out the "water source" listed there on the freaking map is a hand pump well that has a sign on it when you get there that it is "out of service" and the sign is so weathered you know it's been down for a year because they figure the rednecks who are going to hit the trailhead with cases of Natty Light don't really need it anyway so why bother.
So, you have no water to make it to the next source 12 miles away, but there is a pond about 4 miles in, which may or may not be either flooded or dry, flip your coin on that. Either way, it's going to be hot water with weird shit in it you'd never drink even treated if someone paid you.
So yeah, I've encountered those situations. On one of them, I tested my description of it by trying to figure out in my dehydrated state what I'd trade for a liter of water. I figured I'd trade my pinky or index finger, maybe not my thumb, to be removed with a rusty can lid. And I was fucking serious.
