How to make mistakes while hiking - Battleship Mountain Summit Hike - Superstition Wilderness

How to make mistakes while hiking - Battleship Mountain Summit Hike - Superstition Wilderness I tried to make this video as raw and real as I could. There are things I could have left out. But experience comes from mistakes. So why not share some of ours? If you're the impatient type, fast forward to around the 10 minute mark and it'll get into the exciting stuff. But try watching the whole thing if you want to avoid making someone else's mistakes. There's a misconception in the hiking world that inexperience leads to mistakes. Don't get me wrong. It does. But experience is not a cure for mistakes. We are all imperfect. We all screw up. We all get complacent. That's why we prepare. That's why we plan. That's why we try our best to put contingencies in place. So we may have screwed up a little on this one. First and foremost, we underestimated Battleship Mountain. The Superstitions are rugged. Battleship Mountain is a very rugged part of a very rugged wilderness area. I pictured it wrong. I pictured a mild incline and some light scrambling to the top of a lesser known summit in the Superstition Wilderness. I was wrong. Battleship Mountain is a beast. The hike to the summit is an unmaintained trail. It's poorly marked, full of spots of exposure and areas that border on rock climbing....And it was a 12 mile round trip walk from anywhere, just to GET to the sketchy parts. Luckily for us, we planned for the worst. We have had to dip into our 'emergency supplies' before, but never as many of them as we did here. But that planning was enough to get us safely back to our truck. Did we make it to the summit? You'll have to watch and see. All of that aside, Battleship Mountain is a beautiful peak. It's set in what I consider to be the most beautiful area of the already beautiful Superstition Wilderness. If you're adventurous, comfortable with heights and have the experience, the Battleship Mountain summit hike may be right up your alley. Just don't get complacent. And have a lot of Plan B's. Turn off coordinates: 33.487849, -111.395551