Always Use the Buddy System
A bunch of friends and myself were going on an 8 mile hike during a group camping trip. Before we left, one of our friends kept voicing his skepticism about being able to complete an 8 mile hike. His girlfriend kept urging him to go because she didn’t want to hang back with him, she wanted to hike.
So, he ends up going. About an hour and a half into the hike, we are going up a series of switchbacks and the dude just can’t do it anymore. He tells us that he is going back. We all kind of look to his girlfriend to see if she is going to accompany him back and she just turns around to keep moving forward.
A couple of us were in the back kind of looking back towards him and then up towards the others who are continuing on and then of of my other friends says, “should someone go with him?”, and we all kind of look at each other hesitantly.
I finally jump in and say I will go back with him so that everyone else can keep going. I catch up to him and he says I didn’t have to do that but I tell him that I don’t want him being alone all day.
We make it back to camp and he immediately goes to take a nap and I end up sitting at camp by myself for the next few hours until the rest of the people get back… I guess I should have listened to him when he said I didn’t have to come back with him… Story credit: Reddit / mrboom74