30-year-old parents get ditched by their friends in the wilderness because they weren't warned that their “hike” was actually a strenuous bike ride: 'We don't own mountain bikes'

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Jun 22, 2026 4:30 PM EDT

They went through the trouble of getting a babysitter for this? 

A pair of new parents had spent months scrambling to get together with their friends, only for their entire hike to fall apart before it even began. 

As all new parents understand, when you have a newborn baby at home, it's not exactly conducive to maintaining a healthy social life, and planning shindigs with your friends (even small get-togethers) can be a monumental task. Not only does your baby need a responsible sitter to look after them while you're enjoying Aperol spritzes with your homies, but your adult friends likely also have their own little responsibilities to attend to. This dance of planning and scheduling often results in delays and reschedulings that can go on for months. 

At a certain point, new parents just want to kick their feet up for a brief moment and pretend like life can be spontaneous again. Is that so much to ask? 

Apparently so, because when this 31-year-old mom meticulously planned a hiking hangout with her friends, she was sideswiped when she was left out in the wilderness to fend for herself. The "hike" that her group had planned was not just a simple 2-mile trail like they had promised, but it was actually a strenuous mountain bike trail and these young parents were the only duo that didn't get the memo about acquiring a 21-speed, mega-suspension, down-hilling bike for their entry-level stroll. 

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    via Getty Images (Georgijevic)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • AITAH for showing up underprepared to a "hike" and being put off with my friends for not warning me and also ditching me?
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  • Genuinely need help understanding if I'm just a wuss who dragged everyone backwards today or if we're mad for the right reasons.
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  • I'll change minor details here for discretion. I've (31F) had a friend group (similar ages) saying we'd like to get together for a hike for some time. We've
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  • scheduled, rescheduled, planned and unplanned babysitter and dogsitters, and FINALLY managed it.
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  • So I had been tossing out trail ideas. Something easy; single day. My 2 friends say, "We'd like to just hike the trail right by our place!" And they
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  • essentially tell me that its a straight shot, we'll have a buddy drop us off on the other side of the hill, and we'll hike over, and essentially right back down into their neighborhood. Six hours, start to finish.
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  • So my boyfriend and I show up, backpacks, basic snacks, water bottles. They show up on bikes.
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  • Some people have different definitions of a “hike,” that's for sure. While some people don't think paved paths count as a hike, others might think a 5-mile walk in a city park is more than just a saunter. Ranging from mountaineering and alpinism to a literal walk on the beach, hikes come in all shapes and sizes, but let me tell you one thing that's always certain: hikes never include a bike. 

    Once a bike becomes involved, nobody should be calling this outdoor adventure a “hike,” lest they give their friends the wrong idea and a misleading, potentially dangerous ditching. These parents at least knew their way around the woods, or they might have needed that babysitter longer than anticipated. 

  • Cheezburger Image 10641273088
    via Getty Images (Georgijevic)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • My boyfriend and I are a little confused. We thought this was a hike? For leisure? No rush, just sort of a one foot in front of the other type thing.
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  • They say its no rush, they may beat us, but we're all just going back to the neighborhood. Plus there are a bunch of scenic lookouts where they'll stop and we'll catch up.
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  • Well, to no one's surprise, we get left behind pretty quickly. No cell service to be spoken of. We keep having to crowd off to one side for ATVs ripping down the
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  • path, but the longer we keep walking, one thing becomes clearer and clearer: this is not any kind of hiking trail. Its not built for this at all. Despite that being the original idea.
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  • Eventually we stop to rest and wind up chatting with these guys who have pulled over on their ATVs. They ask us where we're headed, and when we tell them, it
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  • becomes immediately clear that we have MUCH further to go than originally intended. Like several miles to go yet.
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  • Cheezburger Image 10641273344
    via Getty Images (Georgijevic)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • These two were saints, because they gave us a lift. The further we rode, the more astonished we became that anyone had expected us to do this on foot. It took us at least 15 minutes more to
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  • get there by ATV. We got back to the trailhead and realized it wasn't exactly right into the neighborhood like we'd been told, so we just started walking.
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  • Eventually they came by and picked us up. I'd say maybe 20 minutes or so after we'd hit the main road. We told them we were too tired to stay for dinner (the original plan)
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  • and we booked out and grabbed something on the way home. Here's where I'm at. We're adults. I was clearly underprepared,
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  • and no one should have to be responsible for me. On the other hand, this trip was VASTLY misrepresented to us, and had I known, I
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  • wouldve told these people we didn't own mountain bikes, and to count us out. This was not a hike. We have VASTLY different ideas of what constitutes a hike.
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  • Ive been fielding calls about how "sorry everyone is" about "the way things went down" but honestly, I just said that I had made it home safe and I'd talk to everyone later.
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  • My mom had been babysitting so we could go, and when she asked me, I told her all of the above, and then said, "I tried to hold it together,
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  • because I figured maybe I was just tired and crabby. But then we had dinner and I was still upset."
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  • She genuinely asked me if these people were my friends. Im going to sleep on it, because it's fresh, but I feel like she's right. I felt like I was taking crazy pills today,
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  • because, din, at least tell me I'd be better off just going home. I felt like the people who knew the area misrepresented the trip
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  • and then totally f ed off and left us to figure out a way back. Additionally; I get very few days off with a babysitter, so to have planned excessively for
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  • this to have it go down that way was additionally disappointing, although not anyone's fault; just an extra grievance, honestly.
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  • Idk, it just feels like we lost the plot here somewhere, and I'm not demanding an apology, I'm just not going to be expecting help or logic from any of these people in the near future.
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  • agirlsknowsthings You were the only ones without bikes?! These people aren't your friends. While yes you're all adults, you cannot prepare or plan for what you're not told.
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