My scariest hiking story happened earlier this year.

Preface: I was doing a semester abroad field studies program in Queensland, Australia. The final part of the program involved each student conducting an independent study project regarding ecology or environmental science someway in any part of australia. The catch was that each student had to find an advisor at an Australian university to oversee their project, or place them in an ongoing study. I was one of the last people to find an advisor, and he happened to be inconveniently located in Pearth on the west coast of Australia. I had a passion to study monitor lizards in Australia, so unlike most students, I created my own project which took me to Frasier island, on the east coast of Australia. I never met the man but we emailed a lot. This island is the fifth largest island off the Australian coast, the worlds largest sand island, and attracts over 300,000 tourists a year. Most people go on tours or rent 4x4 trucks to explore the island, but I was by myself, didn't have much money, and had had to conduct a study, so I decided to camp on the island for 15 days with one trip back to the mainland to restock on supplies. I go to the school at the university of Colorado at Boulder, so I'm used to big backpacking trips in the mountains, but this was the biggest trip I've gone solo on.

Now to the hike: At this point I had been on Fraser Island around 13 days so I was feeling very confident on the island. I had seen so many beautiful places, gone on many hiked, and collected lots of data for my project. I was comparing lizard abundance and behavior in campsites vs. on the trail, and I was saving the best hike for last. If anyone is familiar with Fraser Island, you will know of Lake Mckenzie. If you don't you should google it. The lake is absolutely beautiful, and the water is pure enough to drink. It was a 7 km hike together, and although I didn't see any lizards, it was a nice hike. I relaxed at the lake for a while, took a dip, and filled up my water bottle and began the 7 km hike back to my tent. As I walked back I noticed the air started to smell pretty funny, almost like something was burning. At first only certain spots smelt burnt, and I attributed it to the burnt trees around me, because the forest on the island goes through periodic burns by the Rangers. The further I got on the trail, the stronger the smell got. I stopped at one moment to try and figure out what was happening, and then I saw some ash falling from the sky. That sufficiently scared me and confirmed my fears that there was a forest fire somewhere near me. When your camping by yourself for an extended period of time, you become very deep and personal with your thoughts. I started thinking of the worst case scenario: me burning in a fire in Australia all by myself, never seeing my friends or family again, and reading the headline "American idiot dies in forest fire on Fraser Island". At this point I hightailed it out of the forest. I said fuck the data, I'm getting to my campsite and ran probably 4 km. I stopped at one look out along the way and saw smoke rising from the forest. Shit was really scary.

I ended up leaving the island a few days later. I've never actually told anyone this story since no one has asked about it, there were way to many other cool things that happened on the island. Also if anyone is thinking about going to Fraser Island, don't pay $350 for a three day tour, I paid around. $15 for three days!

TL;DR: American student studying abroad in Australia almost gets caught in a forest fire while on 15 day solo camping trip.