-- Scared in the wilderness - what are/is your stories/story?

[Simply Red]

Good Evening,

I just started what appears to be a really good movie called 'Hold the Dark' - It prompted me to ask CP - what situations, observations or any other 'tions - have you experienced away from civilization in which had you scared for you life?

Animals, weather, devil worshipers? Primarily what I'm looking for is wild animal encounters.

I know we have quite a few in the Pacific NW that post on here. (bears maybe?)

Just wondering if anyone has any interesting stories regarding this...?

I'd love to hear them...

Thanks

[Frazod]

Hopefully Livesteam will see this and post his big foot camping story.

As for me, most scary nature thing was getting caught in a violent thunderstorm while on a float trip down the Current River, which turned the normally calm and clear river into a raging torrent. I was 11 or 12, and in a canoe with my cousin who is a couple of years younger. We had been farting around and lagged behind the rest of the group, so we were on our own when it hit. At one point we hit a tree that had fallen in the water and the canoe sank. My cousin nearly drowned. That was pretty intense.

No animal stories. If I'm out in the woods, I'm armed.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by Frazod

Hopefully Livesteam will see this and post his big foot camping story.

As for me, most scary nature thing was getting caught in a violent thunderstorm while on a float trip down the Current River, which turned the normally calm and clear river into a raging torrent. I was 11 or 12, and in a canoe with my cousin who is a couple of years younger. We had been farting around and lagged behind the rest of the group, so we were on our own when it hit. At one point we hit a tree that had fallen in the water and the canoe sank. My cousin nearly drowned. That was pretty intense.

No animal stories. If I'm out in the woods, I'm armed.

I bullshit you not - I literally almost drowned in that river - the only other story I have is getting seriously lost in Perkins cave - that shit was horrifying - both events.

[Simply Red]

By the way this movie is on Netflix and appears to be a doozy y'all.

[Hammock Parties]

I got lost in the woods of NW Arkansas driving to KC from Louisiana one weekend.

It was really dark, the roads were super twisty and I was operating on about 3 hours sleep.

I thought I was going to careen off the roads, hit a tree, have to start walking and get eaten by a bear.

I've never been more happy to see a sign for I-71 than I ever have coming out of those woods.

[Frazod]

This wasn't the woods, but definitely a middle of nowhere story. I was driving from Missouri to Norfolk back in my Navy days - back before I-64 went all the way through and, for a time, you had to take US Highway 60 through the mountains east of Charleston, WV. I was headed east on straight, flat stretch of 60 before it got hilly and nasty, about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. As I was driving, I saw a guy lying on the side of the road. Not sprawling or bloody or anything - just lying there like he was asleep. No other cars, no lights from nearby homes, no nothing. It was a moonless, pitch black night. I slowed down as I approached. The guy didn't move. I was alone, unarmed, and this was years before everybody had a cellphone. Part of me wanted to stop and check on him, and had it been light out I probably would have. But the other part said **** THAT, and the **** THAT part won. Maybe he was hurt; or maybe was lying there waiting for some idiot to stop so he could waylay him. Maybe he had some buddies waiting in the brush nearby. Didn't want to end up being the star of some midnight Deliverance scene, so I hit the gas and went on my way.

When I got to a town with an open gas station, I told the attendant what I saw and he called the local police. I continued on my way. I have no idea who the guy was, or what became of him.

[Rain Man]

I've had a couple of trail races where I wasn't sure if I was lost or not. In one I knew I could just turn around, but in the other one I was all dehydrated and I was 11 or 12 miles in, felt like I was about to drop, and I didn't really know where I was. I was starting to get really bummed out since I was going to die, but eventually I found the finish line.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by Frazod

This wasn't the woods, but definitely a middle of nowhere story. I was driving from Missouri to Norfolk back in my Navy days - back before I-64 went all the way through and, for a time, you had to take US Highway 60 through the mountains east of Charleston, WV. I was headed east on straight, flat stretch of 60 before it got hilly and nasty, about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. As I was driving, I saw a guy lying on the side of the road. Not sprawling or bloody or anything - just lying there like he was asleep. No other cars, no lights from nearby homes, no nothing. It was a moonless, pitch black night. I slowed down as I approached. The guy didn't move. I was alone, unarmed, and this was years before everybody had a cellphone. Part of me wanted to stop and check on him, and had it been light out I probably would have. But the other part said **** THAT, and the **** THAT part won. Maybe he was hurt; or maybe was lying there waiting for some idiot to stop so he could waylay him. Maybe he had some buddies waiting in the brush nearby. Didn't want to end up being the star of some midnight Deliverance scene, so I hit the gas and went on my way.

When I got to a town with an open gas station, I told the attendant what I saw and he called the local police. I continued on my way. I have no idea who the guy was, or what became of him.

That's a gnarly story - I dig it. I have one that happened on Valley View Rd and Woods Chapel in Blue Springs I'll post later on this afternoon as I'm knee deep into this flick right now.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

That's a gnarly story - I dig it. I have one that happened on Valley View Rd and Woods Chapel in Blue Springs I'll post later on this afternoon as I'm knee deep into this flick right now.

Yeah, it really does sound like the opening scene of a horror movie, doesn't it? Except I'm not a moron.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by Frazod

Yeah, it really does sound like the opening scene of a horror movie, doesn't it? Except I'm not a moron.

sorry bro i fat thumbed that - was supposed to be thumbs-up. my bad. So much for multi-tasking.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

sorry bro i fat thumbed that - was supposed to be thumbs-up. my bad. So much for multi-tasking.

I'll try to find the strength to soldier on.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by Frazod

This wasn't the woods, but definitely a middle of nowhere story. I was driving from Missouri to Norfolk back in my Navy days - back before I-64 went all the way through and, for a time, you had to take US Highway 60 through the mountains east of Charleston, WV. I was headed east on straight, flat stretch of 60 before it got hilly and nasty, about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. As I was driving, I saw a guy lying on the side of the road. Not sprawling or bloody or anything - just lying there like he was asleep. No other cars, no lights from nearby homes, no nothing. It was a moonless, pitch black night. I slowed down as I approached. The guy didn't move. I was alone, unarmed, and this was years before everybody had a cellphone. Part of me wanted to stop and check on him, and had it been light out I probably would have. But the other part said **** THAT, and the **** THAT part won. Maybe he was hurt; or maybe was lying there waiting for some idiot to stop so he could waylay him. Maybe he had some buddies waiting in the brush nearby. Didn't want to end up being the star of some midnight Deliverance scene, so I hit the gas and went on my way.

When I got to a town with an open gas station, I told the attendant what I saw and he called the local police. I continued on my way. I have no idea who the guy was, or what became of him.

Dude!! That was me!!!

I made one bad mistake and ate the Mezcal worm and you just left me there?

FAx

[RINGLEADER]

Was with the family when I was young and we were staying at a campground by a small creek in the woods in Colorado. A storm was coming on Saturday night so my father made us leave early (as kids we were pissed) and to this day I remember the clouds turning the sky behind the mountains black. That night the whole campsite flooded and killed everyone who had stayed with us at the campgrounds.

Not really a “scared in the wilderness” story but knowing that little creek that me and the other kids were hopping over became a huge river that washed away the campgrounds is scary to think about to this day.

[eDave]

A coyote ate my cat. In the suburbs.

[NewChief]

A few: 90 mile per hour winds on top of Guadalupe Peak at night, in our tent. Luckily, I had a pretty bomber 4-season tent that stood up to it. On the same trip, my girlfriend (now wife) had the flu. We had hiked around 10 miles into the backcountry carrying all of our water for 3 nights as there was none available in the backcountry, so we were rationing water pretty heavy. You ever tried to ration water when you have the flu? It was a good bonding experience, though.

At Philmont, some buddies and I sidehiked up to Yuraca Mesa, which has a high iron content so your compasses don't work. In addition, it has a reputation as the "haunted mesa." We ran into a mother bear and two cubs there.

This summer my 10 year old and I were riding down Windsor Trail in New Mexico (a 10 mile descent from Mt. Santa Fe into town). He threw his chain on his bike. We stopped to get it going again, looked up and had two black bear staring at us from about 40 yards away. At first we were like "Cool!" then they started raising up and looking at us, and I got the bike rolling again pretty quickly. Part of me KNOWS that black bears aren't going to screw with humans... but still.

Driving back cross country with a friend from the Pacific Northwest to Arkansas. We hit the "loneliest Highway in America" that comes out of Reno, NV in the wee hours of the morning. We were both exhausted, so we pulled over at a pullout to sleep in the car for a couple of hours. We both woke up feeling completely freaked out, like someone was staring in the car at us and decided we needed to get out of that place immediately. Really weird. Only we both had to pee. Jumped out of car to pee and saw an informational nationa/state park sign saying this area was sacred to the Native Americans. Probably only time I've ever really believed in ghosts.

In my college days, we used to do a lot of caving. In my college days, we used to do a lot of psychedelics. The two don't always mix. Was never in any real danger, but it's very easy to convince yourself that you might be lost and stuck in a cave forever.

Probably the most scared I've ever been in the wood was also the funniest. At Boy Scout Camp. The staff loved to start all kinds of bullshit stories to get the campers scared. They told us about some devil worshippers that people had seen repeatedly staring in people's tents. These stories were floating around all week. One night the adult leaders all had a meeting to attend, and we started telling each other about all these stories. We all ended up huddled around the lantern, facing outwards into the dark, holding our knives, convinced that the devil worshippers were coming to get us. Our leaders returned to quite site. We were absolutely convinced we were about to get abducted and sacrificed. Luckily, no one got stabbed.

We did a lot of backcountry snowboarding in Colorado. We had avalanche beacons and all that jazz, but you still run into some crazy intense and scary situations where you're worried things could go south, even if you're taking precautions.

My wife and I were visiting relatives of hers in Australia. We did a couple of scary things. The first was we spent 3 nights backpacking on Hinchinbrook island on the Thorsborne Trail. They only allow 20 people on the island to hike at a time, so you're very isolated (her relatives were convinced the stupid yanks were going to die). You have to do a lot of creek crossings and hike along saltwater estuaries on this hike, which is prime "saltie" (saltwater croc) territory. We didn't have any close calls, but you're still freaked out and envisioning those freaking impalas on Planet Earth that bet ambushed by crocs along the banks of a river.

We also went kayaking out to an island. We saw several dark shadows under us. Probably not great white sharks, but your mind goes a little crazy when you're out on the open water in a little kayak.