Your Scariest Night Out?

“I guess mine would probably be the 'Farewell to the Adventurists' trip to Harriman this past October. I got separated from the group as we were all climbing the last mountain, back to the shelter, after our day hike. This caused me to be out looking for the turn-off to the shelter long enough so that I got caught in rain that was increasing in intensity by the minute. Darkness was also setting in rapidly. Having wandered past the turn-off point, I started to lose perspective (and sight) of where I was. Long story short, I was out there yelling for over half an hour and got rescued by Adventurist...
last edited: 12/01/04 9:51:16 PM”

“Wow, Deltahiker! What an experience! I'm so glad you survived to tell us your story.

What a great thread. You're right, whoever suggested it before, this will probably be a Backpacker article within the year.

I have enjoyed reading everyone's stories. It's interesting how our scary moments are so different. I notice that most of the fear is induced by Mother Nature, wild animals, and/or other people.

And Gem, I was wondering if you were going to share the story of your night solo hike up to Frozen Head. ;)”

“Thumbing a ride in 1965 on the golden state bridge and being picked up by a 41 year my elder Mill Valley woman.At the time I was on LSD and soon became under the direction of nmany more.After a 1/2 mile walk to he house,all but my survival was my intent.The last of that night I remember was my my request to have a break from the constant ravage I'd under gone and can't remember any more.”

“okay... sorry to be so long winded with the last story. but hey, cut me a break.. I almost died man!
Not a trail story.. yaking story

scary story 3...The MUCH shorter story than the last. Spring break 2003

I was going to teach 2 freinds of mine to kayak on the USUALLY very very tame Tuckaseegee river in north Carolina. It\'s even tamer than the Nantahala.
Neither one had been in a kayak before. It was barely misting all morn. When we put in after stretching and going over signals and agressive self rescue, the water began to pick up pace. I thought the Tuck was dam controlled but there must have been a hell of a storm at the top of the valley. And with it raining there was no chance that my friends could warm up much out of the water if they needed to. The current had covered up many rapids and created some new ones that I had never seen. One of my friends bailed and couldnt catch his boat or his paddle so I went after them. While going after his speeding paddle I notice that he is swimming straight into a strainer so I paddle like mad upstream back to him and drag him away. While doing this, I bail and get raped across some very shallow back cut rocks, cut my shins, and the front of both of my hands. We had a few more toss outs without rolls and we had to stop and get out strip clothes and exercize just to try to stay warm. We got in just before dark and we were all showing beggining signs of hypothermia.
I dont think that it was so bad current wise (even though worse than I have ever seen that river, it\'s still not big water) I think that freezing our cahones off made us a little tense and I can surely say that the cold affected my paddle skills. I just kept thinking... the water is way fast and what if they both bail and cant self rescue. I was not sure would the outcome would be because I had never seen them in the water before.

All ended well after we took out. We went to the store right across from the take-out and I got med tape for my cuts and some hot capacinno for my soul. My body didnt warm up till the next day after breakfast.”

“Usually bushwhacking where I put myself in terrible predicaments & unable to turn back.”

““... a 41 year my elder Mill Valley woman... I was on LSD and soon became under the direction of nmany more....all but my survival was my intent...my my request to have a break from the constant ravage I'd under gone and can't remember any more.”

salebored
10:32:14 PM
12/01/04

Were you tripping when you wrote this?
last edited: 12/02/04 7:40:15 AM”

“My scariest night out was all in my mind - literally...

Me and two friends were car camping at Cobscook Bay State Park. They camped on the gravel and I pitched my tent off in the woods.

I've always had vivid nightmares, but this one was a doozy...I dreamt that critters were chewing holes in my tent and trying to cart off my young child, I was fighting them off...I actually screamed out loud several times, woke myself up, and didn't sleep for the rest of the night...everytime I started to doze off, I'd "hear" critters scratching at my tent.

It unnerved me so much that I actually drove to the outhouse, LOL...and dragged my tent out of the woods and camped practically on top of my friends.

The next time I solo backpacked, my only worry was that my dreams would scare me. Fortunately it was a peaceful trip.
=D”

“Yes!”

“Seems to be a bunch of "firsts" in this thread. First trips, first solos, first time on the water. Inexperience leads to lack of judgement and/or vivid imaginations?

salebored - we can tell”

“yup have to agree with scorch
almost going over a cliff will for ever be on my list of scariest moments of my LIFE!

being scared in a tent with a noise outside is bad. make a lot of noise and it should go away.
not being able to stop a car from slidding off a cliff is no fun at all.”

“This has nothing to do with hiking but I can share 2 accidents (car) I was involved in.

First was many years ago. Barbie and I are on our way back from a movie in the evening. Driving home on a major road, I notice a car coming up behind me, FAST!

This road is a 4 lane highway - 2 lanes east, 2 lanes west. We were heading west. I was in the "slow" lane.

As car is about to rear end me, I hit my brakes and swirve over onto the shoulder. The driver of the other car swirves the other way toward a grassy median and oncoming traffic.

He could not control the car. He hit the worst part of the median possible. It is actually a ditch. He went down in, then shot out over oncoming traffic. His car never touched the pavement on the other side. Car flew through the air and hit a telephone and flipped over a few times.

I drove as fast as I could to the gas station on the corner and Barbie called 911. She came out and drove to the scene. I had receintly completed a CPR course and thought I might be able to do something since I was the first there.

The driver was still in the car, but he was dead. I think he had broken his neck. When I looked his head was twisted around, almost backwards.

I also notice blood all over the passenger side area as well as a large hole in the windsheld. About 100 feet from the car was the passenger. I got close enough to notice the he was missing something, so I turned and waited for police.

Inatially, police thought I was involved in the accident. I swore up and down that their car never touched mine.

3 guesses what offically caused the accident.”

“Bearmagnet, is that how you got your name?”
pinkbubelz
4:52:16 PM
12/01/04

yes. My first two trips I didn't go a day without seeing bears.

The 2nd trip I got back to my site and discovered a food "hang" 10ft from my tent and 10ft above the river. I was unpacking my bag and cursing the tourons out (I was alone at the moment). I turned around and a black bear was less than 15ft from me and closing, heading to the hang. There was a narrow path between me & the river. I swear the bear would have had to bump me a little to get by!

The next day while eating, one of the tourons came up to me with my clothes stuff sack. A bear had pulled it out of the bottom of my pack and carried it for a few 100 yds before dropping it.

Thank God I always leave my pack wide open for just such an emergency.

Almost everytime I ate I had a bear come near me.

Love the 'dacks and always will!”

“Wild guess... a little coitus interuptus?”

“I haven't had any scary nights backpacking.

That being said, from a scary night at the bar in my town:

Guy: "Them sure is nice boots"
Dhutch: "Thanks, they're new"
Guy: "Can I buy you a drink"
Dhutch: "No thank you"
Guy: "I'd lick your boot to buy you a drink"
Dhutch: [thinks win win situation] "OK"
Guy: licks the bottom of dhutch's boot and orders her another guinness
Dhutch: "Thanks" and leaves to go play pool with her friends.

a guy that stupid....scary night”

“yup have to agree with scorch
almost going over a cliff will for ever be on my list of scariest moments of my LIFE!”
mapleleaf
9:25:51 AM
12/02/04
ignore this user

I don't know why I didn't think of this now, but I had a similar experience last winter. I was hiking up Big Slide, via the trail over the Brothers, with Pennsy and my cousin. We were walking across the summit rock of First Brother. Most of the summit was clear with a few patches of ice. When we got to the other side there was a section with a thin strip of ice that went over the cliff on the south side. My cousin walk across the top of it and I followed right behind him, but when I stepped down I slipped and fell. I spread out as wide as I could as I slide down the ice. Fortunately because the ice wasn’t very wide (of course if it had been wider I would have put my crampon on) I was able to angle my skid off and onto the bare rock. When I finally stopped sliding I looked up to see a wide-eyed Pennsy and Sherpaman. I think they were probably more scared than I was, because at the time I didn’t have time to be scared. After I got up we continued with our hike.”

“In 1972 I was in a packed stone leanto in Shenandoah National Park.
It was raining to beat hell and pretty chilly.
My party of four, two 19 year olds and two 12 year olds, was all the way to the back wall.
In the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of some critter messin' with the cook pots right close by.
I put on my glasses just after my little brother turned on a flashlight and lit up the skunk!!!

I whispered, "Turn it off!!!", and lay back down.
By then most in the shelter were awake.
We all just lay still praying that it would leave us un-molested.
It was pitch black and pouring rain.

The skunk left when he was good and ready.”

“MarkO the story stinks.


yuk, yuk”

“Molested by a skunk-- that would have been bad!”

“Summer of '74 I was motorcycling west from Regina, Saskatchewan into a wicked headwind.

It was an exhausting day, we had to crouch down on the tank to get up to 70 to hold speed against the wind, any slower and the engine couldn't hold on.

There were 4 ft-square caution signs propped up on wood frames weighted with sand bags at regular intervals at the centre(yuk, yuk Canuck!) line on the TransCan Hwy.
It is a very wide two-laner with good shoulders.

After a few hours of riding I was slowly passed by a guy in a Torino who gawked the whole way.

The mook clipped one of the signs at aboot 80 and the heavy wind caught it.

The sheet metal sign was tossed high and flipped like a playing card, seemingly in slow-motion, right in my path.

I watched in numbed amazement as I headed right for it.

It was flipping in the same direction as my wheels were turning and laid down in my path a fraction of a second before I ran it over.

My two fellow travelers were behind me and saw the whole thing.
I was too tired and numb to react......just lucky.

Later they shook my hand hoping to catch some of my luck.

I had no time to be scared.”

““In 1972 I was in a packed stone leanto in Shenandoah National Park.

MarkO
12:09:21 PM
12/02/04
ignore this user

He He He... I was born in 72'”

“The night the bear visited Father Goose and I at the Low Gap shelter on the AT in Georgia. Wasn't really all that scary though.”

“Hey, Shenandoah NP was crowded THEN!!”

“I remember that night in 1972.....and that skunk too. Who was the other 12 year old?
A shelter crammed with people, cold rain fallin and a skunk a callin and a crawlin.

Getting temporarily lost on the Wonderland Trail on the way to Indian Bar wasn't exactly a picnic.”

“Oh yeah, the "incedent" noone was going to tell the families.
By the time we got home, the squirrels were talkin' about it.

I was one of the 19 year olds and the other kid lived down the street from Jack, who was actually 20.

Hmmmmm, Irish name ?”

“ewww....I was stupid enough to smell a dog once who had an encounter with a skunk. BIG HUGE mistake. Did you smell just like it???

ewwww.....

also: please keep this to backpacking stories...I almost died too many times in my life to all list those stories.

j/k...but I would have to tell a lot of stories.

like the time my mom made french fries for the first time on a gas stove and the whole stove exploded. (well for us kids it felt that way)

like that time my neigbors house exploded and I thought a war has started. (so I was a little kid)

like that time when I fell of the swing and I was too scared to tell my mom and I walked around with my finger in the wound to stop the bleeding. lol dummy.

like that time I ran into a car and was scared to go home.

like the time I flipped my car 3 times 2 different ways.

like that time I got thrown out of a car because I didn't wanna play (while hitchhiking)

Like that time I learned how to swim by almost drowning. heeheehee

Like that time when I thought Santa gonna put me in a sack because I wasn't nice all year long.

like.. hmm... that's it besides the stories I have already told about HIKING!!
last edited: 12/02/04 4:04:00 PM”

“umm gem, you should leave the smelling of doggies to other doggies,
if you get my whiff!


LMHO”

“maple...wanted to know how a skunk smells u dummy you!”

“I was about 7 years old and was camping with my 2 cousins ( both male, I know I am from Al. ) of about the same age. We rode our bicycles to one of our favorite spots. We had bedded down for the night. At this stage we didn't have tents we just lay in blankets on the ground. Most of our early camping we would sit up till really late then finally fall asleep, not to be awaken until the sun would hit us in the morning. This night we were talking about not being able to see any star's. But no big deal we had been rained on before. This was not our first overnighter by far. Sometime about 4am we were awaken by a tremendous wind. It had blown our bicycles over, the trees swaying like I had never seen before. Then the rain begin, sideways. Lighting popping all around. We rolled our blankets as best as we could and begin the couple of mile trek home. We were peddling as fast as we could but had a hard time trying to hold the flashlight and fight the wind and rain. After a couple of minutes the wind died down a little and we were able to make it to my grandparents house. When we got there the lights were on. We knew something was up. We were met by my grandpa. He told us that a "twister" ( tornado ) had just came through. We didn't see it but had gotten a first hand experience. A couple of years later we build a logcabin. We camped in it for several years but I guess my fondest memories of camping would be on the banks of a creek under the stars, tornados and all.

BAMA”

“Not really as scary as it was surprising. A friend and I were hiking from Water Rock Knob (Blue Ridge Parkway) to the Pinicle, then to Fisher Creek ( near Sylva NC ). During the hike we stopped to set up camp Tarp tent, , ate, hung our food, cleaned up, but forgot one pot for some reason and went to sleep. Then the next think I know is something was licking me. I though I was dreaming at first or i was going to beat up my hiking partner. So I opened my eyes to be nose to nose with a small Black Bear. I sat up out of reaction and yelled. I guess it surprised/scared the bear as much as it did me because the bear squealed, ran, and climbed the nearest tree. Then after about ten minutes of us looking up at him and him looking down at us he climbed down and went on about his way. We made the attempt to go to sleep but kept laughing about the whole thing.”

“there wos this 1 time wen we wos in north carolina shelter and there wos a gay man in the shelter im suprised we liveded through the nite”

“Anybody else hear bango music playing....?”