Hey ya'll, watch this!

“You might want to glance at this link for perspective: http://members.tripod.com/towndawg/gizzard.htm

Ok.. all of us have done some really stupid stuff while hiking/backpacking.. I know I have.. shoot I document my dumbness on my webpages!

Anyways.. for a fun thread.. what is something that you have done while hiking/backpacking that you know looking back was pretty dang stupid.

(and for those of you guys not from the south.. or don't recognize the title of the thread.. If you were to ask a bunch of folks who live here in the South what a local might say right before he dies, the most common response would be: ?Hey y?all, watch this!?)”

“i'll take the fifth.”

“Have spent my life recovering from many many New England equivalents of "hey, ya'll . . . "

A lot of "I dare you" "I bet you", "do you think I can . . ", and anumber of "watch this. . . "”

“AwwWwww come on Radagast... you are not going to get off /that/ easily..

I bet you (of all people) have a laughable story..”

“Lee,

Let's not forget the one that no real man can back down from.

The dreaded: "I Triple Dog Dare You!"”

“hehe.. and many a good man has went down over this.. standing out there on the schoolhouse yard with their tongue stuck to the flagpole.

:)”

“nope.

i don't have a single story to tell.

and wally~, who i've known since i was 5, doesnt have any stories either!!!

there are no stories of dirt road racing, ski ropes, gasoline, garden hoses, tequila, mary jane, subdevelopment-sign-skis, firearms, rum, explosives, or rocket engines!!!

not a one!!!!”

“heehee.. you're a trip, radagast.. you got my smiling way too much to be at work..

cos I have a story for EVERY one of those references..”

“and i know NOTHING about trash cans and quicksand!!!”

“(I oughta tell ya about the time I accidently shot the bank at 3am.)”

“I believe the correct expression is; "Hey Ya'll, somebody hold my beer and watch this"”

“No, I have never tried to cross a 200 ft wide river after 3 days of non-stop heavy rain on a raft made of old logs and rotten rope found washed up on the bank. Only to have the raft fall apart halfway across. I would never do that because I can?t swim and only stupid 14 yr. old boys do things like that. Besides, you just wash up about 300 yards down stream and you have to hike back through briars and poison ivy to get home.
No, I would never do anything that stupid.”

“And I would never dig the powder out of 5 shotgun shells, pack it into the nose cone of a rocket. Get three of the largest sized model rocket engines, rig it up with some fuse, and then take the whole thing to the top of the hill above campus . . . specifically the hill above the President's house . . .”

“rabbitman -- awesome!!.. I bet that was sooo kewl!! (oh.. I'm sorry.. no it wasn't.. cos it never happened.. nope.. you wuld never make that mistake.. course it would be so awesome if you did.. but nopers.. you didn't.. )

I was just sitting here thinking how DULL how lives would be if we never did try any of those stupid ideas..”

“(swap "our" for the second "how")

but naw.. I never did really accidently shoot a bank once.. cos I figured it might be good to at least put a round in the chamber before I got out to where I was going deer hunting.. naw.. no one would do something as stpud as accidently let the hammer slip when they were putting the safety back on.. naw.. I mean geeZz.. cos of all the places to accidently discharge a rifle, it would not be right in the center of town, right after you dropped in a bank deposit, at 3am?”

“No, towndawg I would never do anything that stupid. I?m glad that raft thing never happened `cause if I was that dumb I would probably even try to jump 2 pickup trucks with a 3-wheeler and a plywood ramp. (Boy! they sure do bounce and flip upside down when they come down.... Or so I?ve heard.) No, I?m not that dumb.

Seriously though it?s a wonder half of us ever survived our wonder years.”

“hehe.. I still have my 3-wheeler.. that reminds me of when I was trying to put up this deer stand.. (oh.. that never happened either) and had hauled a PALLET up using a rope.. (oh.. but no.. I would not make this mistake) and somehow the step I was trying to stand on came loose as I was tugging on the rope trying to get the pallet to go the last few feet up.. (can you see this?) and here I go falling down 25 feet holding on to a rope, which I promptly let go off as I was falling, and hit the ground.. and yes.. guess what came down on top of me.. ?

(sure was a good thing that did not happen.. oh my gosh.. cos that pile of autumn leaves prolly would have not been enough to keep me from breaking my back/neck)”

“i cannot confirm or deny that i ever did or did not do something a stupid as that.

that's my story, and i'm sticking to it!”

“but hey.. I never did no deep hunting.. naw.. I am a hiker.. ya.. I would not shoot animals.. that was not a part of my past.. I take along a camera now.. ya.. that's it.. now I just let the bears HUNT me.. :)”

“i do wish i could type tho.

deep = DEER.”

“towndawg,
It's a good thing you would never hunt, because if you did, you might get hurt.”

“truthfully?.. I never did get hurt hunting.. I have gotten hurt WAY more.. well not really hurt.. but in danger of.. LOTS more hiking/backpacking.”

“I never ever put a bullet into a vise and tightened it down to see what would happen (by the way I hear that the bullet will explode) or filled a squirt gun with charcoal lighter fluid to squirt pumpkins on Halloween (but I did hear that the Police report mentioned a flame thrower) or locked a dog, fed meat laced with ex-lax, in a buddy's dorm room. No I would never be so dumb to do any of these things.”

“hehe.. and we never did fill those 55 gallon plastic drums full of water and lean them on our friend's dorm room, knock on the door and die laughing when we heard the SPLOOSH!..

nope.. not me.. I never did such a thing.. I hear some folks did it tho.”

“.. but I guess there is a DISTINCT difference beween a prank and "darwin quality" foolishness.

Did y'all know those old salt mining ropes in caves aren't as strong as they used to be iffen you were to try climbing up the face to get to the cliffhouse inside the cave room?”

“Oh my god. . . .I have something in common with Baso4!!!!!

When you DIDN'T get the bullet tighten down in the vise (NOT in your parents cement walled basement) . . . at that point did you NOT hit it with a ball peen hammer???!!

huh??? huh?? DIDN'T you??”

“I thought you were looking for stupid backpacking/hiking stunts? I've got too many of the garden variety to list here.

Well, OK... one. Kinda like the bullet thing. I would never squeeze a bic lighter with pliers till it broke to see what happened. After all, they say they can explode with the force of a stick of dynamite. (I still have both hands.)”

“hehe.. true.. I was really wanting hiking and backpacking stories.. but this has turned out to be fun..

Did y'all know that them porta-potties really /do/ roll down hills pretty good?”

“but ya.. I was really hoping for more of the "remember when you were taught to sit and WAIT when you get lost?.. ya.. I really meant that."”

“So nobody tried to walk 100 miles in barefeet and snack food?”

“Ok, I'll bite:

I would never have gone backpacking in Vermont in late October and believed the weather forecast when they said it wouldn't get below 50 and would be bright and sunny all weekend. I certainly wouldn't have dressed in cotton and taken a real piece of crap tent suitable for backyard camping and then compounded the mistake by setting up in an obvious natural drainage area. When the cold rains came, I sure wouldn't let my sleeping bag act like a sponge. I never would?ve waited until we were all in the early stages of hypothermia and the rain had turned to sleet and then about 6 inches of snow before deciding to bail. And boy, would I have been upset to get to the trailhead to find my friend had backed the car into a HUGE puddle and gotten it stuck with the tailpipe below water. And I definitely wouldn?t want make a series of stupid moves that collectively created a life-threatening experience and then post the story on the World Wide Web, no sir.”

“LMAO!!... thank you violin.. you made my day.. EXACTLY the sort of FICTION that I was hoping to read about.

:)”

“That's right - fiction. Yeah, fiction.”

“Tell us more Violin.
I'm starting to feel not so dumb. LOL!

At least you didn't get a heat stroke.”

“Violin -- that story sounds so MUCH like the first AND ONLY backpack trip my wife has went on with me..

She only carried ONE pair of long pants.. cos it was early fall, and we all know it is so pleasant in the evenings, that we MIGHT need a pair of long pants..

heh.. It would take me too long to post it all here, but let me summarize by saying rain turns to snow at 6000 feet (don't smirk you 14'ers).. and jeans get really heavy when they get wet, and novice girls that you talk into doing a backpack trip don't know NOT to throw away their ONLY pair of long pants.”

“Wanna hear about the time I almost fell into the Grand Canyon?”

“Back me up on this one guys.

A skunk and fawn look a lot like each other don't they? I mean... you can mistake one for the other can't you?”

“rabbitman -- back ya up?.. c'mon.. FICTION right?.. hehe.. really?.. that really happened?.. oh my gosh.. you are gonna talk me into telling my PANTHER story..”

“Not even with your eyes closed rabbitman.”

“Speaking of Panthers....
Don't EVER let anybody tell you: "they won't bite under water."”

“Now you're confusing panthers and alligators, aren't you.”

“It's probably from that bump I "didn't" take on the head when I "didn't" jump the trucks with the 3-wheeler.”

“...everybody knows that alligators nest in tall tall trees and never come down and panthers live in the ocean.”

“Towndawg - Panther?”

“I will say this.. EVERY year there are city-types who go hunting in the state park nearby.. and they always manage to kill a few cows, and other NON-deer animals..

(the scariest part to me is the ones who talk about their /brush/ shots !! )”

“towndawg,
I'm with Violin, I've got to hear the panther story.”

“Violin -- I was taking the garbage down to the dumpster.. (small town you know?).. and heard something inside?.. had my kids with me.. both were young.. prolly 5 and 12... I figured there was prolly a racoon or a possum inside.. knocked on the side glass and told them to watch.. out jumped a HUGE cat.. (no.. not a domestic one!)cleared the dumpster completely, landing on all four LARGE paws.

I will never forget how that animal looked at me with no fear whatsoever, and calmly walked down the railroad tracks into the darkness, back toward the Vale (no.. not VAIL) swamp.

(oh.. I am sorry.. that didn't happen.. another case of fiction..and ENTIRELY off the subject!)”