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smokymtnsteve
10-10-2003, 16:05
Attacks by predatory bears are so highly publicized that it is difficult to put them in perspective. You are 160,000 times more likely to be killed in an auto accident than to be killed by a black bear. The more than500,000 black bears in North America account for about one human death every three years. For each person who dies from a black bear attack, 67 die from attacks by dogs, 180 die from bee and/or wasp stings, and 374 die from lightning


and you are more likely to see a dog on the trail than you are a bear....

Tabasco
10-10-2003, 16:30
...and I am more likely to beat to death a dog using my poles or my hiking boots than I am a bear. Seems pretty easy to put into perspective.....he's dead, so is she. Through their own actions. Most dog deaths are young children, most bee sting deaths are allergic reactions, (I am surprised you didn't mention the deadly peanut or the dastardly shrimp in the same category with the bees, btw) Lightning strikes can be fairly easily avoided too, the big point in all of this BE SMART. You are responsible for your own safety.
The automobile is about the only random means of death you listed, and that is only partly so, as a lot of deaths are caused by driver error, but some days you just happen to drive through the green light at the same time another driver decides to run it. Game over.

MedicineMan
10-11-2003, 07:19
since this thread is obviously AT related I will state my biggest fears while hiking are:
rednecks
hunters
falls/twisted ankles/blown out knees
burns while cooking
cuts
and the most important-hypothermia

I think these are realistic fears because in 32 years of AT hiking I have never seen a bear on the trail (this coming weekend we are back in GSMNP so I may have to chage that), seen 2 snakes (one copperhead and one beautiful black snake), never experienced lightning (big wind and rain yes), luckily dont have a problem with peanuts,poison ivy (but plain milk will kill me), and of the maybe 100 dogs I have seen total only 1 would I consider a poor trail dog.
I have had a gun pointed at me in a robbery attempt on Big Bald, I have seen a man with a major laceration via hatchet near Max Patch, I have been lost (even too recently-well not lost just the wrong trail) and I have seen many a Boy Scout shivering to stay warm.
Working in a large hospital you can imagine what we admit in a weeks time and I have to laugh at the real possibilities on the trail :)

Ridge
03-23-2004, 09:33
You mentioned REDNECKS as a big danger on the AT. Well, these "rednecks" have given many hikers water, food, directions, rides to hospitals and grocery stores. So stay out of the South if you are so afraid of these "terrorist"!!! signed a REDNECK.

Ankle Bone
03-23-2004, 09:51
I think you’re most likely to be in an auto accident if a bear is driving the shuttle.

While day hiking with my leashed dog recently, two guys asked me if the pepper spray was for bears. I replied, “No, it’s for the people who don’t keep their dogs under control while on the trail.” Don’t carry spray when it’s just me.

And in spite of what others may think, I’m more nervous about the punks in NY and NJ that I may encounter because I’ll be so close to urban areas. I don’t think the South has cornered the market on idiots, but we sure are easy targets for the uninformed.

The Old Fhart
03-23-2004, 10:08
Ankle Bone,
I'm willing to bet the north can easily match you on idiots! Up here we have "swamp yankees" not "red necks" and neither are necessarily any different than the rest of us "normal" folks, whatever normal means. I'm sure everywhere the density of idiots is about the same. I've got a lot of trail magic down south and I do trail magic up here to try to balance that out. Like the balance of power in the cold war, we don't want to have an idiot gap ;-)

Jaybird
03-23-2004, 10:10
...................... in 32 years of AT hiking I have never seen a bear on the trail (this coming weekend we are back in GSMNP so I may have to chage that), seen 2 snakes (one copperhead and one beautiful black snake), never experienced lightning (big wind and rain yes),

I have had a gun pointed at me in a robbery attempt on Big Bald, I have seen a man with a major laceration via hatchet near Max Patch, I have been lost (even too recently-well not lost just the wrong trail) and ............


MedicineMan

Remind me to NEVER go hiking with you! hehehehehehehehehehehe! :D

Ankle Bone
03-23-2004, 10:22
According to Jeff Foxworthy, he realized that rednecks were everywhere when he went bowling at a Wisconsin alley that offered valet parking. We is everywhere!

Jersey Bob
03-23-2004, 10:46
at least 10 characters

Ankle Bone
03-23-2004, 10:55
OK, you've sensitized me! Jersey or bust!

Blue Jay
03-23-2004, 10:57
3) When walking past a family and hearing the little ones say "Mommy, did you see that man's stick?!"

I'm sorry Jersey Bob, but this communication has been ruled illegal by the FCC.

Jersey Bob
03-23-2004, 11:02
at least 10 characters

cabalot
03-24-2004, 22:38
I'm sorry Jersey Bob, but this communication has been ruled illegal by the FCC.

i beleive the fine for that is now $27,000

i live in jersey too, i am most afraid of running out of alcohol on the trail, or worse, having a bottle of beer wine or booze break inside my pack and not being able to sooth my achey muscles at camp.

Nightwalker
03-24-2004, 23:31
Ankle Bone,
I'm willing to bet the north can easily match you on idiots! Up here we have "swamp yankees" not "red necks" and neither are necessarily any different than the rest of us "normal" folks, whatever normal means. I'm sure everywhere the density of idiots is about the same. I've got a lot of trail magic down south and I do trail magic up here to try to balance that out. Like the balance of power in the cold war, we don't want to have an idiot gap ;-)

I get immediate rides when hitching "down here". I've been told that the rides dry up North of the Mason-Dixon line. That may not be true, but most folks of my aquaintance in the South take the Southern hospitality thing very seriously.

Frank

steve hiker
03-24-2004, 23:57
Damn right dogs are more dangerous than bears. And so are the idiots who own them. A couple years ago I was hiking to a hot springs when a couple allowed their dog to intimidate me at a trail junction just to prove a point. These jerks were also camping "next" to the springs.

I got my revenge by hiking out the next day, opening their car, taking a dump on the drivers seat and pissing on the passenger seat. I wanted to make their experience as nice as mine. I actually have a friend who shot and killed two charging dobermans at a state park. The owners were pissed but had no recourse; he only got a $50 fine for shooting a gun at the park.
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weirdfrog
03-25-2004, 05:10
geez...don't they ever get tired of not having a life?

Blue Jay
03-25-2004, 08:40
geez...don't they ever get tired of not having a life?

That is his life. Will gets off telling that story. I've noticed it's changed slightly over the years.

Jersey Bob
03-25-2004, 09:23
at least 10 characters

Chappy
03-25-2004, 18:26
Damn right dogs are more dangerous than bears. And so are the idiots who own them. A couple years ago I was hiking to a hot springs when a couple allowed their dog to intimidate me at a trail junction just to prove a point. These jerks were also camping "next" to the springs.

I got my revenge by hiking out the next day, opening their car, taking a dump on the drivers seat and pissing on the passenger seat. I wanted to make their experience as nice as mine. I actually have a friend who shot and killed two charging dobermans at a state park. The owners were pissed but had no recourse; he only got a $50 fine for shooting a gun at the park.
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Better be careful...you might find yourself on one of those "red blazes." :-?

snowshoe
03-26-2004, 08:16
And in spite of what others may think, I’m more nervous about the punks in NY and NJ that I may encounter because I’ll be so close to urban areas. I don’t think the South has cornered the market on idiots, but we sure are easy targets for the uninformed.[/QUOTE]


Wow you really have no clue about the AT in NJ. I live less than a mile from the trail here in NJ and never in m life ran into Punks or anything like that. Never had car break ins either. everyone is always putting Jersey down. Ask most thru hikers and I bet most will speak very Highly of NJ. The part of NJ were the AT goes through is a different world when compared to Newark or Jersey City. It is not what everyone thinks.

Only in NJ will you see more bears on the trail than dogs.

Jersey Bob
03-26-2004, 10:27
at least 10 characters

Nightwalker
03-26-2004, 15:03
NJ does have a bad rep, and I understand why. But if you spend some time here, it's actually pretty good.

I think NJ was actually being used in a figurative, not literal sense. It was probably a turn-around of how folks ALWAYS seem to associate the South with illiterate redneck-ism. There are people like that down here, but most are more likely, in my experience, to fit the gracious/friendly southerner mold than the Deliverance stereotype.

I'm just saying...
Frank Looper

Chappy
03-26-2004, 19:47
NJ does have a bad rep, and I understand why. But if you spend some time here, it's actually pretty good.

I was stationed at Ft. Monmouth several years ago. Since I'm from GA it was kinda like being in another country! I remember how people would always look with amazement when my wife would speak and the inevitable question would follow, "where are you from?" After hundreds of times my wife finally had enough so she started replying, "I'm from New York City...but my English teacher was from GA!" Always got a laugh and broke the ice.

Lesson I've learned about trying to keep life simple: People are people...we just talk differently!

rainmaker
03-26-2004, 23:22
I've never really cared for having to share the trail with pets, buts thats me. I tolerate them and hope their owners will tolerate me. Anyway this reply speaks to rednecks of whom I am proudly descended. In fact my wife mentioned the hue of my neck just yesterday, the result of tilling the soil without sun block.Last year while hiking in central Virginia, we came upon a young deer hunter. Our first response was wariness. Afterall , he had a gun and we didn't. I noticed he was hunting with a muzzel loader and made a remark about it's craftmanship. Whereupon he pulled out a pistol , and handed it to me . He trusted us more than we initially trusted him. I appreciate the lesson he taught me that day. BTW, the pistol was a beautifully crafted replica .

Nightwalker
03-27-2004, 15:29
...Anyway this reply speaks to rednecks of whom I am proudly descended.

I was speaking of the word redneck in the current vernacular, not the original meaning.

My Grandfather farmed for a living, and I worked on that farm from the time that I could do the work, and he is one of my relatives of who I am the most proud.

This is kind of silly. I only used my example to try to lower the level of hard feelings, not increase them. I'm awfully glad that I'll be out on the trail again starting tomorrow, as people have a lot less hard feelings between them; mostly because you can see the expression, not just the words.

Night Walker
(Frank Looper)
GA>?, 04

nopain
03-27-2004, 18:57
I have thur hiked 4 times,I have'nt had any bad run in's with red necks!!!! i have goten a lot of good trail macic in the south. Oh ,by the the way i'm black!!!!!!

Chappy
03-28-2004, 00:22
Frank "Night Walker" Looper: I know you're glad to get back on the trail. Guess all the work for your father went well. Where do you start again? How many miles/day are you trying to average?
Be safe...God bless you as you head up the trail!