LW, did they call the cops?
And was that guy at the bar just messing with me?
I've always wondered.
The bear story remind me of an experience on my thru hike in the beginning of the hike thru the smokies. I had yet to see a bear and like most other hikers I really wanted to see one. As I'm hiking up a slope I see this brown back moving through the brush off to my left about 40 ft away and so I stop. I try to remain as still and quiet as not to spook him a realize at the angle he's heading he'll cross the trail about 10-15 feet in front of me. I don't want to spook him but I'm apprehesive about how slose he'll be but I wait it out. Out of the brush he jumps, not a bear but a huge boar! Now I'm freaking out, I know what hey can do and he's big. Heck I had tought it was a bear from seeing his back. I stand still and watch while he stands on the trail right in front of me facing the right side of the trail. He stays for about about 30 seconds but is seems like 5 minutes and of to the side he jumps back into the brush. I now realize it isn't a he but a she as she's followed by a whole string of brown striped piglets. I stood there for at least ten more minutes waiting for by heart rate to return to normal and until she was well away with her young. I can only wonder what would have happened if she had realized I was there and thought I was a threat to her young. Now looking back it's one of my most treasured wildlife sightings of the trip and much more than all the bears I saw combined. And to stop the flame war before it starts I know that it's an introduced species and the damage they do but it was still cool for me to see.
i had a momma boar teach me how fast i could run backwards with pack on. she had piglets that i didn't see until it was too late. hair raising experience that i wouldn't want to re-live.Originally Posted by Lost Soul
don't like logging? try wiping with a pine cone.
fearfull moments
I had taken my nephew hiking for the day in the daniel boone national forest and well you know cool uncle jim is gonna lead us to some cool sites,o'yah like a complete dummy left my flashlight,jacket mind ya I was just day hiking,man let me tell ya I was so scared for my nephew more than anything,but like the trooper he was he kept hiking right behind me I was impressed,around 11 at night I see a light and start walking toward it!On arrival all the sudden my nephew starts running toward their camp fire,and I fell into this huge mud puddle I had to jump up and tackle my nephew,the folks at the campsite where hunters,so i yell hello!! just keep repeating it,when we get up to the fire they said to us they almost shot us!thought we were bear I was pretty stressed out by then and gratefull to be somewhere,see I wasnt worried about myself but when your with loved ones it can become a little fearful.ky
all i ever hear is longshank and kirk. kirk and longshank.
well what about OZ!!
ozwingchun,
if you want to hear about something other than kirk and longshank (sounds like you aren't the only one), maybe you should post comments about something other than them
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/sear...earchid=723520
I guess that was poor way to post that link.
I think linking to a user profile will be a more stable link than what amounts to a search result (the page you get after clicking "Find all posts by...")
Profile
Got a couple:
I almost stepped right on a copperhead after a way too close for comfort encounter with the biggest rattle snake I ever saw in my life near Pulpit Rock in PA.
Had a nasty spider bite in the Smokies that kept me concerned for a while.
(especially after the pictures I saw in Gattlinburg of some dude with recluse wounds)
The worst though was in the Whites:
My honey, ME, was spent. The weather was brutal and we had to push to the next hut. I was pushing her hard to keep moving as there were no places to bail in the thick. She took a nasty fall on the rocks and though she didn't hurt she went absolutely ballistic on me and chucked her leki pole like a spear right for me. My quick Ninga like reflexes kicked in and I turned just in time to miss having a trekking pole stuck in my face.
This doesn’t involve the AT or hiking for that matter, but it does involve sleeping out and was scary.
I was hitch-hiking around Europe with a rucksack and sleeping bag. I was picked up by a couple of guys from the U.S. driving some old clunker. I was glad to be hitch hiking since I wouldn’t be saddled with this hunk of junk when it died. They assured me, when the car broke down, they were going to leave it wherever it came to its eternal reward and hitch-hike with me.
Someplace north of Barcelona, Spain, we took a dirt road off the paved road and drove until we arrived at a wall which completely enclosed some structure, except for a large iron gate you could see through. The structure was very large and appeared to be under renovation. I guess renovation, not new construction, because the wall appeared to be quite old. It was made of stone and probably about fourteen feet high.
The other guys slept in their car. I tossed my sleeping bag on the ground next to a large tree, located between the car and the wall, and crawled in for the night.
I was awakened much later by what I first assumed was something which had fallen from the tree. I was a bit groggy and thought it might have been a squirrel. But, then other things began falling from the tree. Big things which caused big limbs to break and also fall to the ground.
I crawled out of my bag and peered around the tree trunk. A fairly large and stout man was silhouetted standing on top of the wall holding a very large rock over his head which he hurled down at us. I’m not sure he saw me. The rocks he was throwing were just too large to make it to the car. He got smaller rocks - still pretty large - which began hitting the car. When the first rock hit the roof it sounded so loudly I wondered if the two guys inside weren’t killed. The car started, whirled around in a tight and accelerating circle, and the back door on my side opened. I threw in my sleeping bag and followed it with my naked butt, clothes in my hands. We never slowed.
This was years ago, back when Spanish security guards were really primitive, but effective.
Walking from NOC to Stecoah gap with Sony Walkman, headphones in place. Before I knew it I was just before stepping on a coiled Rattler in a pissed off mood. Can't believe he didn't strike. I walked up the rocks and around. Couldn't understand what the Rattler was after or why it was coiled. Got to Stecoah and some day hikers where drinking beer and asked me if I saw the snake. They said they tried to kill it with a stick. My question about the snake answered. Henceforth, I have stopped using a Sony so I can HEAR.
i lived on the trail literally for three years from 2000-2003 and in that time frame i had many a scary moments, not to say life threatening. but the one i will never forget was the night of sept 17, 2003 at the rod hollow shelter when hurricane isabell came inland through the northern part of virginia and up through west virginia, maryland and pennsylvania. winds of 100 mph +....i was being buffeted by the wind inside the shelter and slammed against the wall and corner....i was scared out of my wits to say the least...that's the night my thinking changed for ever...that's the night i quit running away from me.....
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