Scary Moments

[maxNcathy]

For You who are not totally fearless, have you had any scary moments while hiking or camping?

Thanks for your stories,

Sandalwood

[applejack]

used to be totally fearless. on my thru i was at the top of lafayette and fog rolled in. wanted to enjoy the views in the morning, so camped (in the building foundation 10' below the top o lafayette) in what i heard would be light rain as the forecast. endt up there was also plenty of lightning, of which two times it struck the top of lafayette (10' above me). hell of a night. i'm not AS fearless anymore, and i don't camp on top of mountains as much.

[Namaste]

It was a winter hiking trip in NJ along the AT. I was in good physical shape but just couldn't catch my breath and had severe chest pains after climbing up a ridge. It was dark and we knew we were a distance from our tent spot. I sat for awhile and convinced myself I just needed to catch my breath. Well, I continued to hike and couldn't breath or sleep all night. Next morning I headed to the hospital and was told I should have been dead. That's when I found out I had asthma. They shot me up with epinephrine and gave me oxygen which relieved me instantly. Now I carry an inhaler everywhere I go and manage my asthma without any problems. The feeling of suffocation is horrible.

[Mouse]

Let's see, there was getting lost in the Smokies and finding myself on a snow-clogged trail with a sheer drop off the side, getting caught in the open in a big lightning storm in southern Virginia, the lightning bolt that nearly had my name on it in Maryland, the two creepy characters near Bake Oven Knob in PA who were probably toting out drugs, the rock faces climbing out of Pinkham Notch......

[Jim Adams]

1990 leaving Salsbury Ct. up and over the arm (lion's head?) and hit a lightening storm on top. STUPID MOVE!! saw the storm coming and continued anyway. ran across the whole open exposed summit with lightening hitting all around and getting hit with debris. the cat was going crazy meowing and we didn't stop until getting back into the trees. i felt so bad, there was so much static in the air that Ziggy (cat) looked like a gray beach ball! probably the closest that i've come to losing my life.
geek

[woodsy]

Went on a winter day hike with a friend one cold blue January day(0 deg.) on a local Mtn. next to Sugarloaf...Burnt Mtn..
Got warmed up quickly after getting started and the wooded approach trail was out of the wind. It was a nice hike through white birch forest and after a couple hours we were above treeline looking at the exposed and somewhat windy summit another half hour climb away.
We chose to make the ascent in relatively clear conditions.
Upon reaching the summit the wind really kicked up and a snow squall was moving in to boot.
We took cover behind some boulders and had a quick snack.
With the wind howling and snow blowing we made for the descent. The treeline below was now obscure and trail was hard to follow in almost whiteout conditions. We employed the CRAB some so as not get blown off the mtn. How quick the elements can change for the worse!

We were well prepared but even so the windchill effect cooled us down in short order, guessing 40-50 mph at 0 deg.

Arriving back at treeline things were much calmer and sunny, reprieve!
In the bowl between the two mountains was the most awesome snow funnel(snodado?) some 2'000 ft.tall . That made it all worth it.

***** happens.

[icemanat95]

Scary Moments


I had two VERY scary moments on my thru-hike and another before that.

In 1993 I was hiking on Mt. Washington in October. I got caught in an ice storm/blizzard and started going hypothermic. No energy, cold and SOAKED to the skin. Pretty much in the process of dying. We managed to drag our butts up to the closest shelter, the summit house, and warmed up in the cafeteria with some hot soup, sandwiches, and just about sitting on the heaters. It sucked. Managed to drag my arse down the auto road in white out conditions and hitch-hiked up to the AMC facility where we had parked. That was a long and frightening day. I learned A LOT of respect for that mountain that day.

On the AT, fairly early on in my hike, I was making for a shelter during a thunderstorm. Lighting struck nearby on an old rotted tree and it pretty much exploded. Then in Central Virginia, between the Sarver Cabin and Niday shelter, I was caught on the ridge by one of the famous Virginia afternoon thunderstorms. Got slammed again by another lightning strike that blew me completely off my feet. Couldn't hear anything but a ringing in my ears. Heart was pounding a million miles a second. I ran down to the Niday shelter, pretty much full out with a full pack on my back. Collapsed laughing hysterically...which was better than crying or screaming hysterically. Since then I've had another close call with lightning. I'm starting to feel like Thor's special target.

[Lilred]

Was hiking alone and came upon a reroute due to mudslides. It was a brand new reroute through rhody tunnels. Stumbled upon a backpack that was torn to shreds, then saw, what looked like, a place where someone had set up a tent in long grass, it all matted down. realized that's where the bear had slept the night, since it was impossible to get a tent in that thicket. Got out of there as quick as I could with my heart pounding a mile a minute.

Another time, set up my tent at Double Springs shelter, it stormed and lightning was hitting everywhere. Prayed hard that night. Was told by people in the shelter that lightning hit about 50 feet from my tent.

[Pennsylvania Rose]

On a very rocky portion of trail I slipped on a wet rock and did this twisting fall and landed really hard face first on the ground. Everything felt ok, but when I opened my eyes, I saw the jagged point of another rock about 1/4 inch from my eyebrow. The rest of the day, I kept thinking what could have happened if my head had snapped forward just a little bit more.

And I, too, have been foolish enough to hike over the top of a mountain with lightning crashing around me.

[Namaste]

Regarding the lightening, that's my biggest fear of all. I'm glad you guys are still around to talk about it.

[Kerosene]

I'm certainly not fearless, but it does take a lot to get my heart beating quickly. That said, I've had my share of scary moments and situations over my hiking career.

Lightning: I have a healthy respect for lightning, especially after a guy on my soccer team was struck and died; and a big tree across the street from my house exploded when struck, scattering deadly foot-long skewers 200' in all directions. 1999-I finally got back into backpacking after 15 years by hiking a 37-mile trail in southeast Michigan. A storm front caught me in the middle of the woods early on my second morning and crashed around me for 10 minutes. There was nowhere to go. 2006-I was halfway up Mt. Moosilaukee when a late afternoon storm rolled over. I slowed down, hoping it would pass over before I reached the open summit, when a big bolt hit less than a quarter-mile away [Flash/S%^t/CRAAACK]. That got my attention and I squatted down on the trail, but fortunately that was the last bolt.

Animals: All my strange animal encounters seem to occur on the last day of section hikes...interesting. 1973-On the last night of my first backpacking trip, just past the High Point #3 shelter in New Jersey, we were cowboy camping when we heard some incredible sounds in the woods nearby. Years later I determined that they were probably deer settling in for the night. Weird. 1986-Early in the morning, just north of Loft Mountain Campground in Shenendoah National Park, I woke up in my tent thinking that I heard something walking up and down the nearby trail. Eventually I clearly heard a rock flip over, and knew it had to be a bear who might have smelled the food bag I hung 50 yards down the trail. After half an hour I couldn't take it anymore and jumped out of my tent, shining my penlight at the bear 20 yards away, who just looked at me before slowly turning around and ambling into the woods. 2001-Just south of Harpers Ferry I was toodling along on my last day of my first AT solo section. I rounded a corner and saw a large animal about 40 yards away. Not thinking, I clapped my hands to scare it off. It glanced at me and then loped off into the woods with feline grace. Hard to believe that it was a catamount (I grew up in Vermont) but there was no other explanation. I kept my eyes peeled for a mile, hoping it wasn't tracking me! 2006-Night has fallen and I'm desperately searching for someplace to pitch my tent about 3 miles north of Pinkham Notch. I finally find a flat spot in the middle of the Trail (at least I think it's the AT, but I haven't seen a blaze in over a mile). I just crossed yet another stream/bog, and as I shuck off my pack at a flat spot that will have to do, I hear/sense a very big animal perhaps 20 yards away starting to move through the thick brush. That gets my heart pumping! It had to be a moose, and the way some of the branches were breaking and the ground shook (at least I thought it shook), it had to be pretty big. I calmed down after a minute, but I eventually realized that I had just set up my tent in the middle of the only clear path and might get a hoof to the head!

Other: March 1975-Ascending Mt. Everett in Connecticut on our third section hike we ran into a progression of mist, rain, sleet, and then blowing snow. We eventually found the lean-to near the summit (no longer there) and hopped into our sleeping bags as the fog rolled into the front. It took a very long time and some hot fluids to get warm. Many years later I realized that we were in the first stages of hypothermia. The very next day we dropped down into Sages Ravine. The trail was covered in ice and the stream had swollen with snowmelt. I got across the narrow, slippery log somehow, but on the way up the other side I fell onto my back and "turtled" down toward the stream. I finally caught my foot on a shrub and my buddies pulled me back to safety. Now that would have been hypothermia! 2000-I had to get up out of a warm bed to hit the Winturri Shelter latrine in the wee hours. I had a small headlamp to light the way. About 20 yards from the shelter a shadow moved in such a way that I thought it was an animal, which brought out an involuntary "HA" that probably woke up everyone. It was only my mind playing tricks on me, and my heart was beating more from embarrassment than fright!

[hiker33]

1. Back around 1980 I was climbing Mt. Flume in NH via the Flume Slide trail. My feet suddenly went out from under me and I slid backwards on hands and knees. I went down on my stomach to arrest my slide which ended just short of a 20-foot drop. Had I gone over I wouldn't have stopped for some time since it was steep ledges one after the other. Closest I've been to serious injury or death while hiking.

2. About 6 years ago in the Middle Prong Wilderness of NC lightning hit a tree about 40 feet away and blew it apart. I didn't have time to get scared until it was over.

3. On Mount Washington on Labor Day about 1982 or so I got caught in an ice storm on the Tuckerman Crossover. The sun disappeared and the snow and ice started after a drop of about 40 degrees in 30 minutes. There was lightning as well. I headed for Lakes hut which was within a half mile and had doubts about making it because of ice on the rocks and the wind. I probably fell a dozen times. After I reached the hut people kept coming in dressed only in shorts and t-shirts with no other gear. There were lots of incipient hypothermia cases brewing that day.

[Desert Lobster]

Scariest was a hichhike ride where I was lucky to not get molested or killed by some wacko near Hagerstown!

[maxNcathy]

Okay, now I am not going to flirt with lightning!! You guys had some mighty close calls.

[Seeker]

Animals-no good stories. i'm cautious when confronted (bears, snakes, coyotes/wild dogs), but have never been truly "scared".

Situations-so far so good-none life threatening. got sick once, from dehydration/heat, while out alone. long day, but not really scary... i just knew i had to take care of myself, and i did.

People-other people scare the bejesus out of me.

I was walking along a road, minding my own business, getting from the end of a u-shaped trail back 3 miles to my car, which was at the other trailhead. Horses/mules are commonly ridden in the area, and one drunken mule rider, when he was about 150 yds behind me, suddenly yelled 'runaway horse' and charged. as i looked back, i could see him coming, but noticed it was a mule, so i knew he was drunk and that the mule probably wasn't in a 'runaway mindset' (which is pretty dangerous). he succeeded in causing me to jump the ditch (which the mule would have had a hard time running across, flat out) but pulled up before he'd have done serious harm. the mule wasn't pleased, and i wasn't either. i simply disappeared into the woods and stood behind a tree until he and the other two members of the party passed well beyond me. i was surprised, as most horse people i know are better than that, and certainly don't treat their animals like that.

you can pretty much tell what an animal, tame or wild, is most likely to do... the human animal is a whole 'nuther story...

[Programbo]

Well I don`t know how "scary" this is but.....
Once while I was rock hoping along a creek on a hot dry summer day thru an area with a lot of dry fallen trees etc I stopped to eat something for a bit and was sitting on one of the larger warm rocks...About halfway thru my meal I was glancing around at some of the driftwood when my eyes came to rest upon a particularly long fat piece that came out from behind one rock and disappeared behind another about 2 feet behind where I was sitting...Seeing the odd pattern in the "wood" I suddenly realized that it wasn`t driftwood at all but the longest, fattest rattlesnake I had ever seen!...Although I`m sure my eyes got as big as silver dollars and my heart was pounding rapidly I had the good sense to freeze in place and then ever so slowly pick up my things and beat a quick retreat

[Bloodroot]

Scariest moment?

I passed a 70(ish) year old man on "Hike Naked Day" once!!

[Bloodroot]

In all serious, a horrible lightning/hail storm coming into NOC in April '05.

[rafe]

On a warm muggy afternoon in Virginia a wild turkey flew out of the brush maybe ten, fifteen feet in front of me. Scared the bejezus out of me for about half a second. I mean, the world was quiet and I was alone... and then suddenly, it was very loud with life and movement. I laughed a bit but I still had to sit down for a minute and collect my wits.

[Big Dawg]

Can you say "Deliverance".... A friend and I were section hiking, heading north to Hot Springs. We ended our day at Cat-Pen Gap. We noticed a back-country road just beyond the wood line. Not until some huntin yokles came barreling down that road did we realize it lead to a primitive huntin campground. After several passes in the truck, the huntin yokles practically drove into the woods and close to our campsite. We made our way to the truck to be social only to find "Deliverance" lookin dudes, all wasted on something. They insisted we join them for dinner, since they were cooking a deer they had just shot. We tried to decline, but they "insisted". Part of us felt like packing up & hikin on, but instead we mosey'd on down to their campsite, only to find a slew of huntin yokles, I think 8 in all. Each had their own freaky demeaner, a few of which seemed absolutely off the wall. They began to discuss headin down to the Brown house to get some action,,, supposedly some local joint w/ scuzzy gals that'd do anything. Huntin yokles, high on an assortment of stuff, all w/ rifles, talking about sex,,,, oh my GOD. After an hour or so, we politely excused ourselves, and went back to camp-(I will say the deer tenderloin kabobs were awesome). Needless to say we didn't sleep much that night. Middle of the night, we heard what sounded like a few drunken hillbillys creepin thru the woods right near our tent. My friend and I proceeded to discuss loudly that we should draw our firearms (completely bluffing) and come out shootin at whatever was crunching thru the woods,, at which time we heard a serious retreat in the opposite direction. Needless to say we broke camp early that morning and didn't stop til Hot Springs.