Originally Posted by
DAJA
I’ve had several odd encounters in the woods, but there are two that definitely stand out. I’ve told both stories’ here on WBs, so I’m just going to cut and paste rather than re-type them.. Since we survived both, they’ve become staples around the campfire since..
First:
I used to use ear plugs to sleep at night... Up until week long trip in the Ontario Northern Region, north of Algonquin National Park. We'd been hiking on old trading routes, mainly following the coastlines of the many lakes in the region.. Anyway, on the third night of the trip, we stopped, set up camp, it was raining and had been all day, the ground was soft. We built a small fire to dry out some of our gear, had some supper, had a dip in the lake, sat around the fire until about 10pm then both turned in to bed in separate tents.. As was my usual method, I popped in the earplugs and was out for the night..
I awoke the following morning, and as I climbed out of my tent I froze in fear as I see perfect size 12 boot prints right to the door of my tent... I quickly scan my vestibule and realize my boots are gone (oddly, I wear a size 10) then look to our clothes line and realize both our sets of raingear are gone..
Once I woke my buddy up and explain we'd had a visitor and that some gear was missing, he got up and realized his boots where gone as well... We put on our sandals and followed the tracks to where we had hung our bear bags, which where both gone as well...
So here we were, 40kms from our car with no food, stoves (they were in the bear bag) no boots or raingear and it was still raining hard...
We made it out fine, but it was an uncomfortable hike both physically and mentally. This was not a blazed commonly used hiking trail. Rather, it was old overgrown trading trails used 50yrs ago... So it was first shocking that someone else was out here with us, but more so that they where malicious enough to make off with our stuff.
That final night camping on the way back to our car was a long night... We sat around the campfire trying to ease our imaginations from taking us to the worst possible places. My buddy did admit that he'd heard my vestibule unzip and movement around camp, but assumed it was me getting up to go to do my business...
Since that night, I no longer sleep with earplugs... I've learned that the only thing I fear in the woods travels on two legs...
Second:
Losing my boots, rain gear and food may seem a tall tale but I assure you it is not, in fact, that trip was mild compared to a group of 4 of us essentially being held hostage by "Sh%thawk" and "Boner" while camping when we were just punk teenagers.. These two winners had just been released from prison for robbing a liquor store, and had got in some trouble at a bar in a nearby town and where looking to lay low for a while... They had ditched their camero (i'm not kidding) in a gravel pit down the road from the trailhead and decided to hike into the woods to "live off the land for a few weeks". They stumbled upon our campsite near 2am and that’s when the fun begins... Long story short, we spent 3 days babysitting these two, against our wishes... They had no gear, just jeans, leather coats, and work boots, and hinted heavily at being armed... Lucky for us, not with a brain... We convinced them we were planning a clam feed, knowing full well the flats had been closed due to red tide... These fella's where so impressed with our menu when we dug and cooked up a pot of clams in salt water and seaweed... We all got such pleasure watching them savor their dinner. Within an hour these two where in such a world of hurt that we just packed up and walked away... When we got to town we explained to the police where to find them...
My only regret is we didn't think of the clam boil on day one instead of day 3... Worst hiking trip ever!
And to be fair, they only threatened to be armed, never saw so much as a knife... But as youngins, we were too frightened to push our luck on grown ups...
In the end we all survived, the Mounties got their men and we all got a fun story to tell when we get together...