1k Giveaway (contest Nov 18th-23rd)

John G

John G

Joined
Jul 4, 2008
Messages
1,514
I made it to 1000 posts (and change)!

It's been an absolute blast. I've learned so much, enjoyed your photos and stories, and even had the pleasure of meeting some of you in person. This is a great place. The BladeForums Wilderness & Survival Skills subforum has given me a great deal, and now it's time to give back. :)

The contest: Post something unusual, but W&SS related. A story about the time you made a debris hut on an ice flow, a pic of some cacti that look like zombies, or a knife handle made from stacked tide bottle plastic. Out of the norm is the name of the game.

The loot: I'm giving away three prizes.

1. US Army Gore-tex jacket, woodland camo, size medium/long. Given to me by an army buddy who's little more narrow in the shoulders than me.
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2. Mora 122 knife. Wharncliffe scandi. Great knife, but I hardly use it.
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3. Generic steel water bottle w/carabiner link.
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The rules: Post a story or photo of something strange, weird, unusual, or downright insane that you've encountered in the outdoors. This contest will run from today (Thursday Nov 18th) until midnight Tuesday Nov 23rd. Feel free to post as often as you like. I'll choose the top three entries that tickle my fancy.

-First place picks what he/she wants from these three prizes.
-Second place picks from the remaining two.
-Third place gets the final item.

Thaks again everyone! :thumbup:
 
Hmm, I was clearing out brush and mesquite at the ranch one day and was parched. We have these cactus we call horse cripplers. They are round and only the top sticks above the dirt. Anyway, since I had the chainsaw going I cut down into one. The sucker was about 18 inches deep. So it was about the size of a barried beach ball. When I cut in it smelled sweet so I cut a chunk out and ate some. It was delicious! Tasted like melon.
 
We were camping one day on a friend of mine's parent's land. We were all about 13-15 years old. Some random guy with a shotgun comes walking up asking us what we were doing on his land. He was obviously drunk or high. Then he asks us if we smoke pot and if we do we should stop and start taking pills instead, and pulls out a handful of pill bottles. Then he just walked off. We went and got my buddies Dad who grabbed his shotgun and went running back off to our campsite but he couldn't find the guy.

From then on we had a gun with us and we moved our campsite to the other side of their property. We never seen the guy again, and my buddy who lived there had never seen him before despite knowing all of the immediate neighbors.

It was very scary to say the least. It could have ended very differently and a lot worse. That is one of the reasons why I carry a gun to this day, even in the woods.
 
Once during the winter I was hiking some trails that the Park had closed down for the season, which meant I had to hoof it in a decent ways from where the Park road was closed off to get to my destination. As soon as I got on the trail-head what do I come across but a FRESHLY killed rabbit--as in it must have been killed while I was hiking my way in. There was fur all over the place and the thing had the skin peeled back off of one leg, which had been partially eaten. Because you don't get the opportunity to see nature in such a raw state very frequently, I snapped a few artsy photos of the thing to document the occurrence and continued on my way. On my way back, about a half hour later, I walked past the corpse again and it was completely destroyed. The spine was all visible and the thing nearly looked like it had exploded the way it had been ripped open. I guess whatever had done it had gotten spooked off when it heard me coming, and then hidden nearby until I passed. It was probably watching me the whole time I was taking photos, even. Because we had had a thaw and refreeze recently all of the snow was iced over heavily, so there weren't any tracks (I looked, but the snow was crusted so badly that I could walk over it easily without breaking through or leaving a mark). Kind of cool getting to see mother nature as she really is, even if she can get a bit messy.
 
This happened just a few months ago when my son came to visit me. Im always trying to impress him with my outdoor skills . He gets a real kick out of it when I study tracks or plants . We were out riding backroads in my Jeep looking for deer and such when all of a sudden I smelled Purfume,, I looked at him and said " I smell a Girl" Sure enough about a mile down the road was a girl Hiking. The look he gave me was "Priceless"

Thanks John ,Great Giveaway !
 
The story is kind of boring, me and my lil bro were out at the Aquaduct near Pearblossom in Southern California. We were walking the trail about 5 miles in when we looked over the overflow and saw this...
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You wanted weird, I am creeped out by stuff like this, especially in such a sparse landscape it makes the mind wander to unwholesome places.

Congrats on 1k!
 
The doll head is damn creepy, but reminds me.

Last month I was walking around and saw this odd looking-what I thought was some kind of puffball mushroom growing in a cluster. Staring down at it-I thought of you guys- I ought take a snapshot and post for an ID of this weird looking shrrom.

I picked it up, it had a slight nap to it, (that's what was so weird) squeezed it, real soft and spongy-what the hell is this thing maybe from outerspace (I've heard spores may be able to travel eons through the void)

I turned it over ahh :o. godang it. It was a freaking "counting sheep" Serta mattress plush toy. weathered in, laying upside down it looked like a natural thing,
 
I was out on the trail with my brother a couple years back...I was a little ways ahead of him when I came around a couple trees and saw something. I turned around and started running back up the trail toward him, he asked why I was going back and I shouted in a tone as if I were running from a bear, "Dude, there are f-ing turtles back there!!!" He responded with something like, "WTF?" and went down to investigate with his camera...I could hear him laughing as soon as he rounded the trees.








































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Dang, not much interest in this one. Midnight tonight is the deadline, then I'll pick the winners. (Deadline extended to midnight of the 24th)
 
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My family and I hunt quite a bit. I end up butchering and processing a lot of deer. There is quite a bit of unusable(at least for me, think forearms on a 75lb whitetail) meat on the deer that I hate to see simply end up in the trash. Anyway, I've been filling burlap sacks with these scraps and a gallon of deer corn.

I place a rock in them and tie the tops off. After that I sink them in my favorite fishing holes. Lol, I feel a bit crazy carrying out bloody sacks of meat. But I know it has to help the fishing!
 
I was interested, I just couldn't think of anything really weird that I had seen. :shrug:
 
I might as well post some other unusual things I've come across and photographed.

Here's a rather unusual passiflora tendril:

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The bristcone pine forests in the White mountains are rather unusual. They're the longest living trees known (up to 5,000 years). However all of the trees in this picture are dead. They've been dead for 2,000 years, but the conditions are too harsh to adequately support fungi and insects to decompose the trees.

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Here's an elephant seal being born. That's pretty unusual to see, much less, photograph well.

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Garlic mushrooms are interesting. They're tiny little things, and they only grow on tanoak leaves.

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