Has anyone of you ever thought you were going to die in the sticks?

This is weird,2 weekend ago I was doing a little rock climbing and I stepped on nest of what I call meat bees (yellow jackets?)and was swarmed.Next to the boulders was a strip of loose gravel going 50-60 ft to the bottom.I jumped over in that and slid all way to the ground and ran 50 yards to the truck.The bee stings still hurt.I was lucky(blessed).I had 4 boys with me under 10,but luckly they was off a ways.
 
I guess having the world's worst sense of direction (it's a family thing) and knowing it, is a feature. I always hike with a compass in one hand and a map in the other. lol. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but my compass is my most heavily used piece of hiking gear next to my boots.

Can't say I've ever been lost in the woods, and this is why.

As for near-death experiences out in the sticks, I actually don't have any. I've been banged up some and in pain, but I never thought I was going to die.

Now back when I was riding my motorcycle all over the southwest ... damn, how in the world did I ever survive THAT?
 
In my early 20's a friend and I were camping along the coast in Mexico. I walked up the beach and decided to climb a cliff. I got near the top where it went from rock to dirt and grass. It was still steep. I worked my way up to a point where I could hardly hold on, the slope was very slippery and I could hardly move without starting to slip. I was maybe 80' up. I did not feel like I could go up or down. I did not know if I would fall or not. I was amazed to think I could actually die any time. I finally managed to make it to the top.

I actually got caught in a heavy rip tide on the same trip. Did not know how that would turn out either. Seems like I learned a lot of things the hard way in my youth.

I have managed to get myself in other iffy situations since so I seem to be a slow learner.
 
I wouldn't say I've come that close, but on two winter climbs in the White Mountains, I saw that as a real possibility if fate, luck, or whatever else you choose to call it had changed a couple of degrees against me. Once, I simply bonked about two hours above three line and pretty much had to rely on my partner moving me down the mountain until we were no longer exposed. The second time, we got caught in white out conditions and actually got seperated for a few moments and I returned the favour by going back up to giude him back down to safety. Thing is, the mountians can screw you up really quickly , and before you know it, you're in a situation that could turn bad just like that. It could be as simple as having your goggles icing over in 70mile winds. You can't see anymore and now you're in it. I don't think it is always something spetacular that has to occur in unforgiving conditions, just enought to take you off your game.
 
Dying in the wilderness? Yeah, a few times. Once on an icy cliff where nobody knew I is was there, another time upside down in 15 feet of water when nobody knew I was there, another time in 2005 on a high winding road in New Mexico when nobody knew I was there looking at a 3000 foot drop. Death can be our best friend, but we should leave flight plans behind for our survivors.
 
Coldwood said:
Dying in the wilderness? Yeah, a few times. Once on an icy cliff where nobody knew I is was there, another time upside down in 15 feet of water when nobody knew I was there, another time in 2005 on a high winding road in New Mexico when nobody knew I was there looking at a 3000 foot drop. Death can be our best friend, but we should leave flight plans behind for our survivors.
Click to expand...

May I suggest a good bush pilot instuctor and a float endorcment:D :D
Glad you're still here!!



sig line below
 
Snowboarding with friends on St. Mary's Glacier - decided to board down instead of hike (mostly ice on the way down) - stupid. Caught an edge, fell hard, slid for I don't know how many feet dodging rocks and holes - finally stopped at the bottom, clothing/gear torn up, bloody, banged up, and covered in icy mud.

Body surfing at PB in SanDiego with a friend. Suddenly we were caught in a rip and unknowingly being carried out to sea. Kick ass life guard got on the bull horn and told us to swim toward the pier (parallel to the beach) where we were able to touch sand - exhausted, spent, scared, but we kept our cool.
 
When I was 15 my outdoor ed. class went on a trip to the mountains and I stepped on a loose stone and ened up rolling 45 or 50 ft down the mountain. I came to a stop in some shrubs with a broken ankle and 2 deep cuts on my left side. Ended up limping down and waiting for a jeep to pick me up on the side of the trail. It was getting late in the day and the rest of the group was forced to start walking back to camp so I was left waiting. About 10 minutes after the group left I noticed a black bear on the trail. I was still bleeding and had a broken ankle so there was no way i was going to get away if the bear did decide to attack ( I know bears dont generally attack unless pervoked but it was mid spring so there was a possiblity of a cub being around) Luckly the bear only looked at me and thought I was no threat.
 
I remembered another one, some years ago. Over 11,000' on a mountain with a friend that got me in over my head - first time I used ice axe and crampons, etc. On the way down the first glacier he did not wear crampons so I did not also. Very steep slope.
I flashed it would be a good idea to unstrap my ski poles in case I fell - it may have saved my life. I slipped and started sliding faster and faster towards the rocks below. I turned on my stomach, grabbed the poles just above the baskets and dug the points in the snow.
It took a while to stop - I was not sure I was going to. Very carefully pulled the ice axe off the back of my pack and dug it in. It was only then I felt a bit safe. Very carefully put my crampons on & went back up.
I was pretty scared and shook up. Took a long time to finally get off the glaciers because I lost most of my confidence and it was getting dark. I was so happy when we finally reached the car.
 
Twice. Once nearly froze to death as a child when lost while moose hunting with my father. I didn't really understand the seriousness of the situation until some time later. The other time involved an ATV accident and a fractured femur nearly 45km from the nearest town. The seriousness of the situation was immediate.
 
My ex always wanted me to go check targets down range when we were out in the bush alone..and I always thought it odd that she'd always pick that exact time to reload.......
 
Ok, I'll put mine in here.

In 2000 I went out to Missouri to visit some relations.

It was July, early July. I got talked into going catfishing on the missouri river with my cousin.

My first clue that something was wrong was this HUGE motor clamped onto a lil bitty 14 foot john boat. Did I mention he was a NASCAR fan? I asked him what the boat was rated for, he said 15hp. I asked him what the Motor was rated at. He said 65hp. SWEEETTTT! He had reenforced the back of the boat and had instaled a steering wheel and motor tilt adjusters.

We got to fishing. Sand bars, creek mouths, old wharfs and peirs ect. We had started out at Newhaven and ended up in Hermann to get gas.

It got dark... but there was a full moon and we had a bazillion candle power spot light. In order to make it back before dark, my cousin informed me we would have to go "balls to the wall!" in the boat.

OK!

I was manning the spot light to watch for logs and bouys. We must have been going 70+ MPH throwing up quite a wake. It was full dark now. We were about 3 miles from home, in the middle of the missouri river about 100 yards from any shore.

All of a sudden.....






I got beaned by a june bug! It hurt bad!






Then.....



BAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM! The boat hits a log... We go AIRBORNE for god knows how high or how far. I was standing. The boat came up to meet me and I met it hard. The funny thing is... I got it all on video! We thought we were dead! We searched the immediate area but never found what we hit. We were able to get the rig started but it felt funny so we kept it low and got into the boat ramp area. We had put a huge dent in the bottom of the boat and bent two blades on the prop.

My cousin wouldn't talk about it that night. Especially when I asked about the LOG we hit. His brother, my other cousin said that weird shit goes on out there on the river. He said it could have been a car pulled up by a rouge under current or something else... He has personally seen boats larger than ours suddenly swamp out for no reason. Weird. Painful. Funny. Deadly cause we weren't wearing preservers and I dont swim 100 plus yards in a strong current very well.
 
Yeah, a couple of times. Camping on a side creek a couple miles down from Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River. They would let the water trickle out of the dam and basically downriver was no more until they released water again. I would go out on the rocks and find lures, weights, the occasional rusted to hell pocketknife and other stuff out there.

When the sirens started, you started moving. I almost got stuck on an island out there a couple of times and would have had a long wait.

I was about 7 and 8 years old, the two summers that happened.

It can kill you. My Dad would point the signs out to me about the warning sirens and I still didn't listen...until it happened.

Next summer, I did it again and came a bit closer to an untimely end, I never did it again after that. Not very exciting...unless you do it once.

Other than that, just getting shot at from time to time during deer season. :)
 
Last year on boxing day my brother-in-law and myself had planned to go hiking to a lake that was deep in the back country.Now,we both love to hike and we swore that rain or shine we were going.(Our work scheduels clashed and we didn't get to hike much).
So off we go at 6:00am.I could tell that it was going to be an overcast day already.It was unseasonably warm that year so we wern't worried about being cold.the hike was going well and we made great time however, a thick fog had started to form in the basin around the lake.I paid no mind to it at the time.
We camped at the lake for about 2 hours.I got a fire going and we were quite comfortable when it started to rain.No problem,we'd just cut across some woods and hook up with the 4X4 trails that cross the area.It was about 7:00 pm by now and we were getting pretty wet by now when I noticed something in the snow......tracks.my stomach got tight and I almost cried.we had made a circle on the road we were on.then at that moment when i thought it couldn't get worse it opened up.I have rarely seen rain that hard in the winter and have never seen it rain that hard since.i turned to Jimmy and said "if we don't walk we're dead" he nodded and we walked.
After an hour we found the main road.It was dirt, that ment that we were at leats an hour from the lodge.(the lodge is basicly an outpost for 4 wheelers and snow mobiles)We were feeling the cold by now and picked up our pace. We arrived at the lodge at 9:30pm.The wind had picked up and was blowing freezing rain when we knocked on the lodge door much to the lodge owners supprise.we told him of our plight and he drove us home.By this time my fokes had started a search party for us and they were about to head out for us when I got home.
Other than catching 10 tons of sh** from my fokes I suffered no long term ill efects from being exposed for so long.
 
It wasn't really life threatening but I didn't know it at the time...

I was in my 20's, on my first solo back pack out in the Cascades. I was camped at a small mountain lake, Lake Lorraine, and had just turned off my campstove. It was dusk, so visibility was fading, and I was quite aways from any other human being.

Suddenly, a huge crashing and smashing started coming down the hilside, and out there in the quiet backcountry, it was HUGELY loud.

Of course, being by myself I immediately thought of the most logical explanation. A BAND OF RAMPAGING SASQUATCHES!!

In actuality it turned out I shared the small lake with a herd of Elk. :o

Clint Hollingworth
The Wandering Ones webcomic
http://www.wanderingones.com
 
Once upon a time, I had a white gas backpacker stove, a really old thing with a brass tank. I bought it second hand in the late 1960's, and since there were no papers with it (this was long before Al invented the internet), I had to teach myself how to use it. I finally figured out how to use the little plunger pump that came with it, and was told to pour a bit of fuel in the "primer pan" to heat the tank and get it up to cooking pressure. Well, I overdid the priming fuel. The result was a huge flame that nearly got my eyebrows and clothes. "bomb" was my thought. I kicked the stove down the gravel bar away from my tent and myself. The flame went out. I took two steps to retrieve it and check for damage. Mountain House Tetrazinni was waiting. BOOM! It blew and a fireball shot twelve feet high. "Yup, bomb." I've since learned how to use and care for such multi-fuel stoves, but prefer a tiny campfire for most of my outings.

Codger
 
Great reading. I can't speak about most of my near deaths, but I've always found your mind kicks into serious survival mode when in this situation- know what I mean fellas?...

Anyway i'll tell you a good and short one; I was 11 months old, the 'oldies' were having a BBQ by the pool, and you can guess what happened....Apparently I was nowhere to be seen. Someone looked into the pool and spotted me, a little babe, lying on the bottom of the pool, looking straight back up at them. Pandemonium! Dad got me, watch and all. Mum says that what happened "explains a lot" (about my strange ways etc).

To this day if friends bring a little one around I lecture them about toddlers and water- I will never allow myself to be responsible for a little one drowning on my watch.

Up-shot is; I've been close to death sure (like you guys), but hell I'll never let an innocent be that close to death because it is't his choice; we choose to take risks because it makes us appreciate being alive - a little bub deserves to be able to grow up to make that choice himself.

I love to swim, but I still am shit-scared of drowning :)
 
BOOM! It blew and a fireball shot twelve feet high. "Yup, bomb."
Click to expand...

Y'know Codger, I've never trusted those white gas stoves too much....

My MSR always seemed to be leaky.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top