New Contest... "true" survival tales...

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Well after that we ended up getting into a bunch of ankle-deep snow. The gut feeling was low before but it was worse now. We came to a sign indicating a trail reroute due to erosion, which lowered the accuracy of our map, but like hell we were going back the way we came.

We finally broke through to the top of the mountain. It started to rain.
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And crap it started raining. More to come in a few minutes. Time for a tea break. :o
 
So you both strapped RC-6s to the bottoms of your boots and ice skated back down? I am on the edge here!:eek:
 
You can see the wear set in on your face. lol


Perfectly dry, no scrape.

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Cold sweaty pissed, scrape on forehead. LOL!

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Well some of the facts of this story are a little fuzzy but for the most part I recall the story and all the pertinent details. About 20 years ago when I was somewhere between 9-12 my father, uncle, dad's buddy, cousin and I all took a trip to Seneca lake sometime mid winter. I don't recall the date but I know it was winter because the creek and storm wall were iced over. My father and I used to take a few trips to Seneca each winter to do some Perch fishing and just spend time with each other. Well this trip my fathers friend bought a smaller trolling boat so we could get out to the deeper water. Most of the time we just fished off a dock or from the shore and it never really seemed necessary to do otherwise. I never was much of a small boat big lake kinda kid but I figured my dad knew what he was doing so my pops, his friend and I went out while my uncle and cousin stayed ashore. It was a cold day and the water was a bit choppy, looking back it was really a piss poor day to go out in that small of a boat. So we headed out into the water and looked for a good spot with the fish finder. We ended up pretty far from the launch spot and I recall the depth on the finder reading a few hundred feet and I got pretty nervous. They found a school of fish and decided to stop and see what we could catch. Dads buddy stood up to cast and just as he stood up we went into the water!!!! Now mind you I'm like 10 and this water is F'in BONE chilling!!! For some reason I wasn't wearing heavy boots but my father was wearing his Sorel biggidybabla (I don't know the model but they were big and heavy!!) and they weren't helping his swimming ability. So as he was flailing and struggling I was all but screaming and crying!! I don't know where is friend was but he was gone! Barley able to breath from the shock of the cold water I think I started to panic, but I remembered my sensei and heard him say “relax, stay calm and breath slow.” I pulled my coat off and started to swim to shore, and I heard my dad smacking the water and gasping/gurgling. So I swam back to him as he was sinking and he mumbled something about his boots. I went under water and tried to untie his boots but my hands were numb and I could barely use them! He had a buck knife on his belt that I was able to grab off him and after what seemed like 12 hours trying to cut his laces I finally got them both cut and he was able to kick his boots off, I did however loose his knife :( and his boots which I think were pretty darn expensive since he spent many hours searching for them after the event occurred. Anyways, after he got his boots off he was able to get his coat off and help me get to shore. I guess we weren't super far off shore but I'll tell you, it seemed like we were miles away!!!! Once we got to shore I thought we were seriously going to die, my body was shaking so much I couldn't even cry properly. I then realized that my grandfather had given all us grand children the huge a** “survival” bowie that I had on my belt!!! They were some cheap no brand knife with a blade that I'm nearly certain was made of warm butter! It had a screw off “pommel” which was a compass and inside was stashed some fishing line, small fishhooks , 2 pills of some sort and 6 matches which were individually wrapped. The first 3 I tried didn't work and took soooooo much effort to even try and light. So my dad took over and we got a small pile of rubbish to catch and he went and gathered some drift wood and I stripped down to my thundercats underpants!! Never been a boy scout or anything like that I guess I just did what I needed to do and somehow knew what to do?? Other than catching one hell of a cold a few days later no ill effects were seen. My father ended up finding one of his boots like 2 weeks later waayyy down the shore from where we sank. My fathers friend pretty much ditched us to save his own ass!! Pretty nice guy huh???? I later found out that both my father and his AWESOME friend had been drinking!!!!! GREAT idea guys!! (thank god he has since stopped drinking!!! 15 years without a drink!!) I'm very thankful that no one was seriously injured other than the pride of his ex-friend! I think the guilt my dad felt for drinking really had a profound impact on him and the way our relationship progressed from that day forward. Pretty sure he gained some sort of respect for me. I mean how many 10 year old have to safe their old man?? It's tough to not loose respect for him for endangering me like that by irresponsibly drinking!! But from my understanding he got quite a lickin from my mother about it!! And it's hard to fault someone who has a disease (he's a recovering alcoholic). To this day he still talks about how much he loved those boots!!! lol... I no longer have that knife, but boy oh boy was that thing a life saver that day!!! The one thing that eats me up is that I was wearing my Citizen Bullhead watch that my grandfather (on my moms side) gave me!!! Damn I loved that watch!!! Thing was a bit big for me so I'm pretty sure it went to the bottom of Seneca lake :( Anyone care to go diving and get it back for me??????? This has to be my best survival story for sure!! Most people I tell think I'm fibbin, but this is the real deal!!! Great stories guys!!

Sorry this doesn't include a RAT, but if I had one I sure bet it would have been the co-star!!!! Well maybe the star and I'd be the co-star!!
 
I had to cut my underwear off after a binder caused by some mexican food which went south of the border....does that count?








I have scares..
 
Horn Dog said:
So you both strapped RC-6s to the bottoms of your boots and ice skated back down? I am on the edge here!:eek:
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Unfortunately I'm being called away for the evening. Rest assured--the saga shall continue tomorrow! The best (or worst) is yet to come. :eek::foot::o
 
Well it all started like any other day after school, about 15 years ago. I set out in search of the elusive blond tailed squirrel, no really a squirrel, with my trusty Crossman air rifle and my cheapie stag handled 3 inch squirrel knife. I dipped under the barbed wire fence walked across the back field and spotted that beautiful animal from about 100 yards away, but across the stream. So I decided to take the path more traveled, by cows, to cross the creek. As I took the first step I sunk to my knee and trying to pull out sunk the other leg as well. Now I was about 500 yards from the house, seemed like a 1000 yards though. Stuck in the mud with my ass in the water trying to free myself while trying not to panic and lose the air gun. I probably looked like a mouse stuck to one of those glue traps. So I decided I needed help so I began to yell, no luck mom was in the house. Next I started to shoot bbs at the house hitting the roof. Mom came out cussing, I could heat her. She saw me came over and laughed her ass off for about 5 minutes. With tears in her eyes she went to the shed and got an 8' 2x4 to try and pry me out. No luck. I sat on it and she tried to pry and nothing. She them proceeded to yell at me for about 15 minutes for getting stuck then placed the 2x4 between my legs and tried to pry me out like a staple in wood. Still no luck. So I bit the bullet grabbed the knife and dove in to cut the boots off my feet. Got through the laces and each tongue she put the board between my legs again and like a mad man I struggled to get free and finally did. Covered in mud, bootless, mom screaming, gun and ass wet we walked back to the house where she proceeded to hose me off in the back yard. Now was a knife important? YES!!! Worst part about the whole thing was this all happened in January, it was cold as shit I was wet and getting hosed off by well water and I had a bruise on my ass for a week from the 2x4 pry bar. Lesson Learned. Still never got the blond tailed squirrel.

HAK
RP#354
 
Horn Dog said:
So you both strapped RC-6s to the bottoms of your boots and ice skated back down? I am on the edge here!:eek:
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This gave me a chuckle, heh. Great stories, keep em flowing! Also, pictures made a good story great.
 
Mine is yet to be over...I'm sitting in a state facility(DMV) starving, tired and bored. If I doesn't end soon ill die. I'm only carrying my SAK but I wouldn't hesitate to push it thur my own eye! Damn renewal sneaking up on me! If I survive ill use my sak to open the biggest Guennis I can get my sprayfoam encrusted hands on!
 
I just got back from WalMart and they only had 2 checkout registers open and a shitload of people wanting to check out. Now, that is a survival story!
 
I'll be at Bass Pro today with friends & their 4 kids for Santa Photos.
trying to decide if I should bring the machete or the chainsaw as survival gear...
 
I survived working retail on Black Friday for the last 5 years and no customers were harmed in all that time. It's got to count for something.

Heber
 
From the day my age group started into Boy Scouts, we saved every penny we could for a canoe and fishing trip starting out from the Charles L. Sommers canoe base near Ely, MN. It took years for us to save the money, but we got it.

Compared to some of the city crews up there, we were pretty comfortable about the trip. We all had a pretty good amount of canoe experience. Each person's gear fit in a 5 gallon bucket, except food. We'd cross a lake, pick up all the packs and canoes and portage to the next lake.

We met our guide, Sam. He was a UP-er and at the time I thought he was a hard-ass, I now realize he was poorly prepared IMO. He wore shorts, a ripped up t-shirt, carried no jacket or hardly any gear. He was convinced he didn't need to use Polar Pure on his water to treat it, although we all did. He was pretty lazy and had little interest in wilderness skills. He read Dungeons and Dragons type books. Shit about trolls and warlocks.

On day 4 of our week long trip, Sam caught giardia. He looked like hell. We spent most of the morning and 1 1/2 of the 2 radio batteries on the emergency radio getting him flown out. After Sam was gone, the fog rolled in. The fog got so thick in the mornings that the person in the front of the canoe was blurry to the person in the back.

We got lost. No ego here, we were lost. Dumb luck allowed me to see a boat across the lake around lunch time. The only person we had seen since Sam caught the bug. He pointed us to where we were and said "where's your guide?" Probably stuffing his fat ass with a plate full of hot chow right now. I took over navigation after that day. No one complained. I had heard of "moose muck" but whatever it was, we apparently hadn't run in to any until the last day. I stepped out of the canoe on to a bit flat rock, put on my Duluth pack and stepped off. I sank to my chest. Here I am wearing a backpack, up to my chest in crap. Lovely. I used my paddle to get my some leverage and got out.

We hauled ass and made it back within 2 hours of when we were supposed to, but there was no chatter for the whole last day, it was pretty much all business.

Far from Les Stroud stuff, but it was a learning experience. Never depend on someone else for navigation and pay attention to where you are.
 
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Mrs.Shotgunner11 said:
oh it's over. you win ;)
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You think that's bad? I worked in a store that sold Pokemon cards when they were HUGE. Our store was run by Wizards of the Coast, which is the company that brought Pokemon to the US. Everytime black Friday and Xmas rolled around, I had to run the kiosk in the middle of the mall. You have to have a serious will to live and some damn good skills to survive that.
 
Dylside said:
You think that's bad? I worked in a store that sold Pokemon cards when they were HUGE. Our store was run by Wizards of the Coast, which is the company that brought Pokemon to the US. Everytime black Friday and Xmas rolled around, I had to run the kiosk in the middle of the mall. You have to have a serious will to live and some damn good skills to survive that.
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Haha damn, I think I may just be young enough to have contributed to your near demise. :p Don't those kiosks usually have 2 or 3 people? Someone to watch your back at least.
 
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