Squirrel hunter barely survives.

Also could be that there's thousands of acres of swamp and dense bottomland woods there. I looked at the map, and the part that people walk around at is basically a strip on one side of the park, with another larger area being a bunch of nothing between there and the river. Hard to tell whether this was just a case of stupid, a bad place to get lost in like I said before, or a combination of the two. There's no details about where in the park he was, but it's a pretty safe bet he wasn't walking in circles between the playground and the park museum.
 
I wonder how many folks who suggest this fellow should have started a fire using his shotgun shells have ever tried such a thing?

Andy
 
OwenM said:
Also could be that there's thousands of acres of swamp and dense bottomland woods there. I looked at the map, and the part that people walk around at is basically a strip on one side of the park, with another larger area being a bunch of nothing between there and the river. Hard to tell whether this was just a case of stupid, a bad place to get lost in like I said before, or a combination of the two. There's no details about where in the park he was, but it's a pretty safe bet he wasn't walking in circles between the playground and the park museum.
Click to expand...

Still it doesn't look like five days travel to get to either the road to the north, the road to the east or the river to the west. If he had walked in a straight line he should have been able to make one of those things in a day or two's travel no matter how out of shape he was. Apparently it is only two miles from the road to the river.

Chad
 
I don't think him being a "lawman" makes him anymore outdoor savvy than your average Joe. I have several co-workers who are gun toting avid hunters that look at my EDC and camelbak like I'm out of place in the woods :D

Maybe his vacation was refused/deferred to a later time and he wanted to make it happen on the given 5 days :p Regardless of why he was out for 5 days he'll never hear the end of it at the office :) We had a guy actually chase a bunch of illegals in the woods here and after 20 minutes of him running after them he realized he didn't know which way he came from. It took a helicopter, everyone on shift, and a couple of hours for him to get back to the road. He had left his cell phone in his patrol unit but he had his 2-way and it was like playing Marco - Polo on large scale. His nickname was "Lost" after that...still is his nickname.
 
ChadHahn said:
Still it doesn't look like five days travel to get to either the road to the north, the road to the east or the river to the west. If he had walked in a straight line he should have been able to make one of those things in a day or two's travel no matter how out of shape he was. Apparently it is only two miles from the road to the river.

Chad
Click to expand...
Hard to walk in a straight line with no compass in a place without discerning landmarks, or view of the sun due to foliage overhead.
On the other hand, getting lost, and staying that way, is really easy if you don't know what you're doing.
 
Hey, I got a real nice bridge up in New York for sale. Been well maintained, and I'll give ya a heck of a deal.
 
Every morning, rain or shine, the sky brightens first in the East. Every day, rain or shine, the sky darkens last in the West. Had he walked East one mile in the morning and one mile that evening, he would have been out of there in one day. Even in difficult terrain, one-half mile in an hour is doable. He would have been out of there in one day walking a mile in the morning and a mile in the evening, even if he got his wits about him on the Western boundry, the Missisippi River. As others have suggested, there is something fishy about the story. It is not that hard to keep a general bearing (E, ENE, ESE) even in a swamp with no compass. I grew up there on the banks of the Missisippi right across the river from where he was.
 
i don't think there's anything fishy about the story. if he was on a drunk out in the woods it'd get pretty unpleasant being eaten up by bugs. i think there's a simpler explanation - he was freaking out because he was lost. he fired approx fifteen rounds in approx 48 hours - that's a shot almost every two hours. can you imagine walking around the woods firing your shotgun every couple hours because you feel so desperate and alone? poor guy was mentally melting down. not everyone is comfortable being in the woods - a lot of people when they get lost just freak out, they don't say to themselves, "oh well, here i am - up the creek again! time to get out my trusty psk and have a go at it" ;)

he got lost in a state park and wasn't able to walk a straight line to a road not because he didn't have a compass, map, knife or fire - he got lost in his own mind and the fear guided him bumbling about searching for water and worms in what he probably saw as a dense jungle out to kill him. i feel sorry for the guy - the mental ordeal was probably far worse than the physical.
 
On walking in a straight line-
In his defense, if he was near the Mississippi River, SW corner of Tenn, he was probably in a swamp. The terrain there makes it really hard to go in a straight line for a mile, I couldn't imagine doing it in SC unless I was prepared to get wet and torn up by briars.The terrain varies with water pools and small creeks, to open mud flats that simulate puff mud in salt water, trying to take your boots in the mud. The swamps beds he would have had to wade through would probably at least get him wet up to his lower torso, a decision he probably didn't want to. Those briars down there can get THICK too, and nasty, not just little guys but huge devils walking stick type vines. I've had friends scream at me while they were following behind me during hikes and squirrel hunts, for taking them into trashy terrain. Something to nom on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top