Trouble on the trails - Let's hear your stories

We had a guy who used to hand out a little plaque with that on it. :)

He also gave out disks with this on them:

This is a round tuit.
Remember you said you would do it when you got a round tuit.
Well, now you can go ahead and do it!
 
theonew said:
My dog is of very little outright protection value, but his nose and ears are incredibly useful and he's shown me things I would never have noticed otherwise ;)
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This is why I want a dog...and somewhere to house one...and enough land to let it roam...and the money for a feed bill...:(
 
I spend a ton of nights in a tent each year and have never had a problem yet - touch wood!

Generally, I'm in pretty remote places, the kind of places that you're not going to find people who are looking for trouble. The biggest threat in these places is (( family forum )) and injuring/killing yourself or bears: grizzles and/or black bears. Human threats are a very remote possibility in these locales.

Parks in urban areas are always high-risk, especially for females - it's a very sad, but true reality. I live in a very nice neighbourhood and there's a huge park [1900 acres] down the street. A woman running in the park was murdered there a month ago today - scary (( family forum )).

If I'm road-tripping, I make a point not to camp in or near urban areas - this includes small towns. There are a lot of wackos in cities. I once tried to camp in an old quarry near Baxter State Park, b/c the park gates were locked. Two drunk dudes in a pick-up drove-up [narrowly missing my car] to the tent around 12:30 am [after driving super recklessly around the quarry] and said: "hey you guys wanna party ..." They may have been OK, but my GF was pretty frightened and I wasn't keen on getting run over by a 4x4 ... I packed-up and we stayed in a motel. It's never cool to have a person or vehicle approach your tent in the middle of the night - it's like having someone break into your home.
 
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One day while hiking through the woods to my friends house (I lived in Alaska at the time) A bull moose sent me up a tree like a squirrel. Scared me, big time.

I've ran across wild dogs while out walking with one of my brothers, we pulled our knives out and chased them off, that was scarey, the dogs looked like skin and bones, we weren't about to become lunch, luckily no-one got hurt and the dogs decided "Let's not try to eat a couple Eskimos with knives".

I've been lucky though, bear maulings happen, moose kill people every year, and having my brother to scare off a wild dog pack.

Now, we're older and pack rifles and pistols, and generally have a good time, I think a hike this comming weekend sounds nice.
 
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Happy to say that I have been roaming the woods alone for 54 years now (started at about eight years old) and have not had a threatening human confrontation. (Old drunk guy at a remote boat launch with a .25 auto threatened to shoot holes in my boat one day, but I had known him for many years and that was easily handled.)

Can't say the same for urban and suburban areas, though.
 
Side story: A few years ago, there was a commercial, I think it was for beef jerkey, where a hiker is confronted by several wolves. SUV drives by, kid hands him a pack of jerkey, and he starts backing off slowly while throwing jerky to the wolves.

One of my employees mentioned this commerical one day over coffee, talked about the improbable premise of the commercial. Another asked me, "what would you do?" I replied that I would start to dispatch them with my Browning Hi-Power. "And what if you weren't carrying it?" he asked. "Now, that is a truly improbable premise", I replied.
 
I'm reading Bill Brysons A Walk in the Woods, and there is a blurb about two young women who were killed on the AT, pretty much days after the author and his hiking buddy passed through that spot. Just goes to show you that there are nutjobs everywhere.
 
I've never met anyone on the trail who wasn't friendly or helpful. I've camped around moose and wolves and grizzlies with hardly a worry. The only thing that has ever really scared me was a chipmunk that jumped on my head one morning while I was still sleeping. THAT sure woke me up in a hurry. :eek: :)
 
I thought about this for a few days and I have to say I don't think I've ever had any weird interactions on the trail, ever. I hardly ever even see anyone where I go so odds of running in to someone threatening must be astronomically tiny.

I can't openly carry a handgun for defense against people or while hiking recreationally up here...but there are such things as WATC permits, which allow you to carry a large handgun for defense against wild animals while working in the bush. But they don't cover you while you're out for fun, just working.

But of course a lot of guys do anyway...you are unlikely to see anyone in lots of Canada's backcountry, so you are EXTREMELY unlikely to be searched by anyone.
 
Camping out in a national forest in Central Florida a few years back, I was walking up the trail to the water pump to load up a jug to keep for putting out the fire at the end of the night. There was a group straight out of Deliverance swimming in their cut-off jeans, chugging cheap beer and being pretty rowdy amongst themselves, and obnoxious/aggressive with others.

One guy lolling around in the muddy pond water turns to me as I walked by and says, "Hey, got any pot!?"

Something about the way he said it made the hair on my neck stand up. It wasn't really a question, more his way of saying, "I'm going to f**k with you."

I was in pretty good shape at the time and had (have) really short hair. I don't know what made me think to say this, but I turned to him and said, "How many off-duty sheriff deputies do you know that carry pot?"

The wife and I didn't have any trouble with them the rest of the weekend. :D
 
I have seen enough stuff in the woods to keep me alert and armed. Had a cat check me out one time when I was target shooting. Nothing fun about laying on the ground in the prone with a big cat standing behind you. Luckily for me he changed his mind when I sat up. Also had an occasion of having 3 guys announce to me they were going to take my 10-22 when I was up in a small shooting pit. The Sig Sauer that they hadn't seen and a serious tone to my voice convinced them otherwise. Growing up in upstate NY there was a short time when a real life psycopath was stalking the woods. I think his name was William or Robert Garro. He had killed a few teenagers in a pretty nasty way and was living up in the hills. To this day there is still a boot mark on our old cabin door where he had broken in and stayed for a couple days. My dad swears he matches the guy he spotted following him and my mom as they were riding trails on the old trailbike. I don't think one needs to be paranoid when out in the woods but alert is definitely the rule. Just watch National Geographic and see what Ma Nature does to the unaware!!!!
 
Bill Siegle said:
I have seen enough stuff in the woods to keep me alert and armed. Had a cat check me out one time when I was target shooting. Nothing fun about laying on the ground in the prone with a big cat standing behind you. Luckily for me he changed his mind when I sat up. Also had an occasion of having 3 guys announce to me they were going to take my 10-22 when I was up in a small shooting pit. The Sig Sauer that they hadn't seen and a serious tone to my voice convinced them otherwise. Growing up in upstate NY there was a short time when a real life psycopath was stalking the woods. I think his name was William or Robert Garro. He had killed a few teenagers in a pretty nasty way and was living up in the hills. To this day there is still a boot mark on our old cabin door where he had broken in and stayed for a couple days. My dad swears he matches the guy he spotted following him and my mom as they were riding trails on the old trailbike. I don't think one needs to be paranoid when out in the woods but alert is definitely the rule. Just watch National Geographic and see what Ma Nature does to the unaware!!!!
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Robert Garrow, I looked him up. That's creepy stuff, Bill. :eek:
 
mnblade said:
Camping out in a national forest in Central Florida a few years back, I was walking up the trail to the water pump to load up a jug to keep for putting out the fire at the end of the night. There was a group straight out of Deliverance swimming in their cut-off jeans, chugging cheap beer and being pretty rowdy amongst themselves, and obnoxious/aggressive with others.

One guy lolling around in the muddy pond water turns to me as I walked by and says, "Hey, got any pot!?"

Something about the way he said it made the hair on my neck stand up. It wasn't really a question, more his way of saying, "I'm going to f**k with you."

I was in pretty good shape at the time and had (have) really short hair. I don't know what made me think to say this, but I turned to him and said, "How many off-duty sheriff deputies do you know that carry pot?"

The wife and I didn't have any trouble with them the rest of the weekend. :D
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All you really needed to do was to give them a big "Roll Tide.":D
 
mnblade said:
Camping out in a national forest in Central Florida a few years back, I was walking up the trail to the water pump to load up a jug to keep for putting out the fire at the end of the night. There was a group straight out of Deliverance swimming in their cut-off jeans, chugging cheap beer and being pretty rowdy amongst themselves, and obnoxious/aggressive with others.

One guy lolling around in the muddy pond water turns to me as I walked by and says, "Hey, got any pot!?"

Something about the way he said it made the hair on my neck stand up. It wasn't really a question, more his way of saying, "I'm going to f**k with you."

I was in pretty good shape at the time and had (have) really short hair. I don't know what made me think to say this, but I turned to him and said, "How many off-duty sheriff deputies do you know that carry pot?"

The wife and I didn't have any trouble with them the rest of the weekend. :D
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That's pretty funny...I have a neighbour that always tells people I am a cop because I'm also fit, short hair, and (according to a coworker that used to get laughs by mimicking other people's walks at work) I have a "cop walk." I think this is because I am kind of paranoid about bad posture so I walk really upright. Also, I am used to supervising construction workers all day so I am always looking around at what everyone is up to. The neighbour tells people I am a cop because I think he thinks that will keep any troublemakers away.

Anyway, some guy who lives a few houses down came by my neighbour's the other day to get some help with his car. It was about 11 AM on a Tuesday, and he had a can of Bud...hey, I'm not here to judge. But I do, anyway.

So the guy says to me, "So you're a cop, eh?"

Now ordinarily I say, "no, I'm in construction." But the guy was maybe half cut from the budweisers and seemed a little aggressive. So I took a page from the book of Virgil, this extremely intimidating cop I met in Tatum, New Mexico, years ago. Virgil spoke slowly, looked you in the eye all the time, and answered every question with a question of his own.

The guy says to me, "So you're a cop, eh?"

"Why?" I asked slowly. "Are you thinking about breaking the law?"

"What if I was? said the guy.

"What if I told you you ought to think about thinking twice?" I asked, standing close by and looking him in the eye.

I can see why Virgil did things the way he did. By not answering any questions directly, the other guy is always guessing, and trying to figure out what's coming. The drunk guy from down the street was not going to chance it.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

If I had had aviator sunglasses I would definitely have put them on slowly at that point. Also, possibly a "Who" song could have suddenly played extremely loud overtop of the whole scene.
 
I have spent 30+ years hiking and camping in the Pcific NW mostly with the Boy Scouts, but some on my friends. We have had (on separate occasions) our van stolen, had several scouts threated by a man the police arrested for Murder (in California) (arrested while our boys hid in the trees at night), had a Ranger kill a Dobberman with a shovel when the owner sicced the dog on him, watched two armed ladies run off three drunk teenagers with rape on their mind, and I was personally recuited to aid two undercover cops in a drug bust (I provided the jet boat to access the bad guys on an island in the Columbia River). The two undercover cops were the scariest people I have ever seen. I used to carry a .22 pistol until one of the fathers asked why? He was on the local SWAT team. With his guidance I transistioned to a .357. He insisted I carry it when his boys (4) went with the troop.
Per the police in our area the order of threat is: Domestic dogs gone wild, people, cougars, bears, rabid cyotes. Only the first two are of any realistic concern.
I have never actually used the gun in defense.
Ron Athay
 
In South Africa you are generally safer in the bush than in the urban areas. The dangerous animals are all in game parks or on private game farms. The only possible exceptions are leopard and baboon, but they tend to leave adult-sized humans well enough alone. Nonetheless, I've always carried a pistol. Initially a 357 mag, later on a 9mm para compact. My wife and I have hiked extensively, never encountering any problems.

My sister-in-law and her husband are fair weather hikers, yuppies who talk adventure but never actually do anything. Until one weekend they bought matching hiking socks and daypacks and joined some of their friends on a hike in the Cederberg (sic) Wilderness area about 3 hours from Cape Town.

Well, while ascending a steep path they would have to return along, sister-in-law decides to leave her pack beside the trail as it's just dead weight. Inside said pack is a spare pair of jogging shoes. (Bad idea leaving stuff as baboons will tear apart a pack to get at food!). Anyway, they return an hour or so later...pack is still there but the shoes are gone. Note: This is wilderness, miles away from any human settlement. Well, then the psycho games were on....fear of Deliverance...brother-in-law (unarmed) decides to abort the hike and leads them at a panicky jog down the mountain. 4 hours later they arrive at the cars. They haven't hiked since.
 
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