Fess up? Mistakes you've made in the wilderness...

[klkak]

While stationed down in Washington state some buddies asked me to take them hunting. After I agreed the NCOIC came in and said I had to cover the next shift. I told my friends where to go and where to set up camp. The place I described to them was a small rise, flat on top and bare dirt. I told them I would be there late that night. Keep in mind that Washington gets "RAINNNNNNN". Hence putting the camp on a small rise. Well I show up long about 2am in a typical deluge and the tent wasn't on the hill. I shined the head lights on my truck around until I found the tent. Now about 50 yards away from the rise was a pretty little meadow covered with the softest green grass you ever did see. This is where they put the tent. The grass was green there because it has a slight depression. The water was about 6in. up the side of the tent. I decided to sleep in my truck. My two friends weren't in the mood to hunt come dawn.

[klkak]

Oh, I'm sorry. The story was supposed to be about me.....Hmmm, nothing comes to mind.

[Rick]

So Jason, did the bear kill you or what?

[RBB]

This is where they put the tent. The grass was green there because it has a slight depression. The water was about 6in. up the side of the tent. I decided to sleep in my truck. My two friends weren't in the mood to hunt come dawn.

Had something similar while going to school in Seattle. Took some non-camping fellow students up into the Cascades. We were camping in snow. Placed my tent on a rise - argued with them about placing their tent in a depression. They decided not to listen and ended up in what turned out to be a small stream. They didn't find out it was a stream until their body heat had melted enough snow for them to settle in.

[Beo]

Well there are way to many to put into print here, I have thrown my shelter up on the downward side of a hill and got all my stuff wet, didn't take any matches and couldn't get my fire going with only flint and steel, and took less than I should have and had to call it quits early. These happened in my early days of trekking and camping and I've fixed that now so pretty much nothing I cant handle now.

[Rick]

Except this forum. Do you know how much crap we've had to hold back waiting for you to get here? So many bad puns. I don't even know where to begin!

[Beo]

I'm back bro, let'er rip. Who wants to tangle... lol...

[trax]

Out hunting in November in northern Manitoba, 2 adults, 3 teens, none of us brought toilet paper. That time of year, believe me folks there aren't any leaves or moss that you want to try. Everyone went home without shirt tails and pockets.

[Chicago Dan]

Out hunting in November in northern Manitoba, 2 adults, 3 teens, none of us brought toilet paper. That time of year, believe me folks there aren't any leaves or moss that you want to try. Everyone went home without shirt tails and pockets.

trax...that’s the best!
Yeah I did that too...LOL! Many moons ago(pun intended) I was caught short and vowed never again.
Now my wife laughs at me at my oversupply(I view as reasonable) of the commodity. We must have 300 rolls at home and about a dozen in each vehicle. She now has a standing order when I’m headed out to the big box store: ”No more TP” , “We have enough to build a TP Igloo”.

[Dennis K.]

My first big mistake falls into the category of "not respecting Momma Nature." It didn't happen during camping - but on a fishing trip, coast of North Carolina. A buddy and I surf fishing, not catching squat, so we go swimming. I was warned about undertow. So I think "undertow, schmundertow, as long as I'm not in over my head, no big deal. heck, I am a strong swimmer, and I grew up around the water. No big deal." So we were swimming. I touch bottom every few steps. Then suddenly, no more bottom. Oh sh!t - buddy starts to panic. So I start to float on my back, and I get him to do the same. We managed to float down the beach, at least 1/2 mile, before getting out of the surf.

Lesson learned - when in undertow, do NOT fight the current. Floating on your back can be very effective and not nearly as strenuous as trying to swim. I used kind of a frog stroke while on my back to keep me headed in the right direction.
Lesson learned - stay calm dammit. That situation could have gone south VERY quickly.
Lesson learned - water is your friend if you are drinking it. It is your enemy when you are immersed in it.
Lesson learned - heed undertow warnings. Seriously.
Lesson learned - I am no match for natural forces. I can not tread water all day. there is no such thing as a rescue like on TV. Mother Nature is WAY bigger than me. Welcome to a mega-dose of reality.

I find that those lessons seem to apply in so many areas when the brain is engaged...

[Rick]

That situation could have gone south VERY quickly.

And you would have ended up in Florida!!

[Dennis K.]

Sharks refer to swimmers as "wild edibles" and "meals of opportunity"

[Rick]

Wild edibles. I like that. Gators, too, I'm sure.

[DOGMAN]

So Jason, did the bear kill you or what?

No, if that had happened I would've posted over in the survival story thread
I just started walking a little faster (with the hair on the back of my neck standing up), and then one of my cohorts came around the corner with a headlamp, and we scuttled together back to camp. No, actual bear contact. Just a bear presence I guess you could say.

[Rick]

Oh, you bearly escaped? Good thing your buddy's light worked. If you two had meant up in the dark it would have been unbearable.

[KT_Cobra]

*smacks Rick for making the locusts chirp* lol j/k

These are some very funny and very interesting stories. Keep them coming, guys.

My favorite quote so far is by klkak as he said it so nonshilant:

The water was about 6in. up the side of the tent. I decided to sleep in my truck. My two friends weren't in the mood to hunt come dawn.

lol!

[Pict]

(early on in my wilderness experience) Hiking on the AT in PA, August, the plan was to do 24 miles of trail in 24 hours and no stop for the night, just push straight through all night taking occasional rests.

In the morning I was pretty tired, we all were. I laid down with my head against my pack and fell into a semi-sleep. After a bit I got up, put on my pack and tapped my brother to get up and then started down the trail.

"Where are you going?" My brother and friend asked in unison.

"We have a long way to go, let's get moving"

"That's the wrong way!"

"No it's not! Come on!"

"Check your compass."

Sure enough was headed right back the way we had come, but my internal compass was so altered I couldn't shake the feeling at all. I kept checking the compass to get my head used to the idea.

At that point I had a half canteen but we were coming to a spring. I popped two teabags in my canteen (mistake) and some sugar for iced tea. We got to the spring and it was bone dry. So was the next, and the next. That half canteen of tea was all I had that day in 90 degree heat and it made me sick to drink it I was so dehydrated.

By the end of the day I was in serious dehydration, splitting headache, wobbly legs, foggy thinking, dry mouth. That is as close as I ever want to come to a heat injury, let me tell you severe thirst is miserable.

Another trip several years later. My brother and I were going to do another 20+ mile night hike. Our objective was a small man made lake on the map. We started at 7 PM and arrived at the location of the lake at 3 AM. Much of our hike had been off trail cutting down from a ridge trail to one in the valley.

We arrived at the banks of the lake to find that the dam had been washed out and there was no lake. My brother sat down with his back against the bank and fell instantly asleep. I pulled out my mini-maglight and switched it on to find a flat level place to get some rest, POOF, the bulb burned out. I got a small candle stub out of my PSK and lit it up and changed the bulb. OK back to the search...

I headed off through the laurel and soon came to a flat patch of dirt, looks good. I went back and collected my brother and we stayed in the "Hotel Poncho Burito" (wrap in poncho, lay in dirt, fall into coma). Half an hour into the sleep of the dead it started to rain, then pour, water poured in, I didn't care, went back to coma. A little while later the rain stopped and I was semi awake when I heard a motor. I opened my eyes to see light bouncing around me, huh? Vroom, a truck rumbled by not ten feet away. We were sleeping on the freaking shoulder of a road! OK we gotta move back. We headed back into the bush a bit and slept on the ground a while more. It was OK.

Live and learn, get some sleep or you get sloppy. Mac

[Pict]

Not a wilderness adventure unless you consider the ocean a wilderness. I was in Cabo Frio Brazil taking my senior class on their class trip. We had a sea breeze all day and the waves were getting really nice. I love to bodysurf and spent the better part of the day riding perfect waves. It was typical good surf, you wait for the bigger waves and get a good 100 yard ride. Fantastic.

The breeze picked up that night and the next day it looked like a surfer convention. Everyone had come to Cabo Frio to surf. The waves were big enough that there were three distinct breaks. The surfers were riding the first break, some the second, and I was out there with them. The bottom in Cabo Frio is flat sand and very shallow way out so I was about 200 yards from the beach.

I would have to wait for the smaller waves to ride as the big ones were just too huge. They would break out beyond me and I would have to dive under a wall of whitewater and come up through the mixmaster on the other side, wait for the water to go down again so I could touch bottom. It was awesome. Just getting back out after a ride was a challenge.

The tide was coming in and I noticed I was doing more swimming than standing. I had to get back in, but the water wasn't going down to the point I could touch bottom. OK I have to get out of here, next wave I take it in. (Mistake) I see this wave coming and it looks OK, the timing is right, I started swimming with it. Now I'm going up, the wave is starting to take over, but I'm still going up, and up, and faster forward. There is a point at which if you flare your back and spread your legs you can brake and fall out of the back of the wave. This wave was just too big to get out of and I knew all of a sudden I had done a very bad thing. I was going over. I remember seeing hotels from an unnaturally high POV and I was in freefall.

I had the presence of mind to tuck into a cannonball on the way down hoping to get some depth/control. No dice. I hit the water and about 100,000 pounds of wave hit me. I hit the bottom with my face and shoulder HARD and lost all control. It blasted me against the bottom with such force, it broke my hold on my knees and I was along for the ride. An eternity later my feet slammed into the sand and I gave a kick and came to the surface. I was stunned. My right ear was actually packed with sand! OK, I have learned my lesson. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Mac

[Beo]

Blistering hot night, bear outside tent and my son farts trapping me in there with his stinking putrid boiled egg stench, chanced it and went outside where the big azz bear was tearing into all our stuff, we stood about two feet apart just looking at each other, then he ate me... lol... son-of-a-bee-otch that hurt... lol...

[Rick]

Beo - What about sitting on the arrow? That has to be a survival story. Did I ever tell you how much I like your son? By the way, where is he? We miss him.