In Your Life, What Has Been Your Biggest Fright In The Woods?

Discussion in 'Other Reminiscences' started by Ken Anderson, Dec 4, 2022.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Some of you may have never spent any time in the woods but, for those of you who have, what has been your biggest fright?

    I once checked my game camera the morning after sleeping in a hammock in the woods to find that a large black bear had come within a few feet of my hammock while I was sleeping, but that wasn't it (my biggest fright) because, by the time I knew about it, I had already survived it unaware.

    For me, it was one night when I had worked late clearing trees for our cabin since they were going to deliver it the next day. By the time I finished working, looked around to make sure that everything was ready, and packed things up, it was pitch dark and I had two miles to walk back to my car. As I was walking back, everything was dead silent in the woods, which were on both sides of me, when, all of a sudden, it sounded like a tank was coming through the woods at breakneck speed. The volume of the noise and the suddenness of it scared the hell out of me. Although I didn't see it, I assume that it was a bull moose running through the woods, knocking down everything that was in front of it.

    Possibly an equivalent might be a tree that didn't fall where I had intended it to. For a second, I was afraid that it was going to fall on me. But no, the moose (or Bigfoot, or whatever it was) scared me more.
     
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    Last edited: Dec 4, 2022
  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I don't believe I've ever had a particular scare in the woods, but telling stories around the campfire always creeps me out. Also, just the absolute blackness of night in the woods can be disturbing to a city slicker.
     
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  3. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    It was when a tornado came right over us when we were camping in a tent. Yes, it does sound like a freight train.

    It touched down three blocks away and took out a large building.
     
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  4. Teresa Levitt

    Teresa Levitt Veteran Member
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    the chicken lot was quite a way in the trees...
    a panther scream...jolted me to solid fear...it was after dark
     
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  5. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Not much experience in woods except ours. Not much to be scared about here. A couple of times I got turned around somehow and couldn't get my bearings. A momentary lost feeling that makes your heart race.

    Another time, when the two dogs attacked one of our goats. I went looking for her (the goat), thinking how could I ever find her if she didn't make some kind of noise, and her black color didn't help. I got lucky.

    I guess another is hearing high powered rifle fire, sounding closer than it probably is, not being able to tell what direction it's coming from due to the hills, and hoping whoever was shooting was firing into the side of a hill.
     
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  6. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Although for some reason, I wasn't particularly frightened, my companions were terrified. We were hunting for moose in a way back in the wilderness area. We had gotten two moose and were hunting for our third. We had been calling moose for 30 minutes or so when we heard something coming below the crest of a small hill. Assuming it was a moose responding to our calling, I had a rifle ready to shoot, when what should crest the hill but a HUGE brown bear. It was about 20 yards away. He saw us, expecting a moose, and we saw him, also expecting a moose. He froze upon the realization, and took off to my left in the direction of another hunter. We yelled that "a griz is headed your way" and he ran back into the woods and crossed over in my direction. I was with two other old friends at the time, but, for some reason, I was very calm. The others were not so calm.
     
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  7. Alan Sidlo

    Alan Sidlo Very Well-Known Member
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    i assist with some hipcamp installations comprised of campsites and off grid log cabins, etc. occasionally we encounter some interesting guests, furries come to mind... then there was the film crew dressed in military camo... and scanty leather (two dudes, one racy lady, and the camera guy).

    given the amount of time i spend in the wilderness, i've befriended the occasional hermit and they can be some interesting characters too.
     
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  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Many years ago, when my oldest son was 4, and I was expecting my next son, I lived on the west coast of Washington State. My best friend had a daughter the same age as my son, and she was also expecting a baby, about the same time as I was.
    Across the street from where I lived was a huge forest that belonged to Weyerhaeuser, and it was criss-crossed with logging roads. They were not logging there at the time, so Bobbie and I would ride our houses out on the logging trails.

    One afternoon, we set out, the kids riding on behind us, and the dogs running along beside, and rode back into the woods, eventually coming out at the far side where an old house was at.
    It was starting to get late when we headed back, and the kids were hungry, but as we rode through the woods, we kept missing the trail that went back out to the main road.

    We were lost for hours, it was pitch black in the woods, the poor kids were beyond hungry, and falling asleep behind us in the saddles. Finally, it was almost midnight, we thought we might never find our way out and have to spend the night lost in the woods.
    I decided to just give my horse his head, and see if he could get us back home, we certainly could not get any more lost than we already were.
    Within a half hour, my horse had found his way out of the woods and we were back at my house, and Bobbie was headed home to her house.

    It had been a scary experience for all of us, and we were really glad to be out of the forest and back home.
     
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  9. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    One of the things I was told when I first moved to the wilds of Alaska was "The difference between a snowmachine and a dogsled is that you always get home on a dogsled." Similar to your horse, when the trail disappears under the snow or the drifts or the darkness, the dogs could always find their way home even if you had no idea where you were. When on foot, I always had a motto, "down hill and downstream". You would always find somebody or something to orient by.
     
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  10. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    I have never had a huge scare whilst trekking through what most people know as being “the woods”, but I did have a time when death seemed inevitable whilst going through a bayou inundated with trees and other forest like stuff.

    I’m not going to go into the physics of it but ships going through the intercoastal waterway in S. Louisiana will steal the water out of the bayous whilst passing and return that water as a sort of tsunami once the ship has passed.
    One such time occurred whilst I was in a small skiff and fishing next to a stand of trees in about 4 or 5’ of water. I should have paid attention but I wasn’t when the ship was passing way off in the waterway but all of the sudden, that 4 or 5’ of water disappeared and my little boat was sitting on the muck.
    To be truthful, I heard it before I saw it but I knew what was coming. A 10’ or so wall of water was crashing through and all I could do was grab both sides of the skiff and hunker down and hope for the best because it is well known that many people have died when subjected to such circumstances.
    As it turned out, that stand of trees I was fishing next to was my lifeguard because the tsunami launched the skiff and I into a couple of them which kept me from being swept further and probably dumped from the skiff.

    Now, it may not sound too frightening because after all, getting wet isn’t harmful at all but the thing is, it isn’t so much how much water is dumped back into a bayou that kills folks but what is in that water that makes for an adrenaline rush one just doesn’t need.
    Branches and trunks of trees return with the wall of water but that aside, the snakes and alligators that return with it are totally ticked off and one doesn’t bide well when confronted by a ticked off alligator on his own turf.
     
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  11. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    That almost sounds like haiku:)
     
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