What is Everyone's Best/Frightening/Even Amusing trip in the wild?

[Catlover]

I have too much time on my hands, so I would like to hear everyone's story. Be it an encounter or a walk, I'd love to hear of it!

[Alruhn]

Well, nothing really scary, but I went on a seven day solo hike on Vancouver Island once and then ended up on a mountain that I could not get back down from... I got stuck there for a couple days before a group of mountaineers came by and helped me back out of the wilderness, but it was kind of stressful waving at airplanes for three days! It is a lot harder to make a passing airplane see you, than I would have thought. Tbh I would go again though, because the hike was amazing and beautiful until I got stuck

[Sherlock Holmes 18]

Unfortunately, I've never had that opportunity in these damn cities. That's why I want to go to my village as long as possible. 😢😢😢😭

[TheTraditionalGentleman]

I was hiking in the woods one time (on my own), and was going down the trail, when I turned and saw two bull moose just hanging out and grazing, maybe 50 yards away from me. Those things were really quiet, considering they're the size of a truck. I was so freaked out, and my heart was pounding 😆. I edged off the trail and into the treeline, so I had something between me and them in case they got aggressive, and I worked my way further down the path before going onto the trail again. On my way back, they had moved to where they were standing in the middle of the trail, so I went back into the treeline, and circled around while making noise and talking to them so they knew I was there and didn't get startled. Then I followed the trail out, and headed back home. I saw moose a lot where I used to live, but that was the closest I'd ever been to any.

[stratvox]

When I was a teenager I used to go on summer camp trips to Algonquin. This wasn't the typical "summer camp" style stay; instead we'd spend some time in a lake local to where I live while we got taught how to paddle, portage, build fires, set up tents, and all that good stuff, along with a decent smattering of local flora and fauna, and then we'd head north for the last week to ten days to go on a canoe trip where we'd typically cover about fifteen miles a day. Doing this I spent time in Algonquin, Killarney, and Temagami, all areas in Ontario where the canoeing is good. Anyways, we were in a small bog type lake somewhere in Algonquin's interior when we saw a moose eating in the shallows at one end of the lake. One of the counsellors had a camera and wanted to get up close to take some pics. I was paddling bow in his canoe, so we started making our way over to the moose.

Now, when I say "small bog lake" it was still a couple of kilometres across. So we're paddling over to where the moose is hitting those tender tasty aquatic plants and we don't really grok that the water got shallow a couple of hundred yards before we got to the marshy end of the lake. So we get over there and the guy's taking pics and the moose hears the camera, pulls its head up, and looks over at us, and decides we're annoying it and starts lumbering our way. 

This was definitely the pucker moment.

Anyway as the bowman I said "we're paddling in reverse" and started back-paddling. Happily I know how to get a canoe moving (short fast choppy strokes will get you moving quicker than long deep smooth ones) and we started moving away. It was at least as large as a station wagon I'd say, and for about a hundred yards the moose's head was basically 45 degrees up from mine and quite a few feet over head... looming you might say. We were back-paddling furiously and after a couple of hundred yards we hit the deep water and the moose had to stop trotting and start swimming so we could get away.

Like I said I don't think it really wanted to mess us up, but I got an extended look from less than ten feet away at its nose... and that's why I know that moose are Damned Big Animals. 

[mfuegemann]

It was on a hike in northern Sweden. Summer was a bit cold and there was still lots of snow around. High up in the mountains I crossed an icy stream to get to a pass. Not wanting to cross that river again, I pushed over and started the way down the other side. Man it was so steep. At some places, I had to stick my arms into the snow at every step to support my weight while edging along the mountain side. Then when the terrain got less rocky, I started mountain goating more directly down.

I was not overencumbered and hence got no sprain, luckily. 

[mfuegemann]

Oh and on another trip, canoeing this time in Sweden, I was paddling barefoot in an aluminium canoe. Summer was hot this year. The lake was very long and the banks were so steep and rocky, it was impossible to go ashore.
Then thick thunderclouds grew around the distant mountains, the sky turned dark purple and lightning started to strike. I checked the shorline, looked down on my bare feet, the water around and back up to the ever darker clouds - and I started my new life as Popeye. Hitting the water hard, I fought my way along the lake toward the end, where I knew it was possible to land. So it went for several kilometres and then 50m from shore, the rain started. and it started hard. As I hit the beach, my canoe was almost half filled with water. I turned the boat, run for cover and spent the next hour wet and cold until the thunderstorm was over.

That was a close call. Maybe I should try to carry a can of spinach wherever I go.

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by mfuegemann

[Peaks]

Well I thought I was going to hike the great range traverse in the adk mountains it’s a 25 mile hike 10 mountain peeks ending with the largest mountain in the high peaks region Mt. Marcy. I made it trough 6 of the 10 by noon and felt amazing but did not notice I was pushing too hard the water was pouring out as fast as I could get it in and it was quite hot wich reduced my appetite eventually causing me to hit zero energy at mountain #7, here is where the trip became quite rough as I payed there exhausted attempting to figure out what I was going to do as far as an exit I realized I had 3 choices go back to the other side of mountain #6 and a long exit trail would bring me to a road but mountain #6 had a very steep rock face (hardest of the mountains) with the little energy I had I did not trust myself. Option #2 was to Finnish the last 2 mountains accompanied by a long exit trail that would Finnish what I had started or take a trail back down the mountain I had just climbed and walk the river bed all the way back to near where I started. We’re talking about 9 miles of river Ed with boulders and not to mention there were multiple Boulder hopping river crossings honestly quite confusing considering I did not study that trail at all and the zero energy. Down the mountain and trough the river bed was my best choice I could calculate. I climbed down mountain #7 filtered a liter of water and sat down to rest and woke up :30 min later I didn’t intend on sleeping and I realized I was no longer fully in control. It has been a long time since I decided to stop and calculate my exit 2 hours plus and when I planned I had talked to my gf who was picking me up and I foolishly told her I made critical errors but she was picking me up at the end of the river bed by the end of the convo( “no set time, just wait, I’ll make it out”). I started this little adventure at about 5 am and now The Long Dark creeping in a a steady pace and cell phone service is no longer a thing down in the valley of the river bed. I’m moving at a record slow pace taking an hour to move one mile give it take, frustration was my motivation I was so angry at myself for the mistakes made. I made it to the trail head at 11:30 at night with my girlfriend  telling me she was just about to go talk to the ranger about me 3 parking spots away. Out of everything that happens that possibility scared me the most I would have been so embarrassed. Tho my single day hike of 10 mountains and 25 miles was a fail I still hiked 25 total mountain miles and learned so much about myself it truly was a beautiful disaster

[Blacktiger1988]

When I was teenager I was picking mushrooms with my niece. We were searching to the right from the road and suddenly got lost. Hopelessly we were trying to find the road. Suddenly I felt something. I told my niece to keep silent and started listening. It was a dog, barking. Far, far away. We went directing to the dog and found our town. We were found to the left side of the road. Despite we hadn't cross any roads. 

[Leo Sky]

I have two bear encounters that I'd say are my top pick. But I'll do a speed round. 

the time my sister dropped her glove in a stream while cross-country skiing, why her glove was off, nobody knows.

The time I went mountain biking and veered off into the ditch to avoid my sister, slammed on the breaks as my front wheel got stuck in the ditch and as I flew over my handlebars, my crotch made a serious connection with my handlebars, before falling flat on my face, and as a final cherry on top: My bike fell on top of me. I was in so much pain I couldn't get it off.  Held any ice pack to my crotch for the next two days, I'm fairly sure I bruised my pelvic bone, (I'm a lady) 

The time I found a full-on machete in the woods was when I was 9. Unfortunately, I had to give it to my parents after they saw I was just running around with a very sharp rusty blade. 

 

[Leo Sky]

My scariest moment outdoors was for sure the time the biggest bear I'd ever seen chased me up a hill. 

 So I was about 14 at the time, and I was listening to some music, eating a mango fruit bar, walking down the way to go grab an apple from an apple tree at the bottom of the hill. Then suddenly, I look up to through the tree and see... A Leg. It was about 70 feet away from me and it was BY FAR the biggest bear I had EVER seen. I had had experience with bears my entire life, so naturally, I did the dumbest thing I could do, I ran. I ran back to the cabin, and instead of going into the cabin, I decided to go round the back to find my dad, who was cutting wood. When I got to him, I literally couldn't speak I was so freaked out, all I could say was "Big Bear! Big Bear! Big Bear!" and I kept crouching and pointing at the bear WHICH HAD FOLLOWED ME. So there was this MASSIVE bear about 30 feet away from my dad and me. My dad said "Oh! That's a big bear!" Where he then yelled at the bear to get, with only an axe to wield. The bear did finally leave. However, this is not the end of the story. I was still determined to get my apple. I was still super freaked out and ended up waiting an hour before I went on my way. I was still so freaked out I came up with a song about how the bear was for sure gone, and I was ok that I sang the entire way down to try to calm myself down. I finally got the apple tree and got my apple when I hear a noise from across the single-lane highway. It was a bear. He was a much smaller bear, and he was looking through some folk's trash. He was pretty scrawny like he needed a good meal. I was like "oh Jesus, well it's ok there's a highway between us" then he ran in front of a car with a death wish and came to my side of the highway. He was so scrawny I was pretty sure he wouldn't come at me, so I started walking back up the hill. And so did he. I should have just yelled at him, but instead, I walked up a hill with a bear about 30 feet from me the whole way up. And then I ate the apple and It was delicious. 

The other crazy story is a friend's, his my mom's friend and he said he was once reading a book so intensely a bear snuck up behind him and was trying to see what he was looking at, the bear was basically reading over his shoulder. He said he saw his neighbour wilding gesturing at him before he looked behind him to see the bear. And unlike me, He just turned around and kept looking at his book. The bear eventually left but that's probably the craziest story I've heard. 

[TheUnknown]

my most amazing trip into the wild was when i went on a bike ride with my 2 nieces and 1 of my nephews (before my 2nd nephew was born or even in the proccess of being made) the 4 of us were biking/walking a state trail and we were about 50ft from a pond/lake or what ever you want to consider it (big body of water almost like a lake but has that green floating stuff that looks like clovers) we found a 30lb snapping turtle.

 

This thing was almost as big as my bike tire (24x14 mountain bike tire). it was stuck in the middle of the trail on a hot day. told my nieces and nephew to stay back and i got off my bike and moved it into the grass. the grass was wet since we had rain the night before. Was amazing to see a turtle that big. glad i didnt lose a finger but i remembered reading somewhere that if you have to move a snapper to pick it up from the middle of the shell on top so it cant scratch or bite you.

 

when i set it onto the grass it looked like it looked back and gave the whats up/thanks nod to me.

[Leeanda]

4 hours ago, TheUnknown said:

my most amazing trip into the wild was when i went on a bike ride with my 2 nieces and 1 of my nephews (before my 2nd nephew was born or even in the proccess of being made) the 4 of us were biking/walking a state trail and we were about 50ft from a pond/lake or what ever you want to consider it (big body of water almost like a lake but has that green floating stuff that looks like clovers) we found a 30lb snapping turtle.

 

This thing was almost as big as my bike tire (24x14 mountain bike tire). it was stuck in the middle of the trail on a hot day. told my nieces and nephew to stay back and i got off my bike and moved it into the grass. the grass was wet since we had rain the night before. Was amazing to see a turtle that big. glad i didnt lose a finger but i remembered reading somewhere that if you have to move a snapper to pick it up from the middle of the shell on top so it cant scratch or bite you.

 

when i set it onto the grass it looked like it looked back and gave the whats up/thanks nod to me.

That was a very brave thing you did, those things can snap your arm off in one go!

[TheUnknown]

On 8/21/2021 at 5:29 AM, Leeanda said:

That was a very brave thing you did, those things can snap your arm off in one go!

Ya. but im not 100% if it was a snapper or not. It had that red stripe on its legs and all that which i think is common in snappers in this area but not 100% if its exclusive to snappers only. Was a pronounced red and vivid green on the legs and all that.

[Leeanda]

I'm no expert but an ordinary turtle has a sharp bite, so one that large is definitely capable of doing serious damage.