Outdoors folks, what are your worst survival moments?

Everyone is green at some point. And I doubt anyone has an entirely perfect outdoors or survival experience. I think it is a constant learning curve. So for those less experienced or considering learning survival techniques, maybe you can share your less stellar, or unfortunate moments. But most importantly,what you should of done, how your remedied the situation, or even turned it to your advantage. So the rest of us can learn. I am looking forward to your stories.

I don't have many since I am mainly just a camper. Just that no matter how remote you think you are, don't assume no one will find your camp, as we came back from a day of four wheeling to find all our coolers gone.

Oh that and wild horses know how to tear their way into a kitchen tent and even open coolers. Like bears, you keep the foods locked up.

[edit on 31-3-2010 by nixie_nox]

when I was still green and learning, at about 9 or 10.. I bought a rope hammock from bass pro and slept in it all the time at my campsite on my families land. Instead of taking it with me, I (the smartest kid in the world) decided it would be really cool if I just laid it under some large logs, essentially hiding it, so it would be safe when I came back... keep in mind that I gave no thought that a ROPE and WOOD hammock would dry rot in the sun and other elements..

I trek back to camp several weeks later and hook up the hammock that I so ingeniously placed weeks before. I set up camp properly and get a nice fire going and decide to lay on the hammock and watch it die down, enjoying the woods and seclusion. I doze off and dream awesome 9 year old dreams (which I assume include pop rocks and monster trucks) and awake to myself falling through the dry rotting hammock down a large wooded (pretty steep) decline... in my socks. I guess I'm lucky I didnt impale myself on something, lol.

I should have won the darwin award..

Outdoors folks, what are your worst survival moments?

I'd have to say it was the time I had hiked about 12 miles out to where I intended to camp in the wood for a few days and then realized I left my smokes back in the truck.

Originally posted by Divinorumus

Outdoors folks, what are your worst survival moments?

I'd have to say it was the time I had hiked about 12 miles out to where I intended to camp in the wood for a few days and then realized I left my smokes back in the truck.

Ouch.

That's why I'm glad I don't smoke anymore... one less thing to worry about.

Things I have learned from a relatively brief career in camping/outdoor living.

1.) A drunken college party is not a good time to plan a winter camping trip.
2.) If, when you sober up, you still think the aforementioned camping trip is a good idea.......drink more.
3.) If you go camping in the cold snowy winter in the mountains, make sure everyone is healthy when you start. There is nothing about fresh cold mountain air which will improve the symptoms of a fellow camper who has an obvious case of the flu.
4.) Cooking in the snow over an open fire sucks - eat crackers instead.
5.) If skunks come in to the campsite remember that they are kings of the forest. Let them do whatever they want, even if that includes crawling all around on top of you as you lay shivering in your sleeping bag. Do NOT sit up and yell at them.

Weekend solo camping trip on a whim many, many years ago.

I decided to go fairly minimal: A small tarp (but no string), fabric bag, small fishing box (telescopic pole, hooks, two bobbers, no spare line, no sinkers...), a magnesium fire starter, a soon dead lighter, stainless steal knife, and no weather forecast.

It started as a light rain, which should have been the first clue. Long story short: cold, wet, hungry, no means of fire and a 2 mile hike to the truck in the dark with a sprained ankle was how it ended up.

But I learned quite a number of things from it. Under the same conditions today, I think I would have faired far better. Because that event spurred me to learn how to make things in the wild. Back then, I knew nothing of bow drills nor making cordage, that stainless steal does not strike a good spark....learned that one that day.

I had a great (aka "stupid") idea to go camping without food once.
It was in the middle of the summer so I thought nature would provide enough for me to grow fat.

I was wrong.

After ending up tired, hungry and with an aching head, chewing on a typha root (tasted like paper), I gave up and went home.

If you plan on doing the same, you have to rely on fishing and/or hunting.
Unless you gather a team of at least three persons. If all three persons spend the entire time gathering berries, roots and edible plants, you might make it worthwhile. You might.

And yeah, the typha root, I learned later, is much better boiled or roasted.

To restore my reputation as an experienced woodsman, I must add that this was many years ago and I have learned a great deal since.
Just sayin'

Waiting until too late to make camp. In the relative dark I did t notice I was setting up right on a deer run.

That was a terrifying way to be woken up in the middle of a pitch black night. It's amazing my head didn't get crushed in that mini deer stampede.


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I am absolutely loving these stories, and I appreciate the chuckle after a bad morning.

As for the college party thing, I remember hiking down the Bright Angel trail at the Grand Canyon, which is hiking only for the insane or the very experienced. On the way down, four guys were coming up the trail. Anyone who has hiked the GC knows how brutal it is. They looked green, slow, and unhappy. One just looks at me and says: hiking up, after a night of drinking at the bottom, NOT A GOOD IDEA. lol.

One time we decided to go camping at 2am. Got to the campsite. Everyone was too tired and drunk to set up tents. We all slept in the back of pickup trucks. It rained.

Nothing like being cold, hungover, adn wet. And I still have not forgotten how uncomfortable the bed of a truck is. My bones ache thinking about it.

I have a ton of stories, much too lengthy to write here, nixie_nox.

But I will say a bad experience is when:
After drinking all night around the fire...
You wake up from camping the next morning...
...only to find your underwear backwards and a quarter in your hand.




My old buddy told me that a long time ago. (R.I.P.)

15 years old an on my own for a 5 day hunting trip in the frank Church Wilderness area... got turned around and was actually lost for 9 days...

I now never go into the remote parts without a compass... and more food... and water..... pretty cold and rough up there, but I learned a lot about what I am made of.... used common sense and stayed alive...

I actually have 2 stories-

1)My girlfriend and I were feeling adventurous, and drove off up and old logging road to make our own camp. Long story short, battery died, and we were left to hike 21 miles to the nearest 'established' camp for help-being trailed on the far shore by coyotes the whole way(no defense of course). Nothing quite like 6 hours of listening to coyotes chatter as they stalk you.

2)The other-We were camping(ironically at the same camp that we had hiked to after our dead battery). We decided to drive into town after dark. Driving up the hill, a coyote came off of the slope, and darted in front of the car. I swerved and missed it, but on a gravel road.

3 rolls and 75 feet of ravine later, we came to a stop resting against a tree, about 10 feet from the river. The climb back up was treacherous(although, miraculously, neither of us were hurt)

Both experiences taught me to never again be in the wilderness without some sort of personal defense-in both occasions, we were sitting ducks had someone or something wanted to pick a fight, so to speak.

My worst experience was probably when i went out and hiked around 10 miles off the dirt road (which was also in the middle of nowhere) and set up camp, i had a nice shelter, the firepit all dug, supplies hung, as it got a bit darker I decided to light a fire. I found out my lighter was out of fuel, my matches weren't actually strike anywhere, I only managed to get a fire going because i did remember to cordwrap a striker in my knife handle...

me and my buddy took my flatbottom and a trolling motor on a fishing trip, just fishing tackle and a shotgun for shooting the snakes.
The weather was perfect with only a chance for storms, and a lil wind.
Spent all day trolling, fishing and ignoring the darkening skies. wind starts to blow so we decide to head back, on a weak battery all we did was sit still, so we decided to head up creek and try to find shelter. Winds turned into rain and lightning. It was already evening so we decided to just throw the boat on some limbs and use it as a shelter. I am a smoker so when the storm passed we "tried" to make a fire. didn't work, we only caught 1 fish and it was a one I wanted to get mounted, which we couldn't have cooked any way,
The next morning was a long wet walk back to the truck just to carry a fresh battery back to the boat to make it to the truck.
so now we carry a fully charged battery 2 paddles a few rain ponchos and always get some spare beef jekys just for a fishing trip

I have to say, wandering off the Appalachian Trail in Western NC and Eastern Tennessee and coming across an obviously recently active moonshine still. This wasn't miles off the trail. This was only a hundred yards or so off the trail.

People are actually pretty serious about protecting their stills in this area of the world. Fortunately, it didn't seem anyone was around.

Lesson learned: Don't follow shiny objects or strange smells into the backwoods....
Actually I didn't learn it well. I wandered into a large marijuana field in the middle of the woods in North Carolina the very next summer. This was surprisingly close to a Boy Scout camp.

All I can say is that throwing an unopened can of beans into the fire might sound like a good idea at the time but trust me, it's a bad, bad idea.

I also have fond memories of a week-long trip into Algonquin Park where I ended up with a severe case of trenchfoot. The army really knows what they're talking about when they say it's very important to keep your feet dry!

reply to post by sonofnone


Aaah, the can bomb!
What a classic!

Never did it with a can, but one time me and my friend was cleaning up our camp site, getting ready to leave.
We burned as much of our trash as possible and I got the glorious idea of tossing a sealed, half-gallon plastic bottle on the embers...
A few moments later; KA-BOOOF!!! and ashes everywhere!
Nothing bad happened except us looking like pale ghosts!

And trenchfoot?
People still get that nowadays?
Congratulations!

I had an adventure on the SS Minnow. It was only supposed to be a three hour tour.

Actually, went with friends to a deserted island to camp for the weekend. We didn't take much food because we were planning on fishing for it.

Yes, we checked the weather and it was supposed to be all sunshine. But, the second night, a storm blew in---unexpected. The tent took on water and we all woke up soaking wet in the dark. It rained all the next day and the fish were not biting, so we ate most of the food we had brought.

The boat had been pushed high aground during the storm. It would be impossible for us to get the boat back into water unless we had a high tide. We struggled with trying to get it to water when the tide came in...but alas! We needed a REAL high tide. Did I mention we did not have a radio, either?

Because all of our clothes were wet, we had to go naked while they dried out. I got the worse sunburn in my life ever. (It required medical attention when we returned home.)

We had planned to return home on Sunday, but did not make it in until late Monday....waiting on tides, you know. As best as I recall we did not eat anything on the last day and had very little water left.

It was my worst camping trip ever.

Edit: What did I learn? Never believe plans will go exact. You can plan a week-end, but it might turn out to be a lifetime. Next time I plan for a "week-end" trip....I will pack like the Howell's and bring 3 suitcases....and one will be food.

[edit on 14-4-2010 by Alethea]

For me my funny moment came from a canoe trip I planned to do alone.
I looked on the map and found a good route.
I packed my gear and had a friend drop me off and was supposed to come back in a week to come get me.

He dropped me off as it was getting dark and I had to paddle across a lake to find a spot to set up camp.
By the time I got to the other side of the lake it was pitch black.
It turned out that the whole area surrounding the lake was all uphill so I couldn't find any flat surfaces to make camp.
I finally found a big flat rock so I pulled the boat up to shore and got my gear out.
I didn't tie any of my food up yet and it was still behind me while I pitched my tent.
I heard some noise about 20 metres ahead of me but ignored it...I have heard many noises in the bush and am not usually easily scared.

So I get my tent up and I hear it again from the other side of my tent around 5 feet away.

I grabbed my gear and jumped in the canoe where I spent the night drinking beer bobbing around the lake.

The next day when I went to get my tent there were huge bear tracks all around...I was 5 feet away from that bear with my food behind me.

It also turned out the map I looked at was outdated and there were no more canoe routes...I was stuck on this one lake for close to a week with the nearest portage a few kms away.

I also got heat stroke on that trip and when you are alone...its much scarier.
Ah well...a lesson lived is a lesson learned.

I have several learning experiences under my belt -- all a result of bad decisions -- but that's how we learn, right?

I started college in northern Utah -- USU. There were three dams outside of town, and I used to hike up the mountainside above third dam to study. I'd found a game trail through the bitterbrush, and would gain about 2500 ft. of elevation by the time I got to a large flat rocky outcrop. To get up the outcrop required a fairly vertical climb of less than 15 feet.

I'd made this climb hundreds of times, with my ol' wood frame pack. One day in the spring of my second year, as I was going up the rocky outcrop, my foothold broke, and I dropped about six feet; a slender point of rock about two fingers wide and six inches long pierced my left calf, ripping it and impaling my calf muscle on it. I struggled for quite a while and eventually lifted myself off the rock and hobbled to the base of the rock. I could see people as little dots of color at third dam, but of course, nobody could hear me, nor see me flapping my blue gortex jacket.

My calf was torn and bleeding badly. I put several handfuls of moss over the wound and bound it fairly tightly with my t-shirt. Mistake. The moss was very difficult to clean out, although it did help to temporarily staunch the flow of blood. Drank some water. Made a fire, drank a beer (mistake) and used the can to make a cup to boil some water in. I should've had something better than beer/ hot water to clean the wound. I had a dinky 1" X 1" sewing kit in the pack, and dropped the black thread in the water. Bent the needle as much as I could and had a hell of a time threading the needle since it had softened in the water. Set to making some very ugly butted stitches. It was a mess, and would've been better to have debrided some of the ragged tissue. No scissors, just a semi-sharp Buck knife. Ended up putting a couple dozen ugly stitches in.

Didn't have any food. BAD mistake. It was getting toward afternoon, I was light-headed and knew I had to get back down the mountain to my truck. People were leaving third dam, and I still couldn't attract any attention. Cut myself a makeshift crutch from a pine branch. Hobbled down the mountain -- it was dark by that time. Had a flashlight, but it was nearly out of juice and just cast a feeble light.

Somebody passing by on a bicycle heard me (I saw their bike light) and came and helped me to my truck, threw their bike in the back of my truck and drove me to the hospital. My stitches were pronouced to be ugly, contaminated and were removed, the whole area cleaned, debrided and restitched.

The good samaritan wasn't in school there, but a skier (gates) in training. He wouldn't take anything in payment, which was good because I didn't have much. Good guy.

I went back up there later in the year. Always made sure somebody knew where I was and when to expect me back, plus took more goodies with me than before. Several people asked if I'd ever heard of studying at the library. I never could concentrate there, felt like I was missing out on something -- remained and outdoor studier. Still have a nasty scar to go with the rest of the reminders of my bad decisions.