1)One night while jogging home, I cut into a shallow ditch because it was easier on the feet than the pavement. Eventually I looked down to find a skunk directly ahead of me, fleeing. It was kind of stuck in the ditch and had no choice but to run away from me, in the direction I was running. Who knows how long i was chasing the damn thing. I was really lucky there.


2)In my hometown there is a set of rapids that have a small waterfall. The falling water has eroded a ledge at the bottom, and the white water somewhat negates the force of the current, so it's a fun place to swim. But if you go too close to the falls, the water crashing down on you pushes you down, especially early in the swimming season.

So I got caught underneath this waterfall pushing me down, and I did the worst thing you could do, panic. In my panic I tried to fight the water, pushing upwards as it pushed me down. Luckily a friend was nearby to grab me and pull me out. If I hadn't of panicked, I could have sank to the bottom came out of it with the current, but I wasn't thinking straight.

Learned a valuable lesson that day, DON'T PANIC!

Another one this one my dad did. Him and a bunh of his friends went camping and drinking to get away from the wifes. Well it started rainning and they couldn't get a fire started. So my dad being the wisest of the bunch decided to pour coleman lantern fluid on a small flame they managed to get going. So he pours the latern fluid on the flame and the flame traveled up the stream and into the canister. In a drunken panick he threw the jug,......into the woods.
When he came home he told me that he learned alot that weekend.
that coleman lantern fluid burns even if everything is wet.
Get the fire going before the alchohol comes out.
And the most important don't stomp out a fire wearing flipflops

Just last weekend me and my step-brother went out on what we were hopinh was going to be a nice dayhike to a small lake. It was maybe 15 km to the lake, and we had been having nice weather (15c+) for the last week.

I decided to pack a daypack with basic survival things (fixed-blade, magnesium striker, rope, some tinder, and a compass) but my bro kept saying we won't need it and it's to much to carry, but I brought it anyways as well as 2 apples, an avacado, and 2 granola bars.

About an hour in we run into a beautiful wide river, so we filled up our water and took some pictures. We took off our shoes and crossed the river only to find on the other side that the trail cuts around and goes about 45degree incline. Once the incline leveled out there was an inch or so of snow, and bear tracks that followed our trail (day old I think).

After about another hour and a half we were waist deep in snow, with both of us wearing cargo shorts and t-shirts. I was wearing my hushpuppies and a pair of cotton socks, and my bro was wearing some light nikes with cotton socks. Every 15 minutes we had to stop because our socks were soaked through and the snow would freeze to our wet socks, so we'd have to scrape the frozen snow off. We stopped twice to make a fire and warm up our toes... but we were sooo hungry 'cause we had maybe a small breakfasts worth of food between the two of us. At about 3 and a half hours in the trail turned into a running stream with a pretty steep incline.... so we were hiking up a running stream only two feet wide in normal shoes and socks with 3 foot snow banks on either side of us. The day started sunny, but when the clouds rolled in we turned back and started getting a little rain.

We didn't make it to the lake, and from beginning to end it was an eight and a half hour hike. We got back to town and had burger king... and it was delicious.

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So, where did we go wrong? We didn't expect the snow. It had been hovering around 20 degrees for the week before, and we just didn't think ahead that well. Had there not been snow we definately would have made it to the lake... but hiking through 3 feet of snow in shorts and cotton socks, and trekking up a 50degree inclined stream for a km and a half was just too much. Also, we started pretty late... we started the hike at 11:30am and got back at about 8pm.

So we're gonna do the same hike in late summer, and make it the whole way. From the trail head to the lake is just over 15 km, and we only made it about 7 or 8 kms on the last hike. So we weren't even half way... but we'll get her next time.

For me it was a close call that could have turned out bad.

I was backpacking in a new location within Pisgah National Forest in NC and upon waking up on the second morning we noticed a large number of black bear tracks all around our campsite. After checking my pants, I realized just how lucky we were. The bear bag I hung about 50 yards from our site was the only thing that probably kept the bears from doing any damage.

I had never camped there before and I had just moved to Charlotte at the time.
I learned just after the trip that Pisgah contains the largest Black Bear sanctuary in the state of NC.

I now study my camping areas in greater detail before departing and I always use a bear bag to hang all food and cooking supplies.

This is a fun topic. I wish I had thought to post it.

It's great from an entertainment standpoint as well as a learning experiance for those that are new to the wilderness. I have always gone through life with the thought that you should be able to learn something from everyone you come in contact with. You learn to do the good things as well as learn from the mistakes of others. Perhaps this thread will keep a few people out of sticky situations.

As an avid backpacker I have had more than my share of worst survival moments here are a few of mine.....

1. My first real wilderness experiance came right after high school. I was with a friend and we decided t take a look at a map and just take off for a road trip. right in the middle of the east coast was a huge green area, the great smokey mountain national par, "Let's go camping" I said, and off we went. It was the middle of October and we arrived in the mid afternoon. We drove to a trailhead grabbed our gear and started down the trail.

Keep in mind neither of us really knew what we were doing. Our tent consisted of something we picked up at K-mart, I don't even remember what we brought for food, certainly didnt bring a lot of extra clothes, of coarse we had an ax, and some matches.

We hiked along the trail for about three hours and found a nice clearing off the trail. At this time we didnt even know we were supposed to be using designated back country sites. So we slashed up a few trees with the axe so we would know where we were off the trail. I certainly hope no park rangers are reading this.

THe smoky mountains are funny. Some years the place gets no snow other years there are early snow falls and late snow falls. This year happened to be an early snowfall. We were in our glory. Out in nature, just finishing putting up a tent and the beautiful snow is starting to come down. Well let me assure you, our glee was short lived as a few snow flakes turned into a blinding blizzard pretty dang quick. Not a problem, we are smart, we have matches and an axe. We are men, we will make a fire and brave the elements.

Two hours later, a bunch of chopped up little trees, cold and wet as heck, shivering our behinds off. I rememebr distinctively the last match. It was like our final hope, all of our dreams, desires, and spirit of adventure resting on that single suplhur coated piece of wood. Who would get the honors? It was me..... a little pile of tinder(or so I thought) and one last match. I waited for just the right moment when the wind would let up. My friend cowering over me, offering as much resistance to the wind and snow as he could. Then the sound of the match as it strikes the box. A spark, a small chance of hope as the match flares up into a little orange flame. We are saved as I touched the match to the tinder. A little smoke, but no flame, the match begins to get lower and burns my finger, I persist until all is lost excpet a blister forming on my now numb fingers.

We give up, back to the car. The car is nice and warm, It has a heater, it has a bbq grill, and food ready to be grilled. Forget the tent, forget the sleeping bags we'll come back and get them. Right now we just want to make it back to the car. The car is nice and warm.

Several hours later we are back at the car. Crank it up and drive to the nearby campground. It's now after midnight. We are all cozy and warm from the heated car. We decide it's time to cook dinner. I turn the car off pop open the hatchback( I hope that doesn't give away my age) and goto grilling. Ahh those were the best burgers and beer I ever had in my life.

Now it's after midnight, we'll crash in the car, get up in the morning and go fetch our stuff. About an hour later we realize it's getting really cold in the car. Not a problem we have a heater, we'll crank up the car and get warm again. Wrong, apparantly we killed the battery using one of those nine million candlelight powered spotlights to see what we were grilling.

After a pretty cold night, very little sleep we awoke, found a ranger and got the car jumped. Later that day we hiked back to get the tent. It was almost totally buiried in snow.

ANyway. That was my first experiance. Since then I have learned quite a lot. And even now as I can say I am more skilled in the wilderness I have had a few other close encounters. I shall share those later as this event is much more writing than I had intended.

Whats the boy scout moto. "Be prepared". Good advice. Wish I had been a scout.