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re: UPDATE: Scariest experience of your life
Posted on 3/17/14 at 3:00 pm to FourThreeForty
Posted on 3/17/14 at 3:00 pm to FourThreeForty
I've got a lot. The number of times I've tried to kill tried to kill myself (figuratively) is not something I'm proud of.
But this thread reminded of the most recent. I'm hiking in the Mark Twain national forest a couple of years ago. As usual I've left too late and gone too far and now it is dusk and I'm still a 2-3 miles from the car. Then it clouds up and gets too dark too see. And starts to rain. Temperature is in the low 40's probably heading to the high 30's and I can't see my hand in front of my face. I've got enough rain gear to be ok but I'm looking at a cold, wet miserable night in the open. So I decide to orienteer my way back. I know that the car is to the south east and there is a gravel road that I have to cross if I head that way.
So I set out and slip and fall and cross creeks and get wet and muddy and cold in the rain in the woods. Eventually I get to this tree line with a clearing beyond it and I can see a light off in the distance that I think is the light by the old church where I parked. I was expecting all these landmarks at about this time so I'm relieve, but I haven't crossed the gravel road which seems odd. Oh well only going to find out going forword. So I step to the edge of the trees and stop. Something doesn't seem right. The light is too far away, and I can't see anything in front of me at all. I mean it's very dark, all overcast, no stars anyway, but in just seems to be blacker in front of me.
For some reason (and I don't know the reason) I stop and stand there trying to decide what to do. Never once does it cross my mind that I'm in danger I'm just trying to decide if I'm lost. I just stand there for several minutes thinking about it and finally I decide I don't know where I am and going forward could just be getting farther away. I decide to turn around and circle in the dark looking for an old logging road I know is there somewhere. I stumble across it fairly quickly (finally a lucky break) and can follow it out. I'm kinda pissed because it adds another couple of miles to the hike and it's like 10 o'clock now but at least I know where I am. I break over a couple of branches to mark where I am and point where I came from because I'm really curious how lost I was. An hour later I'm at the car and go home.
The next weekend I decide to go see if I can find where I was. Good weather, bright sunshine, warm, middle of the day. I hike a couple of miles to the logging road and then go down it looking for the branches. Finally I spot them, pretty obvious and head in the direction they where pointing. Fairly quickly I come up on the tree line with the clearing. I can see an old farmhouse in the far distance. I step through the trees and in front of me is a sheer riverbluff with a 80-100' drop to rocks below. My toes are practically hanging over the edge.
But this thread reminded of the most recent. I'm hiking in the Mark Twain national forest a couple of years ago. As usual I've left too late and gone too far and now it is dusk and I'm still a 2-3 miles from the car. Then it clouds up and gets too dark too see. And starts to rain. Temperature is in the low 40's probably heading to the high 30's and I can't see my hand in front of my face. I've got enough rain gear to be ok but I'm looking at a cold, wet miserable night in the open. So I decide to orienteer my way back. I know that the car is to the south east and there is a gravel road that I have to cross if I head that way.
So I set out and slip and fall and cross creeks and get wet and muddy and cold in the rain in the woods. Eventually I get to this tree line with a clearing beyond it and I can see a light off in the distance that I think is the light by the old church where I parked. I was expecting all these landmarks at about this time so I'm relieve, but I haven't crossed the gravel road which seems odd. Oh well only going to find out going forword. So I step to the edge of the trees and stop. Something doesn't seem right. The light is too far away, and I can't see anything in front of me at all. I mean it's very dark, all overcast, no stars anyway, but in just seems to be blacker in front of me.
For some reason (and I don't know the reason) I stop and stand there trying to decide what to do. Never once does it cross my mind that I'm in danger I'm just trying to decide if I'm lost. I just stand there for several minutes thinking about it and finally I decide I don't know where I am and going forward could just be getting farther away. I decide to turn around and circle in the dark looking for an old logging road I know is there somewhere. I stumble across it fairly quickly (finally a lucky break) and can follow it out. I'm kinda pissed because it adds another couple of miles to the hike and it's like 10 o'clock now but at least I know where I am. I break over a couple of branches to mark where I am and point where I came from because I'm really curious how lost I was. An hour later I'm at the car and go home.
The next weekend I decide to go see if I can find where I was. Good weather, bright sunshine, warm, middle of the day. I hike a couple of miles to the logging road and then go down it looking for the branches. Finally I spot them, pretty obvious and head in the direction they where pointing. Fairly quickly I come up on the tree line with the clearing. I can see an old farmhouse in the far distance. I step through the trees and in front of me is a sheer riverbluff with a 80-100' drop to rocks below. My toes are practically hanging over the edge.
1
Posted on 3/17/14 at 4:59 pm to MIZ_COU
Senior year of college, I left a friend's house party with another friend to go to a party that wound up being in a pretty ghetto part of the city. I was already pretty buzzed when we had left and ended up gettig hammered at that party before everyone (like 25 people) decided they were going to pile into 4 pickup trucks and drunk drive downtown. Fortunately, I was wise enough to pass on that shitshow but wasn't coherent enough to realize I had just voluntarily abandoned my drunk self in a completely foreign and dangerous part of town. So, like any drunk, I grabbed a sixer of beer and beganstumbling back in the direction I thought I had originally come from. I proceeded to get chased by two pit bulls, yelled at by what seemed like the whole damn hood (I still can't make out what they were saying, but it sounded threatening so I kept my head down and power stumbled as fast as I could), and probably would have asked the cop whose car I almost fell into while in a crosswalk for help if I wasn't carrying a six pack and was obviously very drunk (I ran and for some reason he didn't chase me). I wound up making it back to the original party at 2:30 in the morning, began pounding water and passed out. I guess I learned that being chased by a pit bull while too intoxicated to run straight is a god damned living nightmare.
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