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Hiking Nightmares

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    • Once I went to hang my bear bag with the counter balance method, and the line got rapped around my foot and hoisted me up side down in the air...dangling. The good part was the food bag was hanging there with me so I just ate enough food to let myself slowly fall...it was a huge bag so it took awhile.

    • Uh wait - every time we went on a camping trip my mom would suddenly request to go back to the house and turn off the iron on the ironing board. My dad gave up and packed the iron in the back of the station wagon. When she yelled turn around .... he reached for it...


      So no I have absolutely no idea what you are attempting to discuss. :thumbsup:
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

    • OMO,

      I seem to have incredibly vivid dreams on my hikes, not so much in my regular life. They are usually very pleasant, never had a nightmare on the trail. In my dreams under the night stars I seem to commune with those I have loved and lost more than anything else.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”

      John Greenleaf Whittier

    • I don't typically have nightmares while camping. It's the night after I first plan for a trip.

      last time I had a nightmare while camping was in Boy Scouts. I kept dreaming I was in the Arctic and wearing shorts and t-shirt. It was during a blizzard.

      When I finally woke up. My foot was outside the tent and a cold rain was soaking my foot. No floors in those canvas tents.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.

    • IMScotty wrote:

      OMO,

      I seem to have incredibly vivid dreams on my hikes, not so much in my regular life. They are usually very pleasant, never had a nightmare on the trail. In my dreams under the night stars I seem to commune with those I have loved and lost more than anything else.
      me too but I can't say I recall any. My bad dream about hiking happens when I am at home. And sometimes I haven't forgotten my food bag, sometime I realize when it's too late to turn around that I forgot to pack food in the foodbag.

    • Wise Old Owl wrote:

      Uh wait - every time we went on a camping trip my mom would suddenly request to go back to the house and turn off the iron on the ironing board. My dad gave up and packed the iron in the back of the station wagon. When she yelled turn around .... he reached for it...


      So no I have absolutely no idea what you are attempting to discuss. :thumbsup:

      I think those are anxiety attacks. My mother had them to.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.

    • My best sleep pattern is usually during a backpacking camp out. Stealth camping allows more security and quiet than within a campground. The exception is of course when I'm out with the Scouts.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • I hang food bag in pack from tarp pole often.
      Once I was woken up by a bear trying to get it
      I could hear it
      I could feel it

      I sat upright and swung at the bear
      Only my arms barely worked waking up suddenly
      And I tried to holler at bear, but couldnt make make much sound

      Silence
      Nothing there

      I laughed myself back to sleep

    • Dan76 wrote:

      My best sleep pattern is usually during a backpacking camp out. Stealth camping allows more security and quiet than within a campground. The exception is of course when I'm out with the Scouts.
      when I was a scout, our troop went on a camping trip. I was the SPL and my dad was along as an aduld leader. One night the troop was sitting around the campfire. My dad gets up and start talking about the science of fire. Most of the kids knew my dad was a research scientist, so this was all very believable. But gradually, the story morphed into tales of invisible aliens cremating their deceased and then cremating scouts when the supply of dead aliens got to low. The whole troop was wide eyed in amazement while it was all I could do to not bust out laughing. Anyway all night I was treated to a continuous parade of tenderfoots coming to my tent, all terrified of cremating aliens. Someday I'll have to remind my dad that I'm still upset about that.

    • Astro wrote:

      Wise Old Owl wrote:

      As a SPL I can relate - I love delay of the punch line!
      Senior Patrol Leader? ?(
      Yea I was a popular kid back then... Joe Zaremba the Scoutmaster, passed on his own son, who was a good friend. I don't know, I ran a troop of forty boys for a year and a half.

      I was OA, and Eagle. My son is an Eagle. My Grandfather finished British Scouts and was 17. Then joined the British army and was one of the Decorated Sargent's at the battle of Somme, He also was part of the Home Guard for Manchester in WW2. Only my dad did not join scouting.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

    • JimBlue wrote:

      My hiking nightmare is just as I am about to fall asleep... people camped nearby decide to sit up all night and talk. Not loudly just enough to be irritating.
      I had worse and total embarrassing. Drunk and High at the same time keeping 30 people and families with kids....up all night with yelling and screaming... Even the trail dogs complained...

      It was so bad I bugged out so fast at 3 am the group sent apologies. Yup - hiked back to the car in the light of the moon at 25° You never know how the shiit hits the fan. Everyone has a top ten OMG.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

    • One of my shipmates, none of us could stand to be around him, was a semi-friendly drunk but with lots of sarcastic comments. Sober, he wasn't friendly at all. One day someone who out ranked him commented on that... and while he didn't change while drunk, he at least tried to be friendly when sober.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.

    • WanderingStovie wrote:

      JimBlue wrote:

      My hiking nightmare is just as I am about to fall asleep... people camped nearby decide to sit up all night and talk. Not loudly just enough to be irritating.
      Bring your own shelter and hide well off the trail.
      It's amazing how far sound can sometimes travel in the woods. Maybe it's because of the low level of ambient sound the non natural (aka human) sounds are more noticeable. But there are definitely some places where the terrain makes a natural amphitheater that focuses sound especially well. I recall one camping trip in Boy Scouts when I was walking along on a trail in between campsites and I heard someone right behind me. I turned around and there was no one there. I then realized that I was hearing the conversations from a campsite quite some distance away through the woods. They were probably 50 to 100 yards away but it sounded like they were standing right next to me. It was very odd. Of course once you realize this, it made for some good eaves dropping hi-jinx.

    • odd man out wrote:

      WanderingStovie wrote:

      JimBlue wrote:

      My hiking nightmare is just as I am about to fall asleep... people camped nearby decide to sit up all night and talk. Not loudly just enough to be irritating.
      Bring your own shelter and hide well off the trail.
      It's amazing how far sound can sometimes travel in the woods. Maybe it's because of the low level of ambient sound the non natural (aka human) sounds are more noticeable. But there are definitely some places where the terrain makes a natural amphitheater that focuses sound especially well. I recall one camping trip in Boy Scouts when I was walking along on a trail in between campsites and I heard someone right behind me. I turned around and there was no one there. I then realized that I was hearing the conversations from a campsite quite some distance away through the woods. They were probably 50 to 100 yards away but it sounded like they were standing right next to me. It was very odd. Of course once you realize this, it made for some good eaves dropping hi-jinx.
      The Chicago museum of science and industry had a pair of parabolic reflectors that created this sort of effect. It has been 30 years or more since I was there last.

    • WanderingStovie wrote:

      odd man out wrote:

      WanderingStovie wrote:

      JimBlue wrote:

      My hiking nightmare is just as I am about to fall asleep... people camped nearby decide to sit up all night and talk. Not loudly just enough to be irritating.
      Bring your own shelter and hide well off the trail.
      It's amazing how far sound can sometimes travel in the woods. Maybe it's because of the low level of ambient sound the non natural (aka human) sounds are more noticeable. But there are definitely some places where the terrain makes a natural amphitheater that focuses sound especially well. I recall one camping trip in Boy Scouts when I was walking along on a trail in between campsites and I heard someone right behind me. I turned around and there was no one there. I then realized that I was hearing the conversations from a campsite quite some distance away through the woods. They were probably 50 to 100 yards away but it sounded like they were standing right next to me. It was very odd. Of course once you realize this, it made for some good eaves dropping hi-jinx.
      The Chicago museum of science and industry had a pair of parabolic reflectors that created this sort of effect. It has been 30 years or more since I was there last.
      I remember that 1978 wow. i loved the walk thru with the Nazi captured Sub too, talk about claustrophobic.

      Keep in mind when there is a temp inversion such as a low cloud deck - sound carries.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

    • odd man out wrote:

      Wise Old Owl wrote:

      Keep in mind when there is a temp inversion such as a low cloud deck - sound carries.
      I've experienced this too. We live about a half mile from an Interstate Highway. Some mornings when I let my dog out, it sounds like the trucks are coming right up the driveway. Other days you hardly hear anything.
      A buddy lives within 100 meters of a major rail line. At times we can be in his backyard and barely hear a passing freight. However I've talked via phone when he can barely make out what I'm saying as the sound of a train is projected to my location nearly 3/4 of a mile away with a gain of 700'.

      The environmental conditions don't happen often but are impressive upon occasion.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • Wind direction and tempature also effect sound waves. I can tell the wind direction by listening for the train or the gun range, each is on either side of me about a mile away kinda set in a NNW and SSE orientation...it's amazing how crystal clear you can hear one or the other depending on which way the winds blow.

      PS you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
      ~Bob Dylan

    • meat wrote:

      Wind direction and tempature also effect sound waves. I can tell the wind direction by listening for the train or the gun range, each is on either side of me about a mile away kinda set in a NNW and SSE orientation...it's amazing how crystal clear you can hear one or the other depending on which way the winds blow.

      PS you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
      ~Bob Dylan
      That's good, because they died out in the 70s. A few died literally while making a nail bomb. Why a group involved with weather forecasting now calls itself the "Weather Underground" is beyond me.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by WanderingStovie ().

    • WanderingStovie wrote:

      meat wrote:

      Wind direction and tempature also effect sound waves. I can tell the wind direction by listening for the train or the gun range, each is on either side of me about a mile away kinda set in a NNW and SSE orientation...it's amazing how crystal clear you can hear one or the other depending on which way the winds blow.

      PS you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows
      ~Bob Dylan
      That's good, because they died out in the 70s. A few died literally while making a pipe bomb. Why a group involved with weather forecasting now calls itself the "Weather Underground" is beyond me.
      here's the weather report on
      "a remark you made"