[Skack]

I've had some weird outdoor experiences...The vulnerability factor will shake you more than anyone cares to admit.

The "ghost" in the middle of the train trestle may have been ball lightning...I really don't know. It looked like an electric basketball sized orb floating about head height above the trestle. It lit up every direction, so it was apparent that it wasn't a lantern that someone was holding or anything like that. Four of us witnessed it and we talk about it to this day. I have no good explanation for it.

Something (probably an owl) landed on my tent in the middle of the night in Shenandoah National Park one time. It was one of those tents that is about 2.5' high at your head and tapers down to being only about 1.5' high above your feet. Something landed on the tent just above my feet and we all felt the tent collapse down onto our feet. I woke up and honestly thought it was a bear pawing at the tent since we had been foolish enough to eat cans of beans right next to the camp and we didn't take any measures to prevent bears/mice from getting to our food supply. I instinctually started kicking the piss out of it through the wall of the tent. After a few kicks whatever it was went away. There were three of us in the tent at the time.

Wild dogs or coyotes came into our campsite while camping by a river during high school one time. There were three of us that night and we jokingly threw firecrackers into the woods all night to scare away the dogs that were howling about 100 yds away on the other side of the river. We had a few drinks and weren't overly concerned. It was funny until we woke up sometime between 4:00 a.m. and sunlight and could hear the dogs walking around our tent. The truck was about 50 yards away and it sounded like a lot of dogs.

I woke up to voices outside of a lake front mobile home one night in the middle of winter when nobody else was around for probably a mile. Someone rattled the door trying to get in on a different winter night while I had a former girlfriend staying with me. She was shaking all night. Needless to say I keep the Mossberg 500 by the bed and ready to go at all times when it's not tourist season now.

That's just a few that come to mind where I have other witnesses to validate that it's not just my imagination getting to me.

 

[Skack]

The belief that in order to survive in the wilderness you need a gun is a bit of BS in my opinion. Not everything is out to kill you. IMO, the only place in North America where you truly need a gun is in parts of Northern Canada/Alaska where Polar Bears and Grizzlies reign supreme. If you are being unknowingly stalked by a Cougar you are probably fvcked either way.

I pretty much agree with that. I'm far more afraid of someone's pet German Shepherd attacking me than I am of the wild animals around here. Dogs tend to "protect" people that aren't in any actual danger. I can't tell you how many times I've been on the trail and walked up on an unleashed dog who perceived me as a threat and acted aggressively towards me.

Despite the weight, I really like to carry a small hatchet with a composite handle on my hip when I'm hiking solo. Doesn't freak people out like a handgun and it has tons of practical uses including self defense. Maybe a little overkill, but the Boy Scout's motto is to be prepared, right?

 

[Skack]

^ Probably a story conjured up by a good fiction writer. Too many flaws in that encounter for me to believe it entirely IMO. Good story nonetheless.

 

[Skack]

do have dogs/take dogs with you?

Reading some of these stories is making me wish I could rent one when I go camping.

I've got to get a concealed carry permit too.