Once, long ago in the days of old, I set out upon an adventurous journey. As I toiled through the misty mountains, fighting off everything from hypothermia to mountain trolls, I Finally reached my destination. After a long journey I was looking forward to a good nights sleep! Alas! I had brought a tent! Oh, the horror!
unicorn.jpgOriginally Posted by hk2001
Pics (or cave paintings) or it didn't happen
I used to be a somebody, now I just camp.
At the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, there is a tradition of taking a boy's cabin and a girl's cabin on a short walk through the woods to a nearby ice cream parlor. Short, easy walk. Big trail. I assure the girls' cabin counselor that I got this, been hiking for several years already at my tender age of 18 or whatever. No problem.
One hour later, scratched, bitten, weary, hot, thirsty, and ice-cream-less, I got the two dozen 12-year olds back to camp. Cost me a pizza party another day to make it right. Yep. I got us lost. On the easiest trail you can imagine. Like a highway. Oft-travelled. Still a mystery to me today what went wrong. It was like the Bermuda Triangle of hiking. I swear.
To this day I treasure the "Golden Screw" Award I received at the end of that summer: a round of log emblazoned with that message and a single, golden screw sticking out of the top. And I've never been that lost on any other hike since. Go figure.
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“Stories set in the Culture in which Things Went Wrong tended to start with humans losing or forgetting or deliberately leaving behind their terminal. It was a conventional opening, the equivalent of straying off the path in the wild woods in one age, or a car breaking down at night on a lonely road in another.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games
When I was a 12, I was in the BWCA with my family. My sister is two years older than me and my brother is four years younger than me. It was a lovely time for most involved, except the nights were a little cool. I noticed on the first night that I (an avid boy scout) had forgotten to bring any pants... Oh, what an interesting time that was. On the third day into the trip, after a portage, my dad was sitting in the back of one of the canoes. My sister had to get in the middle as a duffer. However, instead of getting in with her weight low to the canoe, she stepped right in the middle. If you don't know, canoes are kinda wobbly if you are standing in them. Did she fall out? No, my dad who was sitting in the back of the canoe did into about waist high water, and the canoe filled with about 4 inches of water.
The rest of the family couldn't stop laughing.
And that's my story!
When i was much younger, my scout troop went camping for the weekend. No back packing, just out of the cars and the trailer that our troop pulled for supplies. We got their late and were setting up in the dark. The ground was really hard because it was getting pretty cold and there was only one hammer for the lot of us. Finally everyone had their tent up and we had the fire going and then went to bed. The next morning we woke up to one of the scout masters yelling about his brand new dutch oven being ruined. Turns out one of the other scouts was impatient and used the lid of the dutch oven to nail in the tent pegs and knocked a huge triangle shaped hole out of the lid in the process.
Certainly not my only misadventure, but one of the funniest that i was a part of.
My family went camping for our vacations when I was a boy. One summer we went to the Adirondacks and got a site that was access by boat only and had no other sites nearby. We had already been there for 4 days when we decided to have grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. We were sitting around a card table that we had brought (many trips in the canoe to set up camp). I was sitting with my back to the path that led to the outhouse, my mom across from me and my brother and father on either side. I was halfway through my first sandwich when my mom stood up and pointed over my shoulder and said in a quaking voice "A BEAR!!". I was afraid to look, sure that I would see a huge bear ready to pounce on me like this.
When I gathered courage to move, I nervously looked behind me and instead found a small cub sitting on the trail looking at us. More like this photo, but cuter since he was actually sitting back more with all 4 paws off the ground. My father stood up and talked to it like a dog: "GIT! GO ON, GET OUT OF HERE". He backed off down the trail 10 or 15 feet and turned again to check out that good smell. Once again my dad encouraged it to leave. It finally went off into the woods. Afterwards I realized that it was a really touchy situation since we didn't want him crying out to momma that he was in trouble, or running back to momma and letting her know where some good food could be found. We're sure she wasn't too far away.
The rest of the week we were more careful with our food storage, but we had no other encounters.
"Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. ... To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow." - Robert M. Pirsig
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Once upon a time, a very long time ago. There once was a prince named DaddyDaddy who was fortunate to marry a beautiful princess. On their honeymoon they went to the mountains of their fair land called Tenneesseeia to a special range called the Smokiesias. One day they were riding along in their rented horses and saw a sign that said, "WATERFALL, 5 MILES". They thought to themselves, this is a distance not to far and we would love to see a waterfall and all its beauty. So they embarked on the journey over hill and dale and ridge line and valley. They saw chipmunks by the dozens but no other people on this merry path. After about four and a half miles they began to hear other horses through the trees but couldn't see them. Then in another quarter mile they began to see more and more people, until they exited the wood and there was the waterfall....and another 30 or so people. This confused the prince and princess greatly. Where had all these people come from? Why had they not seen any other people until now? Were these the people who were riding those other horses that they couldn't see but only heard?
The princess inquired of a portly squire near the waterfall as to how far he had hiked to get to this wilderness gem and the prince and princess were shocked when he said, "About 100 yards. The parking lot is right over there." Fury rose in the cheeks of the princess. She had just hiked 5 miles to a waterfall they could have ridden up to and walked a leisurely hundred yards to see. Well, the prince was greatly embarrassed and tried to convince the princess she would be fine. "Please, my lady, sit here by the fall and rest your weary feet in its cooling water. I shall hike back to our rented horses and bring them to you post haste. "Nooooo!" came the reply in a low tone that shook the prince to his bones. "I'll walk back, BUT we are taking the road.," the princess said.
Alas the prince was in some peril but he wisely yielded to the demands of his princess. He, however, did not help his case by taking photos of her walking back down the hill...from behind. While it was not funny then, after twenty years of marriage they laugh about it often now. Especially when the prince pulls out the photos.
And they are still living happily every after.
The End.
Hope you like it kid. It ain't unicorns, rainbows and skittles but it's true.
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I took my 6 year old (Kyle) out for his first backpacking trip a few weeks ago! My pack was 50 pounds, his was 12 (with water); he slept in a tent with our dog and my 11 year old. The first day, we got on the wrong trail and ended up having to go twice as far as we I planned to get to a spot in the woods that was flat enough to set up camp. Kyle cried the last mile of the hike. When we finally got to camp, he plopped down and the ground and said "i'm dead!" I set up their tent and started on the fire. As soon as he saw the fire, he jumped up, ran to his bag to get his little stool, and set up right next to the fire with a big smile on his face. Our hound dog was so excited to see him up that she ran up and started licking his face. He was laughing so hard that he fell out of his stool and almost landed in the fire pit! We laughed and sang songs around the fire form the rest of the night.
The next day, we packed up and hiked out. The whole tome on the trail, he kept saying, "this is super easy. I'm a much better hiker than any other first grader! I could go all day!" we made it back to the car and he said it was the best adventure he ever had! He has been begging to go hiking every other day since, even in 3" of snow! He also wants a hammock for Christmas to, "lighten his load"! Gotta love kids!
Please pick my post so that I can get them more into hanging in the woods! Happy Thanksgiving
Bump back up.. If you don't have a suitable story.. MAKE ONE UP!!!
Fiction is allowed, like I said.. Your judge is an 8 year old little girl, so keep it kid friendly
At Philmont Scout camp for a week long leadership training. All day long we were reminded to put "All" items that had a smell into the Bear Box. That night we are all asleep and we start hearing one person yelling/crying. Then we hear pots being banged together.
Go out to find the Adults, and one poor soul holding out a shaking hand with a stick of gum saying to "Please take it I no longer want it!"
Seems he thought a stick of gum in his pocket in his sleeping bag in his bed would not be smelled by a Bear. He awoke to a bear nose sticking through the flap opening on the Canvas Wall tent!!
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