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Post by donalgdon on Jul 29, 2012 21:01:47 GMT -5
I went hiking in college with some buddies of mine, and we were idiots. We let the Eagle Scout lead us around and we got lost in what was something like 880,000 acres of Daniel Boone National Forest. We were lucky to make it out alive. We didn't call anyone, nor could we have. This was in the days before cell phones. It was a nice idea to go camping, which we did, but the hike was not planned. It was a spur of the moment thing, and we walked for close to 12 hours to get back to our campsite in the end, which was a real miracle to me. I never think about that much, but looking back, it was a much more dangerous situation than I realized at the time, which is probably a good thing. We didn't panic. We just kept on going, did our best, and eventually, we did make it back to our campsite.
The one thing we did have was a good map of the topography, and our campsite was on a specific high elevation point, so it was easier to spot, but when you are in it, there's nothing easy about it, especially if you don't really know what you are doing. None of us were experienced hikers. We were just a bunch of dumb college kids.
The food we cooked over the wood fire we built that night was the best food I've ever tasted, even to this day. It was just some bratwurst, but man, we were hungry.
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Post by cakes on Jul 31, 2012 13:08:08 GMT -5
I went hiking in college with some buddies of mine, and we were idiots. We let the Eagle Scout lead us around and we got lost in what was something like 880,000 acres of Daniel Boone National Forest. We were lucky to make it out alive. We didn't call anyone, nor could we have. This was in the days before cell phones. It was a nice idea to go camping, which we did, but the hike was not planned. It was a spur of the moment thing, and we walked for close to 12 hours to get back to our campsite in the end, which was a real miracle to me. I never think about that much, but looking back, it was a much more dangerous situation than I realized at the time, which is probably a good thing. We didn't panic. We just kept on going, did our best, and eventually, we did make it back to our campsite. The one thing we did have was a good map of the topography, and our campsite was on a specific high elevation point, so it was easier to spot, but when you are in it, there's nothing easy about it, especially if you don't really know what you are doing. None of us were experienced hikers. We were just a bunch of dumb college kids. The food we cooked over the wood fire we built that night was the best food I've ever tasted, even to this day. It was just some bratwurst, but man, we were hungry. Great story. I am member of a hiking group and one of our mottos is "It's not an adventure unless at some point along the way, you wish you were doing something else". Also as a side note, though I'm not particularly a fan of beer, the club is fond of throwing a few back after the hikes. We call our selves "Boots 'n Beer - a drinking club with a hiking problem". John
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Post by lindaw on Aug 8, 2012 18:07:05 GMT -5
If we abstained from everything that might affect our family, we would not leave the bed. True, but some activities have a very high likelihood of serious injury or death. For example, until recently, climbing Everest had a pretty high death rate. Yep, ask the Sherpa who hauled Sandy Pittman's stuff up Everest...oh, wait....you can't....
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