ricrunner

We have someone asking what is your funniest story, but I thought maybe, what is your scariest story. Mine was camping in early spring a year ago, similar weather to what we are getting now. Was camping in real thick grassy area, hoping for softer ground, to sleep on, with my dog in the tent, woke up next morning, with the dog growling at the tent flor, trying to bite it. Their was something moving about under the floor. Put my hands down to feel it, and followed along its length, a four foot snake, not sure what type, but both of us needing a pee, had to do something to remove it. I just push it along through the floor, until it's head popped out, hoping it was not a venomous snake, saw it's head pop out under the floor, through the screen, and said, "Wow, lucky, a carpet snake", so both of us got out through the other side, having two entrances, is a great idea. Don't know what we would have done if it was a tiger, or brown snake. We both toileted, and I tied the dog up about ten metres away, lifted a peg, the snake was a bit upset, but, I managed to get it picked up and moved it down towards the stream. For quite a while longer, and even now, when I camp, I occasionally look, at the floor for movement before, I get out. So what are your scariest stories?

nomadmax 

THAT ^ would have been my last night in a tent

thumpism 

Sweden in '74. I'd ridden to Stockholm and was on my way to Goteborg. Still new to this touring stuff I was a bit overwhelmed and begged a ride at a highway rest stop. Cruising along I was shocked when an oncoming car towing a trailer began fishtailing as it rounded a curve and it went across our bow at highway speed nearly missing us and then off the shoulder on our side. My driver was not interested in stopping to help.

B. Carfree

Decades ago I rode to Yosemite from Davis with my wife and her younger sister. We were briefly on Hwy 49, not a good idea then and certainly not something I would do today. A log truck came along and was clearly not going to give us any passing room. As he rolled past me I could feel his tires brush my shirt. Instinctively, I yelled something about fecal matter. My sister-in-law misheard me and thought I had told her to hit the ditch, which she did. I watched in horror as the rear wheels of the truck rolled right where she had been prior to ditching. The driver had no way to know she had moved; he was simply going to kill her.

Coincidentally, that sister-in-law almost met her death the next year in a creek very near that spot. She was rafting with a group of fellow river guides (she worked all over the world for a few years). She went over and got trapped under the raft. Fortunately, one of the other guides was able to get a handful of her and drag her up. Now she sticks to safer activities like rock climbing, X-C ski touring and single-track multi-day racing.

Leebo

Stealth camping ( again) RI/CT border. Some pond/rec day use area. Got some beer and a sub for dinner. People swimming and fishing. 8 pm everyone clears out. I set up my hammock back aways from the shore, under a large pine tree, bushes around the area. Midnight I hear bubba trucks( think lifted diesels) coming way down the 4 mile dirt road. They go half in the water/ half on sand to get to the dirt area 50' from my camo green hammock tarp. Speed metal cranking, bottles breaking, not good. Its a tuesday in july. Meth or crack heads? Now giant 4" mortar fireworks, pro stuff. 200' in the air. 45 minutes, all done, they leave. WIDE awake in my hammock. It's swaying. Because my heart is beating so fast. Yikes. They were doing doughnuts so close to me, green tarp worked well. Got up swam some, drank a beer, took awhile to get back to sleep, go figure. Moral of the story, be stealth.

djb

Same as bcarfree, have had a few close truck experiences that could have been horrible. One for sure a long long time ago, that given that no vehicles were coming the other way, the driver must have been zoned out or a psychopath, and came so close to ending my life.

Mirrors, they can give you that second or so heads up.

MAK

This is kind of silly scared. I was doing the Erie Canal and camped in Syracuse. We didn't realize that we were in very close proximity to the Syracuse Zoo. Around 3:00 am, the lions decided to loudly roar. Not something I was used to growing up in NYC suburbs or the college town I live in now. Didn't fall back asleep because we were laughing at ourselves the rest of the night.

reynoldsarts

I had to fly home.

indyfabz

I was nearly crushed by a towering pine tree in Spain. Saturated ground, strong wind and poor landscaping cause it to topple. It hit the ground 2' from my tent, where my head was. Had I not re-positioned my bike the night before it would have been destroyed.

rhm

My friend and I were riding east through Washington State in August 1983. Warm day with a nice strong tailwind. Occasionally we saw smoke on the horizon and didn't think much of it. One cloud of smoke caught our attention, though it was off to the north of the direction we were heading. It was behind a ridge or something and we seemed to be getting closer to it, but it never really occurred to me that it was in our path. Well, we went down into a valley and climbed out the other side and turned to the left and suddenly we were in the middle of a range fire, smoke and flamed wafting across the road, firefighters all around us, shouting to one another to be heard over the wind and the roar of the flames. One of the firefighters saw us and said you can't go back, the whole road is closed behind us, and the firefighters did not need a couple cycle tourists to complicate matters. He told us to take a deep breath and ride as fast as possible, right through the wall of smoke in front of us. We did it. It was hot. Mostly smoke, but it really felt like flames were reaching out to catch us. The scary bit wasn't more than a hundred feet or so, and then we were out in the blue sky again, and we rode on. A few miles later there was a road block where a lot of people --including the wives of many of the firefighters we'd just seen-- eager for news from the fire.

I didn't get the smell of smoke out of my nose (and my gear) for days after that.

stardognine

I'm starting to think I'm in the middle of a weird, if not scary story, that's not over yet. 🤔 As most of you know, I've been in the Southwest for a good while now, bumming around & collecting turquoise. I've been learning a lot about a lot of things, but only recently realized, I'm right in the middle of UFO country. 😳
I knew about Roswell, obviously, but did NOT know, that most of the towns I've visited lately, have some kind of history with UFOs. That includes Kingman, Laughlin, and more importantly, Needles, where I am now. Needles supposedly had a UFO crash, back in 2008, just like Roswell!
I tried looking it up online, and there are several references to it, but it's usually a white page, when I click on the links. 🤔

I've definitely noticed a "weird" attitude around here, but figured folks just don't like a cheapskate like me, when they rely on tourist money. 😉 Notice, this was the only winking smiley in this thread. I'm totally serious, and getting more weirded out as I go. If I suddenly stop posting, you'll know that either the "men in black" got me, for typing this, or I started touring again.

indyfabz

Kind of tired of telling this story but...I came face to face at about 25’ with a huge black bear while preparing to leave a campground in PA. He realized what a bad ass I am and left me alone.

ricrunner

I read this as " a 25 foot black bear", and the comment caught my eye because of that.

indyfabz

He was easily 500 lbs. Had raided the dumpsters at a campground that abuts the Allegheny National Forest. I had seen the "carnage" but figured he was gone. After I ate breakfast and packed up I walked around to the front of the place. Leaned my bike against a bench and was about to put on my helmet and turn on my lights when I head bottles clinking. Looked over and saw him walk out from between the two dumpsters. Not the way I wanted to start my morning. Took this photo after he left the scene. The brown pile near the plastic plate is scat with a paw print in it. Notice the mural on the left dumpster. That sort of thing pisses me off. It's not cute.

djb

Re the mural, "Bettums bear bullet", I don't get it.
is bettums the name of the town? Even if it is, I still don't really understand it.

indyfabz

The name of the campground is Bettum's Family Campground. It also abuts FCI McKean (a medium security, federal prison), which is where actor Wesley Snipes served two years for tax evasion. "Buffet" apparently refers to the fact that bears are known for feeding from the dumpsters. (There are a lot of bears in that part of PA.) There were old looking signs around the facility mentioning bear activity and informing people not to leave trash out in front of their sites. (I stored my attractants in the restroom.) IMO, if you know you have a bear problem the right thing to do--for both people and the animals--is invest in bear-resistant dumpsters. BTW...There was also a pile of scat maybe 30' from my tent. My guess is that he came out of the forest abutting the back of the campground and walked close to my tent on his way to the dumpsters.

djb

Ah, buffet, I read bullet.

But yes, bear and animal proof garbage containers are the only responsible way to go, if not it's simply putting both the bears and peoples lives at risk, and you can't blame the bears.